The India Gate situated in Delhi,was part of the work of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC), which came into existence in December 1917 for building war graves and memorials to soldiers killed in the First World War[3]
The foundation stone of the All-India War Memorial was laid on 10 February 1921, at 4:30 PM, by the visiting Duke of Connaught in a solemn soldierly ceremony attended by Officers and Men of the Indian Army, Imperial Service Troops, the Commander in Chief, and Chelmsford, the viceroy.[4] On the occasion, the viceroy said, "The stirring tales of individual heroism, will live for ever in the annals of this country", and that the memorial which was a tribute to the memory of heroes, "known and unknown" would inspire, future generations to endure hardships with similar fortitude and "no less valour".[4]
The King, in his message, read out by the Duke said "On this spot, in the central vista of the Capital of India, there will stand a Memorial Archway, designed to keep" in the thoughts of future generations "the glorious sacrifice of the officers and men of the Indian Army who fought and fell". During the ceremony, the Deccan Horse, 3rd Sappers and Miners, 6th Jat Light Infantry, 34th Sikh Pioneers, 39th Garhwal Rifles, 59th Scinde Rifles (Frontier Force), 117th Mahrattas, and 5th Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force), were honoured with title of " Royal " in recognition of the distinguished services and gallantry of the Indian Army during the Great War".[4]
Ten years after the foundation stone laying ceremony, on February 12, 1931, the All India War Memorial was inaugurated by Viceroy Lord Irwin, who on the occasion said " those who after us shall look upon this monument may learn in pondering its purpose something of that sacrifice and service which the names upon its walls record."[1]
In the decade between the laying of foundation stone of the War memorial and its inauguration, the rail-line was shifted to run along the Yamuna river, and the New Delhi Railway Station was opened in 1926.[5][6]
The India gate, which is illuminated every evening, from 19:00 to 21:30, is a major tourist attraction. Motor cars, moved through India Gate, till it was closed to traffic. The Republic Day Parade starts from Rashtrapati Bhavan and passes around the India Gate.
Design[edit]
India Gate from Rajpath, showing the curvature of the structure
The All-India War Memorial in New Delhi was designed by Edwin Lutyens, who was not only the main architect of New Delhi, but a leading designer of war memorials. He was a member of the IWGC, and one of Europe's foremost designers of war graves and memorials. He designed sixty-six war memorials in Europe, including the highly regarded Cenotaph, in London, in 1919, the first national war memorial erected after World War I, for which he was commissioned by David Lloyd George, the British prime minister.[3] All-India War Memorial in New Delhi, like the Cenotaph, in London, is secular memorial, free of religious and "culturally-specific iconography such as crosses". Lutyens according to his biographer, Christopher Hussey, relied on "elemental Mode", a style of commemoration based on "universal architectural style free of religious ornamentation". The India Gate, which has been called a "creative reworking of the Arc de Triomphe" has a span of 30 feet, and lies on the eastern axial end of Kingsway, present day Rajpath, the central vista and main ceremonial procession route in New Delhi.[3]
The 42-metre tall India Gate, stands on a low base of red Bharatpur stone and rises in stages to a huge moulding. The shallow domed bowl at the top was intended to be filled with burning oil on anniversaries but this is rarely done. The India Gate hexagon complex, with a diameter of about 625 metres, covers approximately 306,000 m² in area.
The best time to visit India Gate is amid summers. Generally people prefer visiting the place after sunset or at night so as to view the illuminated India Gate and enjoying with the flock of locals at this time.
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Names on the India Gate[edit]
13,218 war dead are commemorated by name on the India Gate. Due to security reasons access to read the names on the memorial is restricted. The names can be however be seen on the Delhi Memorial (India Gate website, which lists the names with date of death,unit, regiment, place on gate where name is inscribed, location, and other information.) The names on the gate include that of a female staff nurse from the Territorial Force, killed in action in 1917.[7]
Canopy[edit]
Canopy behind India Gate.
Canopy behind India Gate.
About 150 metres East of the India Gate war memorial, at a junction of six roads, is a 73-foot cupola, inspired by a sixth-century pavilion from Mahabalipuram. Lutyens used four Delhi Order columns to support the domed canopy and its chhajja.[8] [9] Under the canopy on a pedestal with the Royal Coat of Arms and the inscription GEORGE V R I ('Rex Imperator', or 'King Emperor') there was a fifty-foot-tall (15.2 m) marble statue by Charles Sargeant Jagger of King George V, in his coronation robes, Imperial State Crown, British globus cruciger and sceptre, which sometime during or after the statue's removal broke off. Since the relocation of the old statue in the 1960s to Coronation Park to join other British Raj-era statues, it was often suggested that a statue of Mahatma Gandhi be placed under the cupola, where the king's statue once stood. The suggestion was even discussed in the Indian Parliament. In 1981, the Government in response to a question in parliament confirmed that it was considering the installation of Mahatma K Gandhi statue under the empty canopy, but nothing came of it.[10]
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