E-Paper
‘Safarnama heritage’ app to tell the tales of Delhi
A new phone app will help citizens chart the story of the city through two major events — the 1857 mutiny and the 1947 Partition. The app will provide stories in audio/visual format whenever the user is near any of the 113 featured buildings.
The Northern Ridge close to University of Delhi is scattered with landmarks related to the revolt which shook the city in 1857. One such spot is ‘Sammy’s house’, which was a shrine to Hindu god, Bhaironji. The first British battery was constructed close to it, and during the 1857 revolt, the Sammy’s house picket was subjected to heavy shelling directed at the Mori Gate bastion. No trace of the shrine exists today, but what is available is a photograph of the skeletal remains of rebel soldiers scattered around the approach to Sammy’s house, which was taken by the famous 19th century Italian-British photographer, Felice Beato.
Beato’s photograph is one among the several other archival material associated with the history of Delhi, to be made available to android users through a mobile application. The Safarnama app, designed by researchers at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Centre for the Study of Developing Society (CSDS) in Delhi aims to capture the story of Delhi, as it was transformed, first after the revolt of 1857 until Independence in 1947 and then again by the Partition of the country in 1947.
The Safarnama heritage application, which will be available to users from the second week of September, contain images, texts, newspaper cuttings and audio recordings that tell the history of Delhi. “The app takes history out of museums and books and puts it back into the streets and stones of the city. The digital experiences will allow people to engage with the city’s extraordinary past as part of their everyday journeys through the city,” said Dr Deborah Sutton, Lecturer of History at Lancaster University.
Currently, there are two sets of digital experiences that the app allows its users. The first ‘Ghadar se azadi tak’ tells the story of the city from the rebellion against the British in 1857 to the country’s Independence in 1947. The second, known as ‘Partition city Delhi’ which contains the details of the transformation of Delhi in the 12 years after the country’s Partition. A second Partition city app is currently under construction in Karachi, and will tell the story of Pakistan’s first capital in 1947 and through the decade thereafter.
When a user comes close to particular point of interest, they will receive a push notification. If they pass close enough - within a ‘trigger zone’ - their phone will automatically open the media associated with the place of interest. However, the material in the app can be accessed by a user at any time from any location as well.
A researcher described the trigger zone as: “It varies according to where the nearest roads are and whether there are other places of interest nearby. So the Purana Qila and CP trigger zones are really big so that they encompass the roads around the points. Some in the old city are smaller.” However, he did not give a specific distance range.
“In order to get rid of the prevalent narrative of Partition in this country, it is very important to revisit the multiplicity of the ideas behind Partition itself. To achieve this purpose, we have tried to offer a mobile application which will allow a user to draw his or her meanings through original sources,” said Hilal Ahmed, associate professor at CSDS. “We have tried to bring out the ideas which are located in the realm of academic knowledge and put them in the public domain,” he added.
There will be over 70 sites associated with the period from the Revolt to Independence uploaded on the app and 43 sites feature in Partition City Delhi section. Some examples of the sites include the Palam airport where about 300 Muslims sought refuge when violence broke out in villages neighbouring Delhi in September 1947, the Pindi restaurant named after Rawalpindi in Pakistan from where its owner, Kasturi Lal Wadha had fled, and the electrical market Bhagirath Palace which was earlier the mansion of the converted Catholic Begum Samru that had been severely damaged during the revolt of 1857.
The 1857 mutiny section also features Metcalf House, which was built by Thomas Metcalf in 1830 on land taken from the Gujjar community, who attacked it in 1857. Today, it houses the DRDO Laser Science and Technology Centre. Metcalf, East India Company agent at the Mughal court from 1842 to 1844, was buried in 1853 near St. James’s Church, Kashmere Gate.
“Materials associated with the sites have been collected from archives in Delhi and across the world,” said Sutton.
The app was developed as part of a research project titled ‘Urban heritage and digital humanities in India’ which is being funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and the Lancaster University.
“The research project which started in January 2018 is a reflection of how digital platforms can enhance heritage experiences. This app is a prototype, which I hope will inspire more such platforms for digital heritage experiences,” said Sutton.
