City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
For, despite their very many, very great differences, Imperial India, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany all belonged to comparable worlds. All were to different extents authoritarian; all made much of magnificent display; all were built on a myth of racial superiority and buttressed in the last resort by force. In the ceremonial buildings of all
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‘In the fort I saw the finest set of buildings in the world - but no one was caring for them. They were all falling apart. My ancestors brought such sophisticated culture to India — but they have just let it disintegrate. In time it will just disappear and no one will ever know.’
William Dalrymple • City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
‘In the text of the Mahabharata it says that the epic started off as a poem called Jaya - Victory — with only 8800 verses. Then it became the Bharata, with 24,000 slokas, before being transformed into the Great Bharata - the Mahabharata - with 100,000 stanzas. For all we know, before the Jaya the poem might well have started off as an even smaller,
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Meanwhile in the court, the dam-burst of treachery unleashed by Aurangzeb left the principal players wading deeper and deeper into the darkness. Roshanara Begum, the Lady Macbeth of Delhi, had taken over the position vacated by Jahanara Begum: chief of the Imperial Harem.
William Dalrymple • City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
The moment had come for me to visit Karachi for myself.
William Dalrymple • City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
‘Learning Persian would give you access to some great treasures. I would not charge you for lessons. I am half a dervish: money means nothing to me. All I ask is that you work hard.’
William Dalrymple • City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
I like this
WD But Mr Puri. I’ve told you before. I don’t have any mules. Here or in England. MR PURI Nonsense! All Britishers have mules. How else did you Britishers defeat our great Sikh armies? How else did you come to rule our India?
William Dalrymple • City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
How indeed..
‘But don’t your pupils get good jobs? And doesn’t their success encourage others?’ ‘No. They are all Muslims. There is no future for them in modern India. Most become gundas or smugglers.’
William Dalrymple • City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
‘But many people in Delhi still speak Urdu.’ ‘Urdu is an aristocratic language. It was not the language of the working classes. Those who are left - the artisans - speak Karkhana [factory] Urdu. The Urdu of the poets is dead.’