New Anxieties in the 'walled city': Delhi's walls in 19th century

 

Above is a photo of ‘Delhi Gate’ from the late 19th century, a gate of Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad), with its retaining walls still intact.

 

Although called the ‘walled city’, the walls of Old Delhi started disappearing over a century and a half ago, after the Rebellion/Mutiny of 1857. To be fair, the walls weren’t dismantled in one go. Indeed, for a while the central government in Calcutta ordered the walls to remain standing as a security measure, much to the chagrin of the local government. 

 

The gradual removal of the walls, however, brought with it new anxieties for Delhi’s residents. Without the wall, the urbane Delhiwallas were increasingly in contact with people from Delhi’s surrounding areas and this interaction wasn’t always smooth. Consider the following report from a newspaper in 1871 on herdsmen from the Gujar community settling in Shahjahanabad: 

 

“Since the mutiny of 1857, herdsmen, who were before turned out from the city and made to live far from habitation have again taken their abode inside the wall, which has a bad effect on its sanitation. The filth of the cattle and the dunghills not only give birth to swarms of insects, which are extremely vexatious and tormenting, but corrupt the air and spread a most offensive smell in the city.”

 

While Shahjahanabad had long been a trade and cultural hub and saw migration from afar, this sort of interaction with neighbouring pastoral communities such as the Gujars marked a new phase in its social dynamics. The slow dismantling of Delhi’s walls sparked discussions on crime and policing in the city, while also revealing how migrants trying to find a new home were scapegoated.  

 

While the ‘walled city’ is often seen as a symbol of the grandeur of a bygone Delhi, it should be remembered that the city’s walls were intentionally built to exclude. 

 

See you next Friday.