Footprints of Indian Freedom Fighters in London: 3

Photo by Lata

The house which  sports Lokmanya Tilak's blue plaque is next on my list. The address said 10, Howley Place, Paddington. I reach there after walking along the canal in the beautiful Little Venice area. The neighbourhood has some lovely houses in Maida Vale. The quiet residential street called Howley Place features large houses with tall trees and lush vines in their front yards. I walk up to house number 10. The house stands behind a white boundary wall and most of it is hidden by the dense foliage in the yard. I look for the blue plaque, but to my dismay, I do not see it anywhere. Perhaps it is obscured by the overgrown vegetation. Disappointed, I pay my respects to the memory of the great patriot and leave.

I look up for the blue plaque online and find a good image. When Tilak was described as "the father of Indian unrest" by the Times correspondent Sir Valentine Chirol, he went to London in 1918 to file a defamation case against Chirol. Unfortunately Tilak lost the case. But his stay in London was fruitful in a different way. He led a campaign for Home Rule in India from the front and was instrumental in mobilising support towards this cause. As a result, his residence at 10 Howley Place was nicknamed "India's 10 Downing Street"!

Today London remembers him in the form of the commemorative blue plaque (hopefully something will be done to make it visible from the street) placed on his house. According to Peter Pendsey of the Tilak Memorial Plaque Committee, "It took us four years of active behind-the-scenes work to get the plaque erected". Glad to note that their efforts bore fruit.

photo by Lata

I happened to visit the house at 49 Bedford Square bearing Raja Ram Mohan Roy's blue plaque just a few days after his death anniversary on 27th September. I found flowers placed outside his house by Raja Ram Mohan Roy Remembrance Society. The tag on the flowers mentioned "191st Death Anniversary Tribute" to the social reformer. When sati and child marriage were the norms in society, Roy made significant efforts to abolish these cruel practices. He was one of the founders of Brahmo Sabha in 1828 which later developed into Brahmo Samaj, a movement that brought about social and religious reforms in India.  Looking at the plaque and the flowers filled me with a sense of pride and gratitude towards this visionary who was so much ahead of his times. 

Indian freedom fighters have left many more footprints in London. And London has preserved and maintained them with due care and respect. I managed to cover only these during my stay this time. Hopefully I will get an opportunity to visit more later.

Read previous posts in this series here:

Part 1

Part 2

Footprints of Indian Freedom Fighters in London: 2

Encouraged by a very fruitful visit to Ambedkar House, I researched for places associated with other Indian freedom fighters in London. I found many and visited several of them. First among them was the house situated at 65 Cromwell Avenue, Highgate. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, fondly called as Veer Savarkar or Tatyasaheb lived here from June 1906 to July 1909.

Savarkar was active in the freedom movement from a young age. He went to England on a scholarship arranged by revolutionary fighter, lawyer and journalist Shyamji Krishna Varma with additional support from Lokmanya Tilak. Savarkar enrolled at the Gray's Inn to study law. 

Krishna Varma founded India House at 65 Cromwell Avenue in 1905 with an aim to use it as a hostel for Indian students. It also functioned as headquarters of Indian Home Rule Society, soon becoming a centre for visiting Indian activists. 

Today the house stands quietly in a beautiful residential area. I visited it on a lovely day and spent a few moments looking at the blue plaque bearing Savarkar's name, imagining all the events this house must have witnessed in those times. It was quite overwhelming!

 

Another blue plaque that aroused my interest was the one put up at 23 Aldridge Road Villas in Ladbroke Grove. First deputy prime minister and home minister of India from 1947 to 1950 Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel resided at this address when he went to England to train as a barrister in 1910. This was a modest boarding house then. Patel was funding his own education using money he had saved working back home in India. He used to walk to the Middle Temple where he was enrolled for his studies. He completed his course in good time and returned to Gujarat in 1912 to start practising as a barrister.

Photos by Lata

He got involved in the freedom movement as one of Gandhiji's chief aides. He had very good organising skills. Also, he was an exceptional leader. This quality earned him the title Sardar. His contribution towards the unification of India earned him another sobriquet: Iron Man of India.

The blue plaque displayed on the house in his memory fills me with gratitude and respect for this venerable statesman. The plaque was put up by the Greater London Council in 1986. It got damaged due to some construction work. Later English Heritage replaced it with a replica in 1991.

Footprints of Indian Freedom Fighters in London: 1

During a recent visit to London, while looking up something online, I came across some interesting information about Ambedkar House, a building where Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution of India had lived in 1921-1922. The house comprising a basement and ground plus two floors was purchased by the government of Maharashtra in 2015 to turn it into a museum. Later in 2023, the central government took control of the property. It is being maintained as a memorial to the great crusader, and is open to public for visits. I was thrilled with this information and made a plan to go there soon. 

It materialised on a bright sunny morning. The house is situated at 10 King Henry's Road in north London in a leafy residential neighbourhood. Standing outside the house and looking at the blue plaque (according to Wikipedia, a blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker) displayed at the entrance, I was filled with awe. 

Ambedkar arrived in London somewhere around 1915 to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also enrolled at the Gray's Inn to study law. In 1922, he was called to the bar by the Gray's Inn and became a barrister-at-law. Later he returned to India and started practising law in Bombay.

His stay in London, his education and his experiences must have certainly played a role in shaping his personality. This house and the well-maintained museum inside offers us a peek into his life and times. The house has a lovely garden at the back which is accessible through the basement. But unfortunately this part was closed due to maintenance work. I noticed from the first floor window that a bronze statue of Ambedkar stood in the garden. Railway tracks run just outside the boundary wall of the house.

An attendant ushers us inside the house on the ground floor. This floor features a bronze bust of Ambedkar against a large window. It is adorned with garlands and flower pots. Pictures from various events in his life are on display on the walls. It is a bright day outside and the sun streaming through the windows fills the house with positive vibes. 

We take the wooden staircase to go to the first floor. The room facing the street outside has a comfortable sofa in it. The walls are lined with shelves where books in blue covers are arranged neatly. The fireplace and more pictures on the walls give a warm and cosy feel to the place.

The other room features a large dining table. It is strewn with bound copies of the Constitution of India and laminated copies of letters written by Ambedkar to friends and associates in English and Marathi. The letters offer us a glimpse into the ideas and thoughts of this stalwart. Going through some of them gave me goosebumps. In a letter written from London on 30th December 1932 in Marathi to someone called Bhaurao, Ambedkar has expressed his deep disappointment and sadness about the fact that back home, people belonging to community A thought that he favoured community B, while people belonging to community B felt that he sided with community A. Another one addressed to the same person and written in English on the 29th October 1930 mentions the upcoming Round Table Conference on November 12. The collection of letters is quite fascinating!

Photos by Lata

The Second floor houses Ambedkar's bedroom and his personal belongings like writing pad, spectacles and clothes. A bed occupies the centre of the room. One of the pictures on the wall mentions a silver ink pot that was presented to Ambedkar by Lord and Lady Mountbatten when they had invited him and his wife for lunch. The ink pot has a portrait of the Queen of England carved on it. The House along with important documents and pictures, contains such interesting trivia giving visitors a well-rounded experience.

We leave the Ambedkar House fully satiated and impressed. 

There are many more blue plaques in London commemorating several Indians who were a part of the freedom movement decades ago. More on them in the next post!

Bishnupur: A Marvel In Terracotta!

I have visited Kolkata several times. Loved each visit. But my recent visit was a little more special because I got an opportunity to make a trip to Bishnupur -- a lovely little town known for its magnificent terracotta temples and exquisite Baluchari sarees. I went with a group of friends, and that had its own charm. It was clear from my research that I would be in for a visual treat in Bishnupur. Not only did Bishnupur impress me, but it also lived up to its reputation beyond my expectations. 

Bishnupur has 20 terracotta temples built mostly during the 17th and 18th centuries. They were constructed by generations of Malla kings who were ruling that part of Bengal then. All of them had Krishna as the main deity, but now most of them are not functioning as temples. They are being preserved and maintained by the Archeological Survey of India for their spectacular carvings and amazing architecture. The domes, ceilings, towers and turrets of each temple are aesthetically designed, providing a glimpse into different architectural styles of that time.

We cover the 140-kilometre distance from Kolkata in about four hours by car. It is a pleasant ride showcasing the countryside of Bengal with green fields, villages and small towns. After checking into a hotel and freshening up, we set out on a tour of the temples in e-rickshaws. They are more suited for negotiating the narrow lanes of the town than cars. The ride in the rickshaw is delightful. The small houses, quiet lanes, children riding bicycles without having to worry about traffic are refreshing for us, accustomed as we are to the hustle and bustle of a city.

Our guide takes us to the Rasmancha, Jor-Bangla Temple, Madanmohan Temple, Shyam Ray Temple, Lalji Temple one after the other, all along narrating interesting anecdotes, and pointing out details from the intricate carvings. The temples look resplendent in their natural red hue. They get this colour because of the presence of iron oxide in laterite--the locally available soil that was used to build them. The walls of the temples are extensively covered with terracotta--fired clay--tiles with elaborate carvings. The artisans have carved such minute details in these tiles that one is awestruck by their beauty. The carvings depict stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Also, there are scenes of armies at war, kings on hunting expeditions, women grooming themselves and dancing, musicians playing instruments and so on. One of the tiles has Bheeshma lying on a bed of arrows, while another has Ravana with ten heads. And all these on small tiles, like miniature paintings! One wonders how the artisans created these from mythological stories when written texts were scarce and oral narrations were the only common means.

Photos by Lata

The lanes of Bishnupur are lined with small shops selling terracotta items--wind chimes, lamps, idols, cups, pots etc. What catches one's eye is the array of terracotta horses in different sizes. The horses are short, with unusually long ears. They stand out because of their elegant stance and elongated neck. All the items including the horses are in striking red colour of natural terracotta. These horses are called Bankura horses as they are made in Panchmura, a village close to Bishnupur in Bankura district. They have commonly been used in religious ceremonies in village rituals. Perhaps now they are the most popular souvenirs from Bishnupur. 

Another item that visitors like to take home with them is the stunningly beautiful Baluchari saree. The sarees have human and animal figures and scenes from the epics woven into them, all inspired from the temples. They have men and women, deers, horses, chariots, trees and flowers just like one sees them in the carvings in the temples. That is why draping a Baluchari saree is like carrying a little bit of art and heritage from this charming temple town!