Dashrath
Patel


Leonardo
with
a
revolutionary
cause

Leonardo
with
a
revolutionary
cause

An
obituary
to
Dashrath
Patel

December
1st,
2010.



‐By
Uday
Dandavate


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 National
Institute 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.”