Sunday, July 20, 2003		Books

From Shahjahanabad to Old Delhi
Pankaj K. Jha

Shahjahanabad/Old Delhi: Tradition and Colonial Change.
edited by Eckart Ehlers & Thomas Craft. Manohar, Delhi. Pages 134. Rs 600.

IT is a measure of the sweeping ways in which history reconstitutes memory that few know even in Delhi today that Shahjahanabad was the name by which the Mughal walled city of now Old Delhi, stretching from the Red Fort in the east to Turkman Gate in the west and Daryaganj in the south to Kashmiri gate in the north, was known.

The book under review is a collection of six articles that trace the changing topography, demography and fortunes of the city of Shahjahanabad through the vagaries of history. Originally published in Germany in 1993, it is produced in a revised and enlarged version here fittingly enough by Manohar with its offices in Old Delhi! It joins the not-so-long list of distinguished publications on the history of Delhi with Upinder Singh, Narayani Gupta, R.E. Fryckenberg, Percival Spear, and a few others.

It was in the 12th year (Islamic calendar) of his reign that the fifth Mughal emperor Shahjahan (r. 1628–1657) decided to build a new capital city at Delhi. The editors note that it was "at least the ninth city in a long succession of famous imperial predecessors." However, the number of known capital cities in Delhi before Shahjahanabad was evidently far greater even if we leave out the disputed ancient settlement of Indrapat/Indrapastha.

As the six essays in the book show, the city of Shahjahanabad has undergone multiple transformations in almost every imaginable aspect since it was formally inaugurated on April 19, 1648, when Shahjahan entered his new capital by the riverside gate on the east. Used to the extremely narrow and congested by-lanes of Old Delhi, it is difficult for Delhiites today to imagine that not very long ago (when the Mughal capital was not yet "Old" Delhi), Shahjahanabad was a sprawling and spacious city with its share of green belt sustained by canals and water channels that ran through the chief streets, gardens and palaces.

The essay by Narayani Gupta makes for most enticing reading as it admiringly blends a cosy nostalgia with interesting pieces of information and scrupulous research. Titled "The Indomitable City," the essay traces the tempestuous socio-political history of Shahjahanabad in rich detail and simple narrative up till the colonial times. Although, the architectural layout of the city changed continuously, it was in the aftermath of 1857 that colonial masters, excessively "obsessed with security," effected most dramatic transformations. Narrow barracks replaced grand palaces and a number of secular and religious buildings — including most of the western wall and the glorious Akbarabadi mosque — were destroyed. A second major transformation took place after partition, a process that probably continues today.

The Qila-i Mubarak (popularly known today as the Red Fort) strikes awe not through vertical dominance but interestingly "by a seemingly infinite horizontal axis — a series of progressively grander courts and a succession of gateways finally leading to the Diwan-i-Am or the Emperor’s Hall of Public Audience". Anisha Shekhar Mukherji studies the deployment of space in the architectural layout of Shahjahanabad as well as the "Changing Perception of Space" in an essay that begins with a quote from Taittiriya Upanishad and ends with another from Albert Einstein.

Jamal Malik’s survey of the "Islamic Institutions and Infrastructure in Shahjahanabad" is based on unsubstantiated assumptions about the cityscape being divided into zones of "Hindus, Muslims and Christians". The data is frequently plotted without reference to time, and this leads to confusing conclusions. However, the Mughal hierarchical principles that guided the ordering of various localities in the city are brought out well. Thomas Krafft’s well-researched essay on "Contemporary Old Delhi" tells the sad story of the relegation of the great shahr into a shantytown through the 20^th century.

From a strictly historical point of view, the first essay titled "Islamic Cities in India? – Theoretical Concepts and the Case of Shahjahanabad/Old Delhi" (by the editors) appears rather problematic to this reviewer. The authors are ahistorically concerned about the fact that none of the studies of Indian towns "seems to concentrate on the question of their being ‘Islamic cities’." They concede that there are "distinct differences`85 between the cities influenced by Islam`85" yet these differences are dubbed "variations" within an essentially identical order. The politically dangerous implications of such an argument cannot be elaborated upon here. One may note, however, that the idea of (and an elusive search for) "the essence" of an Islamic city or even Islam itself is old and the principles behind such efforts stand seriously challenged if not entirely demolished today.

The most irresistible offer of the book is the print of a hand-drawn, hand-coloured map of Shahjahanabad prepared c.1850, and reproduced here in its original size of almost 100 by 100 cm. Certain theoretical problems of certain essays notwithstanding, the book along with the map should be of great interest to both laypersons as well as historians of cities.