NEW DELHI :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxlGJfLOoEU

May 11, 1857. Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was fishing in the Yamuna in the morning when he was told about some disturbance breaking out in the city. He rushed back into the fort.

Sowars of the 3rd Bengal Native Cavalry, after mutinying at Meerut the previous day, had reached Delhi after riding overnight. The Revolt of 1857 was at Delhi’s doorstep. And the octogenarian head of the house of Timur, given to poetry and not soldiering, was thrust into the command of an epic struggle that was not just political but also cultural: one that would change Delhi and India forever.

On May 5, TOI approached India’s foremost military historian, Squadron Leader Rana T S Chhina (Retd) of USI-CAFHR, to walk us through the landmarks of the Revolt in Delhi: the ruins, the battlefields, the memorials. The trigger for it was obvious: it’s the 160th anniversary of the Revolt, which people variously refer to as the Indian Mutiny, Sepoy Mutiny, and First War of Indian Independence, depending on which side of the ideological or cultural spectrum they are located.

We, along with a delegation from the British High Commission, assembled outside DU vice-chancellor’s residence, facing the road to Flagstaff Tower. It was a hot May morning, like the one that troubled Jim Corbett when he hunted down the Mohan man-eater. But we endured it as we were hunting for history.

In 1857, the rebel troops started killing Christians, both white and brown, once they were in the city. Europeans who managed to escape flocked towards Flagstaff Tower—our first stop.

One just has to peek inside to imagine how in this rat hole of sorts, scores of people— many of them women and children—huddled together in the searing heat, waiting for help to arrive from Meerut.

We turned left from the Flagstaff Tower into Bonta Park. A little ahead, we arrived at a 19th-century guard house, one of the two that still exist and which would have had an Indian picket when the Revolt began—Delhi was garrisoned by the 38th, 54th and 74th Bengal Native Infantry regiments.

By early June, however, the British reinforcements came and a counterattack began. Flagstaff Tower had a rebel battery by then, which rained down fire and hell on the approaching Anglo-Indian troops. “Despite the bitter animosity that existed then between the British and the rebels, the British officers were appreciative of the gunnery of the rebels. Indian guns were serviced very well, and the English noted that an Indian gunner would rather die defending his gun than give it up,” Chhina said.

Some English officers also heaped praise on the rebels for orderly retreat under fire and took pride in training the men well.

The Tower was taken and it became the left flank of the British position on the Ridge; the centre of the position became the Mosque Picket, our next halt. It’s actually the Chauburja Masjid or the four-domed mosque built by Sultan Ferozeshah Tughlaq in the 14th century. Chhina showed us how it appeared to European photographer Felice Beato in 1858 while we tried to capture the mosque from the same angle as Beato did. Only one dome exists now—a sorry testament to the conservation story of modern India.

Next we went to a palace of Ferozeshah Tughlaq, which is now called Pir Ghaib but may have been the Kushk-i-Jahanuma or Kushk-i-Shikar, a hunting lodge of the Delhi sultan. Even Tamerlane may have visited it. In 1857, this was the scene of bitter fighting between rebel troops and British-led troops. The baoli right next to it is a wonder in itself with flights of stairs on all sides. English troops back in 1857 reported seeing a step well with several leafy trees near Hindu Rao’s house. Only the stumps of some of those trees remain today.

Hindu Rao’s house was the next halt. In June 1857, it was held by the Sirmoor battalion of the Gurkhas (later 2nd Gurkha Rifles, Indian Army and now Royal Gurkha Rifles, British Army), supported by Queen Victoria’s Own Corps of Guides (now split as 2 Frontier Force and Guides Cavalry, Pakistan Army) and other British units.

On September 14, the British stormed Delhi with their full might. The Siege of Delhi ended amid mind-numbing carnage. “Passions were excited on both sides. And it was Delhi that suffered.” Chhina said.

As one contemporary observer noted, Delhi became a “ghost city” with abandoned homes and bloated corpses lying all over.

Our final stop was the Mutiny Memorial on the Ridge, now called Ajitgarh or Fatehgarh. Today, it’s a nationalised memorial to both Indians and the English killed during the Siege of Delhi.

“Something must be done to make these places more familiar to tourists. And these must be preserved,” said Lieutenant Colonel Simon de Labilliere, the military adviser at the high commission.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Delhi News / by Manimugdha S Sharma / TNN / May 12th, 2017