I am in India
with a 1913 Bradshaw's Handbook to Indian, Colonial And Foreign Travel.
HORN HOOTS
Published at the height of the British Raj,
my 100-year-old guidebook
will lead me on a spectacular railway adventure
through a land of majestic mountains and holy rivers.
Where magnificent beasts roam...
..and epic stories are told.
I will encounter Maharajas, explore ornate palaces,
witness the technology of modern India,
and ride some of the most exhilarating trains in the world.
I will discover how imperial railways and the English language
inadvertently spread ideas of independence
among hundreds of millions of Indians,
who today live in the largest democracy in the world.
This journey, one of four that I'm taking across India,
begins in the north-west of the country
on a route that was already a magnet for tourists
at the time of my guidebook.
I'm on the battlements of the imposing fort of Jodhpur,
with the great desert to the west
and the vast state of Rajasthan to the east.
My Bradshaw's says,
"No greater mistake can be made than considering India as one country.
"It contains more nations, more climates, more races, more creeds,
"more racial, religious and social feuds,
"and its peoples differ more from one another
"than those of the continent of Europe."
I look forward to exploring the vivid variety
of this vibrant country.
My journey begins in the city of Jodhpur,
known as the Gateway to the Desert.
After a trek into the wilderness at Osiyan,
I travel to the state capital of Rajasthan, Jaipur,
famous as the Pink City.
Passing through Bandikui Junction, I will stop at Agra,
home of one of the world's most celebrated monuments.
Journey's end is in the Indian capital New Delhi,
a megalopolis where old and new sit side by side.
As I tour the heart of this energising country...
THEY SING AND LAUGH
..I play the sport of kings with royalty...
Hit it, hit it.
It's your timing. My timing indeed.
..discover that a hole in the ground can be exquisitely beautiful...
My goodness, Sanjay, that is a fantastic thing, isn't it?
..I'm moved by India's architecture of passion...
For the millions of visitors,
the Taj Mahal is the greatest monument to love in the world.
..and relate to some of the country's most revered animals.
Was it something I said?
At the time of my guidebook,
the British Raj colonials
had made some parts of the country a home from home,
but other areas remained wild and undeveloped.
Before I view some of India's greatest splendours,
I want to experience life at its simplest.
Following my guidebook, we plunge into the Great Desert of India,
"which might be compared to the Kalahari Desert of South Africa.
"It's only within the last few years that the locomotive has penetrated
"through the heart of the vast desert."
I'd be interested to know what was the impact of the railways
on peoples of this arid region
whose life had scarcely changed in thousands of years.
I've come to the ancient oasis town of Osiyan,
an important trading hub in medieval times,
but now a quiet place.
Around it, the Great Desert, also known as the Thar Desert,
stretches for 200,000 square kilometres
across the state of Rajasthan,
Punjab, Sindh, and into Pakistan.
Good to see you.
Do we mount up on that camel? Sure.
My guide is Raj Bakshi.
These are fantastic animals, Raj, aren't they?
They are. They can go without water for three days at a stretch.
I'm quite surprised there are people living in this desert.
Yes, it's become much different than what it was.
It was very sparsely populated once upon a time.
And in the old days, this was a trading route?
This was the trading route,
this used to be part of the silk route
where they used to have the camel trades.
Once the trains and railways started, things changed overnight.
So a lot of people started coming here.
But though the numbers living here
and passing through as tourists have grown,
this desert tribe relies on traditional subsistence farming.
I'm Michael. Michael. What's your name?
Gattu. Gattu. Gattu. Gattu. Hello, Gattu. Hello.
Thank you very much, thank you.
Mm! Very sweet.
Tea flavoured with cardamom.
Thank you.
The staple cereal here is millet,
ground by hand to produce flour used to make bread.
May I do that? Is that OK?
Now this is extraordinary,
because I learnt about this in Bible class in primary school.
The two round pieces of stone that grind the corn or the seed,
or whatever it may be -
but what surprised me is although they are clearly very heavy,
it goes round very easily with this wooden handle.
Although I'm not sure I would want to do it all day.
I rejoin the railway at Osiyan
to head east across the state of Rajasthan
towards its capital, Jaipur.
The train is crammed with families snatching sleep and enjoying meals,
each on their own rail adventure.
My journey into Jaipur is only about five hours... Hello.
..so I was rather surprised to get on this train
and find it was nothing but sleeping compartments -
but I discover that the train goes all the way to Puri,
which is nearly 2,000 miles, it's on the Bay of Bengal...
Hello! Hi!
..and it doesn't arrive there
until the morning of the day after tomorrow.
Hi. So, no wonder people elect to have a kip on the way.
How are you doing?
Hello, may I join you a moment? Sure. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Where are you off to? Jaipur. Jaipur.
You are going to Jaipur? I am going to attend my brother's marriage.
Oh, wonderful.
And how long will that last, will that be days?
Three days - and one day they are doing some like...blessings,
and we are doing some prayer.
You should come and see, like, how colourful is his wedding.
Indian wedding is very colourful.
And what colours will you be wearing?
OK, I am wearing one day, like, green and red -
it's the traditional colour in Rajasthan.
Rajasthan is known as a very colourful state, isn't it?
Very colourful. You'll see, like, red, orange, yellow.
These colours - very traditional colour in Rajasthan.
Those opulent colours for which the state of Rajasthan is famed
are a vibrant link to its royal traditions.
At the beginning of the 20th century,
this area was known as Rajputana.
My guidebook tells me "so called from the Rajput people
"who speak Hindi, claim to be the race of blood of kings,
"for which the word is 'raja'
"and belong to the soldier caste of the Hindus."
So, from "raja" comes the expression "British Raj,"
the word "maharaja" meaning high king,
and nowadays the state is Rajasthan, the desert state.
I'm about to embark on the Golden Triangle of Jaipur, Agra and Delhi.
Within the British Raj,
there were over 500 semi-independent princely estates
spread across India,
each with its own ruler.
In Rajasthan alone there were 22 such dynasties
occupying lavish palaces.
Today, the Maharajas of Jaipur maintain a regal lifestyle,
but the doors of one of their palaces
have been flung open, as it is now a pampering hotel.
Such splendid surroundings and first-class service
make me reflect on life under the British Raj.
Having a G&T at the Rambagh Palace
provides a good opportunity to see what phrases in Hindi
Bradshaw's thought were necessary in 1913.
So... HE READS OUT PHRASE
"Continue moving the punkah," meaning the fan.
HE READS OUT PHRASE
"Bring the cold meat in the twinkling of an eye."
HE READS OUT PHRASE "Get the carriage ready."
And... HE READS OUT PHRASE
"He is a blockhead."
The arrogance of colonialism leaps off the page.
My Bradshaw's describes Jaipur with its carefully planned streets
as a modern native capital...
..but it is the city's many beautiful palaces
that really impress.
The guidebook tells me that Jaipur stands
"on a rock in a basin amongst granite hills,
"even the broad streets laid out
"after the American pattern
"cannot prevent Jaipur from being
"one of the most picturesque cities in India."
Well, rest assured, Bradshaw's,
there is no US influence at all evident
in the wonderful Jal Mahal palace.
Jaipur is a busy city.
The largest in Rajasthan.
Known as the pink city,
after a 19th-century maharaja repainted it to welcome Bertie,
the future King Edward VII during his tour of India in 1876.
Having slept in one palace,
I would like to see how maharajahs live today.
The current Maharaja and his family
live in the largest of Jaipur's palaces
in the centre of the old city,
and it will be my privilege
to spend some time in royal company later today.
Architecture - the palace is a mix of styles,
blending Indian Hindu and Rajput
with others from the Mughal Empire and the British Raj.
Bradshaw's calls it - "a bizarre and fantastic structure,
"a pyramidal pile of innumerable balconies and verandas
"projecting windows and turrets."
Before I meet my host,
Pankaj Sharma, chief curator of the palace museum,
will show me around.
So, Pankaj, who built the palace in the first place?
Construction of the palace was started in 1727
and Maharaja Jai Singh II,
he laid down the foundation stone of the Jaipur city
and the construction was completed in 1734.
Why would the Maharaja have needed such an enormous palace?
This palace is like a city, because they have a big family.
The women's quarters are there,
so this is for the concubines for the maharanis,
so this is their living apartment, and if Maharaja is going there,
then household staff is there.
So, in the old days,
how many women might there have been in the maharaja's life?
Some maharajas, they have five wives, some have seven
and maybe, like Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh Ji,
he had a very large number of concubines and maharanis.
He had more than 20 maharanis.
Over the centuries,
the royal family of the princely state of Jaipur
maintained its immense power and wealth
by negotiating terms with mighty invaders.
First the rulers of the Mughal Empire and then the British Raj.
And nowadays, what sort of power does the Maharaja's family have?
After the independence of India, they do not have any power,
and nowadays they have the Princess of Jaipur -
Princess Diya Kumari. She is a member of legislative assembly,
but they do not have any power to rule over Jaipur.
And the people of Jaipur,
do they still show great respect to the royal family?
Yes, still we are calling the Maharaja, then, His Highness,
and if we are meeting them,
then we are greeting them in the traditional manner.
And what does that look like? We are greeting in that manner.
So this means we are pleasing her,
we have high regards and respects for her.
During British rule, the dynasty in Jaipur
positioned itself as a leading influence amongst
the hundreds of princely states and mixed socially
with the British royal family.
Tell me about this wonderful artefact.
These are the silver urns, and these are recorded
in the Guinness Book of World Records
as the world's largest silver urns.
Because one of the maharaja, Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh Ji II,
he was invited to attend the coronation ceremony
of King Edward VII in 1902.
So he went to England, but he was always using Ganges water
for bathing purposes and for drinking purposes.
So he carried Ganges water in the silver urns from India to the UK.
What is their capacity?
The capacity is 900 gallons of water.
42,000 silver coins were released...
..to make the three silver urns.
Tell me, Pankaj, when you go to London,
do you take Ganges water with you?
Actually, I am satisfied with tap water.
And I think you would pay a lot of excess baggage, too. Yes!
The Jaipuri and British royal families remain close today.
It is a relationship cemented by sport.
Originating in Persia, polo was considered
the national game of India as far back as the 15th century.
Formalised by the British,
by the time my guide book was published,
the sport of kings provided an important social link
between the colonial power and Indian nobility.
The present Maharaja of Jaipur, 19-year-old Padmanabh Singh,
continues the family tradition.
I'm meeting his father, Narendra Singh,
at the world-famous Rajasthan polo club -
and it seems the young royal wasn't always so keen
to get his hands on a mallet.
When he was eight years old and I used to play polo here
and my late father-in-law was alive in those days
and he himself was a great polo player and great polo patron.
So he was very keen that I play and that my son should also play polo.
It is in the blood, you know?
There is a rich tradition and culture in the royal family of polo,
riding and horses and things like that,
and the first time I brought him here on the ground,
I made him sit on the horse's back
and he howled and howled, he didn't like it at all.
But it's all worked out well now.
Today, if you ask me, in his age group, I think he's the best.
He is the outstanding player.
Outstanding player and he's a very good rider, by the way.
Why do you enjoy polo so much?
Well, you sit on the horse's back, you feel out of the world.
It really gives me a lot of pleasure,
the game - it looks so beautiful, you're very disciplined,
you have to have passion for it and it's such a beautiful animal.
It really gives me a lot of thrill to play polo.
But it's very dangerous.
It is supposed to be the second-most dangerous sport
in the world after car racing.
But I don't care. I enjoy.
My thrill is so much...than the danger.
Well, I don't think I share your passion for polo,
but perhaps you will give me a few pointers.
Come, come.
Right.
Aha. Aha... Aha.
That's good. That feels good.
Take it like this. Go like this first.
Wait, wait, now hit it.
Bend a bit.
Bend a bit. Bend, bend, bend. Hit it! Hit it!
No, bend a bit. You have to bend.
I have to bend, indeed I do! Yes.
Oh! Hit it.
Oh. It's timing. My timing, indeed.
Oh, well done. Ohh! LAUGHTER
Yes. Yes.
See? Now the ball starts travelling.
Yes, well done.
Well done, Michael.
You're really doing good. I'm impressed.
Another animal is strongly associated with Indian royalty.
The elephant is part of the national psyche, a treasure, a work of art,
a deity and a beast of burden.
I have travelled just a few miles from Jaipur to Amer,
where alongside the tourist elephant rides,
there are now signs of more concern for the animal's welfare.
This mesmerising piece of grandeur is the fort at Amber or Amer.
The Maharaja is having built this wonderful defensive fort
then moved to Jaipur, so that by the time of my Bradshaw's guide,
it was already a tourist attraction.
"At the palace, you avail yourself of transport,
"elephants provided at the gate."
For at least a century, people have been travelling by Jumbo.
Today, elephant rides up to the fort remain popular,
but concerns about cruelty
have inspired an alternative attraction for tourists
who want to engage with the animals.
Not far from Amer, I meet Rahul Choudhary,
a fourth-generation mahout, or elephant driver,
and the founder of a sanctuary which is now home to 24 animals.
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS
Rahul, this is a tremendous sight for me,
seeing these elephants playing in the water
and they're apparently so happy.
What is the origin of the farm?
We used to work at the fort, doing weddings, festivals,
that sort of thing with the elephants
and after a while I started realising
this is not something they are meant to do.
Getting people in a heavy saddle and backing and forwards up and down
and doing weddings and noisy firecrackers -
and somehow I had this idea -
let's do something that is more interesting for the people
who really want to see the elephants
in their own atmosphere, in their own life.
How close does the bond become
between a human being and an elephant?
These elephants are domestic elephants.
So their nature is not wild.
Their nature is social with human beings.
They do consider us as their family, as their herd.
So relationship is the same as mum and child or father and son.
They are very intelligent animals.
And very different, one from another?
Oh, yes. Each elephant has a different personality,
the same like us.
Some are more naughty, more mischievous, some are more gentle,
some are just teenager behaviour.
Don't listen to you at all and just do what they want to do.
Just going through a phase? Yes.
Rahul believes that human-elephant interaction benefits both.
I want to find out whether that is true.
The sensitive parts of the elephants are here, around the eyes,
behind the ears, or the cheeks and here on the trunk.
What you have to do is come close to the elephant
and try to give them a very good massage on these parts,
then she will be comfortable with you
and you will be very comfortable with her -
and even you will become good friends in a few minutes.
Hello, elephant. Hello.
And, really, around the eyes?
That seems extraordinary.
And behind the ears. Yes. Or the cheeks. And over the cheeks.
Below the chin. And below the chin.
So when you offer the food to the elephant,
you need to learn the command.
First, legs to take from your hand,
into the trunk, second to eat from the trunk into the mouth.
OK. Leh.
Aha. Dharr. Dharr.
Duh.
D-H-A-R-R. Dharr. Dharr!
Yes. Dharr!
Whoa! In it goes. How was that?
Ooh, Ellie, what a big tongue you have.
Was that good?
Gourmet.
And after dinner comes bath time.
Ah!
Mother always told me to wash behind the ears, but it's a mammoth task.
Was it something I said?
I thought we were going to get on so well.
Oh!
From Jaipur, the Golden Triangle route continues eastwards.
At the time of my guidebook, Indian trains boasted lavish dining cars.
Nowadays, many people simply pick something up before they board.
Excuse me interrupting you, sir.
I hope you're enjoying your breakfast.
What do you like to eat for breakfast?
What is that? This is a South Indian dish. South Indian.
Quite spicy? No, medium spicy. Medium spicy...
..but even so, you like spicy food in the morning?
Yes. Where are you travelling to today?
I am travelling to Delhi. Delhi -
and what is the purpose of your visit?
Attending a marriage. Marvellous.
And you, madam, have beautifully-decorated hands.
Tell me about... This is mehndi.
Because she attended a marriage yesterday.
So, looking nice.
This is one type of make-up.
My next stop will be Bandikui.
My Bradshaw's says the district suffers constantly from drought -
the soil produces enough in ordinary seasons
for the vast herds of camels, horned cattle and sheep,
but the people depend on the south-west and east monsoons.
Famines every 40 or 50 years.
One step people could take was to dig a well,
and they were deeply resourceful.
Bandikui Junction wasn't an alluring stop for tourists
at the time of my Bradshaw's -
but for the inhabitants of this very arid region,
it was an important hub,
and I'm curious to see what had brought them here.
I'm heading for a village called Abhaneri.
It's 43 degrees, the earth looks parched
and yet somehow there is no shortage of people somehow living here.
Despite the desert conditions described in my guidebook,
people have managed to survive here for hundreds of years.
Historian Dr Sanjay Sharma will show me
how they sourced precious water by building an extraordinary stepwell.
Such a narrow entrance.
Yes, that's right - but quite beautiful, as well.
This is lovely.
Absolutely. Very ornate. Lovely. Yes.
My goodness, Sanjay,
that is a fantastic thing, isn't it?
That is so different from what I imagined.
I mean, to me, a stepwell
meant a well is a round thing, I thought, you know,
quite a big round thing, I had no idea it would be on this scale -
and so fantastically decorated, these wonderful geometric designs.
64 feet deep with 13 floors,
it's one of the largest and deepest stepwells in India
and was built a thousand years ago.
You get such a sense of the scale when you begin to go down inside.
It is absolutely stunning, isn't it?
The Chand Baori stepwell reflects as much grandeur and ambition
as any palace that I have visited...
..but this was always intended as a palace for the people.
What do you think the scene would have been here a thousand years ago?
In the desert, you will have caravans passing,
people who would actually not have access to water anywhere else,
so they would come here.
It would have been a place bustling with people
and there would be, I can imagine,
lots of women with pots on their heads going down,
perhaps singing in the process and filling water,
early morning, late in the evening -
and it would be an activity full of mirth, I suppose,
of happiness.
Parts of the structure would be reserved quarters for the elite,
for the more important people,
but the rest of the community
would also have access to the water and also the cattle.
Now, this area, unfortunately, has suffered from terrible famines.
Tell me about those.
This particular area has had droughts
leading to famines, historically,
but there were ways in which the communities
know how to use water very carefully and how to use it rationally,
how to use it frugally -
and perhaps this attitude enabled people
living in various parts of Rajasthan to avoid acute starvation deaths.
By the time of my Bradshaw's,
most of the 3,000 stepwells in India had fallen into disuse...
..and today fewer than 1,000 remain.
From one of the less well-known treasures of India,
I'm moving on to one of the most legendary...
..but first, there's the little matter
of negotiating the platform at Bandikui Junction.
How rude.
I am now halfway through my trip
around the Golden Triangle,
heading for the city of Agra
en route to my final destination,
the capital of India, New Delhi.
The railway line crosses the border from Rajasthan into Uttar Pradesh,
India's fourth largest state and its most heavily populated.
My next stop will be Agra.
My Bradshaw's tells me that the architectural monuments
of the Mughal sovereigns at Agra
are amongst the finest in the world.
Indeed, I expect to find there one of the most beautiful,
one of the most perfect,
one of the most sublime buildings ever conceived.
Already a popular destination at the time of my Bradshaw's,
today, Agra is on the itinerary
of a quarter of all foreign tourists to India...
..but most of the 13.5 million
passengers who pass through this station each year are Indian.
They arrive at a busy industrial town
which is also home to three Unesco World Heritage sites.
In India, says Bradshaw's,
good hotels are rare outside the largest towns and as a whole
accommodation is not luxurious.
Well, if so, that is something that has most certainly changed...
Good evening. Good evening.
..and the Oberoi Amarvilas hotel is a case in point.
What makes for the perfect early-morning ablution?
Is it the softness of the towel, the quality of the soap,
the fragrance of the rose petals?
No, it is the view.
I believe this bathroom has the greatest vista on the planet.
"The Taj Mahal..." says Bradshaw's,
"..a mausoleum built by Shah Jahan
"for his beautiful queen.
"The light of the world.
"A graceful dome structure of polished white marble
"as fresh as when first built,
"decorated with rich mosaics,
"inlaid with jasper, agate,
"carnelian and other precious stones."
From here, it seems to hover weightless
above the garden of the hotel, built by a man out of love, out of grief,
it is the world's greatest monument to passion.
Historian Najaf Haider
is my guide to the husband-and-wife relationship
at its heart and to the grandeur
of the vast empire over which they reigned.
Najaf, this is not the first time I have seen the Taj Mahal,
but I'm still absolutely smitten by its beauty.
It is a fantastic building, isn't it?
It is indeed. Partly because it is a product of love and passion
and partly because of the enormous amount of resources,
work material and intellectual
that went into the making of this monument.
And tell me about the love story that lies behind it.
Shah Jahan was married to Arjumand Banu Begum,
who was given the title of Mumtaz Mahal.
Even though he was married to two other women,
she was the one who spent most of the time with him,
and travelled with him and produced children with him.
So it is fair to say there was a strong bond
and love between the two -
and once she died, Shah Jahan was devastated.
When he came out of the statutory mourning period,
his moustache and hair had turned grey
and he looked much older,
and one way to address the grief,
this enormous amount of grief,
was to plan a monument of this proportion -
which Shah Jahan could, because he was an ambitious builder.
He was also a mighty emperor,
able to summon 20,000 craftsmen
and to use the best and costliest materials.
It took 20 years to complete the building
which now stands as a testament to the wealth, political power
and cultural influence of the Mughal Empire,
which ruled India for over 200 years from the 16th century.
The Mughals were an invading race, tell me about them.
The Mughals came from Central Asia and Afghanistan,
they were part Turk, part Mongol.
They built a huge empire which survived for over three centuries
and they not only politically united the country,
but also left a rich legacy in terms of culture
which one could see in a large corpus of literature,
manuscript, some of them beautifully illustrated
and brilliantly illuminated,
which you can find in museums and libraries outside India.
When Shah Jahan died in 1666, he was interred here alongside his wife.
In the two centuries that followed, the monument fell into disrepair.
There were marauders and invaders
who did not treat the monument with the same kind of respect
that it had during the classical Mughal period.
There were cases of vandalism.
It took the representative of another great empire
to restore what had been lost.
Lord Curzon, the British Viceroy, had a deep interest
in preserving the cultural and material heritage of India.
He was extremely fascinated by the Taj,
and visited Agra many times,
and then decided to undertake a huge project
repairing the monument and its ancillary buildings,
but also landscaping the garden.
The garden really took the lion's share of his attention.
The people who come here, what do you think they take away from it?
Well, they take away the memory of the Mughal era.
They find the monument extremely beautiful,
and for the millions of visitors who come here every year,
the Taj Mahal is the greatest monument to love in the world.
I will now complete the Golden Triangle
as I embark on the final leg of my journey to India's capital.
My train to Delhi is unfortunately 50 minutes late,
which is not an unusual occurrence in India.
On a rail network of 71,000 miles of track and 8,000 stations,
delays are par for the course.
Hello. Thank you.
23 million passengers per day use the system,
so feeding them is big business
and requires innovation.
Indian trains sometimes strike you as a little old-fashioned,
but when it comes to ordering food, this country is bang up to date.
For my lunch, I'm going to use an app
and I'm going to choose the thali,
I'm going to ask for my food to be delivered to coach A1,
seat number 11 at the next station which is Mathura Junction.
Oh! My mouth is watering already.
There's a little time before my thali and I coincide.
I will pass it as many Indians do
on journeys that can last for several days
by striking up conversation with fellow passengers.
Are you travelling a long way?
Yes, we are coming from the southern region of India.
That is a long journey. How many hours?
It is approximately 40, 48 hours to Delhi.
40 hours on the train.
Obviously there will be a lot of stops.
Yes. Train travelling is something
of a different experience all the times.
Different languages, different people, different lives -
but it's amazing sometimes.
All the people you meet on the trains. It's funny.
All parts of the train reach the destination at the same time.
Same time. Yes. Would you prefer to fly or do you prefer the train?
Train. Really?
Even though it takes so long - aren't you tired?
No, it's not a problem.
Not a problem. That's nice.
We've got young train fans here. Yeah!
Oh, thank you. Perfect. Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
Well, I must say I am mightily impressed -
my thali was delivered to the right carriage,
to the right seat, and it looks very good.
A thali is a complete Indian meal in itself.
Rice with cumin, this is a cottage cheese curry, this is a pea curry,
that is chickpea in yoghurt.
Here is my dahl, spicy lentils, little salad
and what I do is I dip my bread in my curry
and I put a little pickle on...
And the flavours explode in the mouth!
The 120-mile journey from Agra to Delhi
on the Kerala Express takes about three hours.
Excuse me, please.
For a taste of India in the raw,
I have moved into that compartment which is known as unreserved.
Of course it is un-air-conditioned,
it is extremely crowded.
At each station it turns into a sort of bazaar,
because all the hawkers get on and sell food and water
and I'm struck by these people resting on the luggage racks
which look about as comfortable as a bed of nails.
How are you up there, are you OK? Achha, OK?
Hello! Do you speak English?
Yes. Where are you going today?
New Delhi. You are going to New Delhi.
New Delhi. Where have you come from? Agra.
Agra, like me - and how do you find the unreserved class,
are you comfortable?
Yes, small journey, two or three hours I'm going to...easy.
In the unreserved class. Yeah.
How much was your ticket?
90 rupees. 90 rupees.
In Britain, just over £1.
Is that good value?
Bus, I'm going to bus, ticket is 135 rupees.
Ah. On train only for 90 rupees.
So the train is better. Yes. Train is better.
Very, very good. Enjoy your journey.
Thank you. Thank you for talking to me. Thank you very much.
The British built railways in India in order to export raw materials
and to transport troops -
but the provision of fast and affordable transport
had unintended consequences.
It spread ideas...
..and the idea which swept through the nation
at the turn of the 20th century was independence for India.
From 1915, nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi
travelled the length and breadth of the country by train,
greeted everywhere by adoring crowds.
Today, cheap transport is still important in India, economically,
politically and socially,
but you have to travel unreserved class
to find out how it really brings people together.
CLAPPING
Oh, thank you. APPLAUSE
Where are you going, Delhi?
You going to Delhi? Punjab.
You're going now to Punjab. Punjab.
Where? Amritsar? Amritsar.
Very good. Have a good journey. Thanks for the dance!
Balle, balle. Balle, balle.
LAUGHTER
TRANSLATION:
OK? OK!
Bye-bye. Bye-bye! Bye! Bye-bye.
TRAIN HOOTS Bye-bye.
Finally, my journey has brought me to the capital of modern-day India.
Arriving in Delhi, I am plunged into a teeming metropolis
full of contrasts.
With 19 million inhabitants and growing fast,
it is on track to be the second-largest city in the world.
At its heart is the Red Fort,
another grand project built in the 17th century
by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan,
this time as his imperial seat.
According to Bradshaw's,
the most interesting parts of Delhi can be explored only on foot.
The guide says the visitor can wander for days,
meeting fresh studies of the real East at every turn.
For shopping, my Bradshaw's has brought me to Chandni Chowk,
it means Moonlight Square.
It was created by the daughter of Shah Jahan,
the man who built the Taj Mahal -
and today it is the place where you find mithai wallahs,
namkeen wallahs, paratha wallahs -
vendors of sweet, savoury and bready Indian delights.
Chandni Chowk is known as the food capital of India.
Many a Bollywood star has been tempted to these streets
in search of the legendary paratha.
Hello. I'm going to have a paratha.
Potato? Yeah, potato would be nice. Yes, let me have a potato paratha.
A paratha is a filled, flaky bread soaked in ghee or clarified butter
and has been popular in India for hundreds of years.
Thank you. Thank you.
Today, in Delhi, old and new sit side by side.
Around the ancient streets, gleaming modern commercial districts
have sprouted, but the meteoric growth
has come with a cost.
This is one of the most polluted cities on earth.
The modern way to escape the gridlock above is to go underground.
One journey, please. Central Secretariat.
After Mughals, Maharajas and the British Raj,
it's time for some modern India.
The Delhi Metro was inaugurated in the 21st century.
Already more than 200km of track, 160 stations,
much more planned.
It's new, it's clean, it's air-conditioned.
If you've risked your sanity - and your life -
in the congestion of Delhi,
why wouldn't you want to travel reliably and rapidly underground?
And just think about all the pollution that we're saving.
Hello, ladies. BOTH: Hello.
I'm using the Delhi Metro for the first time and, I must say,
I'm enjoying it very much.
Do you use it lots? Yeah, we use it daily.
Do you? On a daily basis. How do you like it? We love it. Yes?
Because there's no option. We have to commute through this, er, metro.
Through this.
You could go by car, or bus, or rickshaw?
We'll be stuck in traffic and all, because of that.
Yeah. So this is the convenient way. And it's cool. Yeah.
It's air-conditioned. It is pretty cool.
How hot is it today outside?
It's about 43 or 42 degrees outside.
Yes - and in here, what, we're...?
Around 22. It's much better here.
At least we're not sweating, and it's all good.
It's much better. So, you give the thumbs-up to the metro?
Two, double!
Are you a frequent user of the Delhi Metro?
Yes, I am. And how do you find it?
So, it's very much comfortable. We have a ladies coach.
The Delhi Metro is providing a different facility
for those who are travelling alone, for the ladies.
Is it important to have a ladies carriage to you?
Yeah, when it's a matter of women's safety,
then I think Delhi Metro has done
a good job of providing a ladies' coach.
I'm leaving the metro at the Central Secretariat station,
heading for the seat of power.
"Delhi..." comments Bradshaw's,
"..is the one city which can claim to rank
"both as an historic capital and an imperial city."
"Calcutta is but a mushroom city by comparison.
"The present Delhi is the fifth or sixth city
"which has been raised upon its sites,
"but the glamour of its glories under the Mughal emperors
"still hangs round its walls.
"Delhi is indeed an architectural palimpsest,"
meaning one of those parchments
that was written and then overwritten.
Perspicacious words, because in the centuries
since Bradshaw's was published, several other cities have arisen,
including this one - designed by and for the British - New Delhi.
The planned elegance of New Delhi
is in sharp contrast with the organic chaos
that created other parts of the city.
In the grounds of the official home of the president,
I'm meeting someone who can help me
to unpick the origins of this stately enclave -
Swapan Dasgupta, Member of Parliament and political journalist.
Swapan, my Bradshaw's, published in 1913, recalls that in December 1911,
"The most magnificent durbar in Indian history
"was held at Delhi by the King Emperor -
"King George V - himself."
Tell me about that.
Well, this was the first time a reigning monarch
actually came to India.
Queen Victoria was made the Empress of India, but she never came here.
Edward VII never came here,
although he did come as Prince of Wales.
But this time, a reigning monarch, so it was a grand event.
It was really the high noon of the Empire.
Durbar is an Urdu word meaning "a reception held by a ruler."
For this exceptionally lavish one in 1911,
65 square kilometres were occupied by tents
for thousands of guests and their servants.
It was British pageantry at its best.
It was everything.
Exotica, colour, show of might,
the Maharajas, the masses coming in, the spectacle.
In every respect, the British wanted to show that, "Here we are,
"ruling over a traditional country, but a modernising force,
"and a benign force."
It was benign up to a point,
because the Maharajas combined a bit of grovelling with self-respect.
Now, during that durbar of December 1911,
a surprise announcement is made that
the capital is moving from Calcutta to Delhi, why?
Well, they thought Calcutta was becoming a hotbed of sedition,
and Delhi was seen as really the natural place
where Indian empires were ruled from.
So they decide to make a very special capital here,
and they employ Edwin Lutyens to make a new Delhi.
What does Lutyens do? How successful is he, do you think?
Well, there was always a pressure on Lutyens -
accommodate Indian motives, accommodate Indian designs,
we have to be seen to be more Indian.
So if you look at this, it's not the Indo-Saracenic stuff
which you see in Mumbai.
It's not the same Gothic stuff you see in Calcutta.
It's very different.
The Indian motifs are very much there.
But by the time that architect Edwin Lutyens and his colleague,
Herbert Baker, had completed the imperial capital,
political pressure was building up.
The year after the great durbar,
agitators threw a bomb at the Viceroy,
injuring him and killing a servant.
By then, the sunset of the British Raj was approaching,
and in August 1947, New Delhi was formally handed over
by the last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten,
to the newly independent Indian Government.
New Delhi is grand, it's on a fantastic scale -
and this building here, what is this?
This was originally the Viceregal Lodge.
It's called the Rashtrapati Bhavan now,
which is the home of the President of India.
It was really the centrepiece of New Delhi,
as was envisaged by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Do you like it? Personally speaking, I love it.
I love it, because I think it represents grandeur -
and personally speaking, I think the Indian Republic
is the legitimate inheritor of the British Raj.
In arid Rajputana, the Maharajas clung to power
in their little states by doing deals
with the powerful invaders.
First, the Mughals, and then the British -
but those imperial powers brought together diverse ethnic groups
on the subcontinent under one ruler,
thus making possible the idea
of a united India that might one day be free.
The railways helped to spread that idea,
and by the time that Edwin Lutyens' New Delhi had been built,
independence was becoming unstoppable.
For 70 years now, India has ruled itself -
from the powerhouses constructed for the British Raj.
Next time, I travel to Southern India,
where I try to keep pace with India's tech revolution.
"Your food is ready. Please turn off your burner."
Thank you very much, I will.
"Your food is ready." OK, OK! "Please turn off your burner."
I discover that silk manufacturers have gone to great lengths...
How long may the yarn be, then, from a single silk flower?
Each silk flower produces about a thousand metres of silk.
That's absolutely extraordinary!
..and learn how Britain succeeded in its colonial ambitions.
They understood the Indian psyche exceedingly well,
and so they managed to get their hands on what they wanted.