Delhi University is planning to make heritage walks at the iconic Vice chancellor’s office, erstwhile Viceregal lodge, a part of its annual festival ‘Antardhwani.’
The fact is that even though thousands of students pass out of the varsity every year, few are aware of the rich past of their college buildings. Many of them, like the Viceregal Lodge, Gwyer Hall (hostel for male students), Hindu, St Stephen’s and Ramjas college buildings belong to the British era, sharing a crucial role in India’s Independence movement.
The Viceregal Lodge enjoys a central position among these. A classic white mid-nineteenth century structure, it used to be a government resthouse. After the British shifted their Capital from Bengal to Delhi, it was chosen as the place of residence for Viceroys till the time Rashtrapati Bhavan could be built. It housed five Viceroys from 1912-31 including the last, Lord Mountbatten. In fact, Lord Mountbatten is said to have proposed to his wife Edwina in the same room that is now the Registrar’s office in the lodge.
After Mahatma Gandhi raised the banner of Swaraj, several national leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru, Zakir Hussain and Maulana Azad visited the lodge to negotiate freedom with Lord Mountbatten. The Gandhi-Irwin pact, allowing Indians to manufacture their own salt legally, was signed here.
When Bhagat Singh was caught in the Lahore Conspiracy act, he was imprisoned in the basement wine-cells of the lodge in 1931. Revolutionaries Ras Behari Bose and Aruna Asaf Ali were also imprisoned here at different times.
The building was finally turned over to the University of Delhi in 1933. When India became independent, the University’s Convocation for that year was deferred, but finally in 1948 at a historic ceremony, Pt Jawharlal Nehru, Lord Mountbatten and many dignitaries spoke at the Viceregal Lodge acknowledging the beginning of a new era.
When it was finally decided to set up a Delhi University, three colleges – Ramjas, Hindu and St Stephen’s (the last two affiliated to Punjab University at that time) became the original constituent colleges of DU. Land was earmarked in the area where the Delhi Durbar of 1911 was held and British architect Walter Sykes George was deputed to design them. He laid the new college buildings out around courts in the style of a transplanted Cambridge college.
Around the same time, the ‘University Lodging House’ was established in 1937. Subsequently, it was renamed the Gwyer Hall in recognition of the services rendered by Sir Maurice Gwyer, the then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi (from 1938-52) and the Chief Justice of the then Federal Court of India. Sir Maurice Gwyer took a keen personal interest in the construction of this hall. Today, it accommodates 100 full-time male postgraduate students and research scholars of the university.
Several decades and renovations later, it is difficult to tell that these buildings have stood witness to so many historic events.