EXCERPT. The Forgotten Cities of Delhi: A peek into the Capital’s turbulent past

I have driven past Khooni Darwaza many a time as it’s very close to Firoz Shah Kotla, a favourite haunt of mine but one day I finally decided to explore it. Not many know that this gate was built by Emperor Sher Shah Suri for his city Shergarh (Purana Qila area) and was named Kabuli Darwaza because according to Maulvi Zafar Hasan caravans to Afghanistan passed through this to the northern gate of Emperor Sher Shah’s city.

At least till 1919 when Monuments of Delhi was published, it was called Kabuli Darwaza or Lal Darwaza because of the red stone used.

The facade of the gate is imposing and measures 53 feet 5 inches in width and has a height of 50 feet 9 inches from base to top of the parapet. Its built of Delhi quartzite. This gate is now fenced in with its own patch of wilderness and wild grass and very few who pass by it know of its gory past.

The reputation of this gate was already bloody to start with, since it is said that Emperor Jahangir had the two sons of Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khana’n, a minister in his father, Emperor Akbar’s court, killed and hung on this gate. Khan e Khana’n had supported the claims of Emperor Jahangir’s son Khusrau, who was also Emperor Akbar’s favourite against Emperor Jahangir – he paid the price later. It is said that Emperor Aurangzeb also displayed Dara Shukoh’s head here after he had him killed in the War of Succession.

The name Khooni Darwaza alludes to the cruel and unprovoked act of Major Hodson on 22 September 1857, when he was taking the sons of the Mughal Emperor, (who had surrendered to him in Emperor Humayun’s tomb) to Red Fort. These were Mirza Mughal, who had been the initial leader of the Mughal troops against the British and Mirza Khizr Sultan and his grandson

Mirza Abu Bakr, were being taken in a bullock cart. As the procession went towards the fort, citizens of Delhi who had white cloth tied on their heads – ( kafan baandh kar niklay hain ) – joined them. Near Kabuli Darwaza, Hodson panicked, fearing an attack against himself and his hundred-odd men. Hodson felt that the rescue of the princes may overturn the tide against the British, who had subdued the ‘mutiny’ after much bloodshed and effort. He shot the princes in cold blood.

Qila Mualla ki Jhalkiyan, written by Arsh Taimuri, a descendant of Bahadur Shah Zafar, gives a description by Mirza Qumqamuddin who was present on the occasion. He writes:

When Major Hodson arrested Mirza Mughal, Mirza Khizr Sultan and Mirza Abu Bakr and put them in a bullock cart to be transported to the Qila, the cart driver ran away in fear excusing himself on the pretext of wanting to relieve himself. The cart driver was replaced by Mirza Mughal’s special attendant, Hussain Mirza.

According to Mirza Qumqamuddin, the writer of Muzaffarnama, when the cart was approaching the jailhouse, Major Hodson stopped it and asked, ‘Who is the commander in chief ?’ Mirza Mughal replied, ‘I am.’

Hodson made him alight from the cart and shot him at point blank range. After that he came to the cart and asked, ‘Who is the colonel?’

Mirza Khizr Sultan said, ‘I am.’

Hodson made him get down and shot him in the same way. The bodies of these two princes were writhing in the dust with fountains of blood spouting from the wounds. Mirza Abu Bakr, unable to see the state of his uncles, called out in anger and Major Hodson came to him and dragged him down and shot him too. The first bullet hit his arm and the next on his thigh. He fell down on the third.

When the corpses were cold, one of the riders with Hodson hacked off the heads and set off with them.

Mirza Qumqamuddin wrote that he was sitting in the rath shivering with fear waiting for his turn but Hodson ignored him and leaving the rath behind went off with his cavalrymen holding the heads of the princes.

Hodson took the naked bodies of the princes to Chandni Chowk where they were left to rot in the sun in front of the kotwali for days. Hodson was later censured for this by the British authorities, but by then it was too late and the barbaric deed was done.

Today, the gate is kept locked after a student of Maulana Azad Medical College was raped at the same location in 2002.

It is built on three levels with staircases leading to the top. The different floor levels of the gate are marked by windows framed in red sandstone, each furnished with a balcony carried on heavy quartzite corbels.

According to Maulvi Zafar Hasan, ‘Heavy kangura battlements rubble built and dressed with grey stone, crown the parapet of the gate and thevstring course immediately below them, being broken over the central arch by three damaghah intended for the vertical discharge of projectiles or boiling oil.’

From afar it seems so innocuous and innocent but even during the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1947, many refugees were killed while they were proceeding towards Purana Qila for shelter through this gate.

The Forgotten Cities of Delhi Rana SafviHarperCollinsNon Fiction₹799

Rana Safvi’ s ‘The Forgotten Cities of Delhi’ was published by HarperCollins in May