As far as official designation goes, this is technically a ‘heritage park’ that should be enjoyed by anyone.
As one of the last unguarded open spaces left in Delhi, this place is actually just a temporary autonomous zone for local boys and young men to do whatever they want.
This is also the location of the world's first feature length color film, which was shot here in 1911.
The subject of the film was the third - and final - British Durbar,
That’s the one where King George the V was crowned emperor of India as he sat under the Great Shamiana with 6,170 diamonds on his head.
The 1911 Durbar took one year of planning and cost $76 million dollars.
There were over 100,000 people in attendance,
Every Maharaja, Mir, and Nawab of the country were required to attend.
Their pages too.
Each member of India’s elite had their own tented district where they lived during the weeks of proceedings.
This tent city added 26 square miles to the city limits and had its own post office, police force, and railway station.
Since this area of Delhi was a swamp that had to be drained before building the encampments,
every rug, every table, every lamp,
every bit of material for living
had to be imported from somewhere else,
sometimes from hundreds of miles away.
No expense was to be spared.
The Historical Record described the Durbar as ‘essential’. “It was the sole converging point of all men’s thoughts in India, and according to Indian ideas the occasion was one of more than mere ceremonial significance: it was rather of the nature of A SOLEMN SACRAMENTAL RITE.
The subsequent ravages of the first World War ensured that gauche pageants of this excess would not be seen again until the Olympic opening ceremonies staged by Nazi Germany in 1936.