While walking through the poky alleys of Shahpur Jat, Nisha Aggarwal chanced upon the shops housed in dilapidated buildings, and peeped into its rustic history. She shares her experience as she pulls Shahpur Jat out of the clutches of time.
Two moving needles of a clock contain the most powerful invisible phenomena inside, they move within their periphery repeating the same path, but make us sense the change in whole world outside. This invisible vigor is ‘time’ which becomes visible in the form of change; in us, and in our surroundings as well.
We take pictures of ourselves, of everyday happenings and places around. Afterwards we feel, think, juxtapose and sometime enjoy the changes time brought to us, by looking at those pictures. Pictures are not only clicked by camera, human memory also does the same.
It may be my definition of ‘nostalgia’ or these days I sense it strongly whenever I come to Delhi. With every visit to Delhi I try to touch the bygone, perhaps to know what the changes time has brought in me. When I feel everything is same like it was, I feel happy and when I sense the occurred changes, I feel the ‘progress’ of time but both the things bring an ‘autumn’ pleasure.
I can add an ‘anecdote’ to this ‘autumn’ pleasure. Few days back, after a friend’s suggestion, I was re-visiting the lanes of Shahpur Jat, in South Delhi. I could see the newly opened spaces and could sense the increasing rents of floors. Shahpur Jat is an old urban village settlement and provides good spaces on rent. A lot of art students, artists and designers take this bustling creative den to make their studios. A place with troubled lanes, filled of ‘labor class’ has become the interest of ‘elites’ .I felt it necessary to go in its history by talking with few of ‘elders’ of the place.
Shahpur Jat in South Delhi is a hybrid village enclosed within two of South Delhi’s most up-market areas, Asiad Games Village and Hauz Khas. It is listed in Lal Dora areas of Delhi. It has missed the trendy touch of city architecture, yet captures the essence of a city. The veterans of the village say it was founded around 10,000 years ago (8,000 BC) by a Hindu King. He set up a fort and palace there. But 5000 years back, ‘Pandavas’ (of Mahabharta) took the stones of that fort to built their Capital ‘Indraprastha’ few miles away to the place. The excavations in the Old Fort Area confirm the belief that Purana Quila was built on the site of ‘Indraprastha’.
In 11th century AD, Tomar (Hindu Jat Clan) ruled Delhi. In 12th century AD, Prithviraj Chauhan was the ruler until his defeat. 13th century AD replaced Hindu rule by Muslim rulers. Mughals ruled Delhi in succession starting from Qutab-ub-din to Khilji and Tughlaqs. In 1303 AD, Allau Din Khilji conquered almost the whole of North India, he erected the First Muslim City of Delhi- ‘Siri’ on this site. Siri was a fortified city built on a large scale with places and other structures and had seven gates to enter or exit the city. Though the remains of only southern gate has found but it is said that the main palace of the fort was very beautiful and profusely decorated with precious gems and stones. Nothing remain of them except parts of its wall, a mosque and a structure called Baradari. Today Shahpur Jat has Tohfewala Gumbad Masjid and ruins of domed structure belonging to Khilji period.
Delhi passed on to the hands of the British in 1803 AD. It was only in 1911, when the capital of British empire was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. During this period, 900 years ago the modern history of Shahpur Jat starts. This was the time when Dagar clan from Indri ( a village in Haryana) shifted to Shahpur Jat area. The fertile land and their agriculture skill helped them accumulate wealth in a short period of time. this attracted Panwar clan and other castes to the area. By then this area was called Shah (wealth) Pur (colony) Jat (a clan),meant a locality of the rich Jats and acquired the name ‘Shahpur Jat’.
This time Shahpur Jat had farmlands spreading from Hauz Khas and Andrewsganj to Greater Kailash and Malviya Nagar. The move came up in 1978, when Government acquired the lands from most of the Jats by paying the sturdy compensations to them. On these acquired lands posh colonies of Asiad Village, Panchsheel Park and Hauz Khas were raised. The Jats with their compensation money expanded their small open houses to cramped up, matchbox like haphazard concrete structures. The multi-stories houses were coming up now. Slowly when the place emerged as the centre for basement workshops and its migrant population bloated, the ex-farmers discovered gold in real estate. The landlords created virtual acres by raising floors on their houses, which they rented to tailoring units. The big fortune came with the arrival of boutiques at the turn of the century.
Today, Shahpur Jat has over a hundred stores of Indian and European fashion, art cafes, book stores and home decors. Few art galleries has also opened up. The designers or artists living here are not notably rich, but they are comfortably creating their art and engaged in the process of their employment. But a large number of stores are shifting their location to Shahpur Jat, from Hauz Khas Village and Khan Market following NDMC crackdowns and high rents. The entry of such gazebo stores seems impatience to grow commercialization. And Shahpur Jat is lifting up as a new alternative space for everything trendy, a status usually reserved for Hauz Khas Village.
Still a majority of the designers and the residents want the village to stay the way it is. Larger crowds and bigger brands may rob the ‘hybridized’ charm of Shahpur Jat, and quiet working spaces of the artists. But people of Shahpur Jat reject the possibility of its fate like of Hauz Khas or Khan Market because of the Jats. The Jat owners in the past 15 years have never sold a single property outside their community, but have only let out spaces on rent. They have also refused all liquor licenses which is why there is no bar and pub is seen in the locality.
Inspite of all the ‘elite’ changes,he unplanned multistory buildings hiding the sky to eyes, the overhanging wires, the peeping eyes of mannequins through the glass walls of designer’s shops, and a mix crowd of animals and human (of all classes including the foreigners) both.
The remains of the Old Fortified history still stand tacit imbibing the whole story of change within. A cyber cafe opened in a senile house keep its artistic value. A closed up Government school just near the entry of Jungi House seems distant and detached from all the capitalist forces of the place. I feel the growing ‘art’ of economy (of landlords, tailors, designers and all the ‘artists’ living here) has found a place to survive which has once enjoyed the royal patronage and today enjoying the status of ‘alternative’ but still a maze. I would conclude with the words of Sam Miller, the writer and historian while standing atop the ruins of a tomb, taking a walk around Shahpur Jat, ‘Art lives to survive only when it has a purpose or when it’s in the middle of nowhere.’
