head of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) when the Emergency began and vain about his administrative abilities, perhaps because he had developed some parks in Delhi and had made efforts to ‘beautify’ the city. When Sanjay announced his slum removal plans, Jagmohan took up the task with unconcealed zest. Sadly, one of the first things he demolished in the old city was a lovely little air-conditioned restaurant called Flora, which was so close to the steps of the Jama Masjid that you could see the mosque through its big glass windows as you feasted on kebabs so delicate they melted in your mouth. When I made some inquiries about the disappearance of my favourite restaurant, I learned that it had been demolished on Jagmohan’s orders because it was ‘illegally constructed’.
It was around then that rumours started to spread in the old city about Jagmohan being a man who ‘hated’ Muslims. Bazaar gossip had it that a meeting of officials had taken place in Ranjit Hotel, a new hotel nearby whose higher floors offered a clear view of the old city. According to hearsay, it was at this meeting that Jagmohan said, ‘I want everything cleared from here to the Jama Masjid because I will not allow another Pakistan to come up.’ Jagmohan has since denied that there was ever such a meeting but because newspapers were censored at the time rumours were easily believed. This was especially true of the bazaars of the old city. Karim’s restaurant put up a sign in Urdu that said: ‘Political conversationsare banned in this restaurant until further notice.’ But rumours of Jagmohan’s alleged plans to demolish huge sections of old Delhi continued to spread and somehow got mixed up with Rukhsana Sultana’s exercises in family planning.
Rukhsana may have convinced herself that she was doing social work in old Delhi, but the residents of this conservative Muslim quarter of the city saw her as someone who had been sent to corrupt God-fearing Muslim girls. I heard this not from women in the old city but from Muslim men, particularly the older, bearded ones, who saw themselves as sentinels of Islam and its traditions. It was always easy in this part of Delhi to raise the cry of Islam being in danger and between Jagmohan’s demolitions and Rukhsana’s family planning forays it became easy for Muslims to believe that the Emergency was being used to target them as a community. Days before violence broke out at Turkman Gate, I remember wandering about the streets around the Jama Masjid and being conscious of a simmering rage.
Shahjahanabad, the old Mughal city, once existed where the Jama Masjid and the Red Fort now stand. At one time its population had been mostly Muslim. After Partition this changed because thousands of Punjabi refugees were settled in the homes vacated by the Muslims who left for Pakistan. But because of old tensions and differences in dietary habits the Hindus formed their ghetto on one side of the mosque and the Muslims lived on the other side, as they do today.
These are factors that Sanjay Gandhi seems not to have considered or cared much about. If the prime minister was trying to give him wiser counsel it did not prevent him from sending his envoys to this politically sensitive place to implement the two most contentious points of his 5-Point Programme. Rukhsana Sultana and Jagmohan went about their missions with zeal and insensitivity. And what happened at Turkman Gate on 18 April 1976 was an eruption of public anger that had been building slowly for months.
Turkman Gate is an old Mughal gate that was one of the entrances to the walled city, built by Emperor Shah Jahan when he moved his capital here from Agra. It is made of stone, more arch than gate, and would have been just another one of Delhi’s forgotten monuments if it had not lent its name to the area in which it stands. Leading off from the gate is a maze of narrow lanes that twist and wind their way to the Jama Masjid. Until Jagmohan’s
It was around then that rumours started to spread in the old city about Jagmohan being a man who ‘hated’ Muslims. Bazaar gossip had it that a meeting of officials had taken place in Ranjit Hotel, a new hotel nearby whose higher floors offered a clear view of the old city. According to hearsay, it was at this meeting that Jagmohan said, ‘I want everything cleared from here to the Jama Masjid because I will not allow another Pakistan to come up.’ Jagmohan has since denied that there was ever such a meeting but because newspapers were censored at the time rumours were easily believed. This was especially true of the bazaars of the old city. Karim’s restaurant put up a sign in Urdu that said: ‘Political conversationsare banned in this restaurant until further notice.’ But rumours of Jagmohan’s alleged plans to demolish huge sections of old Delhi continued to spread and somehow got mixed up with Rukhsana Sultana’s exercises in family planning.
Rukhsana may have convinced herself that she was doing social work in old Delhi, but the residents of this conservative Muslim quarter of the city saw her as someone who had been sent to corrupt God-fearing Muslim girls. I heard this not from women in the old city but from Muslim men, particularly the older, bearded ones, who saw themselves as sentinels of Islam and its traditions. It was always easy in this part of Delhi to raise the cry of Islam being in danger and between Jagmohan’s demolitions and Rukhsana’s family planning forays it became easy for Muslims to believe that the Emergency was being used to target them as a community. Days before violence broke out at Turkman Gate, I remember wandering about the streets around the Jama Masjid and being conscious of a simmering rage.
Shahjahanabad, the old Mughal city, once existed where the Jama Masjid and the Red Fort now stand. At one time its population had been mostly Muslim. After Partition this changed because thousands of Punjabi refugees were settled in the homes vacated by the Muslims who left for Pakistan. But because of old tensions and differences in dietary habits the Hindus formed their ghetto on one side of the mosque and the Muslims lived on the other side, as they do today.
These are factors that Sanjay Gandhi seems not to have considered or cared much about. If the prime minister was trying to give him wiser counsel it did not prevent him from sending his envoys to this politically sensitive place to implement the two most contentious points of his 5-Point Programme. Rukhsana Sultana and Jagmohan went about their missions with zeal and insensitivity. And what happened at Turkman Gate on 18 April 1976 was an eruption of public anger that had been building slowly for months.
Turkman Gate is an old Mughal gate that was one of the entrances to the walled city, built by Emperor Shah Jahan when he moved his capital here from Agra. It is made of stone, more arch than gate, and would have been just another one of Delhi’s forgotten monuments if it had not lent its name to the area in which it stands. Leading off from the gate is a maze of narrow lanes that twist and wind their way to the Jama Masjid. Until Jagmohan’s
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