In a single Delhi house, several hundred years of Indian history
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Chandni Chowk was once the kind of neighborhood that people spoke about with awe.
Built in the 17th century by Emperor Shah Jahan, it reflected the wealth of the once mighty Mughal empire, quickly becoming one of India’s most desirable districts, where the rich and powerful resided in fashionable mansions.
Today, this corner of the historic walled city Old Delhi has a different vibe, attracting visitors to a lively street food scene. Architectural reminders of its former glory are still visible, but the swanky homes of the wealthy are no more, many converted to hotels or other businesses, their occupants long gone.
Not Ajay Pershad, though.
Aged 80 but still going strong, Pershad sits in the courtyard of his grand 120-room ancestral mansion, almost the last man standing of Chandni Chowk’s old guard, holding on to the splendor of a bygone age.
“It is the only living mansion on the historic street of Chandni Chowk,” says Pershad, a descendant of Chunna Mal, a moneylender and businessman who built the home way back, according to an inscribed golden slab inside the building’s hallway, in 1864.
Some 160 years later, although Pershad is clinging to his forebears’ legacy, much of the glamor of preceding centuries has vanished. Most of the mansion’s rooms are shuttered and unused. The antiques inside them are gathering dust.
And out of Chunna Mal’s 32 heirs, only Pershad and his family of 10 remain. And, he says, he’s alone in wanting to keep the place.
“The family is planning to sell, but I am against it,” he says. “I have been trying to bring them on the same table.” Pershad says he’s hoping to ensure one of the only privately owned mansions in the area is not converted into a hotel.
Back in the days of Mughal empire, which was founded in the 16th century and grew to control much of the Indian subcontinent before dwindling and being dissolved in 1857, India’s cultural and architectural heritage gained numerous iconic structures.
In Delhi, these include the Humayun’s Tomb, Jama Masjid [mosque] and the Old Fort. The neighboring city of Agra got the Taj Mahal. Designated one of the seven wonders of the world, it draws in thousands of visitors each day.
And then there was Chandni Chowk, built as a part of Emperor Shah Jahan’s new capital Shahjahanabad - or Old Delhi as it later became.
Many parts of this street were destroyed when the people revolted against British occupation in 1857. The British crushed the rebellion, thereby ending Mughal rule in Delhi and marking the beginning of the British Raj.
However, mansions like the one belonging to Chunna Mal’s family were untouched. “Chunna Mal was pro-British. We enjoyed a lot of privileges because of it,” Pershad explains.
