Walk through Kashmiri Gate today & the place is a thriving market for automobile parts, old shops selling all kinds of hardware, including guns! It is hard to imagine how it would have looked three centuries ago. I study in the same neighbourhood & every time I walk through it I wonder about its evolution. The traces of the past are everywhere to see: old lodges with colonial architecture, shops with English names, remains of some Mughal monuments. Our heritage walk this Sunday, gave me an opportunity to share my thoughts & questions with an enthusiastic audience. (more…)

Remember ‘khoob ladi mardani woh to Jhansi wali rani thi’ or ‘do gaz zameen bhi na mili kue yaar mein’? Rani Laxmi Bhai of Jhansi, her companion Jhalkari Bai, Tantia Tope, Mangal Pandey & Bahadur Shah Zafar: these are people from Indian history we have most often read about, their poetry of defiance or of despair, were all part of the experience of 1857. (more…)

The neighbourhood of Kashmiri Gate is one of the unusual trudges in Delhi. Located near the ISBT, Railway station, a bulk market for car parts, a University Campus, it is extremely busy through the day & the heritage walk is best done on a Sunday morning, when the usual activity has not yet picked up pace. Kashmiri Gate was the area where many Europeans settled in the first half of 19^th century & later during the rebellion of 1857, many of its events were played out here. (more…)

Delhi was a key site where events of 1857 unfolded. 1857 changed Delhi forever & this heritage walk recalls some of the events of 1857 rebellion. Although the remains of the 19^th century & memorial on 1857 are of the British, there is an attempt to present both sides of the story. Our walking tour starts at Nicholson Cemetery, followed by Kashmiri Gate. The sites covered include the Bada Bazaar, old St. Stephens College & its rival, Hindu College’s old campus & Fakhr ul Masajid. Close by is the first church of Delhi, St James Church built by James Skinner. William Fraser’s house is located behind the church. In the campus of a university is the building where David Ochterlony had his Residency, said to have been built upon Dara Shukoh’s library. Our heritage trail ends on Lothian Road where there are two very important British memorials: the telegraph memorial & the British Magazine.

(posted by Kavita Singh, team member, Delhi Heritage Walks)

1857 Uprising: Kashmiri Gate Heritage Walk

This walk covers sites associated with colonial life in 19^th century Delhi & the rebellion of 1857. We start at Nicholson Cemetery, named after one of the most revered British heroes of the ‘mutiny’. Brigadier Gen. John Nicholson was fatally injured while storming the Lahori Gate of Shahjahanabad. All through the summer of 1857 the rebels were inside the walled city & the British has taken position on the Northern Ridge & there was bitter fighting between the two sides. For Delhi the battle was pretty much decided in the favour of the British after breaching the city walls. Nicholson Cemetery has graves of many Europeans & some Indians as well. (more…)