With several fateful events of both the national and international importance occurring almost simultaneously as also the euphoria generated on the eve of the Republic Day celebration during the first year of Amrit Kall so named by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Union Government, an important news about the occurrence in the President House at the Raisina Hills in the national capital did not receive notice and coverage as it deserved. The event is about the change of the legacy nomenclature of Mughal Garden in the premises to “Amrit Udyan” through a Presidential notification as a sequel of the commemoration of 75 years of Independence as 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' in the country. To many onlookers, this may appear as an insignificant news, some others would or have already criticized slating it an unnecessary gimmick and political vendetta but the aware and patriotic citizens have hailed it as yet another significant corrective step at the age-old legacy of slavery symbols and umpteen wrongs committed on Indian people by foreign invaders and colonizers.

In the aforesaid context, the Government of India had launched the Central Vista Redevelopment Project in 2019 in the national capital Delhi with an ambitious target of the construction of a new parliament building and allied projects in New Delhi, which inter alia included revamping and renaming the Rajpath as “Kartavya Path”, building of a new residence for the Vice President, a new office and residence for the Prime Minister and combining the majority of ministerial buildings into a common central secretariat. The area now being revamped and redeveloped keeping national perspective and objectives in view is commonly known as Lutyens’ Delhi reminding the legacy of British colonial rule in this country, retained by the Government of India after independence. Interesting part of this legacy is that any move for change in the vintage area building or roads reminding centuries of injustice, exploitation and slavery by Islamic invaders and British colonizers is vehemently opposed by the Congress Party and allies. The author proposes to briefly analyze some such issues particularly in the context of the Amrit Udyan in this piece.

Lutyens’ Delhi & Revamped Plan

Colloquially, the Lutyens' Delhi is an area developed during the British Raj from 1920s onwards following the decision of British to shift their seat of government from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi in 1911. As much of the architecture and buildings were designed and constructed under the supervision of the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, a large part of the newly created district of New Delhi was later known after him which inter alia also included the Lutyens Bungalow Zone (LBZ). The present Rashtrapati Bhavan was then Viceroy’s House and other significant constructions included North and South Block (Secretariat Buildings), Parliament House, Teen Murti House (then Flagstaff House), Willington Airfield (Safdarjung Airport), Connaught Place, and so on.

The Lutyens’ zone in New Delhi covers an area of over twenty-eight square km with most of the land and buildings belonging to the Central Government except about 250 acres as the private property, which is also the most important and expansive zone in the national capital. As British government initially developed it, the most buildings were named by them according to their use and name of the high officials and elites of the British government. However, ironically enough the names of the roads and lanes in the Lutyens’ zone, sans a few, too are named after the Mughal emperors, Sultans of Delhi Sultanate and other Islamic entities. Although many Western historians and Indian left historians patronized by the post-independence Indian government constantly tampered and glorified them in the history yet their tyranny and barbaric conduct towards Hindu civilization is well known and documented in many regional and their own court historians’ accounts.

The Indian National Congress formed the government under Jawaharlal Nehru after the partition and independence of the country and during the first six decades, the party and their allies ruled the country for most of the time. At occasions, the party leaders did recognize the need of certain changes keeping national perspectives in mind and made some minor amends too but largely preferred to preserve and live with the colonial legacy. Besides, the Congress party has been all along very critical if anybody outside this party proposes or undertakes any such corrective measures. For instance, the Aurangzeb Road in the Lutyens’ zone was renamed after the name of former President APJ Abdul Kalam in 2015 amidst protest from the leaders of the Congress and in sheer reaction one Congress leader even renamed another road in Jamia Nagar, Delhi after the Mughal emperor. Aurangzeb was among the most controversial Mughal emperors for his atrocities on Hindus and Sikhs, their forced conversion to Islam and demolition of thousands of temples, including few prominent ones.

The current Central Vista Redevelopment Project was undertaken by Narendra Modi Government, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new project was held in October 2020 and foundation stone laid on 10 December 2020. A lot of development work has already been completed that inter alia includes the National War Memorial as a national monument in honour of the soldiers of the Indian military, revamping of the Kartavya Path, and installation of the statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the India Gate. The construction of the new Parliament building was undertaken on a fast track with targeted completion by January 2023 end and the official information suggests that the bids for its mechanized housekeeping have already been processed. However, none of this development was carried out smoothly and unhindered thanks to sustained opposition and protests from the country’s oldest political party.

Opposition parties, particularly the Congress and Communist (Marxists), have been fiercely critical of the Central Vista Project and the Congress MP and de facto party leader Rahul Gandhi had gone to the extent of citing it a criminal wastage in the year 2021. The so-called historian and documentary film maker duo had earlier filed a petition in Delhi High Court and then to Supreme Court to stop the project but the court(s) refused to grant stay citing it as a project of national importance and even imposed a hefty fine on the motivated petitioners. This opposition and misinformation was not limited within India but efforts have been made to internationalize it too. For instance, one so-called sculptor of Indo-British origin and UK based Anish Kapoor, whom Padma Bhushan was bestowed by the previous Congress government, wrote an article in the Guardian, UK on 4 June 2021 inter alia alleging that “tyrant Modi and his henchmen are destroying the Mughal inspired Islamic origin buildings in the latest hateful and vanity-fueled campaign to de-islamify India. It is a different matter that many Sanskrit inscriptions and the old building of the Parliament actually show a strong structural semblance with the ancient Chausath Yogini Temple at Bhind-Morena, Madhya Pradesh.

Although the Congress Party and allies have vehemently opposed the construction of new parliament now but the proposal for a new parliament building to replace the existing complex had actually emerged in early 2010s itself on account of the adequacy of space to house members and their staff and stability owing to several structural concerns of nearly a century old structure. Accordingly, the then Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar of the Congress had set up a committee in 2012 to examine and suggest alternate solution to the existing building. They left is unresolved but the voices of opposition are now viciously raised at every development reaching to its completion and opening, perhaps few people even among the politicians and media know that it is well planned and comprehensive project to be completed in a time-bound manner by the year 2006 and majority of works are underway without any significant slippage or bottleneck. For instance, the revamped Rajpath has already been renamed as 'Kartavya Path' in the year 2022 itself.

Notwithstanding vicious and false propaganda raised by the cronies and followers of the oldest political party, the buildings both of the Parliament and Secretariat i.e. North and South Blocks are considered by the present government as important to India's national heritage, hence plans are in place to protect the structure and put them in good use. Broadly, the new buildings include Parliament House, Kartavya Path (Rajpath), Common Central Secretariat, Central Conference Centre, Vanijya Bhawan, Indira Gandhi Centre for Arts, and new residences for Vice President and Prime Minister. The old Parliament House and Secretariat shall be repurposed such as the latter to be converted in a museum; and the Mughal Garden to be revamped and renamed (already done as Amrit Udyan). Some of the existing structures such as the President House, India Gate, National War Memorial, etc. shall be retained as such while a host of old building in the Central Vista zone, mostly housing various ministries, will be demolished.

Gardens at the Presidential Estate

Originally built as the official residence of British Viceroy of India, Sir Edwin Lutyens is remembered as the architect of Mughal Gardens too, who had initially designed this magnificent Garden for the Lady Harding. These gardens were said to be a combination of Mughal and British architecture like Mughal canals, European Flowerbeds with a variety of lawns and privet hedges, shrubs, herbs, plants and trees surrounding the garden, including four water ways with fountains. After independence, the estate became the official residence of the President of India and these gardens were opened for the common public viewing for few days in the months of February to March. Later on, many Presidents, including more recently Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Mr Ram Nath Kovind, took special interest in improving and creating more gardens and plant species to the existing ones.

The Mughal Garden, now the Amrit Udyan the verbatim meaning of which is the Garden of Holy Nectar, is stretched over fifteen-acre land at the back of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. It incorporated both the Mughal and English styled landscaping and allied features with a large variety of indigenous and exotic plants and flowers. As already mentioned, it is opened for the general public usually during the months of February - March and remains closed for public viewing in the remaining part of the year. Originally, there were Central Lawn or main garden, Terrace Garden, Long Garden and Circular Garden but later during the terms of the aforesaid two presidents, more gardens were added, namely Herbal-I, Herbal-II, Tactile Garden, Bonsai Garden and Arogya Vanam.

The main garden is enriched with a host of numerous varieties of beautiful plants and flowers and two channels running across and intersecting at right angle in cardinal directions, thereby dividing the garden into squares giving ambience of charbagh. Besides, there are six lotus-shaped fountains (approximately 3.7 metres high) at the cross sections of the channels as also bird tables for feeding grains to the wild birds. Two channels function as reflecting pool, a water feature often found in gardens, parks, and memorial sites, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a reflective surface. The terrace garden is actually comprised of two longitudinal strips at the northern and southern boundaries at slightly higher level on each side of the Main Garden with somewhat similar vegetation. Additionally, on the western end two gazebos and on eastern end two ornately designed sentry posts are located. Both the strips also have fountains at the centre, the water of which falls inwards forming a well-like shape.

Then the Long Garden is located to the west of the Main Garden, running along each side of the pavement leading to the Circular Garden. This garden is surrounded by nearly twelve feet high walls and predominantly different varieties of roses are grown here in sixteen square rose beds bordered by rather low hedges. A red sandstone pergola is found in the centre over the pavement which is also covered with Rose creepers, Petrea, Bougainvillea and vines. In addition, the surrounding wall too have creepers such as Jasmine, Adenoclyma, Echitice Rhynchospermum, Tecoma, Grandiflora, Bignonia, Vanista, Paniculata, and so on, with China Orange trees along the walls. Similarly, the Circular Garden too has a variety of plants and flowers. During this year, another attraction has been added as specially cultivated tulips of about a dozen unique varieties. The other structures in the proximity include rooms for the official horticulturist, stores, greenhouse, nursery, good collection of bonsai, and so on.

According to an official notification from the President’s office, President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated Udyan Utsav on Sunday, the 29th January 2023 that included the opening of the Rashtrapati Bhavan gardens for public and renaming it as 'Amrit Udyan'. The Mughal Gardens at the Rashtrapati Bhavan has been renamed Amrit Udyan in line with national celebrations for the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav to commemorate the 75th anniversary of India's independence and as part of the Central Vista Revamped Project. As per practice in vogue, the resplendent gardens are open to the public once a year for a given period and this year Udyan shall remain open for public from 31 January to 26 March 26 from 10 AM to 4 PM every day. Then from 28 to 31 March 2023, the garden will be available only for the visitors of the special categories: Farmers on 28 March; differently-abled people on 29 March; defence, paramilitary forces and police personnel on 30 March; and women including the tribal women's self-help groups on 31 March.

In Amrit Udyan, roses continue to remain as most popular and prime attraction for the viewers. Originally, nearly 250 distinct varieties of hybrid roses had been procured from different parts of the world. Post-independence, late-President Dr Zakir Husain took keen interest to provide further diversity to the already existing rose plants. Some exotic varieties of roses are known as Oklahoma (Black Rose), Adora, Eiffel Tower, Blue Moon, Scentimental, Black Lady, Lady X, Abraham Lincoln, and so on. Then many roses have been also named after famous Indian names like Mrinalini, Taj Mahal, Arjun, Bhim, Mother Teresa, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and Jawahar Lal Nehru. The garden also contain over six dozen varieties of seasonal flowers of different species that include tulips, Asiatic lilies, heliconia, hyacinths, daffodils, bougainvilleas, birds of paradise, etc. Besides, the garden is carpeted with “Doob grass” and contains bushes, vines and a large number of different varieties of ornamental trees such as Moulsiri tree, Torch tree, Golden Rain tree, and many more varieties.

Rechristening Gardens - Reaction and Response

As already mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs, the change in the nomenclature of the Presidential gardens is not spontaneous; instead, it has been the part of overall revamped Central Vista Plan which not only caters for the augmentation and improvement of facilities with the changing needs but also intends to reclaim and reestablish the past national glory by replacing the symbols of slavery, iniquity and cultural invasion to the extent feasible. However, as per the prevailing trend since Modi Government came in power at Centre in 2014, the opposition political parties, their leaders and their sympathizers in media have lost no time in brazenly criticizing the change in nomenclature as a politically motivated mission of rewriting the history.

While the ruling party leaders and supporters have extended support and laurel to the Presidential decision, many leaders of the main opposition Congress Party and others called it a partition move of the present government to divide society along religious lines by sowing seeds of hatred towards other communities. For instance, the Congress leader Rashid Alvi took a dig at the government, sarcastically saying, “Will they now demolish the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament, Lal Qila or Taj Mahal, which were built by the British?” He suggested that rather than changing names of cities, roads and gardens now, the ruling party should create new ones and give them whatever name they like. Although it is not for the first time that any name of colonial era has been changed; in fact, the Congress itself has done it on many occasions but they habitually oppose if the same is done by any other political party or person.

According to George Kurian, yet another Congress leader, the ruling Party (Bhartiya Janta Party) has failed in its priorities and the change of Mughal Garden to Amrit Udyan is nothing but to distract people from the real issues. Although he did not divulge with the stated ‘real issues’ but of late the Congress MP and de facto Party Leader Rahul Gandhi has cited time and again inflation and employment as core issues that, in his opinion, the present government has miserably failed to address. An independent look at the inflation in the country during the past three decades or so would reveal that during nearly six years of late-PM AB Vajpayee regime and large part of now Narendra Modi regime, the rate inflation has varied from about 3 to 5 percent barring previous two years of coronavirus pandemic with about 6 percent or slightly more while during the most part of the previous Congress led governments the inflation had remained high (9-10%), and so often in two digits. Similarly, the present BJP government at Centre and same party governments in States are leaving no stone unturned to attract large investments in various sectors of economy and employment generation. For illustration, in a recently concluded 3-days Global Investors Summit at Lucknow, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has signed MOUs worth 33.5 lakh crore against the initial target of 10.0 lakh crore, which according to tentative estimates may lead to creation about 93 lakh jobs in next few years.

Other opposition parties too have reacted in more or less similar fashion. The Samajwadi Party leaders feel that the move is to divert attention from the core issues like price rise and unemployment harming the interest of a particular community. The Communist Party of India has alleged that the move is an attempt to rewrite history. The Trinmool Party Chief Mamta Banerjee from West Bengal is among the most vocal and bitter critics of Prime Minister Modi and BJP. One of its key leaders Derek O’ Brien said that next time they (BJP) might change the name of Eden Garden (Famous stadium in Kolkata) to ‘Modi Garden’; instead of doing this, they (BJP) should create jobs, check inflation and safeguard interests of the Life Insurance Corporation and the State Bank of India. Yet another Trinmool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar, ex-bureaucrat turned politician, tweeted, “Waiting for Mughlai Paratha to be renamed Swarga Lok or Indra Lok Paratha”.

Ingenuity of Changes Made

Be it India or any other country, making change in the name or nature of things by the heads of state commensurate with the national objectives and interests is neither unique nor uncommon. Accordingly, one would find numerous instances in India and abroad since the time immemorial where the names of cities, buildings, roads, other objects, and even country nmae have been changed. In fact, almost every occupant of the President House in India since Independence has made some change or given personal touch to the Presidential estate to be remembered forever. C. Rajagopalachari, the last Governor General of India, got part of the land ploughed and dedicated it to food grains – the section is now known as the Nutrition Garden, or Dalikhana. Some of the significant changes made by various Presidents during the last few decades too are briefly enumerated here.

President R. Venkatraman President (1987-92) is known for adding a Cactus Garden in the Presidential lawns owing to his love for cacti. President KR Narayanan (1997-2002) was one who took keen interest in the rainwater harvesting for the recharging of the groundwater in the Presidential estate and made is possible with the assistance of the Centre for Science and Environment. The Bharat Ratna awardee President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was one who left behind his distinctive stamp of innovations and changes in the interior and style of functioning of the presidential palace that perhaps none of his predecessors had ever done. Some of the important changes made by him in the Presidential estate include complete renovation of the Ashoka Hall, modernization of the vintage kitchen and its gadgetry, creation of theme based gardens such as tactile gardens for visually handicapped and musical garden, high-tech training for the butlers, and adoption and grooming of pets. The fading Persian paintings and other artifacts of the Ashoka Hall were renovated and herbal and spiritual gardens were added which invites special interest and attention of visitors now.

President Pratibha Patil (2007-12) took special interest to see that the Bonsai Garden and nature trails were added during her tenure. President Pranab Mukherjee (2012-17) took several key initiatives including ethical, functional and structural changes during his time. The first such major change was doing away with the colonial era honorific ‘His Excellency” use before the names of President and Governors of States through a Presidential notification. Then a heritage building, the Carriage Halls and Stables, earlier used for horses and house buggies was converted to a state-of-the-art museum in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Other significant changes made by him included more accessibility of Rashtrapati Bhavan to the common man, making it as green as feasible and installation of Rooftop solar power panels of 508 MW capacity. On his initiative, approximately two thousand trees of different species were also planted in the presidential estate during his tenure.

Postlude

Notwithstanding propaganda and misinformation by the opposition and a section of purported media and intellectuals, the renaming of the Presidential Gardens has been warmly welcomed by the most people, many of them welcomed it as long due action to get rid of the colonial era legacy practices and symbols. Be it installation of the statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the India Gate or revamping and renaming of the Rajpath and Mughal Gardens as the Kartavya Path and Amrit Udyan respectively, these actions represent the same spirit and endeavour. The recent massive craze and turnover of common people to the Presidential estate to watch the galore and grandeur of the Amrit Udyan too vindicate the aforesaid averment. The collective and single identity of all the gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan is ‘Amrit Udyan’ now, instead of different descriptive identities in the past.

Although the western and Indian leftist historians under the patronage of the legacy regime have given an altogether different colour (justified by some ‘for communal harmony’) but, undoubtedly, the entire Islamic (Mughal) and colonial era represents a saga of subjugation, exploitation, repression and inequity against Hindus and other indigenous people. This is not the subject of this piece but true to the ancient Sanatana spirit, the Indian Constitution provides for equal treatment to all citizens irrespective of religion, caste, colour and region but two distinct minorities have been disproportionally promoted giving preferential treatment after independence giving altogether a different meaning and interpretation to the secularism by certain political parties and governments in self-interest. In such case, the present government has taken right steps to get riddance of the wrongs of the colonial and Mughal era with a view to restoring age-old civilizational glory that every true nationalist and patriotic Indian would endorse and support.

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