A garden specifically refers to a walled-space with control or enclosure according to its definitions by the British and Mughals. So, what does this do to the parks and botanical gardens which are not always enclosed?

“While I love Delhi’s gardens, I’m not a big fan of the way they are looked after. We need to move on and change our ways of thinking of how we look after them. There needs to be a more relaxed meaning of a garden which is inclusive,” says Indian filmmaker, naturalist and environmentalist Pradip Krishen.

He was here to launch the book “Gardens of Delhi”, written by sister duo Madhulika Liddle and Swapna Liddle.

According to the Delhi Parks and Gardens Society, Delhi has more than 18,000 parks and gardens that are only public spaces maintained by municipal bodies, and do not include private gardens adjoining homes in Delhi.

Krishen feels that all the little spaces adjoining people’s homes should be treated and celebrated as gardens as well.

Being an environmentalist, Krishen says, “It is extremely important to appreciate gardens and this book will do a great service in shaping a discussion about Delhi’s gardens, their characters, relevance and suitability to changing times. It will be an impossible task for anyone to put all of this within the ambit of a single book but we have a beginning here with the Gardens Of Delhi.”

Bharati Jagannathan, a historian, said that the book was very carefully planned in a chronological order when it comes to the origin of gardens, and recommends people to carry it along while walking in the gardens of Delhi.

While talking about the evolving nature of gardens, the Liddles have tried to incorporate gardens less spoken about. They said, “Mughal spaces like Safdarjung Tomb and Humayun’s Tomb are very often spoken about, but their gardens aren’t. Instead of focusing on spaces like Deer Park, we have talked about the lesser known Hayat Baksh Bagh in the Red Fort.”

The Hayat Baksh Bagh among the few, does not align with a common man’s perception of a garden and the authors said, “What Mughals thought of a garden to be, what the British made it later and what they are now, has all changed.”

Ever since New Delhi’s inception, it was perceived as a garden city which led to a lot of inspirational naming of colonies like Maharani Bagh and Dilshad Garden. However, places like Moti Bagh (earlier Mochi Bagh), Shalimar Bagh, Karol Bagh, Jorbagh to name a few have had gardens of historical significance.

Asked about the journey of clicking Delhi’s gardens, Prabhas Roy, whose photpgraphs adorn the book, initially felt that there was nothing “worth-capturing” in a garden. It was only with the course of time that he started to feel the essence of the gardens. “When I went to the Mehrauli Archaeological Park (originally not a park), an elderly man showed me the spot where years ago a slave market existed, and that changed my perception”, he added.

While concluding, Krishen added, “Advocating ecological training, planning and control along with a healthy questioning and de-colonisation of what we have learned about gardens from ‘memsaabs’ is the need of the hour.”