I have an interesting picture postcard here of a camel carriage outside Safdarjung’s tomb. You can see the faint outline of the tomb behind the thatched hut. The postcard is dated to the 1930s and belong to a ‘Views of India’ series. I haven’t been able to find another postcard from the same series. However, the focus on carriages is indicative of a fascination with cultural difference through modes of transport and is representative of colonial photographic trends in the 1930s (I have posted on this previously).
What I’m interested in instead is the path that this camel cart was traversing. Staged or not, the photo captures a route that was taken for hundreds of years to reach the real ‘Old’ Delhi i.e. Mehrauli. Mehrauli hosts several shrines revered by Muslims and has seen continuous habitation since the 12th century. The site and its shrines were patronised by the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals and therefore were intimately linked with political power before the arrival of the British.
It's no wonder then that there was a stream of traffic heading in that direction on the Mehrauli road. Now, it ought to be mentioned that Safdarjung’s tomb would have also been an important stop in its own right. The tomb had a madrassa and mosque and is/was near the Karbala holy grounds revered by Shia Muslims. Therefore, while we may see the tomb as an isolated ‘monument’ today, it had a greater cultural and social significance at the time.
Beyond the camel cart/carriage then, this postcard alludes to a larger context and social world within which people operated.
Will post more on related topics next Friday. See you then.
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