So bizarre. The mosque’s gigantic signage is asking it Masjid Irvin Highway. A masjid positive is standing on the spot, however Delhi has no street of such identify. And but right here is employee Omvati (see photograph) washing anew the municipality signage that confidently bears this non-existent street identify.
Really, Irvin Highway is at present referred to as Baba Kharak Singh Marg. Irvin was a British administrator in colonial India. Kharak Singh was an Indian anti-colonialist. And caught between these two is that this mute roadside landmark forgetting to replace its identify. That is how a metropolis’s identities generally get flummoxed—when new occasions rawly reinterpret the olden occasions into a recent context. What was in vogue yesterday turns into archaic at present. It was precisely eight years in the past that Delhi erased one in every of its final main roads that had been named by or after the colonisers. In 2017, Dalhousie Highway was renamed after Dara Shikoh, a doomed Mughal prince recognized for his ardour for India’s multifarious traditions. Dalhousie himself was a pucca colonialist, who as India’s governor common, forcibly annexed the courageous Veerangana Rani Lakshmi Bai’s Jhansi into British rule. Listed below are some colonial-era roads, beginning with stretches that proceed to commemorate the colonial period.
Connaught Lane
Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, was the seventh, and probably the most favorite, baby of Mallika Victoria. He laid the muse of the long-lasting India Gate.
Chelmsford Highway
Viceroy Chelmsford, together with countryman Edwin Montagu, a liberal politician, launched the so-called Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms, aimed to carry self-governing establishments into British-run India.
Hailey Highway
William Malcolm Hailey served because the governor of Punjab and United Provinces respectively. The world-famous Jim Corbett Park was initially named after him.
A few of the colonial-era street names that had been finally rechristened post-independence:
Baird Highway
David Baird was the topic of the 1839 portray titled ‘Common Sir David Baird Discovering The Physique Of Sultan Tippoo Sahib After Having Captured Seringapatam (4 Might 1799).’ Highway renamed after Gurudwara Bangla Sahib.
Ratendone Highway
The precise identify of marquis of Ratendone, who served as viceroy, was Freeman Freeman-Thomas. The street was renamed after painter Amrita Sher-Gil. It runs by a backyard that was initially named after Freeman’s spouse. (He was often known as Lord Willingdon; Girl Willingdon Park being later renamed Lodhi Backyard.)
Hardinge Avenue
Hardinge served as India’s viceroy throughout the Delhi Durbar in 1911, when the capital was shifted from Calcutta. The street was renamed after freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Studying Highway
Studying, or Rufus Daniel Isaacs, was colonial India’s solely Jewish viceroy. Highway was renamed after Laxmi Narayan Temple, aka Birla Mandir.
