'Hello Chaps! This is Delhi', 1940s.

This is the first in a series of posts on British servicemen in Delhi during the Second World War, viewed through the lens of a guide issued at the behest of General Claude Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces. The guide, Hello Chaps! This is Delhi, offers a fascinating template for how the British officer class was encouraged to engage with the city.

It was financed entirely by Khan Sahib S. Rashid Ahmed, a Delhi-born grandson of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who, although best known for his ‘Aligarh movement’ and the M.A.O College, had himself written early “guides” to Delhi under the East India Company. The booklet was distributed free of charge to all servicemen stationed in Delhi during the war. 

Meant for easy reading, the guide is replete with puns and military humour. For example, one chapter has a title that calls Delhi the 'Cockpit of India’. In general, Delhi’s history, culture, and attractions, and of course, the new capital city are all highlighted for the reader. Interestingly, the guide also contains quirks that reveal shifting wartime attitudes toward navigating an Indian city. For instance, unlike earlier guides or handbooks that recommended learning Hindustani phrases to interact with locals, this wartime guide discourages such efforts. Instead, it reassures readers that “they don’t expect you to know good Hindustani or Urdu, and you will find that long experience of dealing with tourists has familiarised them with many English words and expressions.” New sentiments for wartime?

Anyhow, I’ll post about another section of the guide next week. See you then.

Delhi Railway Station in 1928

This 1928 photograph shows Delhi’s railway station in the distance, with sidings and a mix of goods and passenger carriages filling the foreground. There isn’t much information about where the image came from; the only note on it simply says “Delhi station, 1928.” 

Around this time, construction had begun on a new station for the imperial capital, located between Ajmeri Gate and Paharganj. As a result, the older station in the photograph began to be referred to as “Old Delhi railway station” in official records. And despite the advent of motor cars, the colonial government still leaned heavily on the railways as symbols of progress and modernity (despite their limitations and lack of reach in India). 

See you next week.

Delhi's Ashoka Hotel, 1962

 

An advertisement from 1962 for Delhi’s first post-independence hotel, the Ashoka Hotel. At the time, Ashoka was still relatively new, having opened in 1956. It quickly became the preferred address for top diplomats arriving in the capital. The hotel was state-owned, a pet project of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who envisioned it as a stage on which India could present itself as a confident young nation. Ashoka embodied the modern amenities and “international luxury”, as mentioned, that Nehru believed visitors should find in a newly independent India.

While Delhi already had several notable colonial-era hotels, most were located in or around what was now coming to be known as the “Old” city. The Ashoka was meant to be something different: a marker of what was new, forward-looking, and architecturally modern in the emerging diplomatic enclave of ‘New’ Delhi.

Since its creation, the city has seen an explosion of hotels catering to every kind of traveler, from domestic and foreign tourists, to backpackers and business delegations. However, the Ashoka remains a symbol of early postcolonial aspirations to showcase India (and Delhi) on the world stage.

Tombs near Delhi, 1860s.

 

A picture from the National Galleries of Scotland titled ‘Tombs Near Delhi’. It comes from Eugene Impey’s album on India from the 1860s. Impey was a colonial official and, like Samuel Bourne (whom I’ve mentioned in earlier posts), an early photographic pioneer.

I’m not sure exactly where this is in Delhi, but unlike Bourne’s photographs of a depopulated city at the time, this one is interesting (perhaps an outlier for the time) as it shows a hive of activity around the tombs. There are people in the foreground, and in the distance on the left, others going about their everyday routines. On the right, there’s a blurred figure laying out a charpoy.

It’s possible this was an encampment, with Impey’s retinue of servants carrying on with their work. Or perhaps, as was often the case across India before tombs were turned into ‘monuments,’ this was simply a village, alive and inhabited, with the tombs woven into the fabric of daily life. 

Anyhow, I'll see you next week. 

Source- https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/29788?search=delhi&page=1&search_set_offset=69