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Swaminarayan Akshardham:A Contemporary Marvel in Art and Architectureby Fahmi BishayIt is sometimes thought that world marvels in art and architecture, such as: the Pyramidsin Egypt; the Taj Mahal in India; the everlasting works of Michael Angelo and Bernini inItaly etc., belong to earlier centuries when societies attached higher priority to art andreligion. But, Swaminarayan Akshardham Monument in New Delhi is a contemporarymarvel in art and architecture that defies that thought.Figure 1. Swaminarayan Akshardham Monument at night in New Delhi. TheMonument was built during the period from 2000 to 2005.IntroductionIndia, along with a few other countries likeChina and Brazil, are currently labeled as“emerging economies”. An emergingeconomy is an economy that is moving quitefast on its development path. In a relativelyshort time, emerging economies will assumeprominent places among the worlddeveloped countries. On the move alongthat fast developmental track, an emergingeconomy faces the challenge of preservingits national heritage, culture and identity.On a recent visit to India (November 2011),the author of this article was intrigued byhow India has been addressing thischallenge. To this end, he visited a numberof India’s arts and cultural institutions tosee whether the country’s objective ofattaching high priority to its traditional artsand culture has been maintained. One ofthose visited magnificent places wasSwaminarayan Akshardham Monument inNew Delhi. What he observed was that,India, as an emerging economy, has indeedretained its priority to art, religion andtradition.8