NEW DELHI: In 1932, a charismatic young man Baraktullah addressed about 3,000 Hindu and Muslim men gathered in the courtyard of Jama Masjid, to unite and overthrow the British government by joining the Civil Disobedience Movement led by Mahatama Gandhi.
Roughly about 15 years later, a similar crowd was addressed in a free India, by the first Minister of Education Abul Kalam Azad, who asked them to "resist the urge to leave for Pakistan" as Delhi burns with post-partition violence.
Such incidents that were integral to the formation of India as we see her today, however, have seldom found mention in archival documents of the mosque, let alone in mainstream history lessons.
A new book, recording the alternative and lesser known moments in the histories of the five iconic monuments of Delhi - Jama Masjid, Red Fort, Purana Quila, Rasul Numa Dargah and Qutb Complex, was launched here recently.
Penned by Mrinalini Rajagopalan, assistant professor at the department of History of Art and Architecture at University of Pittsburgh, 'Building Histories: The Archival and Affective Lives of Five Monuments in Modern Delhi' chronicles events that "break apart the linear historic timelines" of these structures.
"Azad's words are meant to remind his fellow Muslims their immutable claim to Delhi as well as independent India. Just like Baraktullah and many before him, Azad activates Jama Masjid as a space of the nation, and dreams of a modern nation state are thus forged in the courtyard of Delhi's grandest mosque," Rajagopalan said.
The book has been divided into five chapters, each dedicated to one monument. Each chapter makes the reader travel in time, as the author builds the narrative around a particular moment in the monument's history.
"The book tells the history that did not make it to the institutionalised narrative of these monuments. It tells how these monuments got activated in unexpected ways, how they became central to many important events in the history of India," Rajagopalan said.
While the book records the aftermath of Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 in Red Fort, it also presents a grim picture of how the Purana Quila was used to house about 60,000 - 80,000 refugees, in the aftermath of the Partition.
Rajagopalan went on to share another popular narrative associated with the Purana Quila.
"According to legends, the fort sits atop the ancient city of Indraprastha, mentioned in the Hindu epic
'Mahabharata'. In his designs for New Delhi, Edwin Lutyen planned to create an access from the Purana Quila, or Indraprastha, to the Viceroy's Palace linking the empire of the past and the empire of the present," she said.
Several years after the partition, Indian archaeologists excavated the grounds around Purana Quila in a futile attempt to find the buried city. However, the legend still finds its place in the fort's institutionalised history.