Resurrecting a forgotten architect

In 1946, in Bombay, a group of young intellectuals that included the Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand, the German architect Otto Königsberger, and two Ceylonese sisters – the art historian and writer Anil (Marcia) de Silva-Vigier and her younger sister, the architect Minnette de Silva – founded the arts and culture magazine MĀRG. The beginning of this venture was fraught with financial issues – the group had to find subscribers and advertisers to fund the first issue – but support in the form of J R D Tata's offer of "seven ads and two rooms" enabled MĀRG to establish itself as an authority on Indian – and Southasian – art and architecture, and introduce contemporary Western architectural movements and styles to an Indian audience.

The de Silva sisters belonged to a politically active Burgher Sinhalese family: their father, George E de Silva, a lawyer and politician, was closely involved with the freedom movement and later held cabinet positions in an independent Ceylon; their mother, Agnes Nell was a social activist who championed voting rights for women and pushed for these rights to be extended to Indian Tamil women in the country. As a member – and one-time president – of the Ceylon National Congress, George was closely associated with the Indian National Congress and several prominent Indian political figures. In her autobiography, The Life and Work of an Asian Woman Architect (1998), de Silva recalls a childhood punctuated by visits from Sarojini Naidu, Rabindranath Tagore, M K Gandhi and his wife Kasturba, and Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira.