The unnecessary controversy about renaming Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi as Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Road takes me back to when I first came to Delhi as a young captain in 1946, on posting from abroad after the Second World War.
During the 1911 Imperial Durbar, King George V announced that the capital of India will be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. He laid the foundation stone for the capital which came to be known as New Delhi. Edwin Lutyens was the architect and Sir Sobha Singh was the contractor. They made a fine job of designing and constructing the capital. It became the best-laid-out capital in the world, befitting the seat of the mightiest Empire on the subcontinent.
I was impressed by the imperial grandeur of New Delhi, especially India Gate, a memorial to Indian soldiers killed in the Third Afghan War and the First World War. The road from India Gate to Raisina Hill, on which the massive North and South Blocks and the Viceroy’s House (Rashtrapati Bhavan) are located, is the focal point of New Delhi. Elephants, big pillars and the cupolas of the two blocks convey grandeur.
The British crowns on top of the two cupolas were symbols of the supremacy of the Empire. Union Jacks fluttered on both these blocks. Beyond them is the Jaipur pillar with a six-pointed star on top of it in Rashtrapati Bhavan. This is in recognition of the fact that its construction was paid for by the Maharaja of Jaipur.
There used to be little traffic on the road then. Cars could drive under the India Gate. There was a white marble statue of Emperor George V sitting on a throne under a canopy on the India Gate roundabout. This road was called Kingsway. Running at right angles to it was Queensway leading to Connaught Place, an elite shopping circle. There were large shops doing thriving business and plenty of parking space in front of them.
It was free of the hustle and bustle of the bazaar. All this fitted well with the imperial ambience Connaught Place was named after HRH the Duke of Connaught who attended the Imperial Durbar at Delhi in 1903 to represent his brother, His Imperial Majesty King Edward VII. I had a shared office room in South Block. Over 90 per cent of civilian officers were British and more in the Army.
The highest ranking Indian military officers in South Block were a couple of lieutenant colonels. Sam Manekshaw was one of them. The corridors were scrupulously clean. Liveried peons wearing red coats, golden kamarbandhs with a small ivory dagger and turban with flowing turras used to be on duty in front of the office rooms of senior civil and military officers. There used to be hushed silence in the corridors. I was awestruck working in the heart of the Empire. The numerous offices in war-time hutments near South Block and Armed Forces Officers’ messes around the India Gate roundabout were eyesores.
There were straight roads in geometrical pattern and roundabouts linked to roundabouts. Well-crafted white marble statues of British royalty, viceroys and commanders-in-chief added splendor and roads were also named after them. At the roundabout between Claridges Hotel and the cemetery, Aurang-zeb Road meets Prithviraj Road. In a private mansion on 10 Aurangzeb Road lived Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This is now the residence of the Netherlands ambassador. Aurangzeb was the most bigoted Muslim ruler who massacred Hindus and Sikhs, destroyed their temples and erected mosques at those sites.
He killed his three brothers and imprisoned his father for life. His eldest brother and heir apparent, Dara Shikoh, was a Sanskrit scholar who had the Upanishads translated from Sanskrit to Persian. Dara was beheaded and his head displayed at Delhi Gate for some days. Aurangzeb imposed jaziya tax on non-Muslims. Across this roundabout lived Sardar Patel in a hired one-storey building on 1 Prithviraj Road. Prithviraj was the last Hindu king of Delhi. Renaming Aurang-zeb Road after Bharat Ratna Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for his unique service to the nation is most appropriate.
Names of Presidents like Rajendra Prasad, Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, Governor-General Rajagopalachari and our great leaders have rightly replaced the road names of the British. The removal of British statues was alright, but these should have been kept in a museum or maintained in a park. It was proposed that a statue of Mahatma Gandhi be put up, replacing the statue of King George V. Some people opposed this, saying that it should not be near the memorial to mercenaries.
They ignored the fact that the Mahatma had exhorted Indians to join the Army in the First World War and defend the British Empire and raised an ambulance unit of stretcher-bearers to serve in France. The Indian Army’s contribution in the First World War, and again in the Second World War, was a major factor in our freedom struggle. To this date, no statue has come up at that site. Ultimately the Mahatma’s statue was prominently put up in front of Parliament. It would have been more appropriate to have Jawaharlal Nehru’s statue there and of the Mahatma near India Gate.
After 1971, the Army proposed a National War Memorial near India Gate. This remained in cold storage. The Modi government has approved this proposal and the design for it, though work on the project is still to start. Jawaharlal Nehru got the well-laid-out Diplomatic Enclave constructed. This is in sync with the grandeur of Lutyens’ Delhi. It has roads appropriately named after our great leaders of the ancient era.
It is a pity that the new, big government buildings in Lutyens’ Delhi do not blend with the old, massive buildings near them. The undersize cupolas of Rail and Nirman Bhavans with small windows look out of place.
The Sena Bhavan is a monstrosity out of tune with South Block nearby. So is the rather small Rajaji statue. The new DRDO building blends well. The old private bungalows and areas in and around Connaught Place now have high-rise buildings. By and large the old ambience of Lutyens’ New Delhi has been preserved. In Paris, the central area of the city with all its old ambience is being fully preserved. We must do the same for Lutyens’ New Delhi.
The writer, a retired lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir
