Remains of empire

Gargi Gupta finds a treasure trove from the days of the Raj at The Imperial in Delhi.

A man sits on the chair that lines the entrance to 1911, the bar and restaurant at The Imperial, New Delhi, speaking on his cell-phone. Clearly, he’s got away from his companions inside, looking for privacy as he speaks. But little does he realise that the chair he’s sitting on is a historical artifact of great importance in the history of modern Indian.

It is George V’s coronation chair; what he sat on as he received Indian princes in the great Delhi Durbar of 1911. Upholstered in undistinguished dun-coloured fabric, it’s an original Chippendale in rose-teak. Opposite the modest-sized quandrangle is the chair Queen Mary sat on. On the walls to the left as you enter are panoramic views of the “canvas city” which came up around the durbar, neat rows of tents where the princes and their entourages stayed. Next to it is another photograph, also from the Bourne & Shepherd studio, of the amphitheatre of the coronation ceremony showing the royal canopy in the foreground with the Indian princes dressed in all their regal finery, panning out in long, deferential lines on the right and left.

All through 1911 and, indeed, The Imperial itself, are other remnants of that time nearly 100 years ago when the emperor came calling and presided over the spectacular pageant that was the durbar — the last bang really before the curtains came down on the British Empire in India 36 years later. The walls are thick with sketches, prints and photographs of “general views”, of state receptions, of the imperial couple in state robes riding on richly-garbed elephants and horses; and group photos of princes, kings and zamindars.

The durbar was also the occasion when the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi was announced, along with the creation of New Delhi. And this is where The Imperial’s own history aligns with that of the city and the durbar.

Rai Bahadur Sardar Narain Singh, the great-great grandfather of the present managing director, Gobind Akoi, was the contractor who built all “the bigger works...[and] roads and buildings in connection with the Durbar 1911” (from a certificate from Major S D A Crookshank, superintendent, Durbar Works). He was also one of the four contractors who built New Delhi to the design of the ‘Delhi Town Planning Committee’ led by Edwin Lutyens, Herbert Baker, Sir Jacob Swinton and J A Brodie — there’s a photograph of the four with some of their Indian colleagues, standing behind or squatting in front, up on the wall just outside 1911. The hotel on Queens Way (now Janpath) was in the original master plan, although it wasn't built until 1936.

Many of the artifacts on display have remained with the Akoi family since that time, and were brought out when the hotel was refurbished to its current ultra-luxury avatar in the later 1990s. The Akois have also added to their collection over the years.

It’s ironical, of course, that a five-star hotel should be the best place to get a glimpse of the genesis and building of our capital city, while Coronation Park, where the actual ceremony took place, lies neglected. But then that’s India.