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A civilisation in ruins
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Some monuments are nearly invisible, but the apathy is there for all to see
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Photo: R.V.Moorthy
AN APPEAL Rakshanda Jaleel says that it is time the Government started paying attention to historical palaces
There are some 1200 of them. All in dilapidated condition, overrun by stray dogs and goats, and home to vagabonds too. Dark and unattended, they make a safe haven for gambling, card playing, drinking and other dubious pastimes, because approaching th
em requires more than the usual effort one would make to see a tourist site. Yes, these are monuments of Delhi — or rather, “hidden monuments,” as author Rakshanda Jalil describes them — obscured by apathy. Says Rakshanda, whose “Invisible City, The Hidden Monuments of Delhi” has just been released, taking pictures of the monuments was difficult, with the photographers’ clothes getting entangled in wild bushes and their feet stuck in mud.
Yet those responsible for locking up these pieces of architectural heritage, citing ‘renovation’ or ‘preservation’, are sleeping over the consequences. It is to awaken their consciences that she wrote the book, which covers 49 such monuments.
Detailed text
Ironically the publication, brought out by Niyogi Books, reveals an apathy towards pictorial content, with small pictures and a lack of detail. The text, nonetheless, is detailed and palatable enough to entice readers to pay a visit. A few hilarious, colourful illustrations, mocking at their status today, add to the attraction of the book.
Divided into seven short sections: Pre-Sultanate, Sultanate, Tughlaq, Saiyyid, Lodi, Mughal and post-Mughal, the book carries a foreword by Khushwant Singh and maps and index. It provides quick facts about the monuments, their surroundings, genesis and current conditions.
The idea to come up with such a book germinated three years ago when the author went with her five year-old child to visit Agrasen Ki Baoli, believed to be a pre-Lodi monument, off Hailey Lane in Connaught Place.
“It was so difficult to enter the site navigating through the streets. But once inside, I was almost scared by its eerie silence and little signs of life. It didn’t even seem advisable to go there alone or with children. Many such monuments that I visited are homes to stray animals, haunts for love birds and tantric rituals. It made me think what’s stopping us from knowing about them? And by their original names? Why do they fall off the tourist map?”
Who is to decide, she continues, which monuments to pick and which to drop from the list of buildings worth seeing? “History is like a river. How can we sell a monument by date? Such is the condition of these buildings that civilised people don’t want to go there,”, says Rakhshanda, adding that it is high time the Government concerned itself about them.
“What worries me most is that in the name of protection and conservation, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) locks the monuments and forgets about them.” Adds publisher Bikash Niyogi, “Through the book, we are trying to save them from being relegated to oblivion.”
RANA SIDDIQUI
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