From a palace that once defined the East, scarred by the 1857 revolt, to the site of Independence Day celebrations: Red Fort’s journey

The founding 

The ‘Dehli’ that the French traveller Francois Bernier describes in his writings was Shahjahanabad — the city founded by Shah Jahan. The construction of this new city and its fort began simultaneously in 1639, and nine years later, Shah Jahan formally inaugurated what is now known as the Red Fort.

This architectural brilliance would serve as the main residence of the Mughal emperors, for Shahjahanabad retained its title of ‘New Delhi’ for nearly 250 years after its founding — until the early 1900s, when yet another new city of Delhi was established by the British.

Originally called Qila-u-Mubarak (the Fortunate Citadel), the palace came to be known more simply as the Lal Qila, or the Red Fort, owing to its imposing red sandstone walls.

“It was ‘on the night of Friday, the 25th of Zi’l-Hijja…corresponding to 1048 (29 April 1639)…that the Red Fort’s foundations are recorded to have been marked out; and ‘on the night of Friday, the 9th of Muharram 1049 (12 May 1639)…when the foundation stone was laid,” Mukherji cites in her book.

More than 350 years later, Mukherji writes, “The designed form of the Red Fort and its city of Shahjahanabad has greatly altered.”

The lifestyle of the people who inhabited the area has also changed, and the Yamuna River — on whose banks the Fort and Shahjahanabad originally stood — has now receded so far that it is barely visible.

Revolt of 1857 and its aftermath

Among the key centres of the 1857 revolt was Delhi, where the Red Fort and the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, played pivotal roles.

On the morning of May 11, 1857, the calm within the Red Fort was shattered by the sounds of the uprising, as rebel soldiers entered its premises, and urged the emperor to lead their cause. Despite his advanced age and limited political authority, Bahadur Shah Zafar led Delhi, which emerged as a major stronghold for the rebels.

The Red Fort, with its magnificent halls — the Diwan-i-Aam (Hall of Public Audience) and Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience) — was transformed into the headquarters of the insurgents.

The subsequent British attack brought widespread destruction. Several of the Fort’s buildings were demolished, accompanied by the looting of what little remained after the repeated raids of the eighteenth century.

“The famed inlaid panels of the Diwan-i Am were removed and taken to England. They were, however, brought back in 1902 at the insistence of Lord Curzon, who also brought in Italian craftsmen to restore them to the Diwan-i Am,” Mukherji notes.

The INA trials 

In April 1945, the Indian National Army (INA) troops, having suffered a complete rout at the hands of the British forces, surrendered at Mount Popa, Burma. The Red Fort was chosen as the site for the INA court-martial.

“As a site for the INA court-martial,” notes author Chandar S Sundaram in a research paper titled: Trial at the Red Fort, 1945–1946 (2022),  “the Red Fort held symbolic meaning for both the British and the Indians.”

From the British perspective, it was where that other “great rebel”, Bahadur Shah Zafar, had been tried for his role in the 1857 mutiny. “Thus, they believed that holding another treason trial there would display the continued and undiminished prestige and power of the Raj…”

They also believed that putting INA officers on trial would highlight the seriousness of the crimes these Indians officers had committed.

For Indian nationalist supporters of the INA, on the other hand, the Red Fort trial was a victory. Sundaram notes that the INA’s war cry was “Chalo Delhi” (On to Delhi). Now, the INA members had reached Delhi, though in prisoners’ chains.

“In the process, they had twisted the British lion’s tail, performing dangerous feats of cunning and daring for a noble cause against impossible odds,” writes Sundaram.

Legacy of Red Fort

The Red Fort remains deeply significant in terms of its political and national importance. “It is both a symbol and the setting of events that have shaped India’s national identity,” Mukherji writes.

The Fort is also tied to stories of the last, though weak, resistance against British power.

“The most enduring of these stories,” writes Mukherji, “is perhaps that of the white-bearded King Bahadur Shah Zafar, who composed poetry in his translucent marble rooms before briefly assuming the spirit of his commanding ancestors over the battlements of his red citadel.”

His story ends tragically — with the death of his sons, and his own exile from the gardens and river he loved.

“Other stories refer to a time almost a hundred years later,” Mukherji continues, “when young men were brought into alien structures within the familiar red walls to face a judge and jury from whose race they were trying to reclaim what remained of their own people’s spirit…”

These events and their memory have made the Red Fort a lasting symbol of India’s freedom struggle.

Not only does it continue to be the focus of the annual Independence Day celebrations, but it is also the final destination of the annual festive parade that marks the day of India’s founding as a republic.