I often wonder why most of us start learning again from our outdated past as we grow older and (presumably) wiser? Why does a modern society need to preserve its past heritage and culture? Why should a nation care about its heritage cities which have long-outlived their glory and utility? Why our heritage towns act as microcosms of our changing nation?
As I kept going to Old Delhi or Shahjahanabad (as it was called during the Mughal era when the city was founded around 1650 AD by Emperor Shahjahan) often over the last few years for clicking smart street photos, the answers to these questions became slowly clear to me – as I learnt to look beyond the smart photos into the life and times of this breathing heritage. Heritage cities world-over have a familiar trajectory – time of glory to a long phase of decay till it becomes legacy enough not to belong to the fast-moving present anymore, till it becomes legacy enough to find a place in the museums. Despite such a trajectory, a few living heritage cities still have unique stories to tell and a few precious wisdoms to share with the present and the future!
Prologue
I often wonder why most of us start learning again from our outdated past as we grow older and (presumably) wiser? Why does a modern society need to preserve its past heritage and culture? Why should a nation care about its heritage cities which have long-outlived their glory and utility? Why our heritage towns act as microcosms of our changing nation?
As I kept going to Old Delhi or Shahjahanabad (as it was called during the Mughal era when the city was founded around 1650 AD by Emperor Shahjahan) often over the last few years for clicking smart street photos, the answers to these questions became slowly clear to me – as I learnt to look beyond the smart photos into the life and times of this breathing heritage. Heritage cities world-over have a familiar trajectory – time of glory to a long phase of decay till it becomes legacy enough not to belong to the fast-moving present anymore, till it becomes legacy enough to find a place in the museums. Despite such a trajectory, a few living heritage cities still have unique stories to tell and a few precious wisdoms to share with the present and the future!
The Log
1648 AD – The mighty Moghul Emperor Shahjahan has just shifted his capital to Delhi and his own residence to the newly constructed palace complex inside his fort city (Red Fort). A new capital city Shahjahanabad (now called ‘Old Delhi’) start to come up to the west of the fort in a quarter of a circle, with the Red Fort as the focal point.
The iconic Red Fort today – an UNESCO world heritage site.
The iconic Jama Masjid gets constructed in about a decade a little to the south-west of Red Fort. While the royal family occupied the palace complex inside the fort, the rich and powerful of the royal court started building their mansions (called ‘havelis’ in Urdu) on the west of the fort along the well-planned streets and lanes of Shahjahanabad. Towards the west of those mansions, start coming up markets which were needed for the royalty – separate markets for jewelry, fancy dresses, street food etc. The finest workmen, needed at those markets, came from all across India regardless of their religions or castes and set up their modest living quarters nearby.
Typical scene outside the Jama Masjid between prayers or Namaaz ..
Shahjahanabad was built by the Mughals for the Mughals. But the Mughals attempted to create an unique capital city without any preference for religions or caste of its citizens. The result was a sprawling city of the best workmen and cultures from various parts of the large country, belonging to various religions. Very soon, Shahjahanabad turns into a planned capital city of 600,000 inhabitants (more than that of Paris at that time) of many religions – not only the dominant Muslims, but also Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and growing number of European Christians. Primarily due to religious liberalism of most of the Mughal emperors, the next century would see significant rise of multi-ethnic cultural activities and expansion of trade in the city.
Time changes for everyone, so does fortune! Both changed for Shahjahanabad soon – the mighty Mughal empire started to decay from the early 18th century taking the fate of Shahjahanabad along with it! The entire 18th century was marked by misrule by inapt Mughal emperors leading to weakening of the empire and the rise of Marathas and the British ‘East India Company’. The British decisively won in 1803 AD and established control on the city (except the Red Fort where the figure-head Mughal emperor and the royal family still lived).
1857 AD – Everything changed forever in 1857 when an Indian contingent of the British army revolted under the name of the Mughal emperor, defeated the British to wrest control on Shahjahanabad. What followed was wide-spread arson and looting of the properties in Shahjahanabad by the accomplishes of the revolting soldiers. Four months later, the British Army regained control and what followed was again arson and looting of properties of all those in Shahjahanabad who had reportedly supported the revolt. The last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was expelled to Rangoon and Red Fort was finally taken over by the British. Many palatial mansions in the city (primarily of wealthy Muslims) were demolished leading to thousands of Muslims migrating out. Large parts of Shahjahanabad, adjacent to the Red Fort, was cleared for security reasons – the demography as well as the ethnicity of Shahjahanabad had changed permanently! Now Europeans start to build their own settlement north of Shahjahanabad along the Civil Lines.
The following decades saw deepening of British control and imprint on Shahjahanabad. Shahjahanabad had already started its journey into political oblivion as the British consolidated its administrative functions in Calcutta. But, curiously, this was also a time of quietude when liberal thoughts, education, a unique culture and trade grew in Shahjahanabad despite its falling political fortune. Liberal thinking and spread of education gave birth to many schools & early Indian colleges around Shahjahanabad and also many religious societies. The political fortune of Shahjahanabad kept falling further in the early 20th century as the British started building a new capital city in New Delhi, just south of Shahjahanabad. Sandwiched between the new capital city in the south and the European settlement in the north, Shahjahanabad was fast becoming another overcrowded Indian city. Despite all that, Shahjahanabad (called ‘Old Delhi’ by now) managed to retain its importance in terms of a city with Indian identity and liberal thinking. Primarily due to its rich multi-ethnic culture, it was still breathing its Indian-ness. Its cultural heritage and free-thinking educational institutions made a significant contribution t o the Indian freedom struggle that followed in the subsequent decades – a fact that is still visible in some narrow lanes of Old Delhi!
Busts of freedom fighters and reformers in one of the many narrow lanes of Old Delhi
1947 AD – The nation became independent on 15th August, 1947 and the first Prime Minister of the new nation hoisted the national flag on that day from the ramparts of Red Fort. The Red Fort soon became the symbolic heart of the nation from where, the Prime Minister hoists the national flag on every Independence Day even now!
But in 1947, the entire country, including Old Delhi, was to see a bloody and violent migration of Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus from Pakistan into India within a fortnight from the joyous Independence Day – Millions of people crossed over in either direction in search of safety leaving their empty homes behind, thousands were brutally killed in sectarian violence and hundreds of thousands became refugees in their own motherland. At the end, scores of Muslims left from Old Delhi for Pakistan and a greater number of Hindus from Pakistan took their place in the same city. Old Delhi absorbed more people than it had let go without any new construction, only to become more chaotic.
In the decades that followed that bloody event, Old Delhi was to continue its downward journey into oblivion as this overcrowded city was not a part of the blueprint that the independent India had created for itself. Many grand havelis started crumbling or got taken over by poor migrants, small shops and businesses kept cropping up in the narrow lanes or just outside the once-sprawling haveli complexes, roads became full with all possible kinds of transport, many original inhabitants left for better places and so on.
Remains of a grand 18th century haveli – now dilapidated and most of the princely rooms rented out to locals.
2021 AD – Its only recently that Old Delhi is getting a fair bit of attention from the local government – arguably for two reasons, to exploit its potential as a tourist destination and more respectfully, to preserve the heritage and unique culture that Old Delhi still practices. The city has now been connected to the rest of Delhi with metro railway, the main roads have been widened, digital services have been made available, the main thoroughfare through Chandni Chowk has been decongested, reclaimed and reconstructed to be returned to its 360-year-old glory, and so on.
Old Delhi, despite all the odds since the early 19th century till date, has managed not only to survive into the 21st century, but also grow its unique culture. It is still such a joy to stand in the middle of the deafening crowd there and smell the history at every street corner and feel the multi-ethnicity which is a core Indian value.
At the animal market before Eid-ul-Adha
A typical street corner in Old Delhi.
Preparations in full swing for a major Hindu religious festival..
Epilogue
As I went through the unique history of Old Delhi, I understood the place and its people much better. My experience of Old Delhi, my personal interpretation of my experiences and my expressions of it (my images) became much more honest and truer to myself and the time & place that Old Delhi now is!
I was still missing answers to those questions that I started with – why should Old Delhi still be important to me and to the nation? What do I have to learn from it? – I needed to dive deeper into the place and my own self to find the answers, I needed to ‘feel’ the place again in context of its past now.
I stood in front of the mighty Red Fort steeped in 360 years of history and visited by people from all parts of the world now – it still whispers its complex history to us all. It was never foreign, it was always a part of me – through my childhood imagination of this place shaped by televised addresses to the nation by successive Prime Ministers from here on every Independence Day.
A few hundred meters to the south-west, stands another 360-year-old iconic monument – the Jama Masjid – Asia’s biggest mosque. Inside it reigns eternal peace and tranquility amongst the devout Muslim men and women.
`Inside the Jama Masjid – A Muslim lady, torn between her duties as a mother and a devout Muslim, prays
as the oblivious world outside carries on.
The roads just outside its gates are teaming with life – with people and all forms of transports jostling for every inch of space. A closer look at the place and the people around, I start to discover various actors playing their roles – as they may have done for centuries – a devout Muslim in prayer in his small shop just behind of the mosque, the religious tourists from faraway places, the vendors selling their own modest merchandise for a living, the street food joints, the local shops, various forms of transports and so on – I feel life in its full glory and now armed with the history of the place, I know now that this life is not too different from the life that this place may have had centuries back – I feel a precious continuity.
This is what, I now realize, sets Old Delhi apart from many other heritage cities – it is still very much alive and continuous – I just have to be a part of it to feel the past and our collective ‘roots’. The crowd in front doesn’t have any religion as it has people of all religions in it! Just around the corner, I find a van in front of a shop waiting to be unloaded with two of its window panes reflecting the Jama Masjid bathed in the setting sun while the next window pane displays poster of a Hindu God and Goddess!! I realize, again, that this place still remains (despite all the religious differences) a microcosm of India.
Religious tourists from far-away places alight to visit the Jama Masjid and Old Delhi..
A motorbike parked just behind the Jama Masjid carries a flag of a Hindu outfit while its mirror reflects the mosque Jama Masjid ..
A few hundred meters from the Jama Masjid along the main thoroughfare from the Red Fort, popularly called Chandni Chowk, I come across a Jain temple, a Hindu temple, a Sikh Gurdwara (where I found a young Hindu monk selling books on Lord Krishna standing in front the Sikh Gurdwara facing another old mosque) and a church almost next to each other. I visualize how people from various parts of the country with various religions had come to Old Delhi in the 17th and 18th centuries to make it functional. I realize, again, that this place still remains, despite all the religious differences, a microcosm of India.
Two friends engrossed in small talk at a street corner. The wall next to them is full of posters of all major religions in India – Hinduism, Islamism and Christianity.
As I walk along, I find narrow alleys full of small fast food restaurants. Various fast foods are a part of the rich culinary history of Old Delhi and these shops are extending continuity to that rich tradition.
Street food joints just behind the Jama Masjid. Old Delhi is still considered the capital of Indian Street Food.
Another street food restaurant carrying the centuries old street food recipes and tradition of the place.
Old Delhi today is now an enigma – though it still has a faint trail of the royalty who had built the city long back, is now populated largely by a huge middle class and gets visibly taken over by a huge population of migrant daily wagers working in various markets. While the royalty and the middle class carry the unique tradition of this place and practice a traditional cultural/ religious or political life, the daily wagers live a meagre life, some of whom spend their nights with old film posters as their roof. Space has become a precious commodity in this overcrowded city now – so much so that a good part of lives of the lower middle class and the daily wagers get played in the open.
The living quarters of migrant daily wagers from far-away states ..
A migrant daily wager sells his commodities outside a mosque..
Poster of an old film from a nearby movie theatre (which has just closed down) which the migrant daily wagers use as a roof on top of their heads.
Migrant workers push a broken-down car used for local political elections – a metaphorical scene in many ways.
Migrant workers preparing a local fair.
The original design of Old Delhi had dedicated markets to the west, beyond the mansions and they are still there. The only difference is that they have lost the royal customers. Instead, they now are frequented by thousands of commoners. Much of Old Delhi today survives on these markets in one way or the other. Quieter residential lanes/ areas can be found away from these markets towards the west. Many of them have unique history (i.e. The residential lanes (one of which belonged to the indigo dyers during the Mughal era) has a rich history of notable contribution to the Indian independence movement during the first half of the 20th century – and a temple is still dedicated to these freedom heroes.
Another morning at a vegetable market in Old Delhi ..
At a local wholesale market ..
At a mirror shop ..
A migrant daily-wager unloads glass pane at a glass shop in one of the markets at Old Delhi
With time, these areas have changed – the people and the buildings have aged, signatures of the new times have arrived and the people here have adjusted to the changing times. But what is different is that most people here have carried their heritage with them! Hari Ram (name changed), a former national-level wrestler who had risen to prominence in the 1970s and knew the national leaders then, still ran his wrestling school till his passing away a few years ago. He would treat me (or anyone else) like his own family member, make us sit with him and share stories & values of his times. Hyder Ali (name changed) still trains pet parrots (he even carries them on his morning walks to the market) and pigeons on his roof top – much like his great grandfather did almost a century ago! And through them, I realize the lives and times of my parents or my grandparents better. Almost every lane in Old Delhi has its own Hyder Ali and Hari Rams who open their doors to you and let you experience as well as learn from the times gone by.
The century-old tradition of training pigeons and parrots is still alive here ..
If people make what a place is, then these people make what Old Delhi is – a heritage city with a unique history where the heritage is warm, alive and continuous – bridging our past with our present, allowing us to feel and learn from our own past, our own roots.
We do have our own cyber cities and not far from Old Delhi, we have dozens of our ultra-modern residential high-rise mini-cities. Socio-economically, I probably belong more there and I appreciate the convenience, comfort and the stellar architectures of those high-rise mini-cities. But after a while, I realize I am missing a connection with my past there, I am not learning much from those places…. I realize how important continuity is, how important Hari Rams and Hyder Alis are for us to remain ‘rooted’, how important Old Delhi still is!
About Aniruddha Guha Sarkar
I live in New Delhi, am an Engineer by education, a part of the top management of an American I.T Services companyby profession and a learning photoartist by passion. Having been bored to death by corporate nothingness in various parts of the world for nearly 25 years, I took to the streets with my camera around 7 years back in search of a more meaningful life.
For the first 4 years of my journey, I followed the trends of street photography. I have never been into competitions seriously, but during this time, some of my work got exhibited in various international group exhibitions (e.g. in a few Italian cities, Moscow, Hamburg, Dubai etc.) and printed in various international/ national magazines. I am also a member of iN-PUBLiC and In-street collectives.
Artistic passion for creating a work of art and the craving for the joy when such rare occasions happen were always there in me and will be there in future too. However, I felt a growing need a few yearsagothat before trying to become an artist, one must first understand the time and place that one lives in and their socio-political evolution. The moments that I express in my images must come out of such deep experiences. I am therefore trying street documentaries on social themes these days – in order to be myself. Over the last year or so, I figured out through my failures how much subject matter understanding, time (which I don’t have – due to my professional commitments) and dedication such street documentaries take! Despite such limitations, going deeper to understand and express the time and place that I live in remains the only responsible direction that I can take and that’s what I keep trying.
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Copyrights:
All the pictures in this post are copyrighted Aniruddha Guha Sarkar. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.
