Delhi the enduring capital

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to read some quality articles from a magazine, given that Carvan would be one of the very few that fulfil the criteria of a proper magazine printed in India, the choices are rather limited. Usually I overlook the arts section, however this month I had already read the main essays and reportage so I decided to give the arts section a try and I was pleasantly surprised.

I came across an article titled 'Reeling in the Raj' reviewing the focus of Raj era documentary styles which was mostly in the words of the author 'an orgy of Orientalist clichés' with a heavy imperial overtones showing 'British in close-up, and the Indians—represented by faceless crowds or uniformed troops and servants—relegated to the background.' The paternal overtures of foreign occupiers in those Pathé clips mixed with the stranglehold of  Cinematograph Act of 1918 (which still survives today in different avatars) create a somewhat 'all is well' metauniverse. The author rightly points out that these newsreels were meant for British public and they had to be shown that the White Men have burdened their weights well. This style was jarringly contrasted with Indian directors from late 1930s and early 40s whose 'coverage was gruesomely real.'  

The author meticulously dissects the of wavering fortunes of docu-newsreel and reserves particular scorn for 1930s British productions one of which was A Road in India. Its copyright has expired and it is available on Youtube, so I am embedding it below.

However this post is not about A Road (no matter how juicy it would be to criticise it), this post is about a second newsreel-docu hybrid also released in 1938 titled Delhi (which comes as a suggestion on Youtube if you complete watching the A road docu). This was the time when Lutyens' Delhi has been built and in the inter-war period the jewel in the crown of British Empire looked as stable as it ever could be. The tree lined boulevards with well manicured lawns of LBZ was a stamp that Raj has finally triumphed. The docu opens with a potted (and mostly wrong) history of North India and intones that it is a belief in 'Hindoustan' that every empire has built its capital in Delhi but the ninth 'would endure and rule for ever'. And the narrator in a conspiratorial tone lets us know that the city being built by the British is this fabled ninth city. 

The docu (obviously) portrays British as a positive influence over the 'unwashed, rag-tag' Indian milieu, it has subtle visual clue to show what can only compared with a serious version of 'what did the Romans do for us.' There is an Indian woman who is shown driving a car, the narrator emphasises that wide roads and beautiful gardens with plentiful water is now available for every Indian to enjoy (at least in public places) which was otherwise reserved for the Maharajas. And a shot of the Parliament Building (then known as the House of Assembly) while the narrator explains is the way that India would be ruled by British in cooperation with Hindus and Muslims.

What is striking (apart from the sheer presumptuousness of the lovely paradise being created by the colonial overlords) is the unbound fecklessness/arrogance with which the narrator reminds the viewers that India is destined to be ruled by the British for all time to come. Its quite amazing to note that similar claims were also being made about a certain thousand year Reich. While the Reich lasted for a dozen years coming to a cropper in 1945, the Raj outlived it by a couple more years and finally dissolved in 1947 a mere 9 years since the 1938 docu (such are the courses of history which no man can predict or tame). I will leave you with a final video by Pathe released in 1947 on subcontinents change of rulers where the last line by the narrator is 'Britain has fulfilled her mission, it is for India now, to make her destiny'.