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Enjoying the privilege of a
being a capital of diverse dynasties, Delhi, has evolved as a museum
showcasing the royalty of the ruling elite's and their monumental
heritage.
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India -
Delhi - The Residency Period
The Residency Period
¤ British Started Spreading
in India
The British began trickling into Delhi in the late 18th century. By
then the East India Company was already firmly entrenched in Calcutta
while Delhi was merely regarded as a northern outpost of little
importance. Lieutenant William Franklin was dispatched to Delhi by the
directors of the East India Company ‘to survey the then unknown
heartlands of the empire of the Great Mughal’. Franklin’s
account was published in 1795:
The
environs are crowded with the remains of spacious gardens and
country-houses of the nobility. The prospect towards Delhi, as far as
the eye can reach, is covered with the remains of gardens, pavilions,
mosques and burying places. The environs of this once magnificent and
celebrated city appear now nothing more than a shapeless heap of ruins
British Occupying Delhi
This was the twilight zone in the history of Delhi when Mughal power
was fast plummeting while the Company’s star was on the
ascendant. The clincher came with the Battle of Delhi when Company
troops led by General Lake defeated the Marathas on the banks of the
Yamuna. Here’s Oswald Wood’s account of the British
occupation of Delhi: On 11th September 1803 the Mahrattas
were defeated and three days after, the English entered Delhi as the
real masters of the Mughal. The arrangements made for the maintenance
of the King Shah Alam were ‘that a specified portion of the
territories in the vicinity of Delhi situated on the right bank of the
Jamna should be assigned as part of the provision for the maintenance
of the Royal Family. That these lands should remain under charge of
the Resident at Delhi and that the revenue should be collected and
justice should be administered in the name of his Majesty Shah Alam
under regulations to be fixed by the British Government…’
¤ The Coming Up of Residency
In one fell swoop, Shah Alam was reduced to a figurehead with the
reins of Delhi firmly in the hands of the British. The emperor
promptly granted Dara Shikoh’s Library near Kashmiri Gate to the
British and that’s where the Residency came up. The first
resident of the Delhi territory was Sir David Ochterlony. The early
representatives of the Company in Delhi were nothing like the
arrogant, racist, stuffed shirts that one commonly associates with the
British Raj. Men like Ochterlony and William Fraser embraced many
Indian customs, habits and often had a haremful of Indian wives. Delhi
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was
innocent of racial and cultural prejudice. Without Victorian memsahibs
to curl the upper lip at ‘natives’, Delhi was full of
eccentric yet learned Scotsmen who genuinely loved and respected
India. This period, though shortlived, was perhaps the only time when
Indians and the British struck a bond of affection.
The Northern Ridge, the Civil Lines and the area around Kashmiri Gate
became the centre of much hectic building by the British. It’s
such a surprise for the first-time visitor to find British
Architecture in a sea of Mughal monuments. Hire a taxi, find a good
guidebook and charge into North Delhi for some close encounters of the
Raj kind.
¤ British Residency
The Residency stands along Lothian Road and has been for many years
part of the Delhi College of Engineering. It also has an office of the
Archaeological Survey of India. Given the fate of most government
buildings in India, it is no surprise to discover that the erstwhile
Residency has fallen on hard times. Signs of this are discernible even
as you approach Lothian Road, one of Old Delhi’s most
impoverished parts.
Till about 65 years ago, this road was a thriving and fashionable
shopping area frequented by the British and Anglo-Indians.
Unfortunately, when Lutyens’ Delhi came up in the 30s, most of
the area’s middle class migrated to the new metropolis.
The residency is a yellow-coloured mansion surrounded by a compound
wall. Neem and ashok trees line the front, partially obscuring it from
view. Its front is formed by a flat colonnade of classical pillars and
chiks (wickerwork slats) are fitted between them for shade. A small
flight of stairs leads up, through a shady verandah, to the front
door. This edifice is not very remarkable in itself. What makes it so
is the fact that it was built on the site of Dara Shikoh’s
(Shahjahan’s favourite son) library.
When Shah Alam granted the British the ruins of the library, Sir
David Ochterlony saw no reason to demolish it – he just carried
out repairs and ordered a colonial façade to be built around
it. This came to be the Residency. Ochterlony, its first occupant,
lived here like a nawab surrounded by khitmatgars and 13 Indian wives.
He dressed like a nawab, smoked the hookah and hosted lavish nautch
parties.
Unfortunately this first symbol of British power in Delhi is in a
state of disrepair now. The government even contemplated demolishing
it in the 1980s but it was saved due to the efforts of
conservationists. Noted travel writer William Dalrymple records his
disappointment and disillusionment at the fate of the historic
edifice: ‘Dusty filing cabinets stand where the nautch girls once
danced. Doors hang loose on their hinges. Everywhere paint and plaster
is peeling. So total is the transformation that it is difficult to
people the empty corridors with the bustling Company servants,
glittering Mughal omrahs (noblemen) and celebrated courtesans.’
¤ Lothian Cemetery
Netaji Subhash Marg runs past the Red Fort, down a hill and under
Lothian Bridge, a railway bridge. Just after it, Lothian Cemetery
lurks on the right, its gate beneath a grey crenellated tower. Graves
are scattered within the compound and its assortment of gravestones
includes a grand sandstone one to Thomas Dunn, erected by James
Skinner.
¤ British Magazine
Netaji Subhash Marg branches off into a Y-junction as you travel
farther from Lothian Cemetery. Take the branch on the right called
Lothian Road. You’ll soon find an arched ruin in the middle of it
– these are remains of the British Magazine. This huge ammunition
storehouse was deliberately blown up on May 11, 1857 when the nine men
defending it could not hold out any longer. To prevent it from falling
into the hands of the Indian freedom fighters, who had mutinied in
Meerut the previous day, Lieutenant Willoughby determinedly set it
afire. The bang was said to have been heard at Meerut, 50km away. Over
the central gate is a memorial to Lieutenant Willoughby and his
fearless men. In the southeast corner of the rear are the steps by
which the survivors escaped.
¤ Telegraph Memorial
The grey pillar beyond the Magazine is the Telegraph Memorial from
which the Anglo-Indian operator warned the British army of what was
going on.
¤ Flagstaff Tower
This would have remained just an ordinary watch and hunting tower if
the 1857 Mutiny had not happened. What makes it historically important
is the fact that British women and children – survivors of the
Delhi massacre – gathered here on the fateful day of May 11, 1857
before fleeing to Karnal. The tower stands tall on the highest part of
the Northern Ridge just where Flag Staff Road intersects Magazine
Road. Flagstaff Tower was one of the first substantial buildings to be
constructed by the British on the Ridge. It was probably built when
the army cantonment was moved in 1928.
¤ University office
To the west of the tower, along Vishwavidyalaya Marg, is a large
house now used as the office of the University of Delhi. It was built
for the Coronation Durbar in 1903 for use by the Viceroy, and was used
as the Viceregal Lodge till New Delhi was inaugurated in 1931.
¤ Vice Chancellor’s office
The University of Delhi Campus has some lovely buildings from the
Residency period. The vice-chancellor’s office was used as a
circuit house or official guesthouse for the British officers in the
Civil Lines area. Did you know that it was in a room in this building
that Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India, proposed to
Edwina Ashley, the future Countess Mountbatten? A plaque has been put
up in the room to commemorate the event.
¤ Mutiny Memorial
On the way down from the Ridge, along Rani Jhansi Road is a strange
Gothic tower that is a poor copy of the Prince Albert Memorial in
London. This is the Mutiny Memorial – an octagonal, tapering
tower built to commemorate the British and the Indians who fought on
their side in 1857.
In panels around its base are recorded the 2,163 officers and men who
were killed, wounded and went missing between 8 June and 7 September
1857. Against a list of the encounters in 1857 are three columns:
killed, wounded and missing. All the officers and soldiers have
further been categorized as Native and European
The Mutiny memorial was renamed Ajitgarh on the 25th
anniversary of India’s freedom and aptly converted into a
memorial for the Indian martyrs who rose against colonial rule. A new
plaque on the site attempts to set the record straight:
The ‘enemy’ of the inscriptions on this monument were those
who rose against colonial rule and fought bravely for national
liberation in 1857. In memory of the heroism of these immortal martyrs
for Indian freedom, this plaque was unveiled on the 25th anniversary
of the nation’s attainment of Freedom, 28th August 1972.
¤ Coronation Durbar Site
North of Old Delhi, way beyond any residential colony, is Delhi’s
very own junkyard of history. Most of the statues erected by the
British have been unceremoniously dumped in this park. Getting here
needs some doing but a visit can be quite rewarding for true-blue Raj
fans. Drive past the Civil Lines and Kingsway Camp to reach the
Coronation Memorial site, now no more than an abandoned park with wild
grass and weeds.
This was the site of the three Durbars enacted in Delhi and a lone
obelisk is a poor memorial to that. It was here in 1911 that King
George V was declared Emperor of India and announced the shifting of
the capital from Calcutta to Delhi. If you look closely you can still
see a statue of him rise ghost-like out of the bushes nearby, where it
was dumped after being removed from the canopy near India Gate. It
depicts King George V in the coronation robe he wore on the occasion.
Other imperial dignitaries can be spotted keeping the King company. Do
go and say hello to Lord Willingdon and Lord Hardinge who were
lovingly been placed on red sandstone plinths.
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