Book Reviews
City of Djinns : A Year in
Delhi by William Dalrymple, Indus, 1993, pp.352
In this, his second major work,
the young Scottish travel writer, William Dalrymple, takes us along on an
engaging historical tour of this ancient city, and introduces us to the
people, and spirits, who have created and recreated it. In reverse
chronological order, her painlessly chronicles, not one year, but the thousand
or more years of Delhi’s history.
In these few pages, we encounter, often through their own words, some
incredible characters: parvenu post-partition Sikhs, denizens of Lutyens’ New
Delhi of the early 20th century, representatives of the Raj
(notably in a lively encapsulated biography of his wife’s eccentric ancestor,
William Fraser), some Mughal emperors (including a fascinating portrait of the
parricide Aurangzeb), then all the way back to the tyrannical Tughlak. In the
end, with a little mental reconstruction, we are taken to Purana Quila,
believed to have been built on the site of Indraprastha, the original
settlement on the Yamuna described in the Mahabharat.
Even in today’s New Delhi, we come across shades of the past: from the dear
old Anglo-Indian sisters living in the ruins of civil Lines, grieving for the
lost glories of the empire, to the proud granddaughter of the last Mughal
Emperor, whose line will die out with her passing, to the bizarre an tragic
eunuchs who, to this day, turn up to dance at Delhi weddings, and the
dervishes who whirl in religious ecstasy at the tombs of the great mystics.
Through all this flit the magical Djinns, still called up for their curative
powers, or to take us on an enchanted carpet ride.
As his guides to this complex study, Dalrymple calls on some fascinating
present-day Delhi wallahs: the genial scholar, Doctor Jaffery of Zakir Hussein
College, who interprets for him the Mughal manuscripts, and Professor B.B. Lal,
who has managed to merge mythology with history through his archaeological
triumphs. And, although his name appears only in the acknowledgements, one
detects here as well the unmistakable influence of Khushwant Singh. Dalrymple
manages throughout to evoke the very atmosphere of Delhi, the sudden changes
of season, the heat, the smells, the sounds.
Dalrymple’s readable style belies the four years of meticulous research he put
into this work, much of it from primary sources. There are nor footnotes, no
index, but there is a superb chapter-by-chapter bibliography. Good thing, too,
because City of Djinns is bound to whet the appetite for much more
about the fascinating, and underrated, metropolis that is Delhi
Gordon Longmuir
Delhi: A Tale of Two Cities,
Voluntary Health Association of India publication, New Delhi, 1993, Rs. 40
This intensively researched an
powerfully written publication combines huge amounts of well organised data
with striking first-hand impressions offered by the prime movers of Delhi.
There are three main themes: the dichotomy between the privileged and
under-privileged; the impact of increasing urbanisation; the question of
individual responsibility for the improvement of the city.
The history of Delhi shows that there have always been two separate cities,
one for the rich, one for the poor. The gaps are glaring everywhere, but in
health they are even more apparent. Health is the last priority in Delhi’s
1992-93 budget. City-wide, the ratio of hospital beds to population is only
35 percent of that recommended by WHO. But when you breakdown by area, you
find that the Cantonment and NDMC have well over the WHO standards – over
double, in some cases. And the poor areas take the brunt with less than two
beds per thousand population in the MCD area.
The emphasis is deliberately on equity and social justice but not in an
overtly ideological sense. Throughout the report, however, there is an
explicit and implicit appeal that things such as water, sanitation and health
care are not privileges, but basics that everyone deserves.
Delhi has so far been ruled by senior central government officials who were
not accountable to the people, but only to the Prime Minister and his
Cabinet. Delhi is no-one’s city, the residents have not exerted ownership
rights to the extent of wanting to do something for the city in return for all
it has given them. There is not individual responsibility to aid in bettering
the city. Perhaps the new Statehood of Delhi will create a sea change in this
attitude.
Even if it is argued that inequalities are inherent in the existing structure
of India allocation of resources. Social justice should become the basis for
defining problems and guiding efforts to solve them.
This is a well produced publication in terms of layout, photographs and
information. It provides useful insights into the two distinct Delhis and
suggests means of working towards a parity between the two.
Sriparna Sanyal
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