leonardo with a revolutionary cause

8/8/2019 Leonardo With a Revolutionary Cause

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/leonardo-with-a-revolutionary-cause 1/3



LeonardowitharevolutionarycauseAnobituarytoDashrathPatel

December1st ,2010.

‐ByUdayDandavate

Dashrath Patel, co-founder of the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.

Passed away recently. Dashrath did not receive formal education, yet was

recognized worldwide as a luminary in the field of the arts. He collaborated with

outstanding artists such as Charles Eames, Louis Kahn, Henri Cartier Bresson,

Frei Otto, Harendranath Chattopadhyaya, dancer and choreographer

Chandralekha, among others.

Dashrath was like a fragrance that lingers in your memory long after it you have

been in its vicinity. He was a revolutionary with nuclear energy emanating from

his imagination. His enthusiasm for life betrayed childlike freshness that could

never be suppressed by the structure of an organization or dictates of

administrators. His innate creativity found its expression in a wide variety of

media he explored- exhibition design, photography, Painting, and above all his

abstract line compositions which, in my mind placed him only equal to Paul Klee.

In fact it was Dashrath who first introduced me to Paul Klee’s definition of a line,

“Taking a dot for a walk.’ That was Dashrath’s style of bringing alive most

profound concepts with illustrations, quotes and narratives that were both

inspiring and memorable. I can cite so many of his quotable quotes. The most

memorable was about himself, “I am illiterate and speak broken English fluently”

said Dashrath when referring to his lack of structured education and imperfect

English. His narratives had a lot more impact on us, the students of the NationalInstitute of Design, than any other profound philosophers or teachers who had

undergone formal training in any field.

Dashrath was one of the co-founders of the National Institute of Design (NID). He

was the first radical, politically minded designer I have met. Only other person



from creative field who has had comparable impact on my personal philosophy of

design and life was Kamladevi Chattopadhyay, who through her close

association with India’s freedom fighters and political fraternity, brought focus on

the role of rural artisans in India’s development. I remember visiting “Skills” a

project founded by Dashrath, Chandralekha, Sadanand Menon and a group of

artists and designers in Madras during the exploratory stage of my thesis at NID.

I was searching for inspiration to select a topic with a social cause and I could

only think of Dashrath who would align me with such a cause and a sense of

purpose for my design project. At that time I vividly remember that Skills was

being persecuted by the then MGR administration for conceptualizing a Poster

with the image of a policeman bearing medals of Honor each carrying an

inscription, “Rape”, “Murder” and “Robbery”. I walked away from a weeklong

stay with my friends in Madras with a renewed sense of commitment to design

for change. I ended up doing a project on Design for solid waste management

and selected Iswharbhai Patel of Safai Vidyalaya as my guide. Ishwarbahai is

known for pursuing Gandhi’s experiments in low cost sustainable toilets.

Dashrath Left the NID while I was still a student. We had a mutual admiration for

each other. He empathized with me because; I was a student at NID during the

days when the then Prime Minster Indira Gandhi had put both my parents in

prison. I admired him for his non-conformist zeal. To my mind he betrayed the

creativity of Leonardo da Vinci with a revolutionary bent of mind. Dashrath’s life

has taught me one most important thing- “Never let any established system

constrain your imagination and pursuit of what you believe in. If you can dream it

you can make it happen.”

leonardo with a revolutionary cause

Documents