Having survived numerous legendary battles, commendably distinguished in warfare and admirably regarded as a highly educated noble-minded man ceaselessly gallant in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity and courteous to his brother-soldiers as well as indigenous subordinates, Colonel James Skinner (1778-1841), a most generous friend and an inspiring officer, still remains indelibly etched in the annals of the British East India Company as a military adventurer whose thrilling military exploits, unparalleled insightfulness of mind, undiminished benevolence of heart and unmatched comprehensive knowledge of Indian customs and languages could rarely be surpassed by other undoubtedly audacious English infantrymen, mercenaries and political agents with whom the country was thickly swarming in those early decades of British colonialism.
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| In consequence of a mercenary's gratitude - St. James' Church |
In those early days, being recurrently challenged by its formidable French and Portuguese counterparts and yet ambitiously proceeding with rapid consolidation of power through territorial annexation, expansion of influence circles and militarization, the British East India Co. efficaciously resorted to the Mughal system of allowing enterprising private individuals to raise irregular fighting units in lieu of enormous rent-free land endowments (“jagir”) and military standing. At the right place at the right time for the right reason, Col. James Skinner was one such highly resourceful individual. His courageous men endowed him with the respectful name “Sikandar Sahib” derived from the vernacular rendition of Alexander the Great of Macedonia, and it needs be noted that besides unmatched chivalry and dauntlessness, he was also celebrated for his unequaled learning and understanding. Indeed, so unquenchable was his thirst for the acquirement and dissimilation of knowledge that he even laboriously penned two encyclopedic books titled “Tazkirat al-Umara” (“The Princely Families of the Rajput and Sikh states of India”) and “Kitab-i-tasrih al-Aqvam” (“History of the Origin and Distinguishing Marks of the Different Castes of India”)! Like most of his Indianized English contemporaries, he too spontaneously adopted the social, behavioral and sartorial preferences of the indigenous aristocrats, maintained a harem of, it’s said, 14 or 16 native wives of mixed Hindu and Muslim denomination, and strongly insisted on being referred to by his complete Persian honorific title “Nasir-ud-Dowlah Colonel Sikandar Bahadur Ghalib Jung” (lit., “The Most Exalted Col. Skinner, Victorious in War”). His mansion, renowned for generous hospitality and sumptuous indigenous feasts, endlessly resounded with music, dance congregations and poetry sessions, and all his subordinate men were invited, irrespective of their military rank and social standing, to the religious festivities and grand regimental banquets that were celebrated on his enormous estate with enviable splendor.
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| Classical! |
“I do not mean to flatter when I say you (Col. Skinner) are as good an Englishman as I know; but you are also a native irregular, half born and fully bred; you armed them, understand their characters, enter into their prejudices; can encourage them without spoiling them; know what they can and, what is more important, what they cannot do. The superiority of your corps rests upon a foundation that no others have.”
– Major-General Sir John Malcolm (1769-1833), British East India Co.
Administrator and Historian
As glanced from personal correspondence and military memoirs however, in his long fruitful life he did undergo wretched misery and mournful lamentation as well – point in case, the significant necessity of leading life as a freewheeling mercenary following the contemptible denial of ardently desired military commission and territorial estate along with the unfairly prejudiced treatment he had to regularly endure both from the Hindu Maratha confederacy as well as British East India Co. who continuously contemplated his fierce loyalties on account of his being an Anglo-Indian whose dark-complexion ceaselessly acted as a vicious double-edged sword despite his having successively raised irregular cavalry units for them. Notwithstanding the repulsive slights and discriminatory deceptions, “Skinner’s Horse”, popularly referred to as “Yellow Boys” following their brilliant canary-yellow uniforms, the highly competent irregular light cavalry regiment he raised during the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803) for the British East India Co., relentlessly proved its military mettle time and again while Col. Skinner dexterously commanded it, especially in First Afghan War and the battles of Ghazni and Bharatpur, and even afterwards until its mechanization, assimilation into and acclamation as the senior-most cavalry regiments of the Armored Corps of Indian Army.
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| From the threshold - The time portal |
Left for dead for an entire night in the battlefield after being shot in the groin in the Battle of Uniara (Rajasthan, 1800), Col. Skinner, painfully wounded, miserably bereaved at the demise of his fearless men and relentlessly threatened by insatiable jackals, was unexpectedly provided lifesaving water and succor by a cobbler woman who was scavenging for valuables amongst the dead and detected signs of life in him. Immediately upon this deliverance, he gratefully vowed to build an episcopal church were he to somehow survive and acquire economic means to do so – this is generally believed to be the incontestable reason for the commissioning of his gorgeous classical edifice. Also as documented in contemporaneous literary records, Col. Skinner was doubtlessly inspired to construct a handsome church within the enormous peripheries of his Delhi estate as an accompaniment to the ruinously devastated Mughal mosque (more on that later) he discovered and ordered to be repaired therein.
“Among these natives, as among Christians of old, it was customary to devote large sums to charitable and holy purposes; no doubt, in the hope that their souls would be benefited by the sacrifice. Skinner was no whit behind them or any one in deeds of charity; and it was, doubtless, in something of this spirit mingled with sincere gratitude for blessings bestowed, that he vowed and afterwards built this church. In the same spirit of piety, with a sense of modest humility and of his own unworthiness, did he desire that when he died he should be buried not within the precincts of his church, but under the doorway sill, so that all persons entering might trample on “The Chief of Sinners”.”
– James Baillie Fraser, “Military Memoir of Lieut.-Col. James Skinner, C.B.,
For Many Years a Distinguished Officer Commanding a Corps of Irregular Cavalry in the
Service of the H.E.I.C.” (1851))
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| In the company of God and Col. Skinner |
Constructed between 1826-36 at a cost of Rs 95,000 financed by Col. Skinner, the elegant church, faithfully consecrated by Bishop Reverend Daniel Wilson, was designed by engineer-architects Major Robert Smith and Capt. de Bude of the British Army in graceful Renaissance revivalist-style of architecture seamlessly amalgamating classical English colonial structural design with several Mughal artistic motifs. A bell tower, although inherently upsetting the overall remarkable symmetry yet as a fraction of the whole entirely complimentary to the outstanding floor plan, was constructed later. On a tangential note, Rev. Wilson had personally commissioned and presided over the Anglican Church of Calcutta (refer
Pixelated Memories - St. Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta), while Major Robert Smith is also credited with designing the delicate red sandstone Bengali-style cupola that once surmounted the Qutb Minar but presently lies miserably secluded in a relatively distant corner of Qutb complex (refer
Pixelated Memories - Qutb complex and
Pixelated Memories - Smith's folly).
The church’s soothing yellow cruciform structure interspersed with flawless white highlights, its three stately pillared porticoes surmounted by heavyset triangular pediments and the enormous ribbed double dome crowned by its ornamental lantern and gilded copper cross-and-ball cupola have essentially become one of the most affectionately adored and certainly the most cheerfully photographed of all the British-era monuments and memorials plentifully peppering the Kashmere Gate area. Stepping into the hallowed interiors, exclusively dominated by semicircular arches and rounded floral-esque recesses and simplicity of ornamentation, in every direction one looks to one comes face-to-face with poignant memorials commemorating the memory of the deceased, especially valorous military heroes. Amidst the honors and details of numerous battles impeccably sculpted in resilient marble, the flawless flourishes of floral wreaths and the precise outlines of crossed swords and military badges, emblazoned against numerous of these touching memorials are the insignia of Skinner’s Horse and its battle cry “Himmat-i-Mardan Madad-i-Khuda” (“By the will of man and the benevolence of God”), however there are many others too that were installed to graphically memorialize the unfortunate victims of the First Indian War of Independence (aka the Sepoy Mutiny, 1857) as well as to honor several illustrious servicemen from other regiments and the more eminent amongst the descendants of Col. Skinner (including Brig. Michael Alexander Robert Skinner (1920-99), the great-great-grandson of Col. Skinner and Commandant Skinner’s Horse (1960-63)).
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| Lessons in history, warfare and discipline |
Several of the emotionally-charged memorials insistently remind those shockingly harking to the dangerous romanticism and the elaborate espionage and communication games involved in the Sepoy Mutiny that entire families, irrespective of ethnicity, gender and religious beliefs, were outrageously murdered in cold blood (not to deny that the barbaric British retribution was equally, if not more, vicious. They did not even spare funerary monuments and religious edifices in their indignant wrath!) –
“Sacred to the memory of
Thomas W. Collins, Esq., many years Deputy Collector of Delhi, his wife Eleanor and mother-in-law Mrs. E.P. Staines. Three brothers-in-law, J.W. and E.W. Staines and G.R. White. Four sisters-in-law, Mrs. A. Hunt, Mrs. Eliza Cochrane, Mrs. A. White and Miss Christiana Staines. Seven nephews, William C. and Lewis C. Staines, George L. Hunt, James, Henry and Edward White, and an infant son of G.R. White. Three nieces, Margaret, and Mary Hunt and Christiana White. Three grandchildren, John T.C., Josephine T.C. and Joseph O’R.C. Leeson. All barbarously murdered at Delhi on or about the 11th of May 1857.
Also Hannah Collins mother, J.R. Collins brother, and Janet Collins sister-in-law of T.W. Collins. The former was killed at Futtyghur and the two latter at Futtypore by mutineers in June 1857.
Also Robert P. O’Connor, nephew of T.W. Collins, who was killed at Agra on the 7th July 1857.
“In the midst of life we are in death.”
“The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
This tablet has been erected by the surviving orphans of T.W. Collins.”
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| Where and how? - The church's plan and position vis-a-vis the garden and auxiliary buildings enclosing it (Photo courtesy - Archinomy.com) |
The church has since its inception played a very important role in the everyday life and social obligations of Delhi’s Christian community; H.M. Queen Elizabeth II (reign 1952 – present) visited it in 1961 and H.H. George Leonard Carey, then Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1995. Until the construction of the Cathedral Church of the Redemption in 1935 near the Presidential palace (refer
Pixelated Memories - Presidential House), successive Viceroys since 1911 too used to regularly offer prayers here. The hallowed edifice’s indescribable undisturbed tranquility and the unpunctuated stillness of silence somehow inexplicably eliminates all sounds of the immense mass of boisterous humanity and disorderly vehicles outside; unarguably further assisted by its immensely sober architecture and ornamental treatment, possessing merely these poignant commemorative plaques and two vividly painted stained glass windows depicting respectively the Crucifixion and Ascension of Jesus (a third, depicting Roman soldiers unequivocally cowering in undisguised fear and amazement at the sight of Jesus’s Resurrection, can be perceived within the small church management office immediately adjacent the entrance), the peaceful serenity soothes frayed nerves and calms one’s mind until one is entirely immersed in the contemplation of the conventional architecture and the emotional memorial tablets. Under the benevolent gaze of the painted Jesus and perpetually surrounded by numerous dear friends, descendants and brothers-in-arms, interred therein underneath the glistening white marble close to the altar table are the mortal remains of Col. Skinner shrouded by the unpretentious inscription –
“Here rest the remains of the late Colonel James Skinner C.B., who departed this life at Hansi
4th December 1841.
The body was disinterred, removed from Hansi and buried under this on the 19th January 1842.”
He died at the age of 63. His heartfelt wish to be buried under the door sill was never fulfilled by his descendants or the two hundred soldiers who faithfully disinterred the remains in Hansi and elegantly escorted them with complete military honors and guard to Delhi, however one assumes his spirit would still be gleefully galloping around armed and mounted on his favorite stallion.
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| Exquisite poignancy |
I had been postponing the visit to Kashmere Gate area for years for no apparent reason except lethargy and eventually it was Rana Safvi, fellow blogger, history enthusiast and an extremely knowledgeable writer, who convinced me to accompany her to document the monuments located there (her brilliant articles can be read at
Hazrat-e-dilli.com). We could not however click many photographs of the church interiors since the querulously argumentative lady caretaker refused to allow us – the church authorities, we later learnt, are considerably intimidated following the recent arson attacks on Christian religious shrines and cemeteries in the run-up to the politically and religiously charged Delhi elections. While the physical attacks have stopped, sick mockeries and veiled threats, also undeniably threatening the social fabric of the country, have relentlessly continued to be hurled on social media sites since.
In painstakingly sculpted sepulchral mausoleums erected within the enclosed “Skinner family plot” in a corner of the church lawns is where unperturbedly repose in eternal slumber several members of the Skinner family clan, including his sons and daughters. The mournfully weeping angels carved flawlessly, the flourishes of scrolls and wreaths and the fading dark and sorrowful lettering in English and Urdu as inscribed on numerous of the headstones, present an extremely touching picture of inconsolable grief and pitiful lamentation. Nearby is a large plain red sandstone grave indicating the internment of the remains of Col. Skinner's most devoted and learned friend Major William Fraser, the Commissioner of the territory of Delhi and the Agent to the British Resident. Col. Skinner considered his murder in 1835 on the ghastly orders of Nawab Shamsuddin Ahmed Khan of Lotharu-Ferozepur Jhirka (Haryana) as one of the most devastating losses in his life and had his mortal remains disinterred and reburied here when he had the church constructed. The original exquisitely inlaid white marble mausoleum designed and executed by some of the finest stonecutters whom Col. Skinner could have employed was also entirely shattered during the Sepoy Mutiny and reconstructed afterwards. The highly emotive memorial epitaph inscribed by Col. Skinner nonetheless survives and reads –
“The remains interred beneath this monument were once animated, by as brave, and sincere a soul, as was ever vouchsaved to man by his Creator;
A brother in friendship, has caused it to be erected, that when his own frame is dust, it may remain as a memorial for those, who can participate in lamenting, the sudden and melancholy loss of one, dear to him as life.
William Fraser
Died 22nd March 1835”
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| In sacred memory - The memorial cross and Mr. Fraser's unpretentious grave |
Upon a ziggurat-like pedestal adjacent the grave was erected a large three-dimensional cross commemorating the poor Christians deceased in the Sepoy Mutiny. Inscriptions in Hindi, English and Urdu remember the cataclysmic event thus –
“Sacred to the memory of those Christians who were murdered at Delhi in May mdccclvii;
And in gratitude to God for his mercy in having spared a remnant of his people to erect this cross.”
The simplistic mausoleum of Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe (lived 1795-1853), the British Agent (Negotiator) at the courts of the last two Mughal Emperors Akbar Shah II (reign AD 1806-37) and Bahadur Shah “Zafar” II (reign AD 1837-57), is also located in the church grounds. His singular life and unusual extravagances have been extensively dealt with in these three articles –
Pixelated Memories - Metcalfe's Chattri,
Pixelated Memories - Metcalfe's Ziggurats and Guardhouses and
Pixelated Memories - Quli Khan's Tomb.
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| Fakhr-ul-Masjid - Rising above mediocrity |
As already mentioned, the First Indian War of Independence (Sepoy Mutiny, 1857), the murderously catastrophic culmination of a formidable storm brewing barely under the undisturbed surface of the vast subcontinent, also spelled calamitous for the church and its handsome yellow structure. The then Chaplain, Reverend Jennings, was arrested and executed by the mutineers. The church's dome too, relentlessly used by the Sepoys for target practice, was so greatly damaged by shell fire that the cross-and-ball finial surmounting it was badly bruised and toppled. Since 1988, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is undertaking the Delhi Government-sponsored maintenance and restoration drive which involves the relaying of several severely damaged polished sandstone surfaces, the removal of several hundred kilograms of unnecessary cement plaster, addition of structural buttresses and support enhancements, restoration of stained glass windows and the repair and gilding of the sophisticated cross-and-ball surmounting the massive ribbed dome. Col. Skinner would have graciously approved – after all, he too amiably adopted and had extensively repaired the aforementioned crumbling Mughal mosque that strikingly sprawled on his estate.
“The Fakhrool Musajid was built by Kuneez i Fatima widow of Shoojaat Khan about A.D. 1729, to the memory of her husband who was one of the confidential followers of Nizam ool Moolk, Minister of Mohummud Shah. It adjoins the Estate and is nearly opposite to the Church erected by the late Colonel Skinner C.B. and has been of late years repaired at no inconsiderable expense by that distinguished Officer, for the convenience of his followers military and menial.”
– Sir Thomas Metcalfe, “The Dehlie Book”
(“Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi”)
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| “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” |
Affectionately commissioned in 1728-29 by Kaniz-i-Fatima (entitled “Fakr-i-Jahan” (“Pride of the World”)) in loving memory of her deceased husband Mirza Shujat Khan, a high-ranking noble (“Mansabdar”) and an artillery officer commanding 4,000 infantry and 2,500 mounted cavalry in the imperial army of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir (reign AD 1657-1707), the gorgeously conceived and unusually proportioned mosque was originally christened “Fakhr-ul-Masjid” (“Pride of the Mosques”), but is presently simply referred to as “Lal Masjid” (“Red Mosque”) on account of its red sandstone character. Its handsome facade embedded with pink-white marble and its bulbous onion domes highlighted through the employment of slender strips of black marble, the mosque is an enthralling sight, rising as it does from a very high platform in the midst of an entire bazaar peopled with scooter mechanics, fruit-and-vegetable sellers, voracious pedestrians thronging to several of the hole-in-the-wall restaurants and roadside sweetmeat sellers, rickshaw-wallahs ferrying around enormous weights and cyclists meandering this way and that to navigate the oncoming flood of humanity that literally threatens to burst through the seams in this very narrow street. The unsophisticated interiors portray extremely simplistic yet very delicate ornamentation predominantly comprising sleek arches and calligraphy inscriptions of the Islamic kalima –
“La illah illa Allah, Muhammad-ur rasool Allah”
“There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet.”
Originally cheerfully existential as part of Col. Skinner’s historic estate, presently the small mosque is geographically as well as emotionally separated from it by this aforementioned serpentine bazaar which wedge-like malevolently ranges between the two, thereby introducing on the innocent part of the mosque an element of being overboard and therefore being neglected by conservation authorities and history enthusiasts alike. The traditional architecture and the subdued artistic ornamentation are simplistic in conception and yet undeniably succeed in impressing a casual visitor through their graceful humility and abhorrence of pretentious flamboyance.
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| A chilly, foggy morning |
Along the sprawling courtyard have been built tiny rooms, lockers, a washroom and a kitchen to accommodate the numerous students who learn here the recitation of Quran, Islamic jurisprudence, Arabic, Hindi and a bit of English and mathematics (no sciences though!). The cold December day we visited, all of them as well as their middle-aged, bearded teacher (“Imam”) were sprawled slumbering undisturbed in the agreeable afternoon sun and upon being unintentionally thus woken informed us that they were continuously offering prayers all night and were therefore tired now.
Although the historic mosque looks pretty well-maintained vis-à-vis several others scattered throughout the ancient landscape of Delhi, one has only to take a gander along its rear extremities which have been incorporated within the horribly ruinous premises of the offices of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi – here, in the midst of wreckage and ruins of abandoned and demolished buildings, does one see the terrible destruction fraught by men and women ironically charged with the maintenance and preservation of Delhi’s civic infrastructure! The illustrious Hindu College, which originally functioned from here, has long been shifted to Delhi University’s north campus and its building here demolished and replaced by multistoried unappealing office blocks, yet in a commendably well-camouflaged corner survives a small, low-roofed circular building hugged on one side by a classical colonnade.
Carefully masquerading as a miserably abandoned, appallingly maintained storage warehouse where are stuffed broken furniture, unfixable electrical fixtures, shredded college examination papers and the lifeless remains of an inoperable motorcycle perhaps preserved here for posterity, this modest orange-yellow edifice impeccably disguises its prestigious historic associations – it constituted a not insignificant fragment of Col. Skinner’s estate and functioned as his dining-cum-recreational room where he entertained his most distinguished and royal guests during the winter months spent here – one assumes that here in a corner stood a cards table, in the center finest of rugs and comfortable bolsters surrounded by extravagantly carved hookahs inset with colorful stones and designs; numerous servants would have continuously whirred about bearing servings of fine alcohol and various kinds of meats and breads when drinking sessions would have continued till late night; interesting hunting expeditions would have been planned, experiences in fierce battles and with lovely dance girls and politician-generals as easily recounted, and one believes that Col. Skinner, ceaselessly engrossed in the betterment of agricultural yield and irrigation facilities of his gargantuan estate in Hansi (Haryana), would have relentlessly deliberated with indigenous village chiefs and governmental officials the dis/advantages of the various modes of cultivation and revenue collection.
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| Pitiable! |
Afterwards, the building along with the surrounding segment of Skinner estate was acquired and similarly employed by Rai Bahadur Lala Sultan Singh Jain (1876-1930), the Treasurer of Imperial Bank at Delhi, Shimla and Meerut and one of the city's richest and most celebrated citizens of his time, renowned for his extravagantly aristocratic style of fine living, his role in the establishment of and philanthropic contributions to several reputable educational institutes including Hindu College, Indraprastha College and Tibba College, and his cordial associations with the foremost of Congress party members and the Maharajas of Kashmir, Jaipur, Mysore and Darbhanga. I wonder if my sister, who recently graduated from Hindu College, would have heard of him.
“So long as Charity, Benevolence, and the kindlier feelings of the human heart
Are held in respect by Mankind,
The name of James Skinner will be remembered and revered.”
– Memorial stone, St. James’ Church
For some inexplicable reason brought about by the ceaseless passage of time and the vagaries of human social response and communal memories, not many remember and/or revere Col. Skinner today. His beautiful church, on the other hand, continues to be affectionately admired and cherished, and remains to this day, as originally intended, one of the most prominent landmarks of Kashmere Gate area. Were it not for the ignorant MCD employees disturbingly hellbent on irreversibly disfiguring the hallowed mosque and the sorry remnants of Col. Skinner's estate, the same could perhaps have been said about them as well.
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| Of neglectful ignorance and wanton destruction |
Location: Kashmere Gate area, north Shahjahanabad (Coordinates: 28°39'56.4"N 77°13'51.2"E and 28°39'54.0"N 77°13'46.3"E)
Nearest Metro station: Kashmere Gate ISBT, approximately 1.5 kilometers away (however, most bus drivers passing past the church would, if requested, briefly halt immediately opposite it as well).
How to reach: Kashmere Gate ISBT is one of the most well-connected bus terminals in the city and is throughout the day accessible via regular bus and metro services. Furthermore, it is only a very short walk from Mori Gate terminal. One can easily walk/avail an auto/rickshaw to the church/mosque from Kashmere Gate metro station/ISBT bus stop. Red Fort/Chandni Chowk is approximately 3 kilometers from the church/mosque and one can avail a bus/auto from there as well. The delicate domes of the beautiful mosque are visually perceptible from the church and its entrance is via a narrow staircase built underneath slightly offset from it amidst the bustling bazaar.
Church timings: Monday to Saturday: 8 am – 1 pm and 2.30 pm – 6 pm; Sundays: 8 am – 12 noon
Church service timings: Winters (October – March): 9 am; Summers (April – September): 8.30 am
Mosque timings: Fakhr-ul-Masjid remains open to people of all religious beliefs, faiths and genders every day from sunrise to sunset.
Entrance fees: Nil
Photography/video charges: Nil. Prohibited by permission within the church building.
