The Red Fort is twice the area of Europe’s largest palace, the Escorial of Bourbons in Spain. While the Escorial still remains intact and exuberant, the Red Fort lost its grandeur within two centuries ending with the British takeover Red Fort Faces Decay, Unless… Ratnadeep Banerji delves out the travails of this jinxed Fort of splendour.
Originally called Qila-i-Mubarak, meaning the Blessed Fort, it could not even withstand two centuries of Mughal occupation. The humongous Fort built within a decade (1638-1648) became the palace for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s new capital, Shahjahanabad abandoning his erstwhile capital of Agra.
This fortress palace of Shahjahanabad stood out the acme production of Mughal cognoscenti post 16th century. After the failure of 1857 uprising, Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor left the fort on 17th September. Soon after, he was captured by William Hodson on 20th September from Humayun’s Tomb area where had had taken shelter. The British brought him back to the fort on 27th September and imprisoned him and later tried him under law till he was exiled to Rangoon, the next year.
The destruction of the Red Fort started with the 1857 uprising and continued unabated for the next eight years tantamounting to an irreparable loss. An immense pile of rubble stood gathered wistful of the grim marauding of the Fort. Besides, five hundred yards of area around the Fort was shaven off it’s gardens, pavilions and mosques though temples were left intact. Gordon Sanderson in his Archaeological Report admits, ‘With the exception of the more important buildings on the East front of the Fort, and the Diwan-i-‘Am and the Naubat Khana, a clean sweep was made of the rest of the palace buildings, so as to give the accommodation and space to a garrison.’
The dilapidated condition of the fort was in fact largely due to English occupation of the fort after the mutiny. After the fort was seized by the British military, several structures were razed away. The arcaded paved streets, central canal along with the fountains were removed completely. The seraglio with its imposing baths, courts and gardens met the same fate. The emperor’s courts, gardens and colonnades were not spared and the entire public and private sector got exterminated. The plantation paths, fountains, channels and flower beds of the exotic Hayat Baksh (‘life-bestowing garden’) and Mehtab Bagh were swept away. James Ferguson, historian of architecture writes, ‘the whole of the harem courts of the palace were swept off the face of the earth to make way for a hideous British barrack, without those who carried out this fearful piece of vandalism, thinking it even worth while to make a plan of what they were destroying or presereving any record of the most splendid palace of the world’. Some of the structures located in the emperor’s garden got partial reprieve like the Hira Mahal. Zafar Mahal, Sawan and Bhadon pavilions of the non-existent Hayat Baksh. Wash houses and urinals came up in front of the marble pavilions of Sawan and Bhadon. Both the main entries to the Fort bore brunt of the marauders. The Lahori Gate with the Chatta Bazaar and the Delhi Gate leading to the Naqqar Khana were shorn off their connecting colonnades, arcades, screens and courts. The battlements of the barbicans vis-a-vis Lahori and Delhi Gates were brought down and the tops of the walls were covered with earth for purposes of defence. Both the Lahori and Delhi Gates were renamed Victoria and Albert Gates respectively and the moat around them were filled up.
The Red Fort pavilions were not demolished but became hotbed of epicurean revelry. The imperial quarters had valuable effects and decorative features. The exotic black marble panels serenading the throne at Diwan-i-Am and the inlaid panel of Orpheus in front of the throne were embezzled by Colonel John Jones who went on to sell the booty to the British goverment for 500 dollars. He was later accorded knighthood. Diwan-i-Am also had some splenderous plaques behind the jharokha that got removed. The gilded copper domes of Mussaman Burj and Moti Masjid and also the chattris atop Diwan-i-Khas with sheets of copper were dismantled unscrupulously and auctioned off. The prodigious red walls of the Fort also got obliterated. The gravestone of Brigadier-General John Nicholson was made from a large stone slab taken from the Fort. After the British suppressed the Mutiny, both the British as well as the Indian soldiers who gained access to the Fort indulged in rapacious acts like digging out the inlaid stones from Diwan-i-Khas area. Such vandalism went unthrottled.
The aesthetic setting of streets, houses, mosques and gardens within the Private Common that lay north of Chatta Chowk was completely revamped with grotesque and uncouth barracks, married officers’ quarters and wash houses. Now the roadside were shorn off it’s erstwhile organised paved paths along flower beds and arcaded forecourts with fountains and canals. The inner edge of the Fort’s wall that used to be the patrol area now gave way to workshops and godowns of executive engineer and barrack master. A new parade ground came up in the area that used to be Mehtab Bagh and the royal storerooms, kitchens and regalia chambers.
The remaining pavilions met quite the same fate. Rang Mahal became a temporary mess lounge for officers. The adjacent Mumtaj Mahal pavilion was initially made a military prison that bore defacement of its marble walls by the prisoners. Later it became a sergeants’ mess.
Barrack-style unplastered brick walls replaced the railings and screens of Mughal architecture. The loftily cusped arches of Shah Burj was now devoid of it’s gilded dome, the King’s Tower were bricked up to provide a temporary military office. The posterior chamber of Shah Burj that earlier had a wondrous system to lift up water from the river went on to become the armoury shop. Zafar Mahal or Jul Mahal turned into a swimming pool for the British officers.
This brutish management of the Fort was however regreted by some British. Major General Cunningham in his various reports mentioned, ‘I would strongly recommend that…theDiwan-i-Khas be restored to its original state of an open audience Hall…….is used as a canteen and on the right of the throne is a bar for serving liquor! To the left of the throne is an enclosure of bamboo screen work, in which Nubee Bux keeps a soldiers’ coffee shop!’ The Diwan-i-Am was turned into a sprawling lounge lounge for officers. The emperor’s private entrance route to it was used as a canteen and as refreshment rooms. The Naqqar Khana that led to the king’s presence became the staff sergeants’ quarters. Chatta Bazaar was denigrated into catering supplies to European soldiers of the Fort.
Again, the introduction of the East India Railway in 1864 – 65 led to considerable destruction of the Red Fort. By the end of the 19th century, there were some Englishmen though proud of their victory over the Mutiny, decried over the dishevelled condition of the Fort.
Even after Indian independence, the Indian Army continued its control over the fort till December 2003. But thanks to the works of Archaeological Survey of India, right from the days of Cunningham till this day some amount of restoration has been achieved. The Red Fort stands far spruced than what it used to be a century back in the aftermath of Sepoy Mutiny.
