Company Bagh - Allahabad - Alfred Park

Allahabad is a city that is proud of its great historical past and its rich cultural heritage and there are a lot of places with a marvelous history. Today our subject is one of the relics of British Era , park established as Alfred Park known as Chandra Shekhar Azad Park now which by far is the most delightful place in the city of Allahabad to find communion with Nature.

Background

Allahabad came under the British grip virtually on 14 Nov, 1801 when it was ceded by Nawab Saadat Ali Khan of Awadh to Marquess Wellesley, the Governor General of India although the magnificent fort of Allahabad had already been in occupation of the East India Company forces invariably since 1772. The ceded part of Awadh was termed as ceded provinces that included Moradabad, Bareilly, Etawah, Etah, Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh and Basti and all these were formed into Seven districts.

In 1803, a Collector, a Magistrate and a Judge were appointed to look after the affairs of these seven districts. Richard Almuhty was appointed the District Collector of Allahabad whose name is immortalized in the form of a indianized locality as Mutthi Ganj.

 In 1834, the head quarters of the ceded (North West ) Provinces was established in Allahabad but a year later it was transferred to Agra

In January 1858, Earl Canning visited Allahabad and read Queen Victoria's proclamation, transferring control of India from the East India Company to the British Crown (beginning the British Raj) at Minto Park. Allahabad became the capital of the North-Western Provinces in 1858 and was also the capital of India for a day

A Panoramic view of the park with Victoria Memorial in Centre

1857 Uprising

It is not the appropriate to discuss the foundational reasons that caused that kind of widespread unrest amongst the masses that erupted in the shape of such large-scale armed uprising. However I must say that in addition to its general economic unrest, the land revenue policy was a major factor of dissatisfaction amongst the landlords and peasants which might have caused the conflagration of the uprising of 1857. The secret society of the revolutionary group and disgruntled landlords had already been working in Allahabad. Pargana of Chail ( Called Ba Haveli ) was the hotbed of these anti-establishment activities as the real players of disobedience and uprising in Allahabad were the Zamindars of Pargana Chail.

According to Savarkar at Allahabad the Muslims were more advanced than the Hindus. They were most prominent in management of the machinery of the secret society-

 See Indian war of Independence  1857. P 174.

Few would know that almost all of today’s city of Allahabad was under the Pargana of Chail being the home pargana of the district.  The city side between the river and Khusro bagh was dominated by the Mewatis , a gallant community who had been living in Allahabad city since the arrival of Mughal Rule and were owners of many villages in that part of City.

One of those Mewati villages was Samdabad where on 5th June 1857, a panchayat of Mewatis was organized by the secret society at the house of Saif Khan Mewati where it was decided to incite the native sepoys and citizens and start action on 6th June together. As per the agreed upon programme the neighbouring muslim zamindars of Rasulpur, Samdabad , Saidabad , Kaharia along with those of Beli, Baghara, Fatehpur Bichhuwa , Chhitpur , Sultanpur , Salori, Katra, Bakhtiari , Minhajpur, Mehdauri and Bakhshi , and Daryabad all revolted on the given time. They plundered the houses and Property of British Soldiers and acted in full solidarity with Maulvi Sahib.

he Indian Mutiny, 1857

   M. P. Srivastava

 p177 

The next day 7th of June, the leader and the organizer of the entire uprising, Maulvi Liyaqat Ali of Pargana Chail arrived in the city and camped at Khusro Bagh. He organized the sepoys, gave speeches, published pamphlets which harboured the Hindu Muslim Unity with anti-British feeling among the masses alike and soon he assumed full authority in district of Allahabad.

The Mewatis of Samdabad, Rasulpur and other adjoining villages along with the native sepoys gathered around Maulvi Sahib and he raised the slogan of Jihad against the British. He invoked in the name of Mughal Badshah and appointed officers to assume full control of the city. The slogan was:

Khalq Khuda Ki

Mulk Badshah ka

Hukm Maulvi Sahib ka !

It is another gory story how James George Smith Neill, the butcher of Allahabad & Cawnpore, recovered the British Authority in the city during 6 to 15 June when his men forced their way under conditions of severe opposition and recovered the city from the native fighters.

Neil, the Butcher of Allahabad

At the outset he sent the fusiliers and Sikhs to attack and destroy the Pathan village of Daryabad and Mewati Villages of Samdabad and Rasoolpur. He himself marched towards the city and destroyed all the villages that belonged to insurgents. He faced no opposition as the revolutionaries had already left the city a day before. He ruthlessly destroyed one after another all the villages and made sure that all the villages were destroyed beyond the church. The following days were bloody and gloomy as the British army led expeditions daily to burn and destroy insurgent villagers. The troops burned houses, killed babies in cradles, young, middle aged men and women of all age were burnt alive by Neil. He killed as many people in Allahabad alone as all English men & women killed throughout the country. Eight Carts for dead bodies went for Eight months in Allahabad (and Chail) to find the corpses hung at the cross roads and markets and threw them in Ganges

A History of the Sepoy War in India, 1857-1858, Volume 2 Kaye page 669

He informed the Secretary to the GOI in his letter of 17 Jun 1857 that he would attack and completely destroy all the villages close to and forming the suburbs of the city which had been inhabited by the worst of the insurgents and would give a severe blow to the disaffected merchants and zamindars who rose against us and took active part ( Allahabad Collectorate Mutiny Basta No.5 )

The original Jama Masjid of Allahabad situated west of the Fort on the banks of Yamuna was also destroyed and was turned into barracks for Army.

Mewatis

Mewatis are actually Meo ( Mev), an ethnically unique tribal community originated from a geographical region called Mewat (Haryana).  They claim to have a Rajput origin , descendants of an ancestor who had converted to Islam during the Aibak Rule. They are neither Pathan nor Baloch, though some of  them use Khan with their names.

The Indian Mutiny, 1857 P.183 

  M. P. Srivastava

Allahabad had a considerable presence of Mewatis in the city , reportedly around one hundred thousand mewatis were in Allahabad at the time of Uprising, They held many villages and were adversely affected after the new regulations and taxes imposed by the company Bahadur. They were valiant and marshal group and took part whole heartedly in the uprising for which the entire community had to pay huge price for after the debacle, when they were identified as the real contrivers of the rebellion and the virtually , chased , driven away and left completely devastated.

They bore the brunt when their men and women were shot & burnt indiscriminately, women with sucking infants were also shot brutally. Their villages along with the most famous Samdabad & Rasulpur, Saidabad, Chhitpur , Nimi Bagh were all ransacked and burnt.

A wall of the destroyed mosque of old village Chhitpur

Photo from the backside of the wall.

Photographs by Vaibhav Maini

This mosque is a Waqf property registered as Waqf No 252 at Nimi Bagh (5 Biswa 3 Dhur) 

There are remains  of a wall that formed part of demolished  mosque of  village  Nimi Bagh , just adjacent to Chheetpur village , seen on the  Park Road  and close to it are few graves of Martyrs  who fell during the retaliatory  bombardment at the village. Old timers inform that this mosque is a Mughal Era construction and is a testimony to the amount of destruction that took place in the aftermath of 1857 uprising and we don’t know how many other Mughal era structures could have gone to rubbles.

The remaining mewatis, after destruction of their village, ran away and took shelter with the populace in other parts of the city. After the dust settled a group of Mewatis from Samdabad moved south of Kotwali and founded a new village with the same name. Today we find a locality Samdabad between Rani Mandi and Attarsuiya and While men of Rasoolpur founded a village with same name near Islamia College between Atala and  Karela bagh Labour Colony.

After the civil station was properly laid out and inhabited, the British purposely removed the old native villages inside the civil station to preserve their life with the contamination of the native hamlets.According to Ballhatchet , the prime example of this was the uprooting of Nimi Bagh, a village just beside Chheetpur village , that lay on the eastern side of the Company Bagh, it was uprooted in 1901 as an insanitary eysore. (The City in South Asia: Pre-modern and Modern  By Kenneth Ballhatchet, John Harrison -Page178)

Cannington

After the British gained full authority over the city, the company started the process to rebuild the city with a view to provide complete security to the British residents. Lord Canning took up the residence in Allahabad in about 1858 and made it the head quarters of Provincial Administration.

A large area comprising of Eight villages which were confiscated without paying any compensation to the owners on account of their taking part in uprising. All these villages were razed down in June 1857 with inhabitants killed or driven away ; land taken over was given a status of Nazul lease. The land was utilized for the laying out of the new Civil station of Cannington named after Lord Canning, the then Viceroy of India, who personally supervised the city plan under JC Harper who along with three engineers prepared the entire plan. The new station Cannington turned out to be the Pride of United Provinces, now known as Civil Lines of Allahabad. It was the largest town planning in India before the establishment of New Delhi as the capital.

The Indian Geographical Journal, Volume 38

The Civil Lines with its neat grid line pattern, tree lined avenues,  well groomed parks , gymkhana club and orderly road were actually laid out over those Eight villages that were razed in revenge. Less to say that the entire civil station was built on the dreams, bodies, deaths,  fears , tears, shrieks of the hundreds of men and women and children of erstwhile villages. As the noted writer from Allahabad Neelum Saran Gour describes, civil lines actually sprang up “from a history of violation.”

A Hand-book for Visitors to Lucknow:Henry George Keene P-16

The new civil station, an exclusive European settlement was reserved only for white men as we can see the eastern boundary of Cannington was extended up to the Government House on Lowther Road with the large railway colony to the south and new Cantonment in the west. The Queens road (Now Sarojini Naidu Road) was laid to connect civil lines to the Government House. This was done to separate European quarters from the other parts of the old city. Two people who played major role in the planning of the new station were Major Richard Strachey who prepared the final plan for this civil station and Commissioner Cudbert Bensley Thornhill supervised its execution

Alfred Park ( Company Bagh)

Prince Alfred

Prince Alfred Ernest Albert ( 1844 –1900) was the second son of Queen Victoria and was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1866 until he succeeded his paternal uncle Ernest II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire. He was the first British prince who set foot in India in 1869 and left in 1870. He travelled to Sri Lanka and Hong Kong as well during this trip.

 Sir William Muir extended an invitation to the prince to visit Allahabad during his tour, the government decided to open the public park to be named after him. Donations were sought and the residents of Allahabad raised the sum of Rs 7,000 for establishing a people's park. The foundation was laid by Prince Alfred in 1870.

A very large tract of land was required to develop a large park. After the 1857 uprising the old European quarters and the old British Cantonment were destroyed and the entire area was almost lying unused. Even after the detailed plan was evolved to develop a New Civil Station and Cantonment, the old Cantonment was still not much in use.

We learn from different reports that a greater part of the Old south Cantonment along with two entire confiscated villages of Samdabad and Chheetpur were earmarked to develop the park. Nearly 133 acres of land in total was reassigned for the Park. The eastern part of the park is where Chheetpur existed where the southern part of park is where the village of Samdabad stood. As per my research Rasoolpur village was not within the boundary of the lands of proposed Park. 

A few other reports suggest that the Park includes another village named Sultanpur Bhava. It says that a village named Sultanpur was also burnt and the people hanged after the rebellion of 1857. The remaining residents were allowed to settle near Khuldabad . They named their new locality as Sultanpur Bhava in memory of their previous home.

Studies in Humanities - Simla University

The development of Park was completed in 1878 and became one of the most serene and delightful places in Allahabad and was rightly called the chief ornament of new Civil Station.

Government House was located east of the Park while the Thornhill-Mayne Memorial lay to its west. To the North was Muir Central College (187-1876) by William Emerson, West of the park are the Italianate St. Joseph’s roman Catholic Cathedral (1871-9) .

A few more structures were added inside the Alfred Park in due course of time viz. Victoria Memorial , a band stand , stadium ,tennis courts , Allahabad Gymkhana. Much later additions were Music Academy and Allahabad Museum.

Victoria Memorial

To the east of the bandstand stands an open canopy which once sheltered a large statue of Queen Victoria which was built in 1905. It is a hugely decorated neo-gothic canopy measuring 7ft 5 inches in height sculpted from Italian Lime stone which once housed an imposing Statue of Queen Victoria.

Victoria Memorial -without Victoria

Old Photograph of Statue of Victoria 

A dream sequence 

When the plans were made to erect a memorial for the Queen Empress, the Queen Victoria Memorial Committee for Allahabad held a competition to commission the statue. Several models were submitted and George Edward Wade (1853-1933) was awarded £125 for his selected model and was paid Rs 17,000 as a fee for his heroic marble seated figure of the Queen. Wade was actually given to make another statue of the Queen as well for Colombo. It happened that his second (other model) was selected for Allahabad where as the original model for Allahabad was sent to Colombo in 1901 where it still stands near the presidential palace.  See Statues of the Raj - reference below.

The statue at Allahabad was inaugurated by the then Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, Sir James LaTouche on 24th March, 1906.

Old Post card with a photograph of Victoria Memorial

The Statue in Lucknow Musuem today

After the independence the statue was removed to Collectors compound in 1957 and from there it was relocated to the State Museum at Lucknow. The canopy has been vacant since then without any statue.

The park had a huge statue of King George V as well installed at the center of the park just next to the gate of the Museum which also got removed post independence of the country.

Band Stand

The park served as the ceremonial ground for the official ceremonies of the British Raj and parties were arranged regularly which was followed by the musical performances of the Police Band. Elegant and suave Allahabadis congregated here and enjoyed partying and socializing along with musical numbers by regimental bands.

A recent photograph - Band stand

Old Card showing band Stand in Alfred Park

This Bandstand was gifted to the Park by Babu Neel Kamal Mitra, Spirit Baron and a famous Bengali resident of Lal Kothi Allahabad.

Army bands have long stopped playing here and Band Stand seems to have gone to a niche of history.

Thornhill & Mayne Memorial

On the north of the Bandstand is situated the Thornhill and Mayne Memorial which was built in 1870 by the then Commissioner of Allahabad, Francis Otway Mayne, in memory of his close friend and town planner of Allahabad, former commissioner Cudbert Bensley Thornhill. In 1868, Mr. Mayne, started collecting funds to erect a memorial in honor of his friend Mr. Thornhill, who died the same year and with whom he had conceived of establishing a library and a Museum at Allahabad. This building is popularly known as Allahabad Public Library now.

Thornhill & Mayne Memorial

An old Photograph

Initially the public library was opened in 1864 at Chatham Lines in the building of Government Press along with a small museum. In 1870, the library shifted to a building behind the police station of Colonel Ganj. The Museum was shifted to Lucknow in the year 1879.

Mr. Cudbert Bensley Thornhill was the commissioner of Allahabad in 1861 and became a member of Board of Revenue in 1867. He died at sea off Aden (Yemen) on 1 July 1868.

Thornhill-Mayne Memorial 

Thornhill-Mayne Memorial 

The building was designed by Richard Roskell Bayne (1837-1901) an engineer with the Railways, in Scottish Baronial style with an elaborate hammer beam roof. A polychromic structure with lofty towers and arcaded cloisters look real with shapely pillars of granite and sandstone.

When Mr.Mayne passed away in 1872, the building was still under construction. A report of 1877 suggests that the construction was still going on. The work was completed in 1878 and Allahabad got its finest architectural marvel in the form of Thornhill- Mayne Memorial. The library finally shifted to the present premises at Alfred Park in 1879

A plaque at the building reads as follows:-

Plaque in Mayne Memorial

Columns

“This building which has received the name of the Thornhill-Mayne Memorial is erected in memory of Cudbert Bensley Thornhill, CSA & Francis Otway Mayne, C.B. both of Bengal Civil Service, who died the former on 11th July 1868 at sea off Aden, & the later On 30th August 1872 at Allahabad. The name preserves the memory of the close and uninterrupted friendship which during their lives united them. The memorial itself bears lasting testimony to the affectionate regard in which they were built By those who caused it to be erected.

                                                                   Various Census of India - Page 117 - 1877

First session of Legislative Council of North West & Oudh Provinces at Thornhill

In 1887 a Council was established for making Laws and Regulations for the United Provinces of North West and Awadh. The first meeting of this legislative Council was held at Thornhill Memorial Hall on 8 January 1887  presided over by General Alfred Omyns Lyall , Lt Governor. The following gentlemen attended the meeting:-

 1.        M.A. Mc Conaghey; Commissioner of Lucknow

2.       Hon’ble J.W. Quinton, member Viceroy’s Exec. Council

3.       John Woodburn, Chief Secy to the Govt.

4.       Justice George Edward Knox

5.       Hon’ble Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadur KCSI

6.       Pandit Ajudhyanath Kunzru , lawyer

7.       Maharaja Pratab Narain Singh of Ayodhya

8.       Rai Durga Prasad Bahadur of Gorakhpur

9.       Mr.Thomas Conlan . C.I.E , Bar at Law

Mosque of Samdabad

There are remnants of a mosque inside the Alfred Park where one finds dome and columns razed to the ground The mosque continues to be in a dilapidated condition as it never functioned as a mosque after its destruction.

The rubble of razed mosque 

Another look of the razed mosque

Photographs of the destroyed mosque

This was actually the Jama Masjid of Village Samdabad , since the village was completely destroyed during the retribution by Neil after the recapture of the city.The Jama Masjid of Samdabad was bombarded and razed to the ground . From its remains we find that it might have been a  nice structure with all the shades of later architecture of Nawabi  of Awadh. It looks there was a compound along with the grave of Baba Sandal Shah , the mosque and its courtyard etc , Unfortunately only the entrance gate of the complex remains intact and we can safely that it must have been amongst the tallest gate of any mosque enclosure in Allahabad.

The Gateway to the Complex - standing in awe !

The dargah of Sandal Shah Baba is a registered waqt property comprising of 5 bigha and 12 dhur registered under the no. 284. Here is the waqf details.

Waqf Record

Mosque of Kariman Bibi

If we move further south near Gymkhana Club, we find another small mosque which is functional and still operative. A tablet on the western wall of the restored wall inside the mosque tells us that the mosque was commissioned by a lady Kareeman Bibi that bears a date "tareekh 15 ramzan 1231 Hijri”  the date of foundation of this mosque. This date roughly corresponds to the English year 1810 AD . The masjid has been renovated and given a new looks around 25 years ago.

Inscription in the Small mosque

The Small mosque

This was not a Zenana mosque as misconstrued by some people. It was simply another mosque in a large village. In all large Muslim villages finds a principal mosque along one or two small mosques, in some cases private mosques are built inside large mansions as well. In this case it was another small mosque of village Samdabad.

Sandal Shah

There is a tomb of Baba Sandal Shah just in front of the entrance of the mosque. Not only the local populace but people from afar visit the Dargah. After conducting a research and speaking to a lot of old timers , I can conclude now that Syed Firoz Ali Alias Sandal Shah Baba was a wanderer Sufi saint who had settled in Samdabad in late seventeenth century , he lived in a small hut in front of the mosque. The residents of Samdabad had already erected a mosque , a well and a large courtyard  After his demise , he was buried in front of this mosque where he used to pray during his life time . Later on some of his followers like Gulab Shah and Jalal Shah too were buried close to his grave. All these tombs and graves belong to the pre-1857 period as no burial was allowed after the British recapture. Since this area was part of Samdabad village, my hunch is a lot of other graves must be there which have been leveled due to lack of maintenance over the period of time.

In the Waqf records, the dargah is enlisted  as No. 284 Waqf Dargah Sandal Shah Peer baba along with the Mosque , the area in Waqf is 4 Bigha and 4 Dhur .

Grave of Sandal Shah Baba

Tomb

People at Sandal Shah Shrine

 Grave of Richard ( the fake Chief Justice)

There is an old grave here in the Park that belonged to a British soldier who fell down during the tumult in 1857. A few years back some unknown guys put a board around a grave stating that it was a the grave of Sir Henry Richards , the former chief Justice of Allahabad High Court. As a matter of fact Sir Henry Richards died and was buried in Natal, South Africa. His descendents are settled in the UK.

Board with the wrong information  ,Grave of  Sergeant Watkins 

This grave actually belongs to George Richard Watkins, soldier of British Army killed during the tumult of 1857. The original epitaphs reads as follows:-

Sacred to the memory of George Richard Watkins,
Quarter-Master Sergeant of the 6th Regiment who was killed on 6th June 1857
Aged 30 years 1 month and 21 days.

 (Refer the Book :List of inscriptions - By E.A.H Blunt - 1911 - Allahabad. Page 154 )

Allahabad Museum

Allahabad Museum has also an premises inside the park, it is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture-Government of India, is one of the premier museums of India.

The earliest attempt to establish a museum in Allahabad was made by the late Mr. Batten the then Secretary , Board of Revenue , North West Frontier Province  and a museum was set up in 1863 by North Sir William Muir, before being shut down in 1881. After the initiative to reopen the museum was taken by Jawaharlal Nehru, the then President of the Allahabad Municipal Board, stalwarts like Madan Mohan Malviya , Pt. Sundar Lal , Mr. HS Crosthwaite and the then leading newspaper The Pioneer, the museum was eventually opened in the Municipal Board building in 1931. Due to space constraint, the museum was shifted to the present building at the Alfred Park. The foundation stone of the present museum building was laid on 14 December 1947 by PM Jawaharlal Nehru and the museum was opened to the public in 1954. In 1985 it was declared an Institution of National Importance

Efforts & services of Rai Rameshwar Choudhary, The Then Maharaja of Vijayanagram , Madan Mohan Malviya , Pt. Sundar Lal , Mr. HS Crosthwaite, Mr. Brij Mohan Vyas, first Honorary Secretary of Museum and Mr. Satish Chandra Kala , the curator of Museum can never be forgotten in the maintenance and raising the standard of  the Museum.

Allahabad Gymkhna Club 

Allahabad Gymkhana Club was established in the early years of the last century. It was the interaction club of the elite of the society, it was meant strictly for British judges, lawyers and officers who met in an atmosphere of easy camaraderie and enjoyed indoor games as well. Incidentally it was one of the oldest tennis centers of India.

One of the oldest tennis centres of India

The Allahabad Gymkhana Club hosted the All-India Tennis Championships since 1910 and Hockey Tournaments along with the Connel Cup Polo tournaments since 1920. . However as a matter of fact it was not an official national championship, It was purely established by & for the British officers and their families, 10 years before the All India Tennis Association was actually founded.

      Sport in South Asian Society- Boria Majumdar P 118

Pioneer - 1920

The championships staged both men's and women's singles play and also doubles.  The first women singles tournament was also started here and the first champion was Mrs. Kendall. In 1946, the All-India Championships tournament was renamed the National Lawn Tennis Championships of India by the India Lawn Tennis Association.

Allahabad organized the championship uninterruptedly from 1910 to 1938, then in 1944, there from 1946–1949 and then in 1950–1951.Matches for the Central India Lawn Tennis Tournament were played on the grass courts of Gymkhana Club annually in February which discontinued in the late eighties bringing an end to the era of glory of Tennis in Allahabad.

Allahabad Gymkhana club had a number of tennis courts of all types including the Grass, Gravel & Hard courts. Players who have played here include Ken Rosewall , Roy Emerson, Fred Stolle, Ilie Nastase , Iftikhar Khan , Ramanathan Krishnan, Joydeep Mukherji, Premji Lall ,Chuck Mckinley, Roger Becker, Kurt Nielsen and Akthar Ali . Ken Rosewall had great appreciation for grass courts of Allahabad . He considered it to be best in India. E.V. Bobb, D.N. Kapoor, P.L. Mehta and Abad Hussain were stars and heroes who rose to national fame from the courts of Allahabad Gymkhana Club. Like so many delightful things the tournament too went away from Allahabad leaving a memory of those days.

In the late eighties, the Gymkhana Club turned into a murky & gloomy place of wine & crime and the district administration had no way but to close the doors of this elite club.

Can we do something to restore the tennis courts of the Allahabad Gymkhana Club to their old pristine glory ?

Chandra Shekhar Azad

The Alfred Park is now known as Chandra Shekhar Azad park after a revolutionary freedom fighter who died fighting with the British Police here in 1931.

Azad Memorial with a new tree

During the British Raj the freedom fighters used the Alfred Park as a hideout. Chandrasekhar Azad, original name Chandrasekhar Tiwari (1906-31) , a firebrand freedom fighter who led the youth against the British and reorganized the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association after most of the HRA’s members had been killed or imprisoned was wanted by the Police. He was constantly on move dodging the police. On February 27, 1931, he arranged a meeting with few comrades inside the Alfred Park. Unfortunately this time he was betrayed to the police, who surrounded him as soon as he entered the park. He took cover behind an old Tamarind tree in Park during the fight, resulting in the encounter between British Police led by Sir JRH Knott Bower and Azad alone. A gun battle ensued, Azad kept the police party at bay and wounded two police officers but when he found himself running out of bullets he shot himself rather than surrendering before the police. Born on 23rd July, 1906, he was yet to complete 25 years of his life at the time of his martyrdom. 

Copy of the Original Photograph Azad lying dead

Yashpal (1903-1978) the Hindi writer was a partner with Azad recalled that Azad, Surendra Pandey and Yashpal himself first set out that morning to buy sweaters and medicines for their planned trip to Russia, Azad directly went to Alfred Park whereas Yashpal and Surendra went to Chowk. They heard about the police action inside Alfred Park while they were still at the stores in Chowk.

A statue was erected to mark the place where Azad died in front of the Science Faculty of the Allahabad University by some businessmen of Katra.

Where is the Original Tree where Azad Died

The old timers confirm that they have not seen the tree under which lay the body of the revolutionary after being shot by the police. Now the question is what happened to that tree ?

Yashpal's autobiography about the Tree in Alfred Park

It is told that the original huge Jamun tree fell down in a storm. A new sapling was planted in its place which today marks the place of martyrdom in the park but the fact is that the bullet ridden tree where Azad died was removed by British Administration as people flocked to pay respects to Azad daily in huge numbers and lighted incense sticks and put vermillion at the trunk. It was confirmed by Yashpal in his Autobiography, who was partner with Azad in the whole exercise that fateful day.Citation above.

Hiding spot

If we give another look into the hiding spot it seems highly improbable for an intelligent revolutionary like Azad to have taken refuge in this particular spot, since it is situated barely 800 yards from the sprawling Science Faculty of the University and about 300 yards from the Thornhill Road.  No conspirator or fugitive would try to have a meeting or try to hide so close to a busy road and university. During that period it was a deeply wooded forest with thick shrubs and bushes all over and he could have gone deep inside to hide, It seems that, he was having a meeting deep inside the Park but was surrounded and chased by the police for an encounter.  He kept firing while running till he reached this spot left with only one bullet and where he finally died.

Is it possible that in order to give public an easy access to salute him, a memorial was built near the main road and the campus had two main gates near the Statue (University gate-now demolished, and the Indian Press Gate) .

 The Colt pistol of Chandra Shekhar Azad is displayed at the Allahabad Museum

Madan Mohan Malviya Stadium 

The Cricket Stand of Allahabad Gymkhana Club was refurbished and a full fledged stadium came up after being sponsored by the Regional Council of Sports, UP , constructed in 8.5 acres where a lot of Cricket Matches were played in the past .Now mostly used by Uttar Pradesh cricket team for their domestic matches.

Ganga Nath Jha Sanskrit Institue

Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha - Ganganath Jha Research Institute (from 1943-1971) and Ganganatha Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth (from 1971-2002) was founded on November 17, 1943 with a view to perpetuate the name and works of Sir Ganganatha Jha (b.1871 & d.1941), a renowned figure of Orientology and Indology. Today it is the premier institute for Sanskrit learning.

The Prayag Sangeet Samiti (The Academy of Indian Music).

 It was founded in the year 1926 with an aim to popularize and propagate Indian Classical Music by Deshraj Major (Dr.) Ranjit Singh, Late Baijnath Sahai and Late Satyanand Joshi. The Samiti was initially housed in South Malaka since the year 1936, construction of the second edifice was completed in the year 1955 . The Prayag Sangit Samiti remains the premier Institution for the practice and propagation of music in India. It has two fine buildings , Mehta Auditorium is shown below.

Name

The park has always been known as Company Bagh (Company Garden ) by one and all simply because it was established by & for the British officers  popularly known as company bahadur.

Although it was named Alfred Park since the time of its inception but the local populace continued to call it Company Bagh. After the independence of the country in 1947, the Municipality of Allahabad renamed the Park as Motilal Nehru Park.

A lot of documents show that the Museum and Sanskrit Institute was shown to be situated inside Motilal Nehru Park.

Uttar Pradesh District Gazetteer 1968.

However again in 1982 it was proposed to name a part of the park where Chandrasekhar Azad’ memorial is erected was renamed as“ Chandra Shekhar Azad Park”.

The entire park was the given the name of Chandra Shekhar Park in 2018 by the Allahabad Development Authority as they carried on with the beautification of the Bagh under directions of the Allahabad High Court

But for the world , 

it is Company Bagh , 

now and forever.

Similarly as Allahabad has become Prayag Raj but

It still is Allahabad

Now and forever.

In the words of an Urdu Poet

Ye chaman Yun hi rahega aur hazaron Bulbulein

Apni apni boliyan ______sab bolkar ud jayengi

Khalid Bin Umar

This article will form a chapter of upcoming book " The city of God - Allahabad :
This chapter may separately be published as a booklet shortly.

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I am grateful to Mr. Sanjay Kala, the professor , whose immense love for this place is outstandingly pure and inspiring ,while his constant proddings and encouragement helped me explore and write on this subject.

References

A History of the Sepoy War in India, 1857-58 - Volume 2
Sir John William Kaye 

A Hand-book for Visitors to Lucknow:
By Henry George Keene

The Indian Geographical Journal –
 Volume 38 - Page 26

Statues of the Raj
Mary Ann Steggles,
British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia

Forces Behind the Indian Public Library Movement, 1858-1892
Om Prakash Sharma University of Chicago, 1970  

Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins
By Shail Mayaram

The Indian Geographical Journal, Volume 38
Indian Geographical Society, 1963  

Cities and towns of India
Ramesh Chandra
Commonwealth Publishers, Jan 1, 2004  

Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences: Page 133
Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, Volume 10

India: Modern Architectures in History
By Peter Scriver, Amit Srivastava

Prayag Pradeep – Shaligram Srivastava -1937                     

The Indian Mutiny, 1857
M. P. Srivastava - 1979

Indian Miniatures in the Allahabad Museum
Satish Chandra Kala, Allahabad Municipal Museum

Where the rivers meet.     Neelam Saran Gour -2009

Building for the Raj: Richard Roskell Bayne;

Anthony Welch, Martin Segger, and Nicholas DeCaro

REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE N.-W. PROVINCES
ALLAHABAD - 1872

Kaye's and Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8, Volume 2
 Sir John William Kaye- 1910

Three Rivers and a tree – Neelum Saran Gour - 2015

Prayag Or Allahabad: A Handbook
Modern Review Office, 1910

A Handbook to visitors to Lucknow – Henry George Keene Page 15-16

Pande, B. N. Allahabad Retrospect and Prospect, Allahabad, (1955)

Singhavalokan – Yashpal – Page 69 

(History of the Indian Mutiny, Holmes Rice Page 220-221)