New Delhi attractions | Travel Thru History

India: On The Path Of An Immortal Soul, Mahatma Gandhi Memorials In New Delhi

by Susmita Sengupta

The history of the independence of India is synonymous with the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi, the “Father of the Nation.” The preeminent freedom fighter, social activist and politician was an inspiration for international icons such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela due to his singular devotion to the doctrine of non-violence and truth. His is the face that adorns every Indian currency note. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar in the state of Gujarat in western India. He crisscrossed the sub-continent in his quest to liberate India from British rule during the Indian freedom struggle.

It was in New Delhi, the capital of India where he lost his life to a fanatic’s bullet.

I was looking at the Mahatma’s footprints reconstructed on the route he took on the fateful day of January 30, 1948. We were at Gandhi Smriti, literally Gandhi Memorial/Remembrance, at Birla House in New Delhi, India, the place where he spent the last four and half months of his life, 144 days to be exact. I walked alongside the winding pathway through the tranquil, serene grounds, following the concrete footsteps and reached the Martyr’s Column that commemorates the exact spot of his death.

Birla House was built in the colonial era by Ghanshyam Das Birla, the patriarch of one of the most well known industrialist and philanthropic family of India. G.D. Birla became an early supporter and follower of Gandhi and the freedom movement and his residence became a center for those fighting for freedom.

Mahatma Gandhi arrived here from Calcutta and lived in this house from 9th September 1947 to 30th January 1948. On that day at 5:17 pm, he was shot while going for evening prayers that he held every day in the compound garden in front of a mass congregation. In the 1970s, this house became a memorial committed to keeping alive the essence of the most notable man of India.

When we entered the expansive premises of Birla House, the first thing I saw was a gigantic peace gong, a fitting tribute to the occupant of this house. All around in the midst of flowers and greeneries in the lush, landscaped gardens were rocks and stones engraved with quotes of the Mahatma. “I would not like to live in a world where there is no peace.” I translated the Hindi quote in my mind as I stood near the World Peace Gong, inaugurated here in 2006 on the centenary of Gandhi’s first Satyagraha, meaning loyalty to truth and his adopted method of passive resistance to non-violence. The enormous gong displays the flags of all the countries in the United Nations and the symbols of all world religions.

“My life is my message,” the familiar quote was inscribed at the bottom of the large statue of Gandhi near the entrance to the museum. We walked by the little plaque that highlighted each event of his life every time he stayed in this building.

Inside the museum, our tour guide walked us through floors and rooms full of sculptures, photographs, paintings, movies, recordings and memorabilia of all kinds related to the epic life of Mahatma Gandhi. We walked through halls filled with his photographs and placards and his countless words of wisdom, chronicling the transformation of his life from being a lawyer in Britain to his formative years as a political activist in South Africa to his ultimate legendary status.

I loved the colorful charkha displays, embodying the traditional spinning wheel that in Gandhi’s hands became a potent emblem of his political beliefs. What really caught my attention were the historical dioramas depicting significant scenes from Gandhi’s life intertwined with crucial events of the Indian independence movement.

In one, there was a pile of colorful cloth, surrounded by a mob of men, women and children carrying posters in Hindi, Gujarati and English. “Boycott foreign cloth”, it said, showing the bonfire of foreign cloth campaign from 1922. In another diorama, he is at Buckingham Palace in 1931 in his customary loincloth attire, meeting King George V while in yet another, he is in Shantiniketan meeting with Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore who is known to have given him the title of Mahatma (a great soul).

The model of Sabarmati Ashram gave us a good insight into what the real one would be like. Located on the banks of the Sabarmati River in the state of Gujarat, this is the place where Gandhi conducted his experiments on farming, animal husbandry, khadi and other such issues. It was his home from 1917 to 1930 and was a primary venue of the Indian freedom movement.

Certainly, the most poignant moment in the visit is when one enters the chamber where Mahatma Gandhi sat last before walking out to his death. This is a sparse area and we walked in to see a preserved room that highlighted his simple living style while staying in a lavish mansion. A corner of the large room had his mattress, pillows, a desk, and his spinning wheel. I noticed the little wooden sculpture of the three wise monkeys and on the wall a display of his meager personal possessions including his recognizable round glasses and his pocket watch that had stopped and was showing the time of his death.

Next to a floor length window was the sign that noted “the path that Gandhi walked on his last day to the prayer grounds.” We walked out the door tracking the cement footsteps and out into the garden to reach the final prayer spot on an elevated lawn. Under a canopied pavilion, is the spot where he was shot three times in the chest at point blank range. The memorial notes his last words “Hey Ram’’ and the date and time that he was shot. The events immediately before and thereafter are thoroughly recorded by the photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson, at the time a little known photojournalist who happened to be there by chance and who photographed Gandhi a couple of hours before his assassination.

Seeing the famous photos here reminded me of our visit to Raj Ghat, on an earlier separate trip. This is where the cremation of Mahatma Gandhi was held on 31 January 1948. Cartier-Bresson’s photos at Gandhi Smriti show crowds of people gathered on the streets of Delhi, all waiting to pay their last respects.

The memorial is reached after a long walk through a scenic park. On the day that we went, the crowd was thin, no doubt due to the fiercely high midday temperatures. The large, square, black marble platform is built at the exact place where he was cremated. An eternal flame symbolizing his undying spirit burns at its one end and the words “Hey Ram” (Oh God), believed to be his last words are inscribed in Hindi on the bottom of the facing end. The cenotaph area is surrounded by greenery and the entire space is enclosed within a high wall thus keeping it hidden from view while we walked to it. Opposite Raj Ghat is the museum dedicated to highlighting the life and philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi. The collections include original books, journals, personal items, audiovisual memorabilia and other such items belonging to Gandhi and his wife Kasturba and other notables connected to the Indian freedom struggle. A little drawback is that the museum does not permit photography of the exhibits.

Located about 10 miles from Birla House, this temple dedicated to Goddess Laxmi and Lord Vishnu, also known as Birla Mandir was inaugurated in the 1930s by Mahatma Gandhi on the condition that all castes would be allowed to enter the temple premises.

One of the oldest Hindu temples in New Delhi, this red sandstone and white marble temple reminds us of the Mughal colors but it is built in the style of traditional Hindu temples with wall frescoes depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.

An impressive addition to Gandhi related memorabilia, this is a massive sculpture of a set of black stone statues commemorating the iconic Salt March. Known as Gyarah Murti (eleven statues showing Gandhi in the lead trailed by ten marchers), it was sculpted by the noted Indian sculptor Devi Prasad Roy Chowdhury.

On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi and seventy-nine of his followers marched from Sabarmati to Dandi on the coast of the Arabian Sea, to extract and make salt from the sea in order to defy the salt tax imposed by the British. Along the way, when he stopped at villages, thousands more joined the march. The Salt March led to mass civil disobedience all across India.

The only way really to see this statue is while driving along the road as there is no place to stop by and savor the scene. Nevertheless, it provides a suitable end to a day spent visiting the various memorials to Mahatma Gandhi in the city.

If You Go:

Gandhi Smriti at Birla House is located at 5 Tees January Marg near Claridges Hotel. Tees January meaning 30th January in the Hindi language, the date he was assassinated. It is open 10am-5pm Tuesday – Sunday, closed on Monday. There is no entrance fee. The closest metro stop is Rajeev Chowk. It is easily accessible by all modes of transportation.

Raj Ghat is open from dawn to dusk all days of the week. It is located at Mahatma Gandhi Marg (Ring Road). The closest metro station is Pragati Maidan station. There is no entrance fee.

National Gandhi Museum

Laxmi Narayan Temple or Birla Temple is located at Mandir Marg and has no entrance fee. It is open all days from 4:30am – 1:30pm and again from 2:30pm – 9pm. The closest metro station is R. K. Ashram Marg.

Gyarah Murti or Dandi March Statue is located at Mother Teresa Crescent and is on easy view if one is traveling on this road.

Buses, hired cars, taxis, auto rickshaws and cycle rickshaws are available outside all metro stations and hotels and can be used to reach all the above destinations.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Gandhi Tours in Delhi Now Available

Delhi Footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi Half-Day Tour
Private Half-Day Mahatma Gandhi Tour in New Delhi
Old Delhi Tour with Gandhi Museum Including Rickshaw Ride

About the author:
Susmita Sengupta is a freelance writer who loves to travel. She and her family have traveled to various parts of the USA, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, Middle East, Southeast Asia and India.

All photos by Susmita Sengupta

Raj Ghat, Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation spot with the eternal burning flame and his last words “Hey Ram” inscribed in Hindi
Mahatma Gandhi’s final walk memorialized in concrete footsteps at Birla House
The World Peace Gong at Birla House
LaxmiNarayan Temple, also known as Birla Mandir.

India: New Delhi Before The Mughals

by Susmita Sengupta

New Delhi, the capital of India, or Delhi as it is more popularly known, belongs to that pantheon of world cities that have a continuous history of a thousand years and more. The first time that we hear of Delhi is in the epic Mahabharata where it is mentioned as Indraprastha. In the ancient Indian period, Delhi remained a Hindu kingdom but not many structures from those periods have survived to the modern times. The record and coverage of this extensive history truly began with the arrival of the Delhi Sultanate in the 12th century. The Delhi Sultanate had five dynasties that ruled successively. The first four were of Turkic origin and were the Mamluk Dynasty (1206-90), the Khilji Dynasty (1290-1320), the Tughlaq Dynasty (1320-1414) and the Sayyid Dynasty (1414-51). These were followed by the Afghan Lodi Dynasty (1451-1526).

On our recent annual trip, my family and I decided to visit some of the oldest monuments in Delhi. We started at the Hauz Khas Complex, a set of monuments built during the reigns of Allauddin Khilji (1296-1316) and Feroz Shah Tughlaq (1351-1388). The area around the complex is where Khilji, considered one of the most powerful rulers of the Delhi Sultanate, set up his capital of Siri. This would be the third of the seven cities of medieval Delhi. It contains an Islamic seminary or madrasa, the tomb of Feroz Shah Tughlaq, a mosque, six domed pavilions and a water tank or Hauz Khas, meaning literally Royal Tank.

The tank was excavated during Khilji’s reign to meet the water demands of the growing population of Siri. It was used to collect water during the rainy season and then distributed to the people of the city. Originally known as Hauz-i-Alai, it fell into disrepair after the end of Alauddin Khilji’s rule and was cleaned and re-dug by Feroz Shah Tughlaq of the following dynasty. Although later on the reservoir went dry and remained so for centuries, recently the whole complex was renovated. Today the tank has again been refilled with water and the entire complex has been enhanced and preserved.

The cluster of buildings around the tank was added by Feroz Shah Tughlaq who built the Madrasa-e-Feroz Shahi in 1352, the Islamic school considered to be the largest in the world of that era, around the edge of the tank. The building is a two storied L-shaped continuous structure, stark and austere in the Tughlaq tradition and while today it is mostly in ruins, it was very easy to imagine it as being filled with students learning in its grand rooms. On this cold January evening, the area was jam-packed with visitors, young and old, tourists, locals, school and college going kids, all enjoying the warmth of the late sunlight. We too decided to sit down for a while, surrounded by people, and enjoyed the newly landscaped vista of trees and pathways around the tank.

To our front was the lake, surrounded by greenery, the shimmering sun ready to set over it and to our side were the domed pavilions, glowing in the light of the early evening, perhaps the tombs of the teachers at the madrasa. No one really knows for sure. At the junction of the two wings of the seminary, stood the tomb of Feroz Shah Tughlaq himself, a square mausoleum with a high dome. It is unusual because it has all the elements of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic architecture.

The notorious Turkic invader Timur, also known as Tamerlane, who raided Delhi in 1398 to wage a holy war, set up camp in Hauz Khas. It is interesting to note that while he ransacked the riches of Delhi, he documented the Hauz Khas monuments in his memoirs. “When I reached its gates, I carefully reconnoitered its towers and walls, and then returned to the side of the Hauz-i Khas, a reservoir constructed by Sultan Firoz Shah, and faced all around with stone and cement. Each side of this reservoir is more than a bow-shot long, and buildings are placed around it. It is filled by the rains in the rainy season and supplies the people of the city with water throughout the year. The tomb of Sultan Firoz Shah stands on its bank,” wrote Timur in Turkish which was translated into Persian nearly two centuries after his death in 1405.

At the Qutb Minar Complex, we entered an even older world. The construction of Qutb Minar, a red and buff sandstone tower, was begun by Qutbu’d-Din Aibak in 1199 CE. Aibak was the founder of the Mamluk dynasty, also known as the Slave dynasty. He was a slave of Mohammad Ghori, a sultan of the Ghurid Empire whose reign spread from modern day Afghanistan to the eastern parts of India. Ghori returned back to Khorasan in Afghanistan after conquering Delhi and left Qutbu’d-Din Aibak as his military commander. And thus he became the first Sultan of Delhi.

The buildings in this complex laid the foundation for the beginning of the Indo-Islamic style of architecture, an assimilation of both the Indian Hindu and Islamic styles of art and building. But then again there was no specific standardization as the architectural styles would vary according to a particular region of India. This amalgamation came about because the Muslim rulers had no other option than to use the local artisans, sculptors and craftspeople who were set in their own styles and traditions.

The Qutb Minar stands tall at 72.5 m (238 feet) and is the tallest brick minaret in the world. It is a fluted tower of alternating angular and circular sectors built for the muezzins for calls to prayer. There are five stories, each of which has a projecting balcony decorated with beautiful stone brackets. The surface of the minar (tower) has floral decorations and numerous carved inscriptions in Arabic which highlight its history. After Aibak built the first level in 1199 CE, three more levels were added by Sultan Iltutmish (1211-1236 CE), Aibak’s successor and son-in-law. As per the inscriptions, more repairs were done by Feroz Shah Tughlaq of the Tughlaq dynasty and Sikander Lodi (1489-1517 CE) from the Lodi dynasty.

The day was bright and sunny when we entered the Qutb complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated so in 1993. Just like at Hauz Khas, here too inspite of the throngs of tourists and locals, and the cacophony of the Delhi traffic just outside the complex gates, one can immediately feel being transported to a different world. We craned our necks upwards to check out the Arabic calligraphy stunningly carved into the red sandstone facade of the tower. The Qutb Minar is a landmark in Delhi, being visible from way beyond the grounds of the complex. There are 379 steps in the interior to reach the top although entry inside has been banned for a long time.

All around us were the remnants of a bygone era, even dating back to the Iron Age. There was the Iron Pillar of Delhi, from about 375 CE, with inscriptions that tell us it was built during the Gupta dynasty reign often known as the Golden Age in Indian history. The pillar, about 24 feet tall is made of 98% pure iron and still hasn’t shown much signs of rusting. According to some historians, the pillar, originally located in a Vishnu Temple complex in Udayagiri in the state of Madhya Pradesh in Central India was brought to this site by Aibak when he started the construction of the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque in 1198. The Brahmi inscriptions on the pillar, still preserved intact due to the corrosion resistant iron, show homage to a king named Chandra, whom historians have identified as Gupta King Chandragupta II from the late 4th century CE.

The pillar stands in the courtyard of the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, the largest mosque from that era. The earliest surviving mosque built by the Delhi Sultans, it was also expanded later on by Sultan Iltutmish and then by Alauddin Khilji. It consists of a large courtyard with columns from Hindu and Jain temples that were destroyed by Qutbu’d-Din Aibak. We get to know this from the inscriptions on the main entrance. The Iron Pillar stands in the courtyard of the mosque. The other structures in the complex includes the Alai Minar, which was begun by Alauddin Khilji, who envisioned a tower taller than the Qutb. But construction after the first story was abandoned after Khilji’s death in 1316 and today it stands as a 24.5 meter high tower of rubble.
Nearby stands Alai Darwaza, which due to a crunch for time we were unable to explore. Built in 1311, by Alauddin Khilji, it was one of four planned gateways to the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque except that this was the only one that got built as Khilji died in 1316. A massive gateway with inlaid marble decorations and latticed screens, it is again a superb example of Indo Islamic architectural style.

The Qutb complex has various other monuments like the tombs of Sultan Iltutmish, and Alauddin Khilji and also the ruins of a madrasa or Islamic seminary built by Khilji. One really needs an inordinate amount of time to explore this complex and the surrounding Mehrauli Archaeological Park in its entirety and regretfully we did not have that.

As the evening crept up on us, we left the complex promising ourselves to make a return trip on our next visit to Delhi.

Independent Old and New Delhi City Tour in Private Car – $56.25
from: Viator

If You Go:

Hauz Khas Complex is accessible from all areas of Delhi using any kind of transportation. The closest metro stop is Hauz Khas Village on the Yellow Line. Green Park metro station, again on the Yellow Line can also be used.

Visitors to the ruins can also check out the adjacent Deer Park, home to spotted deer, peacocks, rabbits and local and migratory birds in a beautifully landscaped park. The ruins are set amidst a residential and commercial complex known as Hauz Khas Village which as of itself is a major tourist attraction. A real village that was transformed when a fashion designer opened a boutique here decades ago, the place is now chock full of trendy stores, restaurants, cafes and art galleries all existing cheek by jowl on winding, crumbling streets festooned with a jumble of electric wires hanging overhead.

Qutb Minar Complex is again easily accessible by all modes of transportation. The closest metro station is Qutb Minar also on the Yellow Line.

While we made these trips in hired cars, taxis, auto rickshaws and cycle rickshaws are available outside all metro stations and can be used to reach the destinations.

All photos are by Susmita Sengupta:
The magnificent domed L-shaped building
A close up of ruins at the Hauz Khas complex
The Royal Tank or Hauz Khas now filled with water
Ruins at the Qutb Minar complex
The Qutb Minar
The Iron Pillar