Bose

The confluence of Yamuna, Ganga, and the invisible Saraswati rivers, Allahabad or ‘Godville’, has been visited by pilgrims for over two thousand years. Allahabad became a major city of the Raj, and was the capital of the North-West Provinces. This transformation took place in the second half of 19th century. Ironically, this metamorphosis was caused by colonial rule, which Fanny Parkes has detailed in great detail. Allahabad was home to the Pioneer, Kipling’s employer, as well as literary figures such Harivansh Rai Bachchan or Suryakant Tripathi Nirala. The university is one of the oldest universities in the country. It was visited by Hsiuan Tang, a Buddhist scholar, in the seventh century. Today, ordinary pilgrims and spiritual con men visit the city to attend the Magh or Kumbh Melas. Kama Maclean’s essay reveals that the Kumbh Mela is not an ancient religious festival. It was founded as a recendy in the 1860s. The intellectual energy generated by colonialism has almost disappeared with Colonial Allahabad. The bungalows are gone as well as the last occupants. Their descendants cannot recall the past. In 1824 Bishop Heber said that Allahabad was a “desolate, ruinous” place. Mirza Ghalib, three years later, compared Allahabad to hell. But hell is better. Jawaharlal Naehru was born in Allahabad and he grew up there. Nayantara Sehgal was a student and a politician. Ved Mehta was a young man who fell in love with the city. I. Allen Sealy was a resident of Allahabad, a source of family history and a home. The Last Bunglow: A collection of writings about Allahabad, which is a tribute to a forgotten city whose rise was just as meteoric as its fall.