WANDERLUST @ DELHI - V MUTINY MEMORIAL a.k.a AJIT GARH

Delhi Ridge, or simply 'The Ridge', is an extension of the ancient Aravalli Range and runs through the heart of the National Capital Territory (NCR) of Delhi. The Delhi Ridge covers a distance of about 35 km and refereed to as the green lung of Delhi and protects the city from the hot winds of the deserts of Rajasthan. 

It is divided into four zones. North Ridge or Kamala Nehru Ridge is one of the four zones. It is a hilly area near the Delhi University. It was declared a Reserve Forest in 1915. It initially covered an area of 170 hectares but have now shrunk to 87 hectares, making it the smallest of the four ridge zones if Delhi.

The North Ridge, officially known as the Kamala Nehru Ridge, houses an interesting mix of monuments. Scattered along the forested region of the ridge are monuments ranging from the Tughlaq era right up to  the days of the Mutiny.

The monument that stands out among the monuments of the ridge is the towering Mutiny Memorial. It is located at the site of Taylor’s Battery during the siege of Delhi in 1857. It was built in 1863. The Gothic styled red sand stone tapering tower rises from a two tiered platform.

 After the Mutiny of 1857 sites related to the Mutiny were preserved and turned into late Victorian tourist attractions. Monuments were erected all over the sub – continent in memory of the Britishers and Indian soldiers who fought for the British.

The Mutiny Memorial at North Ridge (Kamala Nehru Ridge) Delhi was the most prominent of the mutiny memorials of the sub continent. It holds a special place in the monuments created during the Raj in the sense that the the defence of the ridge by a small contingent of Indian and East India Company soldiers in 1857 against a overwhelmingly superior opponent was militarily a great feat and one of the first successes of the British, which eventually lead to the recapture of Delhi and deposition of the Mughal Emperor.

Built in Gothic style the Mutiny Memorial is a octagonal tapering tower in red sand stone. It has a richly ornamented facade and is crowned with a marble crucifix.

The four tiered tower stands on a two tiered platform and total height of the tower stands at 33 meters. Flights of stairs on all the four sides of the platform lead to the base of the tower. Entry inside the tower is through a gateway on its western wall and a flight of spiral stairways leads to the balconies on the four tiers.

But sadly the gate is kept under lock and key and thus preventing visitors access inside the tower and robbing them of the grand birds eye view of the lush green Kamala Nehru Ridge (North Ridge).

Apart from the gateway to the inside of the tower the other seven sides contain marble plaques embedded inside decorated sandstone archways. Three of them narrates the event in English, Hindi and Urdu. The English plaques says that the Memorial honours the soldiers of Delhi Field Force who died during the Mutiny of 1857.

Among the remaining four plaques one lists the regiments present during the siege of Delhi while the second one lists actions fought at or near Delhi. The remaining two plaques list the KILLED, WOUNDED and MISSING soldiers of the mutiny, which is again sub divide into sub categories like Europeans & Natives and Officers & Non Commissioned Officers.

On 15 August 1972 the Delhi’s Mutiny Memorial was renamed Ajitgarh (Place of the Unvanquished) and a plaque was put at its pedestal. Written in four languages Hindi, Urdu, English

It says that the “enemies” mentioned in the inscription were actually the freedom fighters and martyrs of India, who fought bravely against the repressive colonial rule in the First War of Indian Independence.

The monument which had gone to seed was majorly refurbished prior to the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The compound remains locked to the public but the security guard was kind enough to allow us in for sometime on request. Of course as I have mentioned above- the main building is locked and one cannot access the stairs.

The monument is well worth a visit- if not for anything else, it is unlike you will find of this scale in India- probably the most imposing monument of the Raj (if you exclude the later buildings built in Lutyens Delhi) and for the lovely drive on the lush green North Ridge.