On December 12, 1911, at noon, Delhi was restored with the title and pride it held for the better part of history before the British colonised India. As King Emperor George V declared Delhi as India?s capital in place of Calcutta at the historical Delhi Durbar to mark his and Queen Mary?s coronation and their proclamation as the Emperor and Empress of India, 23-year-old Anglo-Irish Lilah Wingfield captured history in all its magnificence with her camera. And, a century after that momentous coronation in the great old city, Wingfield?s never-before-seen treasure of monochromatic frames of the capital circa 1911 was put on display at a two-day exhibition in the city’s oldest hotel, the Imperial.
Splashed across the large display room at the hotel were pictures taken by Wingfield, capturing Delhi at a time when it was on its way to resurrect itself once again as the mightiest city in the subcontinent. The collection has been brought to India by Wingfield?s granddaughter, Jessica Douglas-Home, who is a biographer and artist. She tells FE that while ?she?s been carrying history with herself through these pictures and her grandmother?s diary of her Indian sojourn?, the idea of having them exhibited struck her only a year ago. ?I suddenly realised that it would be interesting to produce Delhi?s and India?s history of that period through the eyes of someone else through these photographs and the diary. The smaller details that come out of these are definitely much more interesting than the broad heap of history,? she says.
Going beyond the coronation itself, the exhibition had pictures that brought out what all went into Durbar and became the first and the only Durbar to be attended by the monarch in person. The most interesting and awe-inspiring segment being the one on the Tented City, a canvas metropolis for 2,50,000 visitors erected for the Durbar in three months on barren marshland and complete with its own railway, electricity and postal system. This ?city? was dismantled after the Durbar festivities. On display were also pictures which show Wingfield?s journey beyond Delhi, to the north-west frontier, Rajasthan and Bhopal.
Historian and author William Dalrymple tells FE that the collection is ?absolutely fantastic?. ?Delhi has this extraordinary ability to rebuild itself and it has done that time and again throughout history. After 1857, the city was left a ruin by the British and in many ways, 1911 was a rectification of a mistake they made 60 years ago,? he says. However, Delhi administration?s decision of not having any official celebrations on December 12 came as a surprise to him. ?I believe that the sheer success of Delhi proves better than any official stand by a political party about what an extraordinary success the city has been.? Douglas-Home, too, seems disconcerted with the disregard shown over the years to the Coronation Park. ?If you don?t understand your own history, then you can?t understand the present and can?t act wisely for the future. History in its right perspective should have a definitive place in a country?s and a society?s intellectual framework. The British era in Indian history needs to be embraced as well,? she says. But beyond the history books and through its rise and fall, Delhi has stood its ground for good, and the pictures in this collection are testimony to the latest chapter of Delhi?s resurgence.