The Delhi Cotton Mills Company -1890s

I’ve previously explored Delhi’s mills through the lens of business postcards, and also written about the earliest ventures—most notably, the Ganesh Flour Mills. However, here is an actual certificate of shares from the Delhi Cotton Mills Company from the 1890s. The Company started off as the Delhi Cotton and General Mills (https://hiddendelhiblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/as-forms-of-photographic-circulation.html) and was renamed periodically. A prominent Delhiwalla, Lala Sri Ram—known today for his philanthropic legacy and for founding Delhi’s iconic Shri Ram College of Commerce—played a pivotal role in transforming the mills into the largest textile operation in North India. Today, its legacy continues under the name DCM Shriram.What's fascinating is the seal used by the mills in its early days. If you look closely, this is an imprint of the now vanished Clock Tower (Ghanta Ghar), once a landmark of colonial Chandni Chowk and a reminder of the new importance (and discipline) of clock-time. the I haven't come across a seal like this before and so, have cropped this image below: 

Delhi's Tughlaqabad in the 1860s

A photograph of the ruins of Tughlaqabad (on the outskirts of Delhi) from amateur photographer Samuel Bourne’s travels through India in the 1860s. Captured in the wake of the Rebellion of 1857, this image forms part of the broader colonial project to document the Indian landscape through a distinctly imperial lens (I have written about this previously in a post to do with Bourne and Shepherd's photographic studio). Delhi (Bourne took several photographs of the city of Delhi/Shahjahanabad and its environs) and Tughlaqabad are represented as desolate and decaying - contrasting directly with the modern and progressive force of British power. Therefore, the image of decay served both artistic and political purposes in the colonial archive. 

The view from Safdarjung's Tomb, 1906.

 

A wonderful little photograph from the top of Safdarjung’s tomb in Delhi, circa 1906. I have previously posted about the fact that Safdarjung’s tomb operated as a rest station for visitors, Indians and Europeans alike  on the way to the Qutub. It seems that it also served as an early site for photographic experimentation. And while we often see photographs taken from the opposite angle—centered on the 18th-century tomb itself—this rare perspective invites us to look outward and appreciate the broader, early 20^th century landscape. To the left lies the area now known as Lodi Gardens, where you can spot the domed silhouette of Muhammad Shah Sayyid’s tomb and other archaeological remnants if you look closely. On the right stretches the expanse of Bagh-i-Jud, now Jor Bagh (the tree-lined Lodi Road, which now bisects this landscape, was only carved through the area in the 1930s). In all, a fascinating glimpse of the necropolis of Delhi before the planner’s city came into being.

Kabaddi in Delhi, 1930s.

 

This photograph captures a game of Kabaddi (or kabadhī) being played in Delhi in the 1930s, offering a rare glimpse into the leisure and sporting practices of the time. The Gazetteer of Delhi from the 1880s highlights Kabaddi and hockey (referred to as gend khuli at the time) as the two most popular outdoor games in the Delhi District. In contrast, cricket—now widely considered an "Indian" sport—was less prominent in this period. The first mention of cricket in Delhi appears in connection with St. Stephen’s Mission High School for Boys, which opened near Chandni Chowk in the 1860s. Operated by the SPG Mission, the school featured a 'cricket and athletic department,' designed to promote European-style games and physical activities.