The Delhi Coronation Durbar was held on December 12,th in 1911 before an
assembly of about 80,000 people of British India and the princely states
apparently to mark the accession of King George V to the throne of Great
Britain on the death of Edward VII. The Coronation at Westminster Abbey took
place on June 22, 1911. On
the advice of the cabinet, the King George V had resolved to create a new
precedent by proceeding himself with the Queen to India
at the close of the year, in order to preside over the projected Durbar which
was to be held at Delhi. The grand
Durbar was held with all the trappings of the imperial Mughal Durbar. The King
played the Great Mughal at the Durbar by endowing every interest group with
what it looked for. The King announced for the generality some imperial boons
and benefits, which included land grants, a month's extra pay for soldiers and
subordinate civil servants, establishment of a new university at Dhaka and
allotment of five million taka for it, declaration of the eligibility of the
Indians for the Victoria Cross, and so on. Then he bestowed of honors on the
elite with the aristocratic titles of Sirs, Rajas, Maharajas, Nawabs,
Roybahadurs and Khanbahadurs. These followed more general announcements, such
as the transference of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi, the annulment of the
1905-Partition of Bengal, the creation of a Governor-in-Council for united
Bengal, separating Bihar, Orissa and Chhotanagpur from Bengal's jurisdiction
and merging them into a new Lieutenant Governor's province, and the reduction
of Assam once more to a Chief-Commissionership. The King then pronounced that
henceforth the Viceroy would be concerned with imperial interests only and the
provincial concerns should be run autonomously by the Governor-in-Council and
elected bodies.
The Coronation Durbar
Park is now a lonely place, being
the last repository of statues of all the various British rulers of India,
good, bad, and indifferent, brought there after Independence.
The park is somewhat overgrown, but is worth a visit for those fans of the
British Raj.