December 24, 2019

Modern Day Delhi

After lunch, we visited the place Mahatma Gandhi was cremated in 1948 next to the Yamuna River. It is an understatement to say most citizens of India revere this man who was a leader of Indian nationalism during the British Raj by means of non-resistance. I am including a couple pictures of the 1948 funeral procession through the streets of New Delhi and report on Gandhi's cremation at this site.




Gandhi is remembered by most today with his image on Indian currency.


Keeping with the theme of "cooperation" as advocated by Gandhi, the tour guide wanted to show me The Lotus Temple. While I don't agree with the concept of religious universalism, this temple that was dedicated to the teaching of the Bahai faith is open to followers of all faiths, regardless of religion or any other qualification. I learned that the building, inspired by the lotus flower, is composed of 27 free-standing marble-clad "petals" arranged in clusters to form a central hall with a height of approximately 35m and a capacity of 2,500 people.


The remainder of the day, I was able to visit the parliament buildings in New Delhi which are in a sight-line with India Gate, much like the Washington Monument is in line with the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Obviously I was not the first to point this out to my tour guide -- he said MANY people have mentioned the same thing over the 20 years he's organized tours. Apparently I was not the first to point out the old 1950s cabs that can be seen around Delhi either. While the native city dwellers don't like these cars, westerners often take pictures and comment in joyful discovery... like me =)


The cluster of parliament buildings are surrounded by large gardens and the perimeter is fenced off by sandstone railings. Being the foggy/smoggy day that it was when I visited, the opaque images of buildings only added a sense of mystique to the area. There is a long history of when and why these buildings were built, but my attention soon focused on the Prime Minister's residence prominently situated at the end of what I'll call Parliamentary Row.




Last but not least on my tour of Delhi, we walked from the parliament buildings to India Gate built in 1921. This war memorial is a prominent symbol of India, found in many Bollywood movies, that is to commemorate over 70,000 British Indian soldiers who died in WWI. Some 13,000 of these soldiers names are inscribed in the bricks of this monument!



In many ways, late afternoon was the perfect time of day to visit the monument because the crowd was at its peak and certainly represented the many facets of Indian culture we find today. I'm glad my tour guide was not rushed so that I could take some images of the crowd in addition to the incredible monuments before us.




Just east of the India Gate is a 73 foot cupola originally built in 1936 to house a statue of King George of England. The statue was removed in 1965, however, after it was defaced by socialist enthusiasts in response to India's independence from the United Kingdom that took place almost 20 years earlier in 1947. Since then, the nation of India as represented by its parliament cannot agree whose statue should be erected in its place... even Gandhi didn't make the cut.