The many ways that memory is constructed

The most complex organism to emerge from the evolution of life on earth is the human mind. One of the functions that the brain performs is to classify and store all the information it receives and to commit some of it to memory.

The brain continues to update its memory bank and delete unnecessary information. What is needed is stored and recalled instantly, and we know it as memory. Memory is selective, and that is why it is capable of shaping our perceptions of the past. Memory can be manipulated, individually and collectively, and so it is possible to change our perception of what our past was like. Let us take a small example from New Delhi and see how our current perception of an iconic public space is at total variance with what it was a few years and a few decades ago.

The Lodi Gardens, as we know it today, is one of the finest gardens in Delhi. It combines walkways, green open spaces, 15th-century monuments, flower beds, a water body, a rose garden, a garden of herbs, a glass house, a cactus garden, an open gym, and a butterfly park, all in perfect harmony with each other. It provides an escape from the rush and noise of a busy metropolis, right in the heart of the city. It is not only for the movers and shakers of New Delhi, but also for lesser mortals like the old, retired, and lonely people, the student, the babu, the unemployed youth, and young couples. They come here to relax or escape the drudgery of life, be in the company of their beloved, or because they have nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. The garden, filled with a wide variety of trees, bushes, and shrubs is home to a large variety of birds, insects, and many squirrels that are the only permanent residents of these 90 acres of sprawling open spaces.

The garden wasn’t always like this. As recently as 1968, just 49 years ago, the Lodi Gardens did not have its famous undulating landscaped lawns. There were lawns, but they were flat expanses like the ones that flank Rajpath. They got their current shape when Joseph Allen Stein, an American architect who had moved to India and had designed many buildings — including the India International Centre— that flank the Lodi Gardens to its east, was asked to landscape the gardens. Stein and the American Landscape Architect Garrett Eekbo gave Lodi Gardens its present shape and also its glass house barely two generations ago.

The Lodi Gardens was not known as such till 1948; prior to being given its present name it was known as Lady Willingdon Park and it had acquired this name on April 9, 1936, when Lady Willingdon inaugurated the park. The garden was given this name for two reasons. One, because it was her idea that the scattered medieval monuments be surrounded by greenery and turned into a park. Two, because she was the wife of the then Viceroy, Lord Willingdon. 

Lord Willingdon was Viceroy and Governor General of India till April 18, 1936. So, the inauguration of the park must have been one of the last official engagements of Vicereine Willingdon. Not unlike the flurry of foundation-laying that afflicts all outgoing governments in India even to this day, getting public works named after those you love, including your own dear self is also something that is not new to this largest democracy in the world. It is surprisingly inherited from our white masters, a practice that no one seems to be in a hurry to give up. 

Incidentally, the open spaces that now constitute the Lodi Gardens were not always like this. Before Lady Willingdon came up with the idea of creating a park, this was agricultural land and two villages were settled here. The villagers were asked to move to a new location near Basti Hazrat Nizam-ud-Din, and the Willingdon Park came up in its place. What the future holds in store for these 90 acres is anyone’s guess, but it will be a tragedy if the young lovers are driven out and the bamboo groves chopped down by those who have already begun to demand their ouster because they don’t like public displays of affection. By 2066, 49 years in the future, how will we remember the Lodi Gardens and 2017? Who knows.

The author is a historian and organises the Delhi Heritage Walk for children and adults.