Delhi: K
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Karbala (near Jor Bagh)
Karbala dispute must be settled: Jor Bagh
Maria Akram & Somreet Bhattacharya TNN
some residents of Jor Bagh complain “Every fortnight there is a programme here and the police are perpetually on guard. In 2012, when riots broke out, our cars were vandalized. These religious gatherings bring thousands from elsewhere,” complained Payal, a. In fact, in January 2012, the residents of BK Dutt Colony, opposite Jor Bagh, had protested and blocked Safdarjung flyover over a gate to the shrine which opened into their colony.
therefore, Jor Bagh is periodically under siege. Hundreds of policemen and Rapid Action Force personnel barricade the area, restricting entry. This leaves the residents feeling harassed. Entry from Aurobindo Marg to Jor Bagh is often restricted and the residents can enter from Lodhi Road.
When the Karbala grounds deck up for Nauchandi Jummerat, the Tazia procession starts from Walled City and ends at Karbala in Jor Bagh.
“They are expanding and encroaching on public land. The area has become trouble for all the residents. No civic agency is demarcating the land despite court orders,” says Rakesh Kukreja, a shopkeeper in the area, adding that there could be peace if the dispute was settled.
Karbala and Dargah Sha-e-Mardan are in the middle of Jor Bagh and BK Dutt Colony.
The eight acres of land owned by the Waqf Board also houses the Rajdhani nursery. The situation in the area worsened in 2012 when the nursery owner and members of the Anjuman-e-Haidri committee, which looks after the complex, clashed.
The committee members alleged that the lease for the nursery expired in 2000 but the owner is not vacating the land.
“The nursery owner has lost the case both during arbitration and in Saket court. But despite orders, he’s not vacating the premises. Every time we ask him to vacate, he sends goons. It’s a simple case of land-grabbing but he has turned it into a Shia-Sunni issue,” said Rais Abbas, vice-president, Anjuman-e-Haidri committee. The committee members said there are 112 graves in the area, including some on the nursery land.
Nursery owner Wasim Khan says the matter is in high court and the other orders have been quashed. “Since 1976, we are operating from here. There are no graves in this area, it’s a myth. We are not able to work, and whenever there is a gathering, people destroy our plants and property,” he alleged.
Khairpur village
Buried in history
R. V. SMITH
The standoff between the management of the Jorbagh Karbala complex and Residents’ Welfare Agency has its genesis in the events of 1947 when refugees from Punjab and Sindh were settled in the complex that includes the Dargah Shah-e-Mardan. Dr. Khaliq Anjum, former head of the Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind), New Delhi, has come out with a book in Urdu on the dargah and other mausoleums in Mauza Khairpur, which throws interesting light on Delhi’s most venerated Shia burial ground
Up to now it was widely believed that Dargah Shah-e-Mardan dated to the time of Nawab Qudsia Begum, wife of Emperor Mohammad Shah Rangila and mother of Ahmed Shah, his son and successor, in the mid-18th century. But in the book titled Dilli ki Dargah Shah-e-Mardan , Dr. Anjum has traced its existence to 1543-44, which means to the time of Sher Shah and the Sur dynasty. That should make it one of Delhi’s oldest cemeteries, after the smaller graveyards of the 12th to 15th centuries.
The author says that once while accompanying Lal Bahadur Shastri in a car, he persuaded the then Union Minister to step down and have a dekko of the area devastated by the refugee influx. Shastriji was astonished by the scene that unfolded itself. Medieval marble graves had been uprooted with impunity to provide shelter to the newcomers to the Capital. Even the shrine of Hazrat Ali (Shah-e-Mardan) had been severely damaged, what to talk of other shrines and tombs. The boundary wall had been pulled down and new structures had come up all around. Shastriji gave orders for the restoration of the wall ( chardewari ) and repair of prominent graves. At one time the Jorbagh complex covered several acres, right up to the tomb of Safdarjang, which is now more or less isolated from it. But the 1947 exodus reduced the area greatly with encroachments, both governmental and private.
Dr. Anjum, along with Col. Bashir Hussain Zaidi, surveyed the complex and with help from other knowledgeable people has listed the monuments with a thoroughness that is worthy of appreciation. There are photographs in the 115-page book (brought out by the Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu), and the sources cited include Sir Jadu Nath Sarkar ( Fall of the Mughal Empire ), W. Franklin ( History of the Reign of Shah Alam ) and the list of Muhammadan and Hindu Monuments (VOL II, Calcutta, 1916).
Mahabat Khan’s body was brought from the Deccan while Safdarjang’s body was brought from Faizabad and buried here. Then there is the grave of the mysterious Mah Khanam and the tomb of Justice Murtaza Fazal Ali. Other graves mentioned are those of Ashraf Beg Khan, Mahaldar Begum, Mehr-ul-Nissa Begum, Wilayati Begum, Karbali Begum, Mirza Mohsin, Sharful Nissa Haji Begum, Saadat Khan, Qasim Ali Khan, Najaf Ali Khan, Nawab Sayyid Sultan Mirza, Sayyida Khatoon, Javed Khan, Maulvi Sayyid Ali, Nawab Mubarak Mahal Begum, Nawab Ibrahim Beg and many others of note and fame.
Besides, mention is also made of the various masjids, including the ones built by Qudsia Begum and Zeenat Begum, the Majlis Khanas, Bibi Fatima-ki-Chakki, Dargah Arif Ali Shah, Qadam Mubarak (footprints of Ali), Mehr-ul-Nissa Begum-ki-Chaukunthi and the royal qabristan.
About Qudsia Begum it is said that she was greatly influenced by Nawab Bahadur Javed Khan, who was murdered at the instigation of Nawab Safdarjang. The queen started life from humble beginnings as a dancing girl and before her conversion was known as Udham (aka Uttam) Bai. The begum was accused of many things but at the same time respected for being a great patron of women and the poor ( Reham-dil Begum ).
The book is quite a treasure house of information on a place associated in general perception only with tazias , and perhaps could draw more readers with an English translation.
R. V. SMITH
Dr. Anjum, along with Col. Bashir Hussain Zaidi, surveyed the complex and with help from other knowledgeable people has listed the monuments with a thoroughness that is worthy of appreciation
Kishanganj
The D'Eremao cemetery
The Times of India, Jul 24 2015
Richi Verma
Delhi's oldest Christian cemetery now exists only in history books. Squatters have wiped away most visible traces of it You could stroll past this monument and still miss it completely . Located in Kishanganj, north Delhi, the D'Eremao cemetery was notified by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as a protected monument in the 1920s--a lone signboard still calls it a protected place. But very little of the original monument exists today; the rest have been eaten away by numerous encroachments over the past decades. Historians call it the earliest Christian cemetery in Delhi. Past papers show the site had many Armenian Christian graves from the 1700s. Yet the name D'Eremao nowhere exists at the site, and people who live here don't seem to know anything about the cemetery.Many understand it as the Armenian chapel, which has a board announcing the visit timings. But they all seem to agree that it's been wrongly recognized by ASI as a protected building. The matter is with the Delhi high court where ASI and the residents have been sparring over jurisdiction. In 2007, the high court directed ASI to give the residents a hearing and settle the issue once and for all. Nearly eight years down the line, ASI hasn't succeeded in deciding the issue and encroachments have continued to grow.
When TOI visited the site, access was limited to the chapel. The locals were hostile when we tried to click photographs or ask them questions about the cemetery . “This is a Christian complex, not the cemetery as ASI claims. Even the signage installed by ASI outside the complex is wrong. This is our home and has been so for the last several decades, said Vinod, a resident.
The chapel's interior had huge cracks and it looked like it had been whitewashed not too long ago--visible signs of absolute neglect. There was an Armenian cross and a prayer book placed on the altar--perhaps the only parts of the original monument that still exist.
ASI officials remain firm on evicting all encroachers from the site, but they admit that there has been a huge delay in following the high court's directions. “We gave an eviction notice to all encroachers in 2006, following which they went to high court. The people who have built their homes all around the monument claim it was not the D'Eremao cem etery, but a Christian complex.We, however, have site plans to prove this is our monument under central protection. The graves are clearly visible and the gumbad can be seen by everyone to be from the late Mughal period. These people have built houses over the graves. There are about 60 occupants who need to be evicted.We will be giving them a hearing soon to settle the matter, and reclaim the monument,“ said an ASI official.
