Thank God voices of sanity prevailed and the plan to rename Chandni Chowk, the 350-year-old selling street in the walled city of Shahjahanabadi Delhi, got off track owing to heritage lovers’ concern.

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But more importantly, why should any attempt be made to rename an area that has been synonymous with the city’s life and culture and is considered by Delhi-ites as the Soul of Delhi?

Chandni Chowk’s history goes beyond the Mughal era of Jahan Aara, emperor Shahjahan’s daughter who had given it that name, to the Vedic era and since then the bazaar space has retained its geographical shape.

It is said that most cities have a heart, like London’s Trafalgar Square, Moscow’s Kremlin Square, Italy’s Piazza Novona, New York’s Times Square, Washington’s Capitol Hill and Kolkata’s Chowringhee Square. Well, Delhi’s is Chandni Chowk.

We all love Sachin Tendulkar, but it sounds rather uncouth naming an extraordinarily celebrated bazaar famed world over as the only secular street housing almost all major religions’ worship places — Digambar Jain Lal Mandir, Gauri Shankar Mandir, Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Central Baptist Church, Sunehri Masjid, Arya Samaj temple and the Fatehpuri Masjid besides others.

Interestingly, during the Mughal era, Chandni Chowk was divided into four parts.  First was Urdu Bazaar or Military Bazaar that stretched from Lahori Gate of Red Fort to Dariba. The second one from Dariba to Kotwali (Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib) was known as Tripolia. The third one from Kotwali to where Town Hall is today was known as Ashrafi Bazaar of Jauhari Bazaar while the last one till Fatehpuri Masjid was known as Chandni Chowk. Today, the entire bazaar is Chandni Chowk to its lovers.

In 1650, Jahanara Begum, the beloved daughter of emperor Shah Jahan, laid a lovely spacious garden in the heart of Chandni Chowk. It was named as Begum ka Bagh. The princess got the cue for building the garden from her maternal grandfather, Asif Khan who had built the Nishat Bagh in Kashmir. The East India Company named it as ‘Company Bagh.’ When Queen Victoria was proclaimed queen, it was named as “Queens Garden”. After freedom, it got christened as Gandhi Ground.

Chandni Chowk also has its noted share of the war of independence. It has witnessed many historic events. On December 23, 1912, to mark the entry of the governor general into the new capital, an imperial procession was taken out with Lord Hardinge seated on an elephant. When the procession was passing through Chandni Chowk, a bomb was thrown by Avadh Bihari, Balmukund and Amir Chand that killed the mahaut and jamadar Mahabir, who was holding the umbrella. Hardinge escaped but many persons were arrested.

Lord Hardinge’s cavalcade was also bombed in 1911 while the Viceroy was passing in a state procession through Chandni Chowk, to mark the inauguration of Delhi as the capital of India. The fire of Jalianwala Bagh also began from Chandni Chowk, when the British policemen killed 14 freedom fighters on March 30, 1919.

Places like Chandni Chowk don’t require any dent on their historicity as the bazaar makes all of us nostalgic in the manner of historic markets of Rome and Paris. Chandni Chowk might not match the grandeur of these western cities but the truth is that the place with its numerous monuments, places of worship, old buildings, colonnades, havelis, kuchas, katras, chattas and street patterns, has stimulated the imagination of a connoisseur of world heritage — someone who has always desired to live in a world of nostalgia. It had Neher-e-Bahisht running in the center besides a huge Ghanta Ghar and trams in the days of yore.

The historic street was also the cultural hub of Delhi as it housed talkies like Moti, Kumar, Majestic and Jubilee and famous libraries like Jain Sthanak, Marwari Pustakalaya and Delhi Public Library.

There was a time when the vintage selling street sold Belgium’s chandeliers, Manchester’s cotton shirts, America’s Parker pens, Bukhara’s dry pomegranates, Peshawar’s dry fruits, Baghdad’s dates and Isfahan’s tamarind besides many other inimitable items.

For those who want to be nostalgic, Chandni Chowk can be heaven.