A brief talk on Delhi and the various characteristics of Delhi through the ages is what dominated the annual seminar organized by the History Department of Hindu College on Wednesday, 5th March 2014.
The seminar began with the teacher head of the Department Mr. Ahmad Hassan giving a brief introduction about the topic ‘Delhi Through the Ages’ and informed that the seminar was going to take place in a preceding order because of time differences. The eminent speakers invited by the college took the stage soon after and began the talk. The first speaker for the day was Prof. Amar Farooqui – a Delhi University graduate, Professor at Hans Raj College. He currently works with the Department of History and has many papers and books to his credit like ‘The Early Social Formations’- an important textbook for History students all around Delhi University. Prof. Farooqui, who talked about Modern Delhi, apologized to the audience because traditionally the seminar should have been Medieval Delhi moving to Modern Delhi and not the opposite but due to differences in the time schedule it had to be held in a preceding order, however, he said this would give a new and different perspective to the topic. Prof. Farooqui focused on the time period from 19th century to the eve of the First World War and talked about the changes in the layout of the city giving various examples about places in Delhi that the students could connect to.
Dr. Shama Mitra Chenoy, a teacher of History at Shivaji College and a graduate from Hindu College, walked next to the stage to talk about Medieval Delhi. Dr. Chenoy gave the talk through a PowerPoint presentation so that the students could easily understand and follow the talk. She focused on the physical space of Shahjahanabad, that is, Old Delhi around the 12th century. Her main aim was to give the students a general talk on Medieval Delhi to “familiarize them with the attractions that it had and continues to have”. With the help of pictures Dr. Chenoy tried to describe the “striking visual beauty of the city” and also provided an aerial view of the city with proper maps. Ending the talk and the seminar for the day she described Shahjahanabad as a “city like many others but still unlike the others”.
A gathering of almost 65-70 students attended the seminar and tried to understand the intricacies of Delhi through the ages. “The seminar was interesting especially because it was about Delhi and included places that we have visited or can visit”, said a student on his experiences about attending the same.
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