1857 in Delhi: Kashmiri Gate & the city walls
Following our previous article on 1857 in Delhi, we move our narrative forward to Kashmiri Gate.
(Kashmiri Gate & city walls)
After visit the Nicholson Cemetery, use the metro subway to cross the road. Walk through the park on your left (the park has a huge statue of Maharaja Agrasen), towards the parking near gate no. 2 of Kashmiri Gate metro station. Keep walking in the direction of ISBT till you reach gate no. 1 of the metro station which will be on your left. On the right is an old & uneven wall beyond an iron grill enclosure. This is what is left of the walls of the city of Shahjahanabad.
(Remains of the walls of Shahjahanabad)
And if you look straight ahead you can see a little more of it, across the road. It presently forms the boundary of ISBT & is mostly used as a urinal. To reach the Kashmiri Gate, keep walking along the enclosure. It stands bang opposite Ritz Cinema.
The Mughal emperor Shahjahan built a new capital city for himself at Delhi & named it Shahjahanabad. This was in the middle of 17th century. It was a walled in city with several entry & exit points. The gateways were typically named after regions/cities they led to, such as Lahore Gate, Kabul Gate, Delhi Gate. So the road to Kashmir was through this very gate.
(Kashmiri Gate)
Initially, the city wall was made up of mud only. It was much later in the 19th century, when East India Company increased its influence in Delhi, that the British rebuilt the wall with stone. The person responsible for it was an engineer, Robert Smith. Smith is better known for his ‘folly’ at Qutb Complex! (see Smith’s Folly)
Today, very little of the city wall remains & only 4 gates survive. Kashmiri Gate is one of them. The others are Ajmeri, Turkman & Dilli gates.
During 1857, the rebels had taken control of the city of Shahjahanabad & all Europeans fled the city. This was in the month of May 1857. And it took the British a while to get their resources together & launch a counter attack. One they had the reinforcements, the British camped on the northern ridge while the rebels were inside the city. The relative position of the former was better as the ridge was located at a height from the city. The period between May-September 1857 is was a period of fierce fighting & is often referred to as the ‘siege of Delhi’ even though technically Delhi is never besieged. The British were trying to breach the city walls & reach the Red Fort, the heart of the capital & hence of the rebellion.
It was the breach of Kashmiri Gate which is considered by the British to have turned the tide in their favour. The British came down from the ridge & attacked the gate from the outside. Apparently, the gate still bears the scars of the pounding it got in 1857.
(Damage to the gate in 1857)
The rebels stood inside the walls of the gate defending the city.
The gateway had rooms around it & walls had spaces for movement of troops. The photograph below shows a group of exploring these walls during a heritage walk.
(Remains of city wall)
(Remains of city wall)
(Remains of city wall)
To get a better view of the plan of the area, climb atop the gateway. This is where the rebels stood in face of British attack. The fighting was so fierce, that even after the breach of the Kashmiri Gate, it took British forces a few days to reach Red Fort, less than a kilometer away. The rooms around the gate have the offices of the Archaeological Survey of India. You will need their permission to climb up. Here’s a view of the city wall & a bastion from the top of the gate.
(View from atop the Kashmiri Gate)
The British having emerged victorious after crushing the rebellion, went about establishing memorials to mark their own sacrifices in the ‘Mutiny’. Kashmiri Gate too has a plaque in sandstone, which gives the names of people killed here. 14th September, the day the city wall was breached has remained an extremely important date for the British. A few Indian names are also mentioned. It is noteworthy that none of these is a high officer. Indian sepoys in the British army could not rise above the rank of subedar.
(British memorial at Kashmiri Gate)
Location: Kashmiri Gate
How to reach: It is located next to gate no. 1 of Kashmiri Gate metro station, opp Ritz Cinema
Entry: Free
Time: Sunrise to sunset
Photography: permitted
(posted by Kanika Singh, team member, Delhi Heritage Walks)
