Impressions of Delhi

Delhi is, without question, one of the world's great cities. It seems that it has gained the swagger and self-assurance of the capital of a powerful nation combined with a business and cultural center. By some measures, it is the world's second largest metropolitan area after Tokyo, with a population of 22 million. Regardless of how you measure, it is a "mega-city" defined. It is a dizzying place. 

Some impressions:

It still is not clear to me exactly where the line is between [old] Delhi and New Delhi. Despite the fact that one seems to flow into the other, they stand in startling contrast, at least on the surface. Old Delhi is marked by its maze of narrow streets, ancient homes and mosques, and the domination of the Jamaa Masjid (one of the largest mosques in Asia) and the Red Fort (the home of the Mughal Emperors). To be honest, I don't think I can imagine a thing that I could see in Old Delhi that would surprise me. 

The gate of the Red Fort in Old Delhi

New Delhi, by contrast, is an intensely linear place. It was designed by British architects after the capital of the Raj was moved from Calcutta in 1911. Much of New Delhi still bears the imprint of the preparations for the Delhi Durbar of 1910, when King George V and Queen Mary visited India to be crowned Emperor and Empress of the greatest jewel of their Empire. New Delhi is dominated by the Rajpath, a broad avenue that stretches from the Presidential Palace and Parliament buildings to the India Gate. It has a bit of a feel of the Champs Elysees, but with a much more austere feeling that comes from the stone buildings built in a combination of European and Indian classical styles. 

One of the buildings of the Secretariat in New Delhi

Delhi is an inherently multi-lingual place. Roads are signed in four languages: Hindi, English, Punjabi, and Urdu, all of which are written in their own distinct scripts.  Punjabi represents the presence in Delhi of large number of Hindu Punjabis who migrated to Delhi following the Partition. It seems that it is not without some meaning that Urdu falls at the bottom of the list (more below). Although there are parts of Delhi where one sees nothing but English (wealthier areas of South Delhi, especially), the language of the street is without question Hindi. It seems that it would be difficult to nearly impossible to live in this metropolis without knowledge of that language.

A quadrilingual sign in New Delhi

Delhi in many ways represents a clash of cultures. Although there are a few sites in the city that relate to Hinduism, the vast majority of the cultural patrimony is Islamic, as Delhi was the capital of a state ruled by Muslims from the 12th century until the early 19th. Nowhere is this more clear than in the Red Fort, which epitomizes the blending of South Asian and Islamic architectural traditions that reached their zenith in the Taj Mahal. I found it a bit sad that many of the architectural and other treasures of the Red Fort are in very poor repair. Sixteenth century illuminated manuscripts and 18th century robes decay before your eyes in a museum space that is not air conditioned. I don't think that this is due exclusively to a lack of resources, as I have visited a number of museums and historical sites in India that are preserved in a world-class way. Perhaps this disrepair has more to do with the dissonance between this Islamic architecture and a growing vision of Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) that sees Muslims only as invaders, rather than a vision that sees the complex interplay of numerous religions in the formation of modern India? 

Throne Chamber - the Mughal Palace

The courtyard of the Mughal Palace - Delhi

It sounds cliche to suggest that Delhi is a place of contrast, but it is really impossible to overstate. The contrast between the expensive global shops of Connaught Place in central New Delhi and the squalid slums lining the train tracks leading out of the city could not be starker.

A slum on the edge of Delhi

Gurgaon, India

Delhi is one of those global mega-cities that pushes most of the boundaries of comprehension of what a city can be. Although this is my fourth visit to Delhi, it is my first of any substance or duration. One of the most striking things is the endless pulse of flowing traffic. This is not the kind of "flow" that one sees in those time-lapsed photos of Los Angeles freeways that show seemingly endless neat rows of headlights and taillights flowing down a broad freeway. It is a much more syncopated and unstructured dance of modern cars, Indian-made Ambassador taxis and government cars, tuk-tuks, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians, and the occasional cow, camel, or temple elephant. The actual infrastructure on which this flow happens may not look all that much different from Los Angeles after the infrastructure boom of recent years, but the pace and rhythm of that flow is a world away. 

The new Gurgaon (from wikipedia)

We spent most of yesterday in meetings in the city of Gurgaon, which adjoins the city of Delhi in the neighboring state of Haryana. Located 35 kilometers from central Delhi, it was once a free-standing small town in Haryana state. The endless spread of the megacity of Delhi has engulfed it, leading to population growth from about 800,000 in 2001 to over 1.5 million today (in a Delhi metropolitan area of 22 million). The presence of Indira Gandhi International Airport, one of the busiest in Asia, between Delhi and Gurgaon, has led to the city becoming a hub for any number of multinational corporations. The night sky over Gurgaon is lit by gleaming names of almost any multi-national you can think of on the tops of an ever-growing number of skyscrapers. Because of the presence of so many offices and the relatively breezier climate outside of Delhi, Gurgaon has become the home of many of the wealthiest and most powerful of India. Apartments in prime locations regularly start at around US$300k. 

Yet a drive down the main roadways of Gurgaon shows another India as well. Along one street, a row of small mud-huts lined the road. Women cooked over open fires and sold vegetables, while others were carrying water from some distant source. A small, informal market in all manner of goods existed in a tangle of tables, and bullock carts. Behind this rose multiple brand new glass towers, gated and guarded, with well-dressed Indian ladies and men coming and going. A world of contrasts indeed. 

Contrasts in Gurgaon

Ahmedabad, India

It would be a fair to argue that India is one of the most "religious" places on earth. As I write that, I'm not quite certain what I mean by "religious". I don't mean it in the sense of just and ethical society flowing out of a strong religious base. And I don't mean the kind of in-your-face presence of religion in every single edifice of society that you would see in some predominantly Muslim or Buddhist societies. What I mean is a much more intricately woven nature of things where religious symbols and ideas are visible in a million little things every day, from tiny Hindu temples on street corners to calls to Muslim prayer to the smell of incense from Jain ceremonies and the crosses worn around the necks of Christians. Religion permeates India. 

While Hinduism is the religion of a vast majority of Indians, it is also home to the world's third largest community of Muslims, as well as several tens of millions of Christians. Significant Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist minorities also call India home. North Indian Muslim communities trace their roots to the early days of Islam, while some of South India's Christian communities trace their roots to the fourth century (by means of historical evidence) and to Apostolic times (by means of tradition). These various communities have dwelled together in many places for centuries. While it would probably be an overstatement to say that they have always dwelled harmoniously, coexistence was the norm in most times and places prior to the mid-20th century. This coexistence was often strengthened by defined economic roles played by each religious group, differing widely in various localities.

The bank of the Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad, seen from the Gandhi Ashram

The city of Ahmedabad, home to 6 million people, and the largest city of the northwest Indian state of Gujarat, is a perfect example of this religious admixture. Officially, 90% of the city is Hindu. While that may be slightly inflated, no one denies that the vast majority of the population is Hindu. Yet the city's very name (remembering Ahmed Shah, a 15th century Muslim Mughal ruler) and many of its greatest monuments -- Mughal-era mosques and Jain temples -- testify to the strong influence of other religions. The Gandhi Ashram, established in a quest for a more just society by Mahatma Gandhi in the early 20th century, is also infused with religious symbolism and thinking. 

Hutheesingh Jain Temple - Ahmedabad

The architecture of these structures testifies to the interweaving of various religious influences. One of the city's major mosques, built in a low, vaulted style typical of North India, is renowned for its intricately carved stone window grills, replete with ancient Indian symbols and aesthetic. A Jain temple shows that religion's close connections to both Buddhism and Hinduism through its ornate sculptures. Even a late-19th century Christian church, built by Irish Presbyterian missionaries, uses the traditional South Asian artistry of carved stone windows with a combination of South Asian symbols of life, growth, and nature alongside traditional Christian iconography and even some very specific Irish Presbyterian symbols. I don't believe that any of these overlapping symbols indicate a syncretism of belief itself, but rather a shared sense of created beauty.

window of the Siddi Sayyed Mosque in Ahmedabad, carved from stone

This dwelling together has changed markedly in the last 70 years, as it has in many other multi-religious parts of the world over the past century or so. The Partitions of the late 1940s that created predominantly (but not exclusively) Hindu India and predominantly (but not exclusively) Muslim Pakistan were marked by extreme inter-communal violence, especially in Delhi and the Pubjab. Today, a small minority in Pakistan seeks to impose fundamentalist Islam on all, including the Christian minority and a majority of more moderate Muslims (events in Peshawar yesterday only underscore this). Here in Ahmedabad, a stronghold of Hindu fundamentalism, a previously highly integrated city has segregated into religiously homogenous districts, with the Muslim minority informally confined to the city center, Hindus dominating the rest of the city, and Christians and other smaller groups, largely by default, clustered in a few districts. The legacy of the inter-communal violence that rocked Ahmedabad and Gujarat in 2002 still taints the Chief Minister of the state, Narendra Modi. Modi, a member of the Hindu nationalist BJP party, is at present the leading contender to become Prime Minister of India in 2014.

carved stone windows and wooden doors at Gujarat United Theological College

What does the future hold? Will, as some have suggested, the nations of the world become more and more religiously homogenous? Will minorities within religions bent on imposing their vision on everyone within a state be successful? Will Christians stand up for the rights of all who are persecuted for their religious beliefs, drawing on the truth that all men and women are created in God's image? Time will tell. But it is clear that Gujarat, with its religious complexity, will be on the front lines of this 21st century tension.

A poor photographic attempt at detail of the above