From the historic Kinari Bazar in Chandni Chowk to Skinner’s Haveli in Kashmere Gate, Delhi University’s Hindu College moved multiple buildings since it was founded before ending up in North Campus.
In 1899, Krishna Daaji Gurwale founded Hindu College in Kinari Bazar “as part of the nationalist sentiment of providing affordable modern education to students from middle-class and lesser well-off families”, as per an excerpt from a book ‘Hindu College Delhi: A People’s Movement’ written by Dr Kavita A Sharma, former principal of Hindu College, and W D Mathur.
Gurwale started the college after his father, Ramji Das Gurwale, who was Bahadur Shah Zafar’s banker, was tortured and hanged in the compound of the Chandni Chowk Kotwali by the British after Zafar’s arrest. “There was a strong nationalist streak which led Krishna Daaji Gurwale to start a college for the people of India as there was only St Stephen’s and Delhi College at the time,” said Dr Sharma.
In 2001, a narrow lane behind Golcha Cinema in Old Delhi’s Darya Ganj where the Neharwali Haveli stood was abuzz. The haveli itself was being decorated after undergoing a thorough cleaning, preparing for a guest who was born there on August 11, 1943 — Pakistan’s former President Parvez Musharraf.
Musharraf, 79, a former president of Pakistan and four-star general, who came to power through a coup in 1999, died at a hospital in Dubai on Sunday after a prolonged illness.
He was born in Old Delhi’s Darya Ganj at his nanihaal (grandmother’s house). Today, the street is called Pratap Street and is full of multi-storey apartments, houses and builder flats. It once had broad lanes, a big haveli with multiple rooms, halls, kitchen, verandah and even a garden.
