Delhi - home to 17 million people

Landing in Delhi direct from Victoria, BC, the number of people and vehicles seems overwhelming. There are crowds everywhere yet the traffic flows remarkably smoothly despite what would be classified unfettered chaos in Canada. We quickly learned that road lane markings are purely for decoration. There may be road markings intended for 3 lanes of traffic, but it is not uncommon for there to be six lanes of cars, trucks, buses and tuk tuks, without including motorcycles, bicycles and cattle! In two weeks of travel, we only saw one accident, although many cars have scrapes and scratches. It was not uncommon on a divided highway to encounter a vehicle[s] coming towards you in your lane - no one honks, no signs of road rage, nor police presence. That’s just what one does!

After breakfast at our hotel, The Suryaa and a briefing and introduction by Explore India staff, we headed out on a tour of Delhi stopping first at Humayun’s Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built in 1570, 80 years before the Taj Mahal. One of the key learnings from this tour was that in the 400 years prior to independence from Britain in 1947, the Indian sub-continent has been governed by external forces. The local principalities were constantly fighting among themselves making it easy for the invading Afghan forces to divide and conquer. The first Mughal Emperor, Babur, conquered the local Maharaj in 1526 occupying much of present day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Babur and his successors governed large tracts of the sub-continent until The British East India Company became the dominant power between 1757 and 1858; at its zenith the British East India Company had a private army of 260,000, twice the size of the entire British Army. The sub-continent became part of the British Empire from 1858 until independence in 1947.

The architectural history of most of the 16th to 19th century India is dominated by influences emanating from the muslim world - with the Taj Mahal being but one of many. During this time there were 22 Mughals who ruled varying amounts of the sub-continent with varying degrees of success. Humayun, the second Mughal in the dynasty was not nearly as successful or effective as Akbar the first Mughal. The tomb was built by his widow Bega Begum. One can only marvel at the engineering and masonry skills of the time - how were they able to build such magnificent edifices to such exacting measurements without cranes, power tools, laser beams and the like. The source of this knowledge can be traced back to the mighty Ottoman and Persian empires.

To get to our next stop, we drove past India Gate, a war memorial to 70,000 soldiers of the Indian Army who perished in the First World War. From there it was through “new” Delhi which was built by the British reflecting the colonial attitude to town planning in effect at the end of the 1800’s. This area is now home to the federal government, different ministries and embassies. The streets are wide with large homes and gardens which are usually gated. It is a leafy neighbourhood - but I’m not sure how the plants survive with the amount of dust and dirt that blankets all vegetation.

In the final approaches to Jama Mosque and the narrow streets of Chandni Chowk, we passed the “Thieves Market” where an amazing variety of clothing is on sale - more organised chaos! We enjoyed a bicycle rickshaw ride through Old Delhi streets that were often not wide enough to allow 2 rickshaws to pass each other. The maze of electrical and telephone wires was beyond the comprehension of these Canadians - how did they ever trace a wire? Maybe they just don’t! It was a scene reminiscent of what we saw in Saigon and Hanoi.

Before entering the busy Jama Mosque, built in 1656, socks and shoes had to be removed [but hotel slippers were acceptable!], men wearing shorts were provided with lengths of fabric to cover up “exposed parts”, and visiting women had to cover up from neck to toes.  Interestingly there there was a ₹300 charge if you had a camera. Again the architecture is done on a grand scale - it is capable of accommodating 25,000 worshippers. Despite the mosque being subjected to two terrorist attacks in 2006 and 2010, there was no evidence of additional security measures at the site.