The sword making factory

Prithviraj Chavan is one of the legendary rulers of India and his name is remembered even today for his heroism and chivalry.

While much has been written about the life and times of  this Hindu emperor and his legendary enemity with Jaichand, who ultimately had his revenge of  defeating Prithviraj Chavan by inviting Mahmud Ghori to attack India, not much is known about Hansi, the town in Haryana today which is very closely associated with him.

Legend has it that Hansi once had a company manufacturing swords and that the swords were exported to almost all countries of what is today known as the Middle East.

The sword manufacturing company was started by none other than  Prithviraj Chauhan himself. It goes without saying that the swords were so fine and so sharp that they were in great demand.

Prithviraj Chavan himself had in his possession many swords manufactured by this company. He also equipped his army with these swords.

Since the swords could not be made easily available, Prithviraj Chavan set up the manufacturing unit within the fort at Hansi. The fort survives to this day, though all traces of the sword manufacturing facility have all but disappeared.

The fort encompasses 30 acres and it is square in shape. It has  security posts in all the four corners of the fort. This fort was later strengthened by Emperor Drupad, son of Anangapal.

Emperor Dhrupad too established a sword manufacturing factory in this fort and, hence, it came to be known as Asigarh.

In the ancient and medieval period, Asirgarh became an important military centre and 80 forts across the area were controlled from here. During the period of Firoz Shan Tuglaq, an underground tunnel was constructed connecting the present Hansi to Hisar.

The gate of  the fort is carved with figures of gods. Besides, paintings of Gods, Goddesses and birds can also be seen on the walls of the fort. The entry gate of this fort was built by George Thomas, an Irish soldier.

The ancient statues of  Mahavira and Gautama Buddha are placed in front of the fort . These statues are priceless.

The Barsi (South) Gate in the centre of the bazaar of Hansi was constructed in 1304 by Alauddin Khilji.

Hansi has five gates of entry – Delhi Gate (East), Hisar Gate (West), Gosain Gate (North-west), Barsi Gate (South) and Umra Gate (South west). The altitude of the town increases after entry from any of the gates.

The Sikhs captured Hansi in 1778, and established a Sikh State for some time until the Marathas captured it.

Locals say that the town was founded by Hansivati also known as Ambavati, who was the daughter of Prithviraj Chauhan. Some others say it was founded by King Anangpal Vihangpal Tomar for his guru Hansakar and this was sometime in 957 AD.

In 1192, after the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan by Mohammed Gauri, the Hindu rule at Hansi ended. This was the time when non-Muslims were not permitted to settle down here. It was only during the reign of the Mughal Emperor, Shahajan, that Hindus were permitted to come back to Hansi.

In 1705, the Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, came to Hansi and inspired the Hindus to revolt. In 1707, the Sikh leader, Banda Bahadur, attacked Hansi andmeted out punishment to the Muslims. Hansi then came under the Marathas in 1736. The Marathas lost it to the Afghans after the third Battle of Panipat in 1761.

George:Not of the Jungle but King of Haryana

He is perhaps the only Irishman to have ruled a Kingdom and he did so only for a few years before the ambition of expanding his empire did him in.

He was also the most successful General in India during the later part of the 18^th century and after he had served various Indian chiefs, he went on to found a kingdom in India which did not survive beyond a few years.

A mercenary, he started life on a ship and deserted it when the vessel docked at Madras. Over time, he rose to become one of the most successful generals of his times and he had a dedicated band of more than 2000 men who helped him in carving out a small kingdom in the north of India.

He always carried a six-pound cannon on him and he used it on his enemies and adversaries to devastating effect. He also had a bunch of  dedicated soldiers whose job it was to keep his muskets loaded and primed to fire. Since, bullets always kept raining continuously from his rifles and six pounder, his enemies rarely preferred to stand and fight.

He always was at the head of his army and personally led the battles. This gave him a fearsome reputation and he used this to good effect when he founded the Kingdom of  Hansi in Haryana more than two hundred years.

The Kingdom, which comprised what is part of Haryana today, rose and died with him. He was the first and only King of Irish descent and the only Christian to rule over the very areas where the once mighty Hindu Emperor Prithviraj Chavan had established his empire.

Hansi was also home to Prithiviraj Chavan and to a host of other kings such as Feroz Shah of the Tughlaq dynasty of Delhi and it was also the place where Guru Govind Singh and silk rebel Banda Bahadur had led rebellions against the Muslims. 

This man was none other than George Thomas, an Irish adventurer who rose from the ranks of a ordinary sailor working in a ships; cabin to become an independent king, making Hansi his capital.

Born in Roscrea, Tipperary in Ireland in 1756, George had a roller coaster life in India and he dies in 1802 in Barhampur.

George’s father was a poor Catholic tenant farmer near Roscrea and he died when George was still a child. George took up work as a labourer on the docks at Youghal.

He joined the British Navy and sailed to India. He deserted the ship when it docked in Madras in 1781. He then decided to go into the plains of India and make an independent living.

Though an illiterate, he led a group of Pindaris north to Delhi by 1787, where he took service under Begum Samru of Sardhana. He distinguished himself in April 1788 in the action of Gokulgarh.

Driven out of the Begum’s court by the French, particularly by a French officer, Levassoult, who soon supplanted our George to become the Begum’s favourite, he took up service under Appa Rao, a powerful Maratha chieftain. By then, admiring Indians had labelled George as Jaharai Jung or the Warlike George.  

His prowess as a man who loved fighting and as a man who personally led his men into even the most adversarial contests won him the loyalty of the men he commanded. If his enemies feared him, his men swore by him.   

He had a band of fiercely loyal personal bodyguard of  horsemen who were the ruffians he had met and interacted with during the Pindari days. He also employed a squad of musket loaders whose job it was to see that George never out of a weapon.

When Appa Rao died, George decided not to hire himself and set out to carve out his own Kingdom. He looked around Delhi and found Haryana to be the perfect place. Abandoned by the Mughals and frequently devastated by wars with the Afghans, the land which is part of Haryana now was like a ripe apple waiting to be plucked.

George then decided it was high time that the region got its King. In 1797, with 2,000 troops at his command, he went around Hansi and declared himself King.

He repaired the fort of Hansi, built a new Gate which stand even today and sent out his soldiers to police the roads. He promised growers and farmers protection provided they accepted him as King and paid tax. The grateful farmers, who had been reeling under lawlessness for decades, accepted.

George then invited masons, carpenters, builders, craftsmen and others to settle down in his Kingdom. He then went on to build a mint to issue coins in his own name. So George was the first and last white King of Hansi from 1798 and his reign lasted a little more than two years.

By 1800, George of Ireland had settled down to become King George of Hansi. His Kingdom was bound by Patiala in the north, Bhatti in the north west, Bikaner in the West, Jaipur in the south, Dadari in the south east and Rohtak and Panipat.

He soon became ambitious and decided to extend his Kingdom and his eye fell on the Sikh states that surrounded Hansi and the Rajput Kingdoms.

He first took on the Maharaja of Jaipur and met his huge army at Fathepur. Though vastly outnumbered, King George ploughed into the Rajput ranks and went on firing his six pounder. Legend has it that he held off a fierce Rajput attack of two hundred and more Rajputs with his favourite six pounder.

By George, our Irish King of Hansi won the battle. Today, historians who take a look at his graph, rate George much higher than the Englishman Robert Clive or his French rival Dupliex.

Wherever he took his men, he tasted victory. In January 1800, he invaded Patiala and plundered the city. He then attacked Sirsa and expelled the Bhatti kings. It was then that Man Singh, the King of Jind, sought the services of the French General, Pierre Cuillier-Perron (1753–1834), better known as Perron, to tackle George.

Perron was the commander of the Maratha forces in north India. He to had an axe to grind against King George. He formed a confederacy of Sikhs and Marathas and marched against George in 1801.

George, by then, appeared to have lost his appetite for a fight. He was defeated. His body and mind too deteriorated and it appears that more than a decade of tough wars had exhausted him.

Though captured, he was treated with respect and given safe conduct to return to his own people. However, he died near Murshidabad in Bengal, August, 22, 1802 aged 46.

A Sultan with a difference

History is never kind to people who do not impose their will on others and people who do not conquer to rule. If Alexander is remembered today, it is because of  his invasions of Asia and his burning ambition to rule over the world.

Kings in India like Samudra Gupta, Raja Raja Chola, Rajendra Chola, Krishnadevaraya, Akbar and even Chatrapathi Shivaji are today remembered for their conquests and martial qualities. Others like Ashoka are remembered for transforming themselves from being ruthless to kind and gentle. However, history has never given importance to such attributes. Aurangzeb was a tyrant. He demolished Hindu temples and was a bigot. Yet, his simplicity and austere life has never been adequately highlighted.

Many Kings and Emperors of India had a huge number of concubines and mistresses. Some even had several queens. However, one Muslim King who is buried in the country’s first Islamic tomb, Sultan Garhi, in Delhi was married only once and he is reputed never to have had any other women.

He was the eighth sultan of the Mamulk or Slave dynasty that ruled Delhi from 1206 to 1290. He was the youngest son of Shams-ud- Din Illutmish (1211-1236) and he was known for as the Darvesi King.  

He was as pious as he was noble. He lead a simple and austere life and spent most of his life copying the holy Quaran or Koran. He  gave up all his powers to the Turkish noblemen, particularly, Ghiyasuddin Balban.

On one occasion, the fingers of  this King’s wife were burnt while cooking. She then came to the King and she requested him to provide a maid-servant for help. The King or Sultan replied that he was merely a trustee of the State, he could not spend money on his personal comforts. The wife of the Sultan was the daughter of Balban and the Sultan was Nasir-ud-din Muhmad (1244-1266).

However, there are contradictions about this incident and some historians point out that the Sultan had more than one wife and that he did have many slaves who were also his concubines. Whatever the truth about women in his life, it is historically accurate that he was highly religious, pious and that he lead a plain and simple life.

Nasiruddin Mahmud died in 1266 and since he had no male heir, he designated Balban to be the next Sultan. However, historians Isami and the African traveler Ibn Batuta claim that Nasiruddin was murdered by Balban. Another traveler, Yayiha bin Ahmad Sarhindi does not accuse Balban of regicide. He says Nasiruddin Mahmud died a natural death.

As a ruler, Mahmud was loved by his subjects. He spent most of his time in prayer and aided the poor and the distressed.

He sold the handwritten copies of the Koran he had copied and used the money for his personal expenses. He had no servants to carry out his personal tasks. His wife had to cook the food for him and his family.

Nasiruddin Mahmud was only sixteen when he ascended the throne. During his rule, he remained content in surrendering the power of the State to Balban. In 1249, he married the daughter of Balban.

Himself an expert calligraphist, the Sultan patronised Minhaj-us-Siraj (1193-1259), the Persian historian, who wrote Tabaqat-i-Nasiri and dedicated it to the Sultan.

History, however, remembers this Sultan as a mere puppet in the hands of Balban and a weak ruler, who was incompetent and who left the affairs of the State in the hands of his Turkish nobles.

Of course, it goes without saying that Nasiruddin cannot be compared to Ashoka, Samudra Gupta, the legendary Chandra Gupta, Raja Raja Chola, Rajendra Chola, Krishna Deva Raya or even Akbar. The point is that these kings were essentially known for their military prowess and single minded sincerity to protect their kingdom from their enemies and also extend the borders of their kingdom.

Nasiruddin, by comparison, was not even capable of defeating the Mongols without the help of his father-in-law Balban. The point is unlike his predecessors, Nasiruddun was content to lead a simple and uncomplicated life and this perhaps saved him from assassination and overthrow. It also helped him tide over the turbulent times. He perhaps was wiser than his sister Razia Sultan and was careful never to antagonize the nobles. All these clearly go to show that he was a Sultan with a difference.        

A Begum on a platform

A few decades ago, a Begum of Oudh (or Awadh) along with  her retinue, which included a son and daughter, seven servants and 13 or 14 dogs, resorted to perhaps the most unique form of protest. She stayed put in a tiny waiting room in the New Delhi railway station and no amount of persuasion or even force could get her evicted from the Railway station.

For several years, the Begum was a sight for railway travellers in Delhi and she was as much a sight as the trains. It was all just like the Old Curosity Shop of Charles Dickens. The only difference was that Dickens has set his shop in England and the Begum in India.

The Begum wanted to prove a point. She wanted the Central Government to return at least one of the many palaces that belonged to the Oudh royalty of yore. These palaces were first seized by the British in 1857 and subsequently they became the property of the Indian Government. The Begum’s last palatial residence, a 20-room estate in Srinagar given to the family soon after Independence by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It was  burned down in 1971 and she had been rendered homeless.

She had then sought justice for herself and her clansmen. She wanted the Government to return one or a few of her estates, which she aimed had been seized.

Since then, for 16 months and more, the Begum and her family with retinue in tow lived in tents on the grounds while asking the Government for the return of another ancestral home in Lucknow. She railed against the government when it offered a modern house and a small palace that her father had gifted to his servants. Incensed by what she perceived to be a grave royal slight, she then moved bag and baggage and of course with the dogs to the train station.

The Begum decorated her tiny quarters on the railway platform with Persian rugs and set up a makeshift throne with velvet bolsters. The station was not the place for royalty. The continuous movement of trains drove everyone, including the Begum into a tizzy. However, the Begum had her sweet revenge for what she perceived was a deliberate slight by the Government. 

She ordered the Shahi cooks to cook the Royal meals on vessels or braziers put up on the platform. The Begum commandeered the second-class ladies’ rest room for a three-hour bath every day, leaving the Railway officials exasperated and the travelers, particularly women, seething with fury and anger.

She tied the dogs to the lampposts outside the station and when it rained she confined them on the platforms. Her servants pitched tents outside the station and lived there.

She later shifted to the VIP entrance and made it her home. She was imperious to every one and never failed to make it known that she was a royal and that they could not treat her like a commoner. Try as they might, the Railways failed to dislodge her from the Railway station.

The Begum remained firmly entrenched in the station. When the international media went to town about the Begum and her platform palace, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited the railway station and met the Begum. She persuaded the Begum and her family to shift to the nearby Malcha palace in 1984, promising to get it repaired and renovated.

This was almost ten years after the platform protest.

The Begum reportedly consumed poison on December 10, 1993. She laced wine with crushed diamond and drank it.  

The name of this doughty woman: Begum Wilayat Mahal or Vilayat Mahal. She claimed to be the great granddaughter of  the redoubtable Begum Hazrat Mahal of Oudh (1820-1879), the wife of Nawan Wajid Ali Shah.

This may sound unbelievable but it is true. During the Emergency, news about the Begum was banned by the Censors. 

The Banana train of India

Who has not heard of the word “Banana Republic”. It is one of the most famous words in English and one that is used rather frequently to describe unstable economies and countries on the verge of social, political and economic collapse.

This is a term in political science, used for a politically unstable country whose economy is largely dependent on the export of a single limited-resource product, such as bananas. It was originally coined by the American writer William Sydney Porter (1862–1910), better known as O’Henry.

He used the term for the first time to describe his fictional Republic of Anchuria in the book Cabbages and Kings (1904), a collection of thematically related short stories inspired by his experiences in Honduras during the 1896–97, when he was wanted in the U.S. for bank embezzlement.

Well, if Banana Republic in political science also stands for a dictatorship that abets or supports, for kickback, the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, how would you describe a banana train. Yes, a banana train that has been operational in India for a little more than two years.

Sadly, very few Indians outside farmers, horticulturists and officials of  Indian Railways and Horticulture Department have heard of the train, let alone seen it.

However, growers, traders and even consumers are happy at the launch of the Banana Train.

The Banana Train runs from Jalgaon in Maharashtra to Dehli.

Jalgaon is India’s biggest banana centre and Delhi one of the largest consumers.

The train operates once or twice a week and it unloads bananas at the rail yard of the Azadpur mandi in Delhi. Incidentally, this is Asia’s biggest market for fruits and vegetables.

The train has 80 insulated and ventilated containers and it can easily carry more than a thousand tonnes of bananas. It was launched in mid-September 2011 and it has proved to a boon to traders and  consumers alike.

It is also called the ‘horti train’, and it has not only reduced transportation cost for traders, but also seen a sharp drop of waste reported during transportation of fruits and vegetables by road. It is generally accepted that  20 per cent to 30 per cent of the horticulture produce goes waste because of lack of modern storage and transportation facilities.

The banana train was the idea of the National Horticulture Board under the Agriculture Ministry, Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) and the Indian Railways. Both the board and CONCOR have invested Rs 8 crore each for transporting fruits and vegetables across the country.

Each container can hold at least 12 tonnes and the train generally makes five trips a month from Raver  near Jalgaon to Delhi. The train has a travel time of about 26 hours, including eight hours for loading and unloading of bananas, in a one-way trip.

Both Jalgaon and Bhusawal in Maharashtra are the biggest banana producing regions in India and they mostly cater to markets in north India, including Delhi.

The horti train was first mooted under the Kisan Vision Yoyana launched by the Indian Railways in 2009. It had successfully conducted a dry run of the banana route from Jalgaon to Azadpur  and an onion route from Nashik in Maharashtra to Kolkata and Malda in West Bengal, which  terminated in Fatwa, Bihar.

A dry run of a potato train was also conducted from Kolkata to Guwahati and from Agra to Bangalore. However the banana train was the first off the block and by the looks of it, it has come to stay.

Enthused by the response to the banana train, the horticulture mission has proposed an expenditure of R100 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) where the cost would be shared by CONCOR. It aims to launch ten such trains for carrying fruits and vegetables between growing and consuming regions during the next five years.

Do you want a reality check. So here it is.

The container rake docked at the Kherwadi railway station, north of the Nashik Road station, will receive the cargo. The Horticulture Express will deliver consignments to Chitpur near Kolkata, covering 1,800km in 36 hours. Currently, onions are transported by trucks that need at least 120 hours for the journey. The cost too has come down from Rs. 40,000  per container to transport 16 tonne of onions, to  Rs 32,000.

When a language was born in Bangalore

Language is a means of communication and there are scores of cities in India which can lay claim to having contributed significantly to the growth and development of a language. However, there are only a handful of cities and provinces which can claim credit for having given birth to a language or for having pioneered the development of a new language.

Bangalore is one of the fortunate metropolises which can lay claim to having helped in the birth, origin and even in the initial growth of a language. Unfortunately, few people know about this and fewer are aware of  Bangalore’s link with Rekhta-a language which was a mix of several south Indian languages and which finally reached the royal Mughal court at Delhi came to be known as Hindustani.

Today, while we have realms of papers and research on Urdu, Persian and Hindustani, there are hardly a few on Rekhta-which can lay claim to be the progeny of  poetic Urdu and the language that Mirza Ghalib and other poets of Delhi liberally used in their writings.

The origin of Rekhta and its connection with Bangalore in itself is a romantic episode in the etymology of Indian languages. Rekhta first took shape in Bangalore when the Marathas first came to Bangalore under the leadership of Shahaji, the father of Chatrapati Shivaji.

Shahaji was one of the foremost military generals of the Adilshahis of Bijapur and he along with Ranadulla Khan had conquered Bangalore from Kempe Gowda in 1638. They banished Kempe Gowda to Magadi and planted the Adil Shahi flag n Bangalore.

Shahaji introduced Marathi as the official language of Bangalore province which was given to him as a jagir by the Adil Shah. This was the first time that Kannada speaking Bangalore had to contend with an alien language. Shahaji appointed Marathas to all important posts and all official and administrative letters, dispatches and work went on only in Marathi.

When Shahaji died on January 23, 1664 after an accidental fall from a horse, his son, Venkoji took over the reigns of Bangalore Jagir. Venkoji continued patronage to Marathi in addition to Persian which was one of the official languages of the Bijapur court of the Adil Shahis.

The Maratha domination of Bangalore continued till 1689 when the Mughals under Emperor Aurangzeb defeated the Marathas and occupied Bangalore. Though there is controversy over the number of years the Mughals occupied Bangalore, it can safely be said that they built the mosque at Taramandalpet which even today is known as Sangain Masjid.

The Mughals scrapped Marathi as the official language of Bangalore and Sira provinces and introduced Persian. However, they retained several Marathi and erstwhile Kannada administrative and everyday names.

The Mughul rule first in Bangalore and after 1789 in Sira province ensured that Persian and Arabian languages mixed with Kannada and Marathi, resulting in the birth of  Rekhta.

Rektha thus owes its origin to Bangalore. Rektha means scattered and this term for a language which was a harmonious mixture of two Indian and two foreign languages was in use from the late 17th century till the closing decades of the 18th century, when it was displaced by Hindi/Hindwi or Hindavi and later by Hindustani and Urdu.

Rektha was given a major fillip when Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869) used it extensively in his writings. Mir Tadi Mir (1723-1810), a  principal poet of the Delhi School of the Urdu ghazal who remains arguably the foremost name in Urdu poetry and  often remembered as Khuda-e-sukhan (god of poetry) and Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) also known as Allama Iqbal used Rektha.

Subsequently, Rekhta also came to be used for forms of poetry like Masnavi ( is a form of romance in Urdu poetry in heroic couplets which may extend to several thousand lines or shorter. Mir and Sauda wrote some of this kind), Marsia (It is usually a poem of mourning. and it can also be a genre to mourn the death of a friend. Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem 'In Memoriam' can be called marsia. The sub-parts of marsia are called noha and soz which means lamentation and burning of  heart respectively. Mir Babar Ali, Mir Moonis, Salamat Ali Dabeer, Mir Zameer and Ali Haider Tabataba are some of the nest exponents of this genre), Qaseedah, Thumri, Jikri or Zikri, Geet, Chaupai and Kabit.

Incidentally, the grammatically feminine counterpart of Rekhta is Rekti, a term first popularised by the eighteenth-century poet Sa’adat Yar Khan Rangin  (1756-1827) to designate verses written in the colloquial speech of women. His Rekti has love making as its theme. Another well-known Rekti poet was Insha Allah Khan Insha (1756-1817) of Lucknow. A multi-talented polyglot, he was the author of the first grammar of the Urdu language, Darya-e-Latafat.

Rektha is a form of poetry in which if one line was composed in Persian, the next was in any of the Indian languages like Hindustani, Punjabi and Bengali. The words are generally those which are used by a common man and they have emotional connotations. 

Rektha continued to be used sporadically until the late 19th century and Rekhta-style poetry is still being written by Urdu writers.

Of the early Urdu poets, Wali Muhammad Wali (1667–1707), played a remarkable role in giving the final shape to Urdu by substituting the idiom of Delhi for that of Dakhni and hence he is called the Father of Rekhta.

Wali's visit to Delhi in 1700 is considered to be of great significance for Urdu ghazals. His simple, sensuous and melodious poems in Urdu, awakened the Persian loving poets of Delhi to the beauty and capability of  Rektha which can be termed as an  old name for Urdu as a medium of poetic expression. His visit thus stimulated the growth and development of Urdu ghazal in Delhi.

He is the first established poet to have composed ghazals in Urdu language and compiled a Divan- which is a collection of ghazals- where the entire alphabet is used at least once as the last letter to define the rhyme pattern.

Before Wali, Indian ghazal was being composed in Persian– almost being replicated in thought and style from the original Persian masters like Saa’di or Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī (1210-1291), Jami or Nur ad-Dīn Abd ar-Rahmān (1414-1492) and Khaqani (1121-1190). It was Wali who began using Indian language, Indian themes, idioms and imagery in his ghazals.

How Delhi came to be India's capital

By the beginning of the twentieth century, almost the entire India was under British rule. Calcutta had emerged as their military and trading hub and it remained as the capital of undivided India.

However, the British had never been comfortable with Calcutta. The hot and sultry weather did not suit them. Nor did the rising  fervor of the nationalists in Calcutta and Bengal endear the city to the British.

The proverbial last straw to shift the capital from Calcutta came when Lord Curzon came up with an idea in 1905 to partition Bengal.

The partition hived away Assam and the Muslim-dominated East Bengal from the Bengal Province and merged them into a new state. The act lead to severe political unrest in Calcutta which kept on boiling year after year. The protests forced then to reverse the partition. An angry British were looking for revenge.

The British by then had decided that Calcutta had served their initial purpose of  mastering India. They decided to abandon the city and go for a new capital. The rising pollution in Calcutta was another worry for them.

The British first decided to shift the capital to a place central to India. This idea was soon abandoned as they realized that the new city would have to be built from they scratch and it had to have road and rail links, sufficient space to house 43 departments and also to build a new residential township. Several cities, including Nagpur, were considered but discarded.

Soon, the British decided to make Delhi the capital and showcase their Indian dream from the capital of the Mughals. They then held a Delhi Durbar attended by the English Royals and Indian Maharajas where King George V in 1911 announced the shifting of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi.

The foundation stone of the new capital was laid at Kingsway Camp and the British sate up a working camp in north Delhi, beyond Kashmere Gate. It was here that the British lived and worked on the new capital.

The new city was expected to come up beyond Kashmere Gate but an expert committee comprising architects like Edwin Lutyens, however, decided the site was not all that favorable. They found the site unsuitable, swampy and low lying, making it vulnerable to flooding from the Yamuna. Lutyens  described it to be too “flat and boring”.

The committee hen chose the area near Raisina hills for the city which they called New Delhi. The undulating terrain meant that buildings like the Government house, the earlier name of Rashtrapati Bhavan,  and the Secretariat would be situated at a height, making them look imposing.

The area was also ideal as it was largely uninhabited except for the village of Malcha. Thus began the journey of Delhi as India’s capital.

When the construction began, the Imperial Delhi Committee was constituted to monitor the progress. This committee had an absolute say over the construction and administration of the area.

When complaints began pouring in about the lavish manner in which money was being spent on building the new capital, the British stepped back from the grandiose plans of making Delhi one of the finest cities in the world.

The Viceroy himself stayed in a modest circuit house and this was to show to the world that the money was not being wasted unnecessarily.

In the two decades that it took the new Delhi to come up, the  Imperial Government of India functioned from buildings in areas known as Temporary Delhi.

The old Secretariat, constructed in 1912, is from where the government machinery functioned. The adjacent Council Chamber (now Delhi Vidhan Sabha) is where the Legislative Council was held, before construction of Council House (now Parliament House) in 1927.

Over the next few years, Imperial Delhi or the Delhi Enclave expanded to 1,290 sq miles, comprising the present day national capital territory.

The land east of Yamuna was acquired from United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) to be developed as a garden city and become the lungs of New Delhi. There were plans to house government employees on the site of what is now Shahdara.

The British also planned to dam Yamuna and create lakes on either side, lined by wide boulevards. Alas, this plan failed to take off. But the rest of the plan went off well and within years a new Delhi had sprung up.

Henry Vaughan Lanchester, an architect, wanted the Yamuna to be an integral part of New Delhi. His report said the river should be linked to New Delhi through a ceremonial avenue.

He also wanted Shahjehanabad to be integrated with the new capital. This too did not fruitfy.

A forgotten slice of Delhi's history

It was December 12, 1911 and an announcement on shifting the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi was about to be made. The king of England, George the fifth and his wife Queen Mary were in India specifically to preside over what later came to be known as the Delhi Durbar.

The Delhi Durbar had been organised by the British to showcase to the rest of the world the hold that Britain or England had over India.

All the Indian Kings and Queens with their most important officials had come to Delhi to attend the Durbar. The then Viceroy of  India, Lord Hardinge, had been authorised by  the British Government to organise the Imperial Durbar.

The reason was two-fold. The British wanted to show the Indians the coronation of George as the King of England. The second was of course to highlight the shifting of the capital.

The Viceroy took personal interest in organising the event and he sent an official communication to each and every Maharaja and Maharani asking them to attend the durbar.

Since George would be the first reigning monarch of the United Kingdom to attend such a Durbar, Lord Hardinge left no stone unturned to make it a grand success.

The durbar was held at what is today’s Coronation Park in Delhi. It was then called Kingsway Camp. Since 1970 it is officially known as Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar (GTB Nagar). The locality commences from GTB, passing through  Chauraha and includes  residential areas like Hudson Lines and Outram Lines. All these were then part of the bigger Kingsway Camp.

It was here and in this park that the George made several landmark proclaimations like the construction f New Delhi, laying the foundation for the Viceregal lodge which later would become Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

The Viceroy set aside 6 lakhs Pounds for the Durbar and an additional sum of 3 lakhs pounds were paid by the Indian Government (British India of course) for the services of  80,000 Army personnel to provide security for the Durbar.

Incidentally, this was the third such durbar held at the park. The first Delhi durbar was held in 1877 when Queen Victoria was proclaimed the Empress of India and in 1903 Lord Curzon organized an event to celebrate the accession of  King Edward the seventh.

The Coronation Memorial, built as an obelisk in the sprawling Coronation Park, is of sandstone. It is set on a square with steps on all sides. The memorial stands at exactly the same place where all the three British Durbars were held.

The inscription on the Memorial says,

“Here on the 12th Day of December 1911, His Imperial Majesty King George V, Emperor of India accompanied by the Queen Empress in solemn Durbar announced in person to the Governors, Princes and Peoples of India his Coronation celebrated in England on the 22nd day of June 1911 and received from them their dutiful homage and allegiance”.

When India attained Independence on August 15, 1947, the park turned into a resting place for several statues and they included Kings, Governors, Viceroys, Commanders and even some high ranking officials of British India.

These statues had been moved from various locations in and around Delhi. including Rajpath and Rashtrapathi Bhavan.The largest and tallest statue, a 15 m (49 ft) high marble statue designed by Lutyens, is opposite to the Obelisk. It is the statue of  King George V.

This statue had earlier stood atop a canopy in front of the India Gate, which is now vacant following the statue’s removal.

The Government constructed 19 pedestals to install the displaced statues but only five were fixed, while the remaining plinths are vacant. Some of the statues are believed to have been stolen or damaged.

King George here is surrounded in a semi-circle by other statues.

They are thought to be those of Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson and Viceroys Willingdon, Irwin and Hardinge. Unfortunately, there are   no name plates.  

By the way, it was at this very place that the King George announced the shifting of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi. The construction of the Viceregal Palace-now Rashtrapathi Bhavan-too was announced here.

Another little known fact is that just yards away from the park is the place where the British brutally put down the 1857 rebellion.

After partition, it became the venue of the largest refugee camp in Delhi, housing more than 3 lakhs refugees who migrated from Pakistan and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan).

When you visit Delhi, make sure you go to this park. It has been renovated during the Commonwealth Games. Check put a piece of history.

The City of Djinns

It is the capital of India and it has been the theatre of war for centuries. It has been ruled by a number of dynasties and all conquerors, including the British, realised the importance of gaining a foothold over Delhi.

Delhi is a city of cities and you have many interesting historical, religious monuments and scores of ruins. Some of the ruins like those at Indraprastha go back to the times of the Mahabharata.

The city of the Red Fort and Qutb Minar has its own charm and hoary past.  Delhi has a monument to almost each year or rather decade of its existence.

A few days ago, one of my friends was waking across the Feroz Shah Kotla when he saw a crowd of people. He assumed that the crowd might have come from the nearby Cricket Stadium.

He was stunned when told that this was not a cricket loving crowd but one that prayed to the Djinns who are supposed to make every wish of a human come true.

The explanation stumped my friend and he looked around in disbelief. It was very difficult for him to digest the fact that people in the national capital believed such things and that too in the 21^st century.

I told him that what he had heard and saw was true. Delhi is also known as the City of Djinns and this goes back centuries ago.

The ruined city of Feroz Shah Kotla is adjacent to the cricket stadium. This was the Ferozabad that was built between 1354 and 1356 by Feroz Shah Tughlaq, the successor of Mohammad Bin Tughlaq.

Feroz ruled from Delhi between 1351 and 1388. He built the imposing citadel of the Kotla in 1354 but the City quickly fell into ruins once his reigns ended. Today, the ruins are just off the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.         

Djinns are said to be found in plenty in these ruins. Every Thursday, Delhi witnesses one of the largest gatherings of people, praying and writing to the Djinns to fulfill their wishes.

Even the authorities seem to have resigned themselves to the large number of people who throng the ruins on Thursday afternoon by throwing it open for free. During al other times, you have to shell out Rs. 5 to stroll among the ruins.

Islam says Allah made Djinns out of smokeless fire before he made humans out of clay. Djinns are not supposed to have any shape  or form. They can live for centuries. However, they have a very human character. They can be moody or even bad in character.

The gathering assembles before the 13 meter high sandstone Ashoka Pillar on a rubble-built three-tiered pyramidal structure. Feroz transported this 27 tonne pillar in 1356 to Delhi from Topar in Ambala, where Emperor Ashoka had installed it.

There are inscriptions on the Pillar which are believed to be incantations. Some of the inscriptions are in Sanskrit and many other inscriptions are unreadable.

People believe that if they come here and pray, the Djinns help them, get rod of their troubles and they even help human beings get rid of ghosts and spirits.

When the evening fades away, the people too move away slowly, with a heartfelt prayer on their lips to the Djinns. Locals say the practice of writing to the Djinns started in the 70s when a fakir caked Ladoo Shah lived in these ruins.

The wall near the pillar is full of requests to Djinns on a variety of topics. The old well or Baoli nearby gives a creepy look to the entire area.

The mosque adjacent to the well is one of the biggest buildings of the Tughlaq period. Talk to the Imam of the mosque about the Djinns and you are bound to be surprised.