Five years after collapse, masjid dome awaits restoration efforts
The ceiling right below the central dome has now developed fractures due to the continuous seepage of water during monsoons.
Once, if you had stepped off Hauz Qazi chowk in Old Delhi and kept walking on Lal Kuan Road, you would have seen the 200-year-old Masjid Mubarak Begum, standing atop a series of shops on the left, come into view in its full glory. But, five years ago, its central dome collapsed under torrential rains. Now the symmetry of the deep terracotta red structure is marred by the empty space in the centre where once the largest of the three hemispherical domes stood. While officials have conducted some site visits, no efforts have been made towards its restoration.
Mohammad Zahid, the imam since 2004, told HT that a crack had developed in the central dome in 2020. “It had fallen apart, half of it in front of the masjid and the second half behind”.
At the time, he approached the Delhi Waqf Board, the custodian of the mosque, for its restoration. “Officials had visited the mosque multiple times but no restoration was ultimately done. We were even told that the structure of the mosque is now weak and if restoration is done, the entire structure should be repaired.”
While the other two domes still stand tall and over 100 people come to pray every day, the ceiling right below the central dome has now developed fractures due to the continuous seepage of water during monsoons.
A senior official from the Delhi Waqf Board told HT that repair and reconstruction work on the heritage site was supposed to start after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the World Monument Fund in 2021 — a non-profit organisation that provides direct financial and technical support for the preservation of heritage sites across the globe. But the agreement fell through the cracks and no progress has been made since then.
“A fresh file is being made on the site. We understand the heritage value of the mosque and we want to get either the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) or the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) involved in the restoration. The final details are yet to be laid out,” the senior official added.
The masjid, which had fought history’s narratives to find its significance, is set on the first floor, a narrow flight of steep stairs leading up to the prayer room. It was built by Mubarak Begum, the wife of David Ochterlony, the first British resident to the Mughal court in Delhi.
In the book ‘Shahjahanabad: The Living City of Old Delhi,’ author Rana Safvi says Ochterlony “lived like the Indian aristocrats of Delhi”.
“Mubarak Begum built this mosque after his death when she inherited his property. The bottom floor has shops that would once have paid for its maintenance.”
According to Safvi, the inscription outside the mosque yields the date AH 1238 in the Islamic calendar, translating to 1822 – 1823.
On the facade of the main arch, a marble plate carries an inscription in Urdu. According to Safvi’s book, it reads, “Mubarak Begum built this mosque, which is superior to the arched sky. Its dignity is not less than that of Jerusalem; call this a second Jerusalem.”
The building, particularly at the beginning of its long life, has come to represent more than just a space for religion. For one, Safvi notes the irony of only men praying in a building named after and built by a “dancing girl”.
“As I climbed up the steps on a Friday when the congregation was praying, it was full of men…I did not miss the irony of men praying there, for Mubarak Begum, a dancing girl, was the mistress of Sir David Ochterlony, and this mosque was colloquially called the Randi ki Masjid or the Whore’s Mosque in the nineteenth century,” she writes
Historian William Dalrymple, on the other hand, talks about how it reflects the power Mubarak Begum was able to acquire simply by being “being the wife or even the senior concubine of a British Resident”.
In his book ‘White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India’, he says Mubarak Begum offended both the British and Mughals by calling herself “Lady Ochterlony” and also “Qudsia Begum”. And though Ochterlony is reputed to have had thirteen wives, she clearly took precedence over others.
“Mubarak Begum’s extreme social and political ambitions led to her nemesis. But her story is nevertheless a graphic illustration of quite how powerful a woman could become by being the wife or even the senior concubine of a British Resident.”
