While in Delhi, we decide to go to Sardhana (about 20 kms from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh) to pay Begum Samru a visit. From wikipedia,
Begum Sombre(d. 1836)(also known as Zebunissa, Farzana and Joanna after baptism) started her career as a Nautch girl in 18th Century India. Later on, she played a very crucial role in the politics and power struggle in 18th century and 19th century India. She was the head of a professionally trained mercenary army, inherited from her European mercenary husband,Walter Reinhardt. This mercenary army consisted of Europeans and Indians.She is also regarded as the only Catholic Ruler in India, as she ruled the Principality of Sardhana in 18th and 19th century India.
My family is full of storytellers. We spin stories out of everything. Turns out that my parents had gone for a picnic to Sardhana with some other people from the cantonment in Meerut in October 1981. But even better my mother does a fascinating imitation of the guide at the Basilica in Sardhana who announced with a nasal tone “Begum Samru kehti thi.” (Trans. Begum Samru used to say.). There are a few photographs from Sardhana that are deeply coloured in sepia now.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Graces, also known as the Sardhana Church or the Begum’s Church was built thanks to a Catholic whim. Her name which was Begum Sombre was twisted into Samru. And Samru it is. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the church was designed by an Italian architect Anthony Reghelini and built in 1822. The Pope in 1961, decided to upgrade it to the status of a Minor Basilica. As you walk about inside, half listening to the official guide and half drowning in the maze of colours, streaks of sunlight and the mad confluence of styles, you don’t know if you are impressed, disappointed or confused.
If you go to Sardhana expecting one of those older churches built with Portuguese or British influence1 (gothic, elongated, stone, brown), you confront this completely different vision of Catholic worship in India. This church2., painted bright white, with yellow panels, doric pillars, mud-red steps, bright flowers inside and a huge marble monument within. The altar is a completely different vision from the usual. Mary in peacock blue bright flowing clothes, with a cherubic little Jesus on her lap. Plump and pleasant. Almost Kashmiri. Surrounded with plastic flowers of purple, red and yellow. Red pieces of cloth with gota (golden frills) and for a minute you wonder if syncreticism wasn’t so much about secular identities but fluidity in worship and ritual.
- This note titled A History of the Church of England in India by Eyre Chatterton, the Bishop of Nagpur written in 1924 makes for some interesting reading. This note in particular focuses on the Diocese of Lucknow. [back]
- Some notes on architecture somewhere on this page. [back]
Posted on January 2nd, 2007 by Neha Viswanathan
Filed under: Culture, History and Monuments, India, Photographs
err….nothing to even pretend to be sarcastic about.
I guess it’s one of those posts where one has to say good one and wonder if one has lost all sense of humor.
[...] Fellow DesiPundit, Neha Viswanathan visits Saradhana, which was once a principality ruled by figure called Begam Samru in the eighteenth and nineteenth centures. Some nice pictures, there. [...]