Colonialism, Uprising and the Urban Transformation of Nineteenth-Century Delhi

227 Pages·2023·16.717 MB·English

by  Jyoti Pandey Sharma

Colonialism, Uprising and the
Urban Transformation of
Nineteenth-Century Delhi
No other city in the Indian subcontinent can lay claim to having so many
lives as Delhi. This book examines Delhi in the politically and culturally
dynamic nineteenth century which was marked midway by the 1857
uprising against British colonial rule as a watershed event. Following
British occupation, Delhi became a receptacle for encounters between the
centuries-old Mughal traditions and the incoming colonial ideal, producing
a traditionalism-modernity binary. Employing the built environment lens,
the book traces the architectural trajectory of Delhi as it transitioned from
the seventeenth-century Mughal Badshahi Shahar (imperial city) first into a
culturally hybrid Dilli-Delhi combine of the pre-uprising era and thereafter
into a modern British city following the uprising. This transition is pre-
sented via four constructs that draw on the traditionalism-modernity binary
of Mughal and British Delhi and include Marhoom Dilli (Dead Delhi);
Picturesque Delhi; Baaghi Dilli (Insurgent Delhi) and Tamed Delhi. The
book goes beyond the nineteenth century to examine the vestiges of Delhi’s
four nineteenth-century lives in the present while making a case for their
acknowledgement as a cultural asset that can propel the city’s urban
development agenda. By bringing together the city’s past and its present as
well as addressing its future, the book can count among its readers not just
scholars but also those interested in cities and their evolving landscapes.
Jyoti Pandey Sharma is a professor of architecture at Department of
Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India. She
engages with issues pertaining to architectural and urban history, built
heritage and cultural landscapes, particularly those concerning the Indian
Subcontinent’s legacy of Islamic and Colonial urbanism. Her work has been
published in peer-reviewed journals and in edited volumes and she has been
an invited speaker at international symposia and conferences. Her research
has received awards and fellowships including a Summer Fellowship in
Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and
Collection, USA and a UGC Associateship at the Indian Institute of
Advanced Study, India.
Routledge Research in Architectural History
Series Editor: Nicholas Temple
Books in this series look in detail at aspects of architectural history from an
academic viewpoint. Written by international experts, the volumes cover a
range of topics from the origins of building types, the relationship of archi-
tectural designs to their sites, explorations of the works of specific architects,
to the development of tools and design processes, and beyond. Written for the
researcher and scholar, we are looking for innovative research to join our
publications in architectural history.
Architecture and the Language Debate
Artistic and Linguistic Exchanges in Early Modern Italy
Nicholas Temple
Urban Architectures in Interwar Yugoslavia
Tanja D. Conley
The Architecture and Landscape of Health
A Historical Perspective on Therapeutic Places 1790–1940
Julie Collins
Architecture and Urbanism in Viceregal Mexico
Puebla de los Ángeles, 16th–18th Centuries
Juan Luis Burke
Architecture, Aesthetics, and the Predicaments of Theory
Amir H. Ameri
Mexico City’s Zócalo
A History of a Constructed Spatial Identity
Benjamin Bross
William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult
Amandeep Kaur Mann
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/architecture/series/RRAHIST
Colonialism, Uprising and
the Urban Transformation
of Nineteenth-Century
Delhi
Jyoti Pandey Sharma
Designed cover image: Janhwij Sharma
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 Jyoti Pandey Sharma
The right of Jyoti Pandey Sharma to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Pandey Sharma, Jyoti, author.
Title: Colonialism, uprising and the urban transformation of
nineteenth-century Delhi / Jyoti Pandey Sharma.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2023. | Series: Routledge
research in architectural history | Outgrowth of the author’s thesis
(doctoral)‐‐De Montfort University, 2005, under the title: Colonial
intervention and urban transformation : a case study of Shahjahanabad/
Old Delhi. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022050944 (print) | LCCN 2022050945 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367703738 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367703745
(paperback) | ISBN 9781003145950 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Architecture and society‐‐India‐‐Delhi‐‐History‐‐
19th century. | Delhi (India)‐‐History‐‐19th century. | Cultural
property‐‐Protection‐‐India‐‐Delhi.
Classification: LCC NA2543.S6 P36 2023 (print) | LCC NA2543.S6
(ebook) | DDC 720.954/5609034‐‐dc23/eng/20221026
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022050944
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022050945
ISBN: 978-0-367-70373-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-70374-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-14595-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003145950
Typeset in Sabon
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
This book is dedicated to my Parents, Meenu Pande and
Puran Chandra Pande, whose love for reading and writing,
I suppose I have inherited.

Contents
List of Illustrations Credits viii
Acknowledgements x
List of Abbreviations xii
Glossary xiii
1 Introduction: Delhi in the ‘Long Nineteenth Century’ 1
2 Mughal Badshahi Shahar: Shahjahanabad 19
3 Marhoom Dilli (Dead Delhi): Fashioning a
new identity 38
4 Picturesque Delhi: Ruins and leisurely pursuits 68
5 Baaghi Dilli (Insurgent Delhi): Constructing heroes
and villains 95
6 Tamed Delhi: Spatial tyranny and the weaponry
of exclusion 125
7 Twentieth-Century Delhis: New Delhi versus
Old Delhi 162
8 Epilogue: The future of Delhi’s past 180
Index 192
List of Illustrations Credits
2.1 NAI, Folio:183, Sheet:24 25
2.2 ASI, DGO, Album: Delhi, Vol.12, 1931–1932, No.5802 26
3.1 Janhwij Sharma 52
3.2 Janhwij Sharma 52
3.3 Author 57
3.4 ASI, DGO, Album: Delhi, Vol.2, 1916–1917, No.3660 58
3.5 Author 59
3.6 ASI, Agra Circle, Album: Office of the Superintendent,
Mohammadan and British Monuments, Northern Circle,
Agra, 1913–1914, No.80 60
3.7 Author 61
4.1 Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection,
No.B1976.7.74 [online] Available at: <https://collections.
britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:307> [Accessed: 31st July 2022] 74
4.2 ASI, RFMC, No.282 77
4.3 ASI, RFMC, No.538 78
4.4 ASI, DGO, Album: Delhi, Vol.11, 1914–1915, No.D351 84
4.5 Janhwij Sharma 87
4.6 Author 90
4.7 Janhwij Sharma 91
5.1 NAI, Folio:183, Sheet:25-A 103
5.2 ASI, DGO, Album: Delhi, Vol.12, 1931–1932, No.5901 104
5.3 Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund,
No.DS486.D3 B87 1858 [online] Available at:
<https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:6814257>
[Accessed: 2nd February 2022] 110
5.4 ASI, DGO, Album: Delhi, Vol.2, 1914–1915, No.D539 110
5.5 Janhwij Sharma 112
5.6 Author 113
5.7 ASI, DGO, Album: Delhi, Vol.13, 1931–1935, No.5941 116
5.8 ASI, DGO, Album: Punjab, Vol.19, 1913–1914, No.D179 117
List of Illustrations Credits ix
6.1 ASI, Agra Circle, Album: Agra, Vol.12, 1930–1931, No.5778 132
6.2 ASI, DGO, Album: Delhi, Vol.4, 1919–1921, No.4105 135
6.3 ASI, DGO, Album: Punjab, Vol.1, 1902–1903. No.P72 136
6.4 ASI, RFMC, No.283 138
6.5 ASI, DGO, Album: Punjab, Vol.1, 1902–1903, No.P274 141
6.6 ASI, Agra Circle, Album: Agra, Vol.12, 1930–1931, No.5778 144
6.7 Janhwij Sharma 146
6.8 Janhwij Sharma 147
7.1 ASI, RFMC, Drawing No.2 167
7.2 ASI, Delhi Circle, Drawing No.193 169
8.1 Janhwij Sharma 188