Analysis of Colonialism, Private Space & Public Space in

Twilight in Delhiby Ahmed Ali

Shannan JevyakAmanda GillbertBenjamin Strom

Molly GoreJaime Clements

Rachel Dluge

Architecture: Private Space

“…In the centre of the courtyard an old date palm tree raises its head towards the sky, and its long

leaves clustering together conceal a part of the sky from view, and its trunk, curved and sagged in the middle, looks ugly and dark. At the foot of the date palm a henna tree is growing, and sparrows have

built their nests in its branches. Two earthen dishes hang from it, one full of water and the other of grain

for the sparrows and wild pigeons who have built their nests in the cornices of the veranda, and in

the thick red and white curtains hanging above the arches.” (6)

Architecture: Private Space

“In the zenana things went on with the monotonous sameness of indian life… mostly life stayed like water in a pond with nothing to

break the monotony of its static life. Walls stood surrounding them on all sides, shutting the women

in from the prying eyes of men, guarding their beauty and virtue with the millions of their bricks.”

(29)

Architecture: Public Space

“‘You should thank the angrezi sarkar [The English Government] for this,’ said Siddiq… ‘For it is through it that we are getting all this.’”

“‘What has the angrezi sarkar to do with this?’ said Mirza… ‘God alone gives us our daily bread; and Him alone should men thank.’”

“‘He [King George V] is a very gracious Emperor to think of his subjects and of our Dilli which will now become capital of India. Soon we shall all be rich and

roll in wealth all our lives.’”

“‘Yes,’ remarked the barber, ‘things do seem to be prospering…’ So many thousands of people have come to Dilli. Will it be always like this, I wonder?’”

“‘I am not so sure,’ said Mirza… ‘All this show and prosperity is temporary. It will vanish one day, soon’”

(Ali 136).

Architecture: Public Space

“From end to end of the Chandni Chowk, divided down the middle by a row of noble and expansive peepal trees, the central causeway was turned into

one long line of wooden stands. In front of the Town Hall and around the statue of the English

Queen, one enormous stand was erected; and the ugliness of the Clock Tower had been concealed.

The stands continued through the Fatehpuri Bazar with its majestic mosque and grateful shadows,

and continued to the Mori Gate and beyond. All this made Delhi look more like an exhibition

ground than the city which was once the greatest in Hindustan” (134-35).

Women: Public Space

“She was a beautiful woman, young and tall; and in her dark eyes there was something piercing and poisonous. But her face was gentle, and she looked a respectable woman. She was dressed

simply but with taste, in a white tight-fitting paijama, a muslin shirt with flowers embroidered on it in white thread, and a pink head-cloth well starched and plaited. There was a fine nose ornament studded in her nostril, and in her ears were gold ear-rings filled

with fresh jasmine flowers, and on her arms she wore gold bangles of a beautiful design. The palms of her hands and the soles of her feet were dyed red with henna” (52-53). Description of Mushtari

Bai, one of the “cultured dancing girls”

“Who would care for him when she had gone? His wife was there, no doubt; and so were the children. But the world they lived in was

a domestic world. There was no beauty in it and no love.” (79).

Women: Public Space

“For the prostitutes were of two kinds, the cultured ones and whores. The cultured ones were patronized by the rich and well-to-do. Young men were sent to them to learn manners and the art of polite conversation; and the older people came to enjoy their dancing, music, and their company in general. They had, thus, two kinds of lovers, one who came for their own entertainment, and the

other who entertained them” (29).

Women: Private Space

“Begam Wahee, Asghar’s eldest sister, had been married to Saiyyed Waheedul Haq in Bhopal. But she had become a widow at the

age of nineteen, soon after the birth of her second child. She was religious by nature; and, not to arouse unnecessary suspicions, she

had decided to live with her husband’s people. For though Islam permitted her to marry again, the social code, derived mostly from prevailing Hindu practice, did not favour a second marriage.” (27)

“There is no doubt that she missed her own people and wanted to go home. But she had other responsibilities now...she sacrificed her own pleasures to the interest of her children...She felt very lonely in

an alien land and often wept silently.” (27)

Women: Private Space

“Walls stood surrounding them on all sides, shutting the women in from the prying eyes of men, guarding their beauty and virtue with the millions of their

bricks. The world lived and died, things happened, events took place, but all this did not disturb the equanimity of the zenana, which had its world too

where the pale and fragile beauties of the hothouse lived secluded from all outside harm, the storms that blow in the world of men.” pg 29

“He was reminded how so very often Bundoo’s mother had entertained him. Whenever he had gone inside she had talked to him from behind the purdah. She had even said once that she scarcely felt if necessary to observe purdah

with him.” pg 25

Marriage

‘I won’t marry any other girl,’ Asghar said peremptorily. ‘I will marry her or no one else. You know that none of my wishes have been fulfilled. I wanted to go to Aligarh to study further; but father put his foot down. He wouldn’t hear the name of Aligarh. It is after all a Muslim institution, but he says that it is all the evil-doing of the Farangis who want to make Christians and Atheists of all of us. But that is finished now. I have given in to him. But in this matter I won’t

listen…’

”He ascribed her coldness to shyness and to the atmosphere of restraint which prevails in Indian homes, and went on loving her with an intensity which she did not understand. Yet, he was not so much in love with her as his own self,

his own dreams and illusions which she had created in his mind...” (132)

Marriage

“Bilqueece was going away now, and they had no claim over her, no right to call her their own. She would do the bidding of others, behave and act as they would like her to do. Even if they asked her not to see her brother and father, she would have to yield and they would be able to do nothing. But God’s will be done, they consoled themselves: The work of the world must be done, and Nature must fulfill herself. Their fathers had brought other people’s daughters;

they had done the same; so were others doing with their daughter. “(126)

Men: Colonial Influence

“For nooone knew him, until, seeing his plight, one man asked him where he hailed from, and thus he

replied “Why do you ask my native place? O dwellers of the East, Making mock of me for the poor plight I am in? Delhi, which was once the jewel of the world,

where dwelt only the loved ones of fate, Which has now been ruined by the hand of Time, I’m a

resident of that storm tossed place...” But gone are its poets too, and gone is its culture” ( 5)

Men: Private Space

“Finding there was no peace at home Mir Nihal put on his coat

and went out” (49)

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