Delhiwale: Delhi in the year of American independence

A photo shows an autorickshaw in Delhi celebrating America's 250th birthday, highlighting the city's rich history during the U.S. independence in 1776.

See the photo. It alone is enough to tell the whole story.

An auto-rickshaw is parked on a Delhi roadside bearing a “Happy Birthday America!” placard announcing the forthcoming 250th anniversary of American independence. (HT Photo)

An autorickshaw is parked on a Delhi roadside bearing a “Happy Birthday America!” placard announcing the forthcoming 250th anniversary of American independence. The placard is part of an outreach initiative by the US Embassy. Behind the auto rises Dilli Gate, a monument that had already stood for more than a hundred years when the United States was born on the Fourth of July, 1776.

This is not an attempt to diminish the story of present-day America. The photo simply offers perspective. When the American colonies declared independence from Britain, Delhi was already a very, very old city, weighed down by centuries of messy history (and yet to be colonised by those same British!). The city had risen and declined as a superpower more than once.

But what was Delhi like in the year that is now being celebrated by Americans?

In 1776, the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was only about a year old. The royal baby was growing up inside the Red Fort, unaware that his dynasty would end with him, amid one of the most far-reaching and blood-soaked upheavals of Indian history.

In 1776, while imperial Delhi’s shahi grandeur was a pale reflection of its former days, it still strutted of literature and culture. Litterateurs, especially poets, continued to shape the city’s intellectual life. Mir Dard was revered as a literary figure and as a Sufi scholar. True, the great Mir Taqi Mir had moved to Lucknow by then, but the reputation that made him a Goliath of Urdu poetry had been built in Delhi. The immortal Mirza Ghalib would be born only 20 years later, yet the Persian and Urdu literary world of Delhi that would shape him was taking shape in and around 1776.

So, while America was beginning its national story in 1776, Delhi was a place in transition, living through the concluding days of one era and the arrival of another. Last (and also least!), do visit the marble grave of Mirza Jahangir at Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah in Central Delhi. This Mughal prince didn’t do much in life, except for being born in the year of American independence, reason enough to remember him in 2026.