Capital Letters

Beginning with the declaration made by George V on December 12, 1911, of the intent to transfer the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi, the documents trace the stated positions, the arguments, the debates and discussions, and claims and counter-claims. The volume captures the spirit of the exchanges that were at times civil and at others contentious and acrimonious, almost always couched in bureaucratese. The documents span across a short, but crucially important, time where decisions were taken and principles laid down or proposed whose reverberations can be felt even today.

For instance in a document dated Simla, July 13, 1912, an argument is advanced that the “administration both of existing Delhi and of the new city and its surroundings should vest in the Imperial Government…” Replace “Imperial” with “Union” and you have the kernel of the argument that denies full statehood to Delhi.

One comes across varied interest groups exerting pressure, appealing, cajoling, at times belligerent and at others nauseatingly obsequious, but constantly trying to protect their own turf. Loyal servants of the colonial masters, various maharajas offered their lands for the new capital while traders and residents of old settlements tried to keep theirs outside imperial Delhi. Residents of Paharganj petitioned Lord Hardinge to this end, for instance.

The traders of Calcutta were afraid of deleterious consequences of the shifting of the capital and suggested that Delhi be the ceremonial capital and winter headquarters of the Governor General. They suggested that legislativesessions of the Imperial Council could be held at Simla during the summer months while the government turned into a “touring Government” during winter with departments like Commerce, Finance, Railways, Posts, Telegraph, Crops and Irrigation being headquartered at Calcutta.

All departments of government and state were busy trying to corner large tracts of land and simultaneously trying to curb competing claims, far beyond what might be justifiable. A demi-official letter from William M Hailey wonders if it is advisable for the army to station a garrison at Delhi of the size that is proposed.

Among the most cynical of these exchanges is a confidential demi-official letter from the land acquisition officer to the secretary, Government of India, on how to deal with mosques, temples and tombs in connection with land acquisition proceedings in Delhi. The writer suggests that once the population is moved to other locations, they would, within a short time, stop visiting these shrines, temples and mosques and then they could be demolished. The buildings so earmarked for erasure included many of historical importance.

From Ghalib’s Dilli to Lutyens’ New Delhi is a veritable treasure of such nuggets, of interest not only to historians, urban planners, political scientists but even lay readers, for it offers a different vantage point, a perspective that is at times missed in the larger narrative of the shifting of the capital.

But the five maps on a CD that comes with the book need serious reworking. If they are an example of the state in which documents are being preserved at the National Archives of India, some rather serious steps need to be taken and urgently, before all this and much more is lost forever.

In fact the unearthing, selection and publication of these documents owes much to the fact that after a gap of more than 30 years, an academic who is also an eminent historian was appointed Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India in 2010, and many new schemes for restoration and preservation were initiated.

The combined length of shelves at NAI where these records, documents, illustrations, cartographic representations and manuscripts in Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, English and other languages are stacked runs a staggering 40 kilometres. The NAI has records beginning from the Anglo-French war of 1748 and there is much that can be learnt from these about modern and contemporary India and the shaping of the idea of India. All this and more can accrue from documents such as the one under review and others that need to be made more accessible. All that needs to be done is to ensure that academics and archivists run institutions such as the NAI.

The writer is a Delhi-based academic, activist and writer