Vacation Travel India

Nehru dynasty

Jawaharlal Nehru died in 1964, but a dynasty had been born. Two years later his daughter, Indira Gandhi, took over the reins of power and championed Democratic Socialism.

Her authoritarian manner helped to establish her as the undisputed leader of a divided Congress party, as did India’s 1971 victory over East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Her Green Revolution turned tenant farmers into landowners, guaranteeing her an agrarian power base well into the 1980s.

It was a turbulent time. When, in June 1975, the Allahabad High Court found Gandhi guilty of corrupt political practices, she reacted by imposing a State of Emergency that was to last two years. The press was censored, 100,000 political opponents and activists were imprisoned, slums were cleared and enforced sterilizations were carried out. Inevitably, there was a backlash. Her Congress (Indira) party decisively lost the 1977 election, which brought to power the Janata Dal party, led by the octogenarian Morarji Desai. In a political drama unusual even by Indian standards, Gandhi was put briefly behind bars. Against all odds, however, she was back in office in 1980.

Her joy was short-lived, for later that year her son, Sanjay, died in an air crash. Although his ruthlessness had won him scant popularity, Sanjay was being groomed by Gandhi as her heir apparent. On his death she persuaded her second son, Rajiv, a pilot with Indian Airlines, to make his first appearance on the political stage.

Problems in Punjab

Also making headlines in 1980 was Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a charismatic, turbaned militant leader based in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh shrines. Surrounded by a group of young, educated and fanatical Sikhs, he demanded greater rights for the Sikh community and separation of the state of Punjab from the rest of India. Indira Gandhi’s tactic of pitting Sikh groups against each other only aggravated the crisis and the Sant’s followers were able to terrorize, rob and murder Hindus unhindered.

By 1984 the threat had reached the capital, and Gandhi sent the army into the Golden Temple, large parts of which were destroyed. Much blood was shed and the Sant was killed. Revenge was not long in coming: on 31 October, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

A shocked Congress party elected Rajiv Gandhi prime minister. It seemed to some a rash decision, given his inexperience, but the electorate overwhelmingly endorsed Congress’s decision by sweeping Rajiv to power in the subsequent elections. His manifesto was ambitious, promising to revive industry with new technology and management techniques. It was an appealing mix in a year that had seen a shattering accident at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, when gas leaked from a pesticide plant owned by the US multinational Union Carbide, killing 2,000 local residents and affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

Five years later, amid allegations of political corruption, Congress (I) was defeated catastrophically in the polls. A key issue was the Bofors scandal, in which suspect commissions had been paid by a Swedish arms manufacturer in order to supply guns to the Indian army. Rajiv’s defence minister, V.P. Singh, resigned in 1987 alleging Congress corruption in the affair and formed a new party, the National Front. In the 1989 election he won enough votes to form a minority government, which was toppled in 1990 over caste and religious issues.

Rajiv, believing that he had lost the 1989 election by being too aloof, plunged into a populist campaign, driving in an open Jeep through milling crowds. In Tamil Nadu a woman approached him with a sandalwood garland and detonated the bomb on her belt. Gandhi and 20 others were killed in the blast. Such had been the grip of the Nehru succession over the Congress (I) party that no obvious successor existed. Desperate attempts were made to draft Rajiv’s Italian-born widow, Sonia, as his successor, but she resisted until 1998, when she campaigned to salvage the reputation of the dynastic party and then was chosen to head it.

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Although India is often praised as the world’s largest democracy, most of its institutions are in need of reform. The British-based judicial system, for instance, is gridlocked but often seems to be the only institution able to put any restraints on the wilder excesses of politicians. The country has, however, managed to sustain a working electoral system since 1947, with only a 19-month gap in the mid-1970s when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared emergency rule. This achievement is considerable and some analysts believe elections have helped to keep the poor, heterogeneous country together since achieving Independence from Britain in 1947.

The new republic

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, believed that economic power should rest with the state. He gave India a planned economy, in which the government owned basic industries, such as steel and power generation, and had control over what the private sector produced. Manufacturers were licensed to produce goods in certain quantities, at certain prices, and were issued with raw materials. This, in conjunction with the “India First” policy of self-sufficiency, made considerable headway in improving the economic condition of the country. The Green Revolution also contributed to turning India from a net importer of food to a major exporter. Pessimists warned it was premature to give the vote to the illiterate masses in 1947 and unwise to adopt Britain’s political system, designed for such different circumstances. Nehru, however, was vindicated in arguing that it was precisely what India needed. It would, he thought, keep under control the cultural, ethnic and religious differences that might otherwise tear the country apart. To achieve unity, more than 500 Indian princes had to give up their titles. This tricky diplomatic task was accomplished in 1950 by Nehru’s deputy, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, a communal right-winger trusted by those who lived off inherited wealth.

The decision to base the new state boundaries on regional languages led to problems. Inevitably a multitude of dialects had to be ignored. The ethnic and language divisions of the states were never satisfactorily settled and violent disputes still occasionally flare.

Initially, the communal violence of Partition (the separation of the country into a predominantly Muslim Pakistan and a predominantly Hindu India) was traumatic. Hindus and Muslims clashed bitterly, slaughtering thousands and forcing countless others to flee their homes. Although Nehru tried to separate political and public life, confining religion to the private sphere, the distinction was never fully accepted by large parts of the population, who regarded their spiritual and secular lives as indivisible.

Nehru aimed to transform a feudal society into one of equal opportunity. He placed his faith in Democratic Socialism, a middle way between a capitalistic welfare state and a Soviet-styled centrally controlled economy. Encouraging self-reliance would, he hoped, stimulate free enterprise, but avoid polarizing wealth. Imports were restricted, business excesses were checked by state institutions and key industries were kept under state control.

On the foreign front, India helped to establish the Non-Aligned Movement and advocated in the 1950s that China be given international status. But Nehru’s admiration of China blinded him to its territorial ambitions, which led to war in 1962 over claims on the remote Aksai Chin area. India suffered a disastrous defeat. Nehru determined to build up India’s arms capability, but was opposed by the United States and Great Britain. He turned instead to the Soviet Union.

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South Delhi

Hauz Khas Village, poised at the edge of a 14th-century water reservoir, and madrasa and tomb of Feroze Shah Tughlaq, is south along Aurobindo Marg from Lodi Gardens. Although the village has been transformed into an enclave of expensive boutiques, art galleries (particularly good is the Village Gallery which has a wide selection of modern and contemporary Indian art), and restaurants, it still retains much of its greenery and charm. Traditional dance performances are sometimes held here in the evenings.

Monuments dot the area: the ruins of Siri Fort, now very overgrown and difficult to see, stand near the Asian Games Village complex to the east (open only to members). Southwards on Aurobindo Marg, past the Outer Ring Road and Aurobindo Ashram, stands Qutb Minar Complex (open sunrise to sunset; entrance fee). This remarkable 72-metre (278-ft) high tower, engraved with verses from the Koran, was built in the 13th century by Qutb-ud-Din-Aibak, the first Muslim sultan of Delhi, to celebrate his victory over the Hindu kings. In the grounds, Aibak’s Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque is believed to be the oldest in India, built using parts of demolished Hindu and Jain temples. In the mosque courtyard is a 4th-century iron pillar, remarkable for having never shown any sign of corrosion. The ruins of Lai Kot, Delhi’s first city, are also in this area.

Other historic sites dot Mehrauli Village to the west amid a labyrinth of old Indian bazaars. Further west on Gurgaon Road the tombs of Jamali Kamali, noted for their coloured ceilings, and a giant statue of Mahavira face each other. Turn south again to see the spectacular modern temples and ashram complexes of Chattarpur. These offer courses in yoga, naturotherapy, color therapy, pyramid power and more traditional religious studies.

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The capital of India presents a captivating combination of ancient and modern. As a major cultural centre, Delhi offers a glimpse of the diversity of the country’s many states.

Delhi is the political and administrative centre of the world’s largest democracy. It has a population of more than 13.7 million and covers 1,500 sq km (579 sq miles). Presenting a curious mixture of old and new, this sprawling city has two main parts, Old Delhi (former Shahjahanabad) and New Delhi (the former British capital), consisting of ancient villages and sites that have been engulfed by newer residential areas (colonies). The city struggles to cope with the effects of expansion - pollution, traffic congestion, shortages of water and power, continual construction - and an extreme climate. Recent positive moves include the conversion of all public transport from diesel to compressed natural gas, and the opening of the first stages of a metro system. There are three lines, which are constantly expanding - visit www.delhimetrorail.com to check their progress. Line 1 runs from Shahdara across the Yamuna to Kashmiri Gate before heading north to Rithala. Line 2, of more use to visitors, runs from Vishwa Vidyalaya in the north, crossing line 1 at Kashmiri Gate, before running down to the Central Secretariat via Connaught Place. Line 3 runs from Barakhamba to Dwarka.

Ancient cities of Delhi

Strategically located between the Aravalli hills and the Yamuna river, Delhi has been the site of more than a dozen cities. It is named after an earlier settlement, “Dillika”. The first of the cities was Indraprastha, legendary capital of the Pan-davas, epic heroes of the Mahabharata. Recent excavations at Purana Qila (Old Fort) date the settlement to between the 1st century BC and the 4th century AD.

The next documented city was Lai Kot, founded in the 8th century AD by Tomara Rajputs. It was captured and renamed Qila Rai Pithora by the Chauhan Rajputs in the 12th century. Later it was occupied by the Slave King Qutb-ud-din, who founded the Delhi Sultanate and began construction of the Qutb Minar. The monuments and ruins from this era stand in and around the Qutb Minar complex in South Delhi. The ruins of Siri, a capital established by the Turkish Ala-ud-Din Khilji, can be seen around Hauz Khas colony. In 1320 Ghias-ud-Din Tughlaq moved to his fortress city of Tugh-laqabad, east of Qutb Minar. His tomb, overrun by monkeys, stands across the road from the ruins.

Ferozabad, once the richest city in the world, was founded in 1351 by his successor, Feroz Shah Tughlaq, on the banks of the River Yamuna. The ruins of his palace and other monuments are situated in Feroz Shah Kotla, south of the memorials on the Ring Road.

They were followed by the Sayyids and the Lodis, whose tombs stand in Lodi Gardens, south of India Gate. Their defeat by the Central Asian invader Babur, in the 16th century, marked the end of the Delhi Sultanate and the dawn of the Mughal Empire. Din-Panah fort (Purana Qila) was built above the Yamuna River by Babur’s son, the studious Humayun, who was forced to flee by Sher Shah, an Afghan invader. Sher Shah began constructing his new capital of Shergarh, but Humayun won back Delhi in 1555 only to die a few months later when he fell down his library stairs. Akbar, Humayun’s son, moved his capital to Agra. His grandson, Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, returned to Delhi in 1638 to build the glorious Shahjahanabad. This walled capital, bound by 14 gates, included most of Old Delhi, Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque), the bazaars around Chandni Chowk and Lai Qila (Red Fort) from where he ruled his empire. Successive invasions from Persia reduced the power of the Mughals until the British took over Delhi in the 19th century.

In 1911, during the visit of King George V, Delhi was declared the capital of the British Empire in India. The present city of New Delhi, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, was completed by 1931.

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Electoral fightback

In the past India has shown a great capacity for reinvention. The 2004 election showed that politics are alive and kicking, particularly at a grass roots level. Believing their own propaganda, the NDA aimed their campaign squarely at the middle class, imagining that the dreams of the affluent minority would prove sufficiently alluring to the poor majority to carry the election. This was not to be the case. The BJP saw its vote plummet, losing 44 seats, while Congress (the largest party) went up from 114 to 145. Perhaps even more telling were the gains for the left-wing, with the two communist parties (CPI and CPI(M)) winning in 53 seats (up from 37 in 1999), and the overwhelming defeat of the arch-liberaliser Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP (Tclugu Desam Party) in Andhra Pradesh, which went down from 29 to five seats.

Social attitudes

As with so much else in contemporary India, people’s attitudes towards everything from religion, to clothes, to sex are multifarious and complex. To take one example, it is generally true that the position of women in society has improved over the past 50 years. After all, India had a female prime minister years before the UK, and it is not uncommon to see women in the workplace. On the streets of central New Delhi you can now see young women wearing miniskirts, unthinkable 10 years ago; though it is true that this is still an exception, the norm being either jeans and a T-shirt or salwar kamiz.

However, these advances are not universal. In many areas women are still restricted to the domestic sphere or, if they are poor, undertake gruelling physical work for little reward. Female infanticide (now gone illicitly hi-tech through foetal screening) is still a huge problem, and astonishing levels of rape and abuse are under-reported.

As with many things, middle-class women, with their access to education and health care, have seen their prospects and freedoms open up, while their poorer sisters concern themselves with the struggle for survival.

In moving away from traditional roles and becoming a target in the marketplace, women find themselves facing new challenges. Body image has become a major concern. Women are now bombarded with advertisements for creams, shampoos and beauty treatments, promoted by sylph-like creatures with fair skins. “Fair and Lovely”, a skin-lightening cream, is the best-selling beauty product in the country, highlighting the implicit racism in the widely promoted ideal image. Anorexia, unheard of in India a few years ago (going without food was not fashionable in a country where so many people are malnourished), has now reared its ugly head as movie stars and models parade their skinny bodies across the television and cinema screens.

Indians are caught between competing discourses: liberalization or the Nehru-Gandhi legacy; frugality and saving or consumption and spending; religious orthodoxy or newly acquired social freedoms. In the past they have proved themselves humane and inventive, giving us hope for the future.

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Health and education

Meanwhile failures (some created by the misinformed planting of genetically modified crops) and hardship in agricultural regions, which still support around 72 percent of the population whilst accounting for only 21 percent of GDP, have led to an unprecedented number of suicides by farmers. On other indicators of public well-being, India is also faring badly. Public spending is declining, particularly on health, as tax cuts are given to the better off. According to the UN, less than 50 percent of the population have access to essential drugs and there is a chronic shortage of health facilities (in rural India there are only 44 hospital beds per 100,000 people; in the UK there are around 470).

The list of statistics goes on to point out that in a country with one of the lowest levels of health spending as a percentage of GDP, only 30 percent of people have access to adequate sanitation and some 66 percent of children under the age of three suffer from malnutrition. It is not only on health that India faces difficulties; education also has a lot of catching up to do. One in three of the world’s illiterate people lives in India. This is a staggering number and a trend that looks set to continue. Only around 50 percent of girls are enrolled in primary education, and for this there is a 10 percent drop-out rate.

Child labor also continues. Based on government figures (which nearly all NGOs and independent commentators consider to be wildly overoptimistic) UNICEF has reported that at least 35 million children (14 percent of those of school age) work as, overwhelmingly rural, laborers (some breaking stones in quarries to provide for European patios). A huge amount of these are “bonded”, effectively a form of slavery.

In a further blow to the poor, the government has embarked on creating a series of “special economic zones” (SEZs), effectively tax havens for rich multinational companies as an incentive for their inward investment. This has entailed a huge land grab, with millions being displaced with little or no compensation. The promise is that these SEZs will bring employment and prosperity. However, the Indian Ministry of Finance said that there would be a net loss on these projects of around US$36.5 billion by 2010.

Evidence for the great divide between haves and have-nots can be seen all over the country. In

Gurgaon, middle-class enclave extraordinaire, house prices start at Rps 10 billion, about 270 times the average annual income. Close by in Delhi, 32 percent of the population live in jhuggis (slums), although the city has a Bentley showroom. Meanwhile, poverty-stricken survivors of the 2004 tsunami in Tamil Nadu have resorted to selling their kidneys in order to survive.

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For your honeymoon India is a great choice, so let’s see what you can expect if you travel to India.

An observation often made of India is that it is “timeless” or “unchanging”; this, of course, is sheer drivel. No society or culture is unchanging, and India is no exception. Equally, a mistake is made by commentators who have become excited about the rise of the “new Indian middle class”, assuming this appetite for change and development is a recent phenomenon manifested in India’s embrace of neo-liberalism (confusing an economic doctrine with modernity). In reality, as ever, the situation is more complex.

Economic acceleration

At a governmental level, India has become a paragon of economic virtue as it adopts Western orthodoxy. A huge programme of “disinvestment” (privatization) has been put in place and inward investment has greatly increased; largely to the benefit of the much-lauded Indian middle class. At the same time, attitudes to social welfare have hardened among policy makers, with large tax breaks given to the well-off, while the nation’s poor become increasingly marginalized in both the political and economic debate.

Much effort has been spent since the 1990s undoing the structures put in place by post-Independence Congress governments. These championed state ownership, industrialization and an “India first” policy - indigenous production and consumption coupled with protectionist import policies. Alongside these were promulgated the belief in secularization and, to borrow a government slogan of the time, “unity through diversity”. The irony is that these nation-building ideas were radical solutions to the economic difficulties and fragmented nature of India’s post-colonial society. The British left India in a woeful state, in terms of both economic and human development. There was hardly any indigenous industry and literacy rates were exceptionally low. Recent economic commentators have tended to denigrate the legacy of Nehru (it was largely he who pushed through the post-Independence industrial policies), without acknowledging that the industrial base that they are so keen to see privatized, and the literate workforce that they foresee taking over call centre jobs from the West, are the products of precisely these earlier policies.

Religion and identity

The political discourse around the millennium was dominated by reactionary, right-wing Hinduism as espoused by the BJP, and economic liberalization. Although at first these seem strange bedfellows, given the disruption neo-liberal policies cause to people’s lives, religion and an aggressive promotion of the national myth are useful tools in keeping the populace onside while state and national governments push through unpopular measures.

In an Indian context this saw an individualization of Hindu identity, while at the same time there was an attempt to homogenize a highly disparate and eclectic group of beliefs and practices. Modern Hinduism, at least as promoted by the Sangh Parivar, is increasingly coming to resemble evangelical Christianity. An individual’s relationship with a deity and personal observance of ritual, rather than action for the social good, are seen as the key to salvation. Thus, limiting consumption and displays of wealth in the face of deprivation is of less spiritual importance than, say, taking part in the building of a new temple to Ram at Ayodhya.

This move away from Gandhian ideals has been accompanied by a more canonical approach to the religious text. Writings such as the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana have acquired the status of historical document rather than spiritual tract; they are statements of absolute fact, rather than guides towards universal truths that are open to interpretation. Modern right-wing Hinduism is far more interested in having a rigid rule book of rights and wrongs, than in the traditional subtleties of religious debate, which in the past made the Hindu world relatively inclusive and tolerant.

As with any hegemonic insistence on the observance of a series of rules, minority viewpoints suffered. In India this had the greatest effect on the country’s 100 million-plus Muslims. The national myth promoted by the BJP was fiercely anti-Islamic. For all the recent talks between the two countries, the external bogeyman has been largely identified as Pakistan, while Muslim Indian nationals were portrayed as an Islamic fifth column. The most distressing and vicious manifestation of this occurred in Gujarat in 2002, where at least 1,000 Muslims were killed in communal rioting. The BJP Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, was heavily implicated in the carnage but continues to enjoy the party’s protection.

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Visits can be made to Pochampalli, a village east of Hyderabad noted for its silk saris and ikat weaves, and to Warangal, 150 km (93 miles) to the northeast. This 12th- to 13th-century capital of the Hindu Kakatiyas was renowned for its now abandoned massive brick and mud fort protected by two rings of walls and a moat. There are a few Chalukyan Siva temples on hills in and around Warangal. Also interesting is the Nagarjunakonda Sagar and Dam, 166 km (103 miles) south. Built in 1960, this reservoir submerged an entire valley, which had been the site of a series of ancient civilizations. Important Buddhist monuments have been reconstructed at a museum within the ruins of a fort on an island, which was once the top of a 200-metrc (650-ft) high hill. Boats depart three-times daily from Vijayapuri for the one-hour trip to the island. Pochram, 180 km (110 miles) to the northwest, is a beautiful lake and wildlife sanctuary with a neo-Gothic spired cathedral at nearby Medak, built for local Christians between 1914 and 1924.

The Great Stupa

On the banks of the River Krishna, the ancient city of Vijaywada, 240 km (150 miles) east of Hyderabad, was once visited by the Chinese traveler Hieun Tsang. It shows traces of its past in the two ancient Jain temples and the cave temples nearby, and also the hilltop Kanakadurga temple, patron deity of the city. Now a busy commercial centre, Vijaywada is useful to the visitor as a base from which to visit Amaravati, 30 km (19 miles) west, the site of early Buddhist settlements. Here the remains of a 2,000-year-old Great Stupa are richly embellished with carvings depicting the life of Buddha. A small museum displays statues of Buddha. The village of Kondapalli, 25 km (15 miles) north, at the base of a hill topped by a ruined fort, is famous for its painted toys and figures made of a local species of white cedar. A drive to the coastal town of Machilipatnam, 70 km (43 miles) to the east, to see the kalamkari process of printing cloth using a kalam (pen) and woodblocks, makes an interesting excursion.

Northeast coast

The naval base and ship-building centre of Vishakapatnam, on Andhra Pradesh’s northeast coast, is the fourth-largest port in India. Its twin city, Waltair, built as a resort town by the British and still retaining shady avenues, charming bungalows and marvellous views, can be used as a base to visit coastal Andhra. There are beaches at Rishikonda (10 km/6 miles) and at the former Dutch settlement of Bhimunipatnam (24 km/15 miles).

In the Kailasa Hills to the west of the city, there is a 13th-century Orissan-style Hindu temple and hot springs at Simhachalam. A 70-km (43-mile) drive inland brings you to the ancient Borra Caves set in limestone hills with wonderful stalactites and stalagmites. The Adivasi area of the Araku Valley on the border with Orissa is nearby.

Southern pilgrim sites

Tirupati, with nearby Tirumala Hill on which stands the Lord Venkatesvara Temple, is the busiest pilgrimage site in the world, as well as one of the wealthiest. The very efficient temple administration employs around 16,000 people to deal with the 60-70,000 pilgrims a day who come for darsan (a view of the god). Many of them shave their heads as a pledge, or to thank the deity. The hair is used to make wigs, which are sold locally and exported. The temple is open to non-Hindus, but they must sign a form declaring their faith in god and respect for the temple’s procedures. The steep road up the hill, with 57 hairpin bends, is not for the faint-hearted. Puttuparthi, bordering Karnataka in Andhra’s southwest, is the birthplace of the controversial spiritual leader Sai Baba and the site of his ashram headquarters.

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Hyderabad is the capital of Andhra Pradesh and India’s fifth largest city. It has a population of nearly five million. An acute scarcity of water and overcrowding at Golconda, 11 km (7 miles) to the west, led Mohammed Quli of the Qutb Shahi dynasty to build the new capital of Hyderabad on the banks of the Musi River in 1591. In 1687 the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb overthrew the dynasty and appointed his former general as viceroy. This dynasty of Asaf Jahi, which declared its independence after Aurangzeb’s death, ruled as the Nizams of Hyderabad until 1949. The seventh and last ruling nizam, Osman Ali Khan (1911-50), was famous for his eccentricities and enormous wealth, said to have been derived from diamonds and other gems mined by his ancestors around Golconda, in the 17th century the diamond centre of the world. At Independence in 1947 he expressed a wish to join Pakistan, a position he managed to maintain until 1949, when riots in the city gave the Indian army the excuse they needed to invade.

Traditionally a gracious and cosmopolitan centre of learning and the arts, modern Hyderabad and its twin city Secunderabad are separated by Hussain Sagar Lake. Besides being a major centre of commerce and industry, transport and communication, Hyderabad is also a processing centre for pearls from the Middle East, Japan and China. It is considered the centre for Islam in South India and yet on the lake is the world’s largest statue of Buddha.

The main Mahatma Gandhi Road cuts straight through Hyderabad city, past the central shopping area around Abids Circle, and across the Tank Bund (a popular local promenade overlooking the lake) to continue onwards into Secunderabad. The old walled city area is around Hyderabad’s most famous landmark, the Charminar (literally “four towers”). Floodlit in the evenings, this magnificent square archway supported by four 56-metre (184-ft) towers was built in 1591 to commemorate the end of a local plague. It is covered with a yellow stucco mixed from powdered marble, gram flour and egg yolk. There is a tiny mosque on the second floor where royal children studied the Quran. Nearby stands the sixth largest mosque in India, the black granite Mecca Masjid, said to have bricks made of red clay from Mecca over the central archway. Old bazaars with narrow cobbled lanes lined with rows of tiny shops selling spices, tobacco, grain, perfume oils and Hyderabadi specialities such as seedless Anab-shahi grapes, surround the Charminar. The pearl market has varieties of seed pearl, rice pearl and round pearl, sold loose by weight, or strung into jewellery. In other lanes one can find silver filigree jewellery, Adivasi mirrorwork, lac bangles, brocades, sandalwood toys, brassware and Bidri work. East of Lad Bazaar is a quadrangular complex of palaces built by the nizams. Other places of interest include the peaceful Public Gardens, which house a modest but well-kept Archaeological Museum (open Mon-Sat 10.30am-5pm) and a Gallery of Modern Art. The Nehru Zoological Park (open Tues-Sun 9am-6pm, entrance fee), spread over 120 hectares (300 acres), is supposedly one of the better zoos in India. It has landscaped gardens and features a wide variety of animals and birds, an aquarium and a natural history museum. A good spot for sunset views is Kala Pahad (Black Mountain) where the Birla Venkatesvara temple is perched on the hill top. On the adjacent hill, Naubat Pahad, there is the Planetarium with regular shows in English.

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On the banks of the Yamuna

Eastward, behind the Red Fort, the Ring Road along the River Yamuna is connected by three bridges to the Trans-Yamuna residential areas. On the river bank from Red Fort south to ITO Bridge are the cremation grounds, now memorial parks dedicated to national leaders such as Nehru, Lai Bahadur Shastri, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. The biggest complex here is Rajghat where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated, and there are two museums dedicated to him here. Gandhi Darshan (open Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; free) has a good collection of paintings and photos, and charts the history of the Satyagraha (non-violence) movement. Close by is Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya (open Fri-Wed 9.30am-5.30pm; free), which houses a display of Gandhi’s personal belongings and has a library of recordings of his speeches.

Further south is Pragati Maidan - a huge exhibition complex - site of the Appu Ghar entertainment park. The adjoining Crafts Museum (open Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; entrance fee) has demonstrations by regional craftsmen, huts built in regional styles and a good crafts shop. The fascinating exhibition galleries have displays of Adivasi art, woodcarving and textiles. There are bhuta figures from Karnataka, brightly decorated Naga objects from the northeast and some wonderful bronzes from Orissa. The textile galleries are superb - the collections run to over 22,000 objects - as well as some astounding, especially the Kashmiri, examples of embroidery. There are also weaving demonstrations.

Facing its entrance stand the ramparts of the Purana Qila (open sunrise to sunset; entrance fee; daily “Light and Sound Show”), with panoramic views of the city. The fort was built by Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri (1540-45) and was taken over by Mughal Emperor Humayun when he regained the throne in 1555-56. Its Qila-e-Kunha-Masjid is the best preserved Lodi mosque in Delhi. The Sher Mandal pavilion, library and a lake (once part of the moat) surround the fort.

Delhi Zoo is next door. Indian zoos are particularly depressing, resembling concentration and torture camps rather than, at best, places to breed endangered species. The zoo shares a border with the wealthy Sunder Nagar colony, with a market famous for antique/reproduction shops and sweet stalls.

Mathura Road leads to Humayun’s Tomb (open sunrise to sunset; entrance fee). Set in beautiful gardens, the red sandstone monument is the finest Mughal building in Delhi and the prototype for the Taj Mahal. It was commissioned by Humayun’s senior widow, Bega Begum, and completed in 1565. Also in the grounds are the remains of the octagonal tomb of Isa Khan. To the north, easily visible from the gardens, is the modern Damdama Sahib Gurudwara.

Close by is the shrine, or dargah, of the Sufi saint of the Chisti order, Sheikh Nizamuddin Aulia (1236-1325), after whom the surrounding colonies are named. The dargah is a haven of peace in this busy Muslim area; the tomb of the saint is in a pavilion with beautiful marble screens (note: women are not allowed in the tomb itself). Also buried here are the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah (1719-48) and the saint’s disciple and poet Amir Khusrau.

South of Nizamuddin, the modern white marble, lotus-shaped Baha’i Lotus Temple (open Apr-Sept Tues-Sun 9am-7pm, Oct-Mar Tues-Sun 9.30am- 5.30pm; free) stands on Kalkaji Hill. This was completed in 1986 as a pilgrimage site for the Baha’i sect. Visitors must walk barefoot. Nearby, the colony markets (M & N Block) of Greater Kailash offer good shopping and restaurants.

South, on the Mehrauli-Badarpur road, the 14th-century ruins of Tughlaqabad Fort (open sunrise to sunset) and Adilabad, Delhi’s third city, dominate the landscape. Remains of ramparts, water-storage tanks and subterranean passages can be explored, but this area can be dangerous to visit alone.

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