New Delhi: How it changed over the years!

Last updated on: August 3, 2006 at 9:18 pm by Desh Kapoor

New Delhi: How it changed over the years! 2006-08-03T21:18:52-05:00 Desh Kapoor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This is an interesting article of how New Delhi changed over the years! I have seen the New Delhi of my childhood transform into a baffling mass of concrete and people over the last 37 years! We used to live on Gurudwara Road in Karol Bagh. The main Gurudwara Road now is so jam-packed that you cannot even walk on it.. and the streets criss-crossing it are so full of business and mess that you can’t walk even there! But I learnt to play cricket in these streets and often on Mondays when the Karol Bagh bazaar is closed (it still is) – we could play cricket on the main road for some time too!! But those were the days before Maruti can come.. before the commercialization had happened. Soon everything changed!

In a little over 5 years the entire area was so difficult to live in!! You couldnt breathe properly because of the smoke from the traffic! It took almost 10 years for the message to reach the South Block and the secretariat!! Thats when the push for the CNG started. What a change it brought!! Then came Metro. Eeshwaran, in my estimation, did a miracle! Knowing Delhi the way it is and its people who are so full of some political connection.. it is but amazing that he could pull such a thing off!!

Still a lot needs to be done .. .. by many standards, Delhi is probably the best equipped of all cities in India.. but that is not much of a consolation!

Had things been different in the past 75 years, erstwhile Reading Road, now Mandir Marg, would still have been the street for modern education in New Delhi. But that has not been so, and some of the aged schools on the road stand testimony to that fact.

Take the Harcourt Butler Senior Secondary School for instance. This two-storey building adjacent to Birla Temple has nothing to inform an onlooker that it was one of the first schools to have come up in New Delhi. Established in 1917 as a seat for modern education, today it runs on a humble government aid. “About 99 per cent of our students belong to lower socio-economic strata,” says vice-principal S.K. Dardi. The Delhi government awarded the school a Heritage prize but it did little to bring back its past glory.

Raisina Bengali School on the same road is not very different. In 1925, behind the Wellingdon hospital (Ram Manohar Lohia hospital for the uninitiated), a few bureaucrats, who had just moved in from Calcutta, gathered their children and started a small school. “The aim was that their children could learn the Bengali culture,” says vice-principal of Raisina, P.K. Banerjee. It shifted to its present building in the 1930s. Now even with over 3,000 students, the school cannot boast being a frontrunner.

It is said that the shifting of the Capital from Calcutta was a boost to English education in New Delhi. “Many Bengali bureaucrats and other officials from Calcutta brought with them the experience of quality education in English,” says Shanta Kashyap, principal, Lady Irwin Senior Secondary School.

Lady Irwin School was the first school for girls. Satish Ranjan Das, a barrister and member of the viceroy’s executive committee, established the school in 1927. “The school has had a predominantly Bengali management. Even now, defence minister Pranab Mukherjee is the president of the governing body,” she says. The school’s present building on erstwhile Canning road came up in 1938.

Christian missionaries are lauded by historians for having introduced English education in India. In New Delhi, it was Convent of Jesus and Mary – the girls’ school that was founded in 1919 and moved near the Gol Dakkhana in 1926 -that spearheaded English education here. But Modern School on Barakhamba road prides itself on initiating quality education as the first non-governmental and non-missionary school in New Delhi.

Old-timers say that after Mahatma Gandhi called for boycotting all things British, the schools and colleges run by British managements suffered huge dropouts. That formed the basis for Modern School’s inception. Writer Khushwant Singh, an alumnus, once wrote that founder Raghubir Singh was inspired by the idea of a school that would match the best schools by missionaries. Barring Modern School, most old schools in New Delhi have long succumbed to the competition from big, newer private schools.

Technorati : Delhi, India

History

India

Personal

Previous Post

August 3, 2006

Tree of Life

Next Post

August 3, 2006 Irfan Pathan at the Army Camp!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Aarti Achievement and Leadership AfPak Africa Annual and Year-end Asia Audio Australia Behavioural Sciences Bhagwad Gita Bhagwad Gita Blogging Blogs Business Business Intelligence Business Strategy Cannes Careers Chanakya China Conservation Corruption Creative Daily Links Desh Poems Development & Welfare Devotional Audio Devotional Songs Drama Earth Economics Education Entertainment Environment Europe Everyday Quotes Featured Articles Featured Songs Finance Flickr Pictures Food Geo-Political Global Warming Globalization Health & Medicine Hinduism Historic History Humour India Indian Culture Indian music Indian Weddings Israel Issues Legal Link Love Minorities Misc Motivation and Personal Development Movie Lists Movie Reviews Movies Mumbai terror attacks Natural Disasters Nature News Outsourcing Pakistan Parenting Personal Philosophy Poetry Politics Poverty Quotes Recipe Regular Blog Post Relationships Religion Religious/Spiritual Audio Sciences Showcase Slideshow South Asia Special Stories Spiritual Quotes Spirituality Sports Stories Strategy Technology Technology Terrorism Travel Uncategorized US Video Women Women_s Rights Worship Yoga

Select a Month December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 September 2014 August 2014 January 2014 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the name "Jesus" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Chosen One Prince of Peace The Lord Saves Son of Man