Delhi Durbar (1911): George V's Imperial Assembly in India

The Delhi Durbar of 1911 was a grand imperial assembly held on 12 December 1911 on open ground north of Delhi, at which King George V and Queen Mary were presented to their Indian subjects as Emperor and Empress of India. It was the only durbar attended by a reigning British monarch, and it is remembered above all for a surprise announcement: the capital of British India would move from Calcutta to Delhi.

The word durbar comes from Persian and means a royal court or audience. The British borrowed it from the Mughal emperors, whose public courts at the Red Fort in Delhi were famous displays of power. In 1911 that tradition was revived on an enormous scale to show the strength of the British Raj.

Background

The 1911 event was the third imperial durbar at Delhi. The first, in January 1877, proclaimed Queen Victoria Empress of India. The second, in January 1903, was organised by the Viceroy Lord Curzon to mark the accession of Edward VII, who did not attend and was represented by his brother, the Duke of Connaught.

George V came to the throne in May 1910 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911. He had toured India as Prince of Wales in 1905–06 and wanted to appear in person before his Indian subjects. His ministers in London were initially cautious about the cost and the risk, but agreed to the visit.

The King and Queen sailed on the liner Medina and landed at Bombay on 2 December 1911. The Gateway of India in Mumbai was later built to commemorate that landing. On 7 December they made their state entry into Delhi, with the King riding on horseback rather than on an elephant, a choice that meant many onlookers did not recognise him.

Preparing an imperial camp

Officials spent most of 1911 preparing the site. A vast tented city was laid out north of the old walled city for the royal party, the Viceroy Lord Hardinge, provincial governors, Indian rulers and tens of thousands of troops. Roads, a light railway, water supplies, telegraph and telephone lines, hospitals and police posts were built for a few weeks of use.

Each princely state had its own camp, often decorated in elaborate style. The ceremonial centre was a huge semicircular amphitheatre facing a raised dais. On the dais stood a domed pavilion where the King and Queen would sit on thrones under a golden canopy.

Because law and custom did not allow the Imperial State Crown to leave Britain, a new crown was made by the jewellers Garrard. The Imperial Crown of India was set with more than 6,000 diamonds and paid for by the Government of India. It was worn on this occasion only.

The ceremony of 12 December

On the morning of 12 December 1911, George V and Queen Mary arrived in their coronation robes, the King wearing the new crown. Massed troops lined the arena and tens of thousands of spectators filled the stands and the surrounding mound.

The central act was the homage. Officials, ruling princes and other notables approached the dais in a fixed order of precedence, bowed and withdrew. The Nizam of Hyderabad, the senior Indian ruler, led the princes. Heralds then read the proclamation of the coronation, and a salute of guns was fired.

The ceremony also included a list of royal “boons”, or gifts. Among them was a grant of money for popular education and the decision that Indian soldiers would henceforth be eligible for the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry.

The surprise announcements

At the end of the ceremony the King himself read out the most important news. The seat of the Government of India would be transferred from Calcutta to Delhi. At the same time, the partition of Bengal carried out by Lord Curzon in 1905 would be reversed.

The plan had been prepared in great secrecy by Lord Hardinge and the Secretary of State for India, Lord Crewe, who travelled with the King. Hardinge’s government set out its arguments in a dispatch of 25 August 1911. Delhi was more central, it was linked in Indian memory with the Mughal and earlier capitals, and the move would take the government away from the political agitation of Bengal.

The reversal of the partition was a concession to the protest movement that had followed 1905. Bengal was reunited, while new provinces of Bihar and Orissa and of Assam were created, taking effect on 1 April 1912.

The Gaekwad incident

One moment drew wide attention in the British and Indian press. Sayajirao Gaekwad III, ruler of Baroda, approached the dais in plain clothes, made a short bow and turned his back on the King as he walked away, rather than retreating backwards as protocol required.

Newspapers and film reels presented the incident as a deliberate snub, and some critics linked it to Indian nationalism. The Gaekwad apologised and said it had been a misunderstanding of the procedure. Historians still debate how far it was intended, but it showed how closely every gesture at the Durbar was watched.

Key people

• George V (1865–1936): King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India from 1910, the only reigning British monarch to attend a durbar.
• Queen Mary (1867–1953): his consort, who took part in the ceremonies and later visits.
• Lord Hardinge of Penshurst (1858–1944): Viceroy of India from 1910 to 1916 and chief architect of the capital move.
• Lord Crewe (1858–1945): Secretary of State for India, who accompanied the royal party.
• Sayajirao Gaekwad III (1863–1939): reforming Maharaja of Baroda, whose bow became the best-known controversy of the day.

Consequences

The day after the Durbar, on 13 December, the King and Queen appeared on a balcony of the Red Fort before large crowds, consciously echoing the Mughal practice of the emperor showing himself to the people. On 15 December they laid foundation stones for the new capital. The stones were later moved to the site chosen on Raisina Hill.

The architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker designed New Delhi, with its government buildings, viceroy’s house and wide ceremonial avenues. Building was slowed by the First World War, and the new city was formally inaugurated only in February 1931. In the meantime the government worked from temporary offices in Delhi.

The move did not end political violence. On 23 December 1912, during Hardinge’s ceremonial entry into Delhi, a bomb was thrown at his elephant in Chandni Chowk; the Viceroy was wounded and an attendant was killed. The royal visit itself was recorded in an early colour documentary, With Our King and Queen Through India (1912).

Myths and facts

Myth: George V was crowned in Delhi. He was crowned in London. The Durbar proclaimed his coronation and received homage, but it was not a religious coronation.

Myth: New Delhi was built at the Durbar site. The foundation stones were first laid at the Durbar ground, but planners chose Raisina Hill, several kilometres to the south, as the location of the new city.

Timeline

• 1911, 22 June: George V and Queen Mary are crowned at Westminster Abbey.
• 1911, 25 August: Hardinge’s government sends its secret dispatch proposing the capital move.
• 1911, 2 December: The royal couple land at Bombay.
• 1911, 7 December: State entry into Delhi.
• 1911, 12 December: The Durbar; the capital move and the reversal of the partition of Bengal are announced.
• 1911, 13 December: The King and Queen appear at the Red Fort.
• 1911, 15 December: Foundation stones for the new capital are laid.
• 1912, 1 April: Bengal is reunited and new provinces take effect.
• 1931, 13 February: New Delhi is formally inaugurated.

Why it matters

The 1911 Durbar was the high point of imperial ceremony in British India and a deliberate attempt to wrap British rule in Mughal symbolism. Its lasting result was political geography: Delhi became, and has remained, the capital of India, while the reversal of the Bengal partition showed that organised Indian protest could change British policy.