Delhiwale: Sufi island in the heart of the city

A barely known shrine near India Gate.

A little island. Circled with trees. With four graves.

This Sufi shrine feels as secluded as if the island stood in the middle of the sea.

This Sufi shrine feels as secluded as if the island stood in the middle of the sea.

But this is Delhi’s heart, within the India Gate grounds. (This excursion was undertaken before the Central Vista redevelopment project earnestly took off in the area). Turned away from the public gaze, this tiny spot exists like a self-contained world. The India Gate revelers are not lurking very far but also not close, letting this place enjoy an eerie charm and a sense of extreme remoteness.

The island is in the middle of a pond, and is accessed by hopping and slipping along a slender stretch of humid, weedy earth. On this grey overcast afternoon the mound is cloaked in absolute solitude. No sound here, even birds are quiet, at least at this moment. You feel as if you could touch the silence. The shrine’s four graves are covered with colourful chadors—sheets of fabric for sacred offerings—implying that coming on pilgrimage here hasn’t fallen yet into obsolescence.

A crudely painted sign on a green stone slab identifies the place as the burial place of Hazrat Shabbir Shah Baba. There is no knowing about this mystic, but then Delhi is full of small and big Sufi shrines. The patron saints of a few of these shrines are known across the world, while the biographies of a great many have been lost to history. Many such shrines are also believed to have disappeared over the years, as the expanding metropolis added more buildings to its already limited space.

One is now left to wonder how this place will look like following the completion of the Central Vista project.

After, say, 50 years, will this barely known island hillock, and these barely known graves, still exist as they do now, or will they have become a part of our city’s undocumented history?