Coronation Park (Delhi, India)
Encyclopedia
Coronation Park is a park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

 located on Burari road near Nirankari Sarovar in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The park is sometimes referred to as the Coronation Memorial; it was the venue of Delhi Durbar
Delhi Durbar
The Delhi Durbar , meaning "Court of Delhi", was a mass assembly at Coronation Park, Delhi, India, to mark the coronation of a King and Queen of the United Kingdom. Also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was held three times, in 1877, 1903, and 1911, at the height of the British Empire. The 1911...

 of 1877 when Queen Victoria was proclaimed the Empress of India. Later it was used to celebrate the accession of Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

 in 1903, and finally, it was here that the Durbar commemorating the coronation of King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

 as Emperor of India
Emperor of India
Emperor/Empress of India was used as a title by the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II, and revived by the colonial British monarchs during the British Raj in India....

 took place on 12 December 1911, subsequent to his coronation at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

 in June 1911. This last celebration had all the princely state
Princely state
A Princely State was a nominally sovereign entitity of British rule in India that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule such as suzerainty or paramountcy.-British relationship with the Princely States:India under the British Raj ...

s in attendance. The decision to hold the Coronation Durbars in Delhi at the vast open ground at Coronation Park was a move to emphasize Delhi's past history.

The monument is now being restored.

Also, Coronation Park, by a quirk of circumstances, has the largest and tallest statue of King George V, adorning as it does a lofty pedestal. The statue was moved here in the mid-1960s from a site opposite India Gate
India Gate
The India Gate is the national monument of India. Situated in the heart of New Delhi, India Gate was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It was built in 1931...

 in the centre of New Delhi. It is opposite the Obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...

 (pictured) called the Coronation Memorial, which commemorates King George V, who presided at that location as Emperor of India in 1911, and laid the foundation stone for the new capital city of New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...

.

History

Delhi was chosen as the site of the park was chosen because the city boasted a historical legacy for royal activities. The site was developed as a park and venue to hold the first Durbar, or imperial pageant, in Delhi under the supervision of the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

. Durbars were an “invented tradition” to showcase the prowess of the British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 by perpetuating a tradition of previous Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

, Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 and Mughal
Mughal (tribe)
The term Mughal is simply a Turkic word and many groups in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh use the term Mughal to describe themselves...

 rulers. Three Durbars were held by the British monarchy during a period of forty years in the park near the soon to be created New Delhi south of Shahjahanbad. The three Durbars were held near a ridge where the British won a great victory during the Sepoy Mutiny, or the Uprising of 1857. Also the location helped emphasize grandeur of the British monarchy to the native rulers and the people who attended the Durbars.

The first Durbar

The first Durbar, initiated by Lord Lytton
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC was an English statesman and poet...

 (1831–1891), the then Viceroy of India, was held on 1 January 1876 at the Coronation Park in Delhi to mark the proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India. Lord Lytton conceived the procession in order to represent the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

 as bringing “order and discipline, which was in (his) ideology part of the whole system of colonial control”. The Durbar was an extravaganza of pomp and ceremony including a parade on a decorated elephant by Lord and Lady Lytton in the presence of nearly 70,000 people. The imperial gathering consisted of royalty from all the provinces of India and the most senior British dignitaries.

The second Durbar

The second and third Durbars were held at the same location to celebrate the Coronation
Coronation of the British monarch
The coronation of the British monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom is formally crowned and invested with regalia...

 of British Monarchs. The second Durbar was organized for 1 January 1903 to celebrate the Coronation of King Edward VII. Lord Curzon, the Viceroy and the chief architect of the show, planned meticulously what was considered an extravagant display of pomp and splendour.

Lord Curzon converted the drab and dry land of the park into a virtual tented city by establishing huge encampments with colourful tents. In this city of tents there was a variety of infrastructure including water, drainage, sanitation, electricity and rail communications suppplied to the venue from different locations in the nearby city. Firework displays, exhibitions and glamorous dances were organized. Special postage stamps were issued on the occasion. Post offices, telegraph and telephone communications were provided. Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, Commander-in-Chief, India
Commander-in-Chief, India
During the period of the British Raj, the Commander-in-Chief, India was the supreme commander of the Indian Army. The Commander-in-Chief and most of his staff were based at General Headquarters, India, and liaised with the civilian Governor-General of India...

 (C-in-C, India), organized daily parades, band practice and polo matches. The élite of the world media were present, but the intended Chief Guest, the King-Emperor
King-Emperor
A king-emperor, the female equivalent being queen-empress, is a sovereign ruler who is simultaneously a king of one territory and emperor of another...

 himself, did not attend the celebrations held in his honour. Instead, His Britannic Majesty was represented by his brother, H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a member of the shared British and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha royal family who served as the Governor General of Canada, the 10th since Canadian Confederation.Born the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and...

.

The Duke arrived from Bombay with a large contingent of dignitaries. The festivities lasted for a fortnight
Fortnight
The fortnight is a unit of time equal to fourteen days, or two weeks. The word derives from the Old English fēowertyne niht, meaning "fourteen nights"....

 and the Delhi Durbar parade became a standard feature of early 20th century spectacle in India. The Viceroy and Governors of the various provinces and the Maharajas of princely states were present, bringing their large colourful entourages. The event was presided over by the Duke of Connaught and by Lord and Lady Curzon, the Viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...

 and Vicereine of India. It is also said that more than 100,000 people attended the Durbar at Coronation Park. But this extravagant spectacle was dubbed as the 'Curzonization Durbar as people suspected he regarded the occasion more as a celebration of his own Viceregality than of the ascension of a new king.'

The third Durbar

The final Durbar was organised in 1911 at the same venue as the two previous ones. There was no disappointment for Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy at the time, when he was authorised to plan the event by a British Government communication which stated:
Royal intention to hold at Delhi on the twelfth day of December one thousand nine hundred and eleven an Imperial Durbar for the purpose of making known the said solemnity of Our Coronation and We do hereby charge and command Our right trusted and well beloved counsellor Charles Baron Hardinge of Penshurst
Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst
Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, was a British diplomat and statesman who served as Viceroy of India from 1910 to 1916.-Background and education:...

, Our Viceroy and Governor General of India, to take all necessary measures in that behalf.
Lord Hardinge organised the Durbar with great care and effort ensuring that that everything was done with the utmost glitter and pomp since the King-Emperor
King-Emperor
A king-emperor, the female equivalent being queen-empress, is a sovereign ruler who is simultaneously a king of one territory and emperor of another...

, George V, was to attend. King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

 was the first reigning Monarch of the United Kingdom to attend a Durbar. He was accompanied by Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....

, his Queen Consort
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...

. The King-Emperor made many historical proclamations which paved the way for the present Edward Lutyens-designed New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...

 to be built to the south west of Shahjahanabad, the last Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

 city of Delhi. King George V and his Queen sat on golden thrones under a golden umbrella on 11 December 1911 when they proclaimed that the capital of British India would be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

.

In 1911, a fabulous sum of 600,000 pounds was approved for the Durbar and maintenance of the visiting local rulers. An additional 300,000 pounds were supplied by the Government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

 to pay for eighty thousand Army troops in the parades and security for the event. The Imperial Hotel
The Imperial, New Delhi
The Imperial, New Delhi, built in 1931, is a luxury hotel in India, located at Queensway, now called Janpath, close to Connaught Place in New Delhi...

 in New Delhi, considered a legacy of the colonial times, continues to display pictures of the Durbar in a Coffee Shop named "1911".

After the Coronation Durbar, Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...

 (Sir Edwin from 1918) was authorized by Lord Hardinge to proceed with preparing plans for building New Delhi. By shifting the capital to Delhi in 1912, as announced by the King in 1911, the British attempted to erase the memory of Mughal rule. Also, this return to Delhi emulated the practice followed by earlier pre-Islamic and the Mughal rulers who had established their own cities in Delhi, a move meant to increase the British Imperial image.

.

Other uses

The Queen-Empress, Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....

, gave the title of Kaiser-i-Hind
Kaiser-i-Hind
The Kaisar-i-Hind was a medal awarded by the British monarch between 1900 and 1947, to civilians of any nationality who rendered distinguished service in the advancement of the interests of the British Raj....

 to all the Governors of the states at Coronation Park. She also announced that Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

 would be reunited in 1903. Following the announcements, the Queen laid the foundation stone for the Viceroy’s residence. However, the location was later not found suitable for building the Residency
The Residency
The Residency is the usual name of the official residence of a Resident, Resident Commissioner or Resident Councillor in the British Empire....

 for the Viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...

 since the area was in the flood prone zone of the Yamuna River. The stone was later shifted to Raisina Hill
Raisina Hill
Raisina Hill is an area of Lutyens' Delhi, New Delhi, housing India's most important government buildings, including Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the President of India and the Secretariat building housing the Prime Minister's Office and several other important ministries...

. The construction of Viceroy’s House (as it was officially called), the present Rashtrapati Bhavan
Rashtrapati Bhavan
The Rashtrapati Bhavan or The Official Residence of the Head of the State is the official residence of the President of India, located at Raisina hill in New Delhi, India. Until 1950 it was known as "Viceroy's House" and served as the residence of the Viceroy and Governor-General of India...

, was started after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and completed in 1931, when the City of New Delhi was inaugurated.

Coronation Memorial

The Coronation
Coronation of the British monarch
The coronation of the British monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom is formally crowned and invested with regalia...

 Memorial erected as an obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...

 in the sprawling Coronation Park is made of sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

. It is erected over a high raise square plinth
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...

 with steps on all four sides. The memorial has been erected at exactly the same location where all the three British Durbars were held in the past. The inscription on the Memorial testifies the final Durbar event and states:
Here on the 12th Day of December 1911, His Imperial Majesty King George V, Emperor of India accompanied by the Queen Empress in solemn Durbar announced in person to the Governors, Princes and Peoples of India his Coronation celebrated in England on the 22nd day of June 1911 and received from them their dutiful homage and allegiance.


Now the park is a well guarded open space whose desolateness amidst the humdrum of the dense traffic and crowded shanty town
Shanty town
A shanty town is a slum settlement of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often plywood, corrugated metal and sheets of plastic...

s of northern Delhi’s urban sprawl is disappointing to the visitors. The park is sometimes used for big religious festivals and municipal conventions.

Post Independence

Following the independence of India on 15 August 1947, the park has become the final resting place for some of the statues of former British Kings, Governors and officials of the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

. The statues were moved from various locations to the red stone plinth
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...

s built in the park's specially designed enclosures, just opposite the Obelisk. The largest and tallest statue, a 15 m (49 ft) high marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 statue designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...

, is opposite to the Obelisk commemorating the Durbar and is the tallest statue of King George V. His statue had earlier stood atop a canopy
Canopy (building)
A canopy is an overhead roof or else a structure over which a fabric or metal covering is attached, able to provide shade or shelter. A canopy can also be a tent, generally without a floor....

 in front of the India Gate
India Gate
The India Gate is the national monument of India. Situated in the heart of New Delhi, India Gate was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It was built in 1931...

, which is now vacant following the statue's removal.

Nineteen pedestals were built to install the displaced statues but only five are fixed, while the remaining plinths are vacant. Some of the statues were stolen or damaged, whilst several of the statues expected to populate the plinths were retained by the communities in which they were first installed. King George’s statue, though it appears forlorn in the sparse field, is well maintained. The other statues, which all originated in Delhi, stand arranged in a semicircle around the King’s statue. They are thought to be those of Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson and Viceroys Lord Willingdon and Lord Hardinge. However, there are no inscriptions indicating the names of the other individuals depicted here.

The park is enclosed by high steel fencing, whose well guarded entrance gate has a plaque (pictured in gallery) which proclaims:
This memorial was erected to commemorate the Coronation Durbar of King George V and Queen Mary held in December 1911. On this occasion the King announced the transfer of the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi.

Conservation measures

In 2005, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage is an autonomous non-governmental Indian NGO that seeks to preserve Indian Art and Cultural heritage...

 (INTACH) and Government of Delhi
Government of Delhi
The Government of Delhi is the supreme governing authority of the Indian national capital territory of Delhi and its 9 districts. It consists of an executive, led by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, a judiciary and a legislative...

 resolved to restore Coronation Park, which was in a state of neglect.

INTACH has also decided to complete the heritage corridor along with also improving and standardising the signs on Delhi’s roads from Coronation Park in the north to Qutab Minar in south as part of the beautification of Delhi before the 2010 Commonwealth Games
2010 Commonwealth Games
The 2010 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games, were held in Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 2010. A total of 6,081 athletes from 71 Commonwealth nations and dependencies competed in 21 sports and 272 events, making it the largest Commonwealth Games till date...

.

Delhi Development Authority
Delhi Development Authority
The Delhi Development Authority was created in 1955 under the provisions of the Delhi Development Act "to promote and secure the development of Delhi".-History:...

 (DDA) has prepared a Draft Zonal Development Plan for Zone — “C” (Civil Lines Zone) which includes the Conservation & Heritage of the precincts of the Coronation Pillar. DDA expects to develop it as a tourist spot since it is very close to the National Highway 1 (NH 1) bypass. It is also intended to develop the area around the Nirankari Sarovar, which has been earmarked for green/water body with sports facilities.

Access

During the Durbar in 1911, and also the previous ones held at the same open ground to the north of the cantonment
Cantonment
A cantonment is a temporary or semi-permanent military or police quarters. The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton meaning corner or district, as is the name of the Cantons of Switzerland. In South Asia, the term cantonment also describes permanent military stations...

, light railway lines were laid connecting the Civil Lines
Civil Lines
Civil Lines is a term used for residential areas originally built by the British Raj for its senior officers. The Civil Lines, Delhi is a subdivision of North Delhi District in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India and noted residential areas in Delhi. It is one of the 12 zones under the...

 on one side where the Viceroy and Governors had camped and another line leading to the parade ground and the proclamation podium.

The park is located on the Bhai Parmanand Marg (Road), also called Burari
Burari
Burari is a census town in North Delhi District in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India.-Demographics: India census, Burari is a village and a constitutional assembly of Delhi.It had a population of 360,182. Males constitute 55% of the population and females 45%...

 Road, in the crowded urban sprawls of North Delhi, 2 km (1.2 mi) north of Kingsway Camp
Kingsway Camp
Kingsway Camp officially known as Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar , since 1970, is a historic area located in North Delhi, near Civil Lines and Delhi University. It starts from Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar Chauraha , and has residential areas like Hudson Lines and Outram Lines. Localities like Dhaka Village,...

, 17 km (11 mi) from Delhi. Bhai Paramanand Road branches from the Mall Road or the Karnal
Karnal
Karnal is an important city and the headquarters of Karnal District in the Indian state of Haryana.Karnal is said to have been founded by the Kauravas in the Mahabharata era for the king Karna, a mythological hero and a key figure in the epic tale...

Road in Civil Lines of Kingsway camp of Delhi.

External links

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