New Delhi: Epochs have come and gone, and the city has changed beyond recognition; but one annual tradition has endured since 1914. The Durga Puja at north Delhi’s Timarpur, the city’s second oldest according to its organisers, marked its 113th year with a tribute to one of the migration stories that helped shape the capital — the arrival of Bengali settlers more than a century ago.How did Bengali families who migrated to Delhi around the time the British shifted the capital from Calcutta in 1911 stay in touch with those they had left behind? What did their journey look like, and how did they build lives in a city where the weather, language and surroundings were unfamiliar?Exhibits at the Puja pandal delve into these questions, recreating the past through evocative images and displays. The theme, ‘Dillir Buke Bangla’ (Bengal in the heart of Delhi), is evident at the entrance, shaped like a giant steam engine bearing the insignia of the East Indian Railway, which operated the Calcutta-Delhi train route at the time.“We wanted to tell the story of our forefathers, the Bengalis who migrated to Delhi from around 1908 till roughly 1920,” said Kamal Banerjea, one of a seven-member team that curated the presentation. “Many came and settled in Timarpur. It was their first destination in north India. They were uncertain about a lot of things, but they came with hope, intellect and determination.”According to several accounts, Timarpur was the city’s first govt colony, established after Delhi was declared the capital of British India. Initially, families arriving in Timarpur were housed in temporary quarters.The organisers have used stories of six imaginary families to recreate the experience. “We did not want to overcomplicate the narrative. We have no records of the people who shifted during that migration. So, we created a representation of six families,” Banerjea said.He said the team spent six months piecing together the past. It filed Right to Information applications with different departments, searched digital archives in Delhi and drew on old wedding invitations and receipts preserved by community members. It also investigated the railway companies and routes connecting Calcutta with Delhi at the time, looking for tickets and other evidence of the journey.The material was then painstakingly recreated. Old documents and letters were reproduced using illustration software, treated with tea water to give them an aged appearance and printed using offset rather than digital printing.“It was like an invisible grandfather hidden in documents telling us our story. We just had to find it. At the same time, we did not want to present anything that was not authentic,” Banerjea said, adding that artificial intelligence was used, but most of the creative thinking came from the team itself.While Bengalis had been arriving in Delhi in a trickle ever since the rail link from Calcutta became operational in 1864, the numbers rose significantly around the time the capital shifted.Banerjea was careful to point out that the presentation does not claim to represent the entire Bengali migration to Delhi. “Communities established in Kashmere Gate and Chandni Chowk, and later in Karol Bagh, Minto Road and areas around Kali Bari have all been part of this common story. This account is simply an attempt to introduce this legacy to the people,” he added.
