Indian Durbar

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 46, 10 March 1937, Page 12

Indian Durbar

Pomp and Pageantry at Delhi , .... \

TT is over twenty-five yesn since King George V. announced ia Durbar at Delhi that his Coronation had been celebrated on June 22, 1911, in Westminster Abbey, and that he degired that those who could not be present at the solemnity of the Coronation should have the opportunity of taking part in its commemoration at Delhi (writes S. T. Sheppard in the London Observer). Many of the Princes and others whp were present at that Durbar ara dead; some of the survivors probably find their memory of those days has. grown dim; and the present generation— wondering what King George VI. will do and if his expressed hope to visit India after the Coronation is fulfilled — can havf little. idea of the solemnity, the splendour, and the colour of the great ceremony which must Jn many respepts provide the precedent to be followed. '• 0 » 0 TT is worth while, then, briefly to recall not only what the Durbar was like, but what were some of the pther ceremonies in which king George and Queen Mary took part. The visit of King George to India lasted from Deceqiber 2, 1911, wben he landed in Bombay, to January 1, 1912, when he left that port, It is not supposed that in these troublous times King George VI. contemplates so long a visit fco India as that. Even if he were tp save tipie by flying there (which would mean entering the country qt the gre^t air-port pf Karachi, capital of the fiewly-created proyince of Sipd, instead of thrpugh Bombay, the htstoriq gateway of In«|ia) it is knprpbable that he would be ablp to spare time for a tffU? of India. Crowded Programme. ■TUILL he, in any case, be asked to face a crowded progranpne, Uka that which his father went through day after jday for ten days on end at Delhi? Probably not, but there were outstanding features in the ipu plogpramihP Vfhich might well be repeated. Though' the exlstence of New Delhi will in some ways simRltfy the task of those who wfll niakej the arrangements for the Royal visit— for the King will presumably stay in the great palace known as Viceroy's House, and many of the Princes have built Imuses for them-. selves ih the new capital— there "still remains an infinity of Work to be done in preparjng the caipps and ihe Dprbar arena; and* that work will have tp be very good" indeed if it is to rival what was done under the direction of Sir John Hewett for the last Durbar. *. • • • rpHE camp that was then built, on the • Bawari plain beyond the historic Bidge, covered more than 25 square miles, and to state that fact alone helps one to appreeiate what hundreds pf problems connected with railways, roads, motor transport, water, sanitation, markets, and lighting had to be solved. Never was a camp cifcy so fine in detail and design, as survivors from the press camp can testify. But the finest achievement was to be foupd in the Durbar amphitheatre, which field over 60,000 spectators and 20,000 troops. It was really two concentric Rillil'lliiiJiiiliIiiiilmiifiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

qmphitheatres in which were placad the purbpr shamiana, or coveared deia,*. whare the King received the homage df the Princes, and, in the centre, the throues on wlfich their Majesties later sat while the mounted heralds read, in English and then in Urdu, the proclamation of the rite at Westminster. It was after that supreme moment that the yicerpy, Lord Hardinge, read an annoupcement of various "boons," potably that offipers and men of the Indian Army shpuld thenceforth be eiigible fpr the yictpria Cross. fhen camo the great surprise of the day, when the king reiraced his steps to the shamiana and there announced |he transfer of the capital from Calcutt* to Delhi and the consequential changes in the provinces, which inclui3#d ^be annuhnent of the much criticispl Bastion of Bengal. Never ha'd Sta^? sep^t been better kept ffian that, and \% incredible that such a surprise can evqr again be sprung in so dramatlc a WVF by the Bpvereign in persoi^, Dramatlc Incident. QNE other infpnsely dfumatic incidwffc marked that mefnorabie d#y. Tbfl?' Majesties, the Princes, and thJ blSfc 0% pials had left the arena, and tha trpppa wer© being withdrawfi* ¥h«n suddsniy. as if moved by one pcanmon and irro? sistible hnpulse, the Indian PhlookM*, whose serried and colourful ranks had ^pemed like spring flower bed? rQUhd pageantic sperie, rq^hed in their thpusands to prostrate themselves before the thrones on whiph the King and had been slttlpg, Equally unforgettable was the People's Pair, fpr whiph S}r Louis Dane was' responslble, held in the plain between the river Jumna and Dellii fprt. A eoncourse variously estimated at from 250,000 to 400,000 people gathpred in that vast space, and upon them the King and Queen, in tlieir "robes and crowris, looked down from the balcony of the fort where the Mogiil Emperof^ h&d been pccustomed on great days to show themselves to thc|r subjects, State Entry. 'TlHERB will, oue supposes, bf a St|tje - pntry and departure, as befpre. even when Kipg George enterpd Dblhi some of the fprmer gloiy df such eventa had departed. According to connolssetup in medieval^m, the procession of " the Princes' retainers then wds not evfq'as. fine* as it was when Lord Gurzon proclaimed the coronation of King Edmrd VH. » The oi r WS§ but iMP so, numex. orsemen in coats of javelinmen, :>.id bowmen on foot carfied the sgectator back tp medipval times just as certainly and as swiftly as much of the Hindu ritual to be seen anywhere jn India to-day turns the page back from the twentieth century to something very like the hook of Leviticus. That sort of spectacle has to a great extent been mpchanieed oy otherwise yorried out of exi^te'nce. Yet there is still enough of the old and the beautiful left in India to ensure that, whatever spectaqle may he organised In honour of ihe -Royal visitor, it will be worthy of the I Emperor of India. . lllllllllllBlRlllllillltilliHlHlWlillltlliiiiBiliiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiliniiliiiffllllflllHIIW