Modern protests in India often rely on canvas tents and temporary structures to claim public space, but the relationship between dissent and architecture runs much deeper. The country’s history is marked by impenetrable walls, bastions, and guarded ‘darwazas’ that served as military strongholds before transforming into stages for the freedom struggle. These sites, often described by sociologists as ‘heterotopias,’ function as spaces where power is contested and meaning shifts over time.
From Military Strongholds to Sites of Rebellion
By the mid-18th century, the British East India Company had begun transforming its commercial foothold into territorial power. Vellore Fort, built in the 16th century, sprawled across 133 acres of the city center. It featured a rectangular enclosure of massive granite blocks surrounded by a moat, containing palaces, barracks, and places of worship within its walls. The fort became a powerful site of the freedom struggle when, in 1806, Indian soldiers rose against the military regulations imposed by the East India Company in a sepoy mutiny. The rebellion was swiftly suppressed, yet the fort stood as a powerful symbol of resistance against colonial control.
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Perched atop Bangara Hill across 15 acres, Jhansi Fort was the physical stronghold from which Rani Lakshmibai defended her kingdom after the death of Raja Gangadhar Rao. Built in the early 17th century, it was expanded for its military importance. The fort’s raised location, 10 guarded ‘darwazas,’ and cannons, including the famed Karak Bijli, made it a formidable position during the Revolt of 1857. Its temples, gardens, and royal quarters created a self-contained seat of power where military authority and everyday life existed within the same fortified enclosure. Fighting like a warrior, Lakshmibai eventually slipped out through the Bhanderi Gate, carrying the resistance beyond Jhansi to Kalpi and later joining forces with Rao Sahib and Tatya Tope to move towards Gwalior.
Perched upon the basaltic plateau, Gwalior Fort was the safe haven for the trio who escaped Kalpi after its fall in 1858. Built by Raja Man Singh Tomar, it is an architectural palimpsest of military might and royal grandeur. With carved brackets, domed turrets, and towering ramparts, the approach to the summit rises through six successive gateways. Within its walls, palaces, temples, Jain sculptures, and reservoirs sustained an entire settlement. It was the combination of elevation, defense, and self-sufficiency that made Gwalior such a potent backdrop for the freedom struggle. As British forces advanced to reclaim the city, Lakshmibai fought at Kotah-ki-Serai, near Gwalior, on 17 June 1858, where she was killed in battle. Two days later, the British recaptured Gwalior from the rebels who had seized it earlier that year.
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Perched on a hill in Old Delhi, the Red Fort was built by Shah Jahan as the palace-fort of Shahjahanabad. Its gigantic red sandstone walls, verdant gardens, and pavilions shaped by a synthesis of Islamic, Persian, Timurid, and Hindu traditions represented a monumental expression of Mughal power. Its successive layers of occupation transformed its meaning: from the seat of Mughal power to a British military establishment, and eventually to the setting of the Indian National Army trials in 1945–46. The fort was a monument built to proclaim imperial power, yet it was repeatedly reinterpreted by those seeking to challenge that power, eventually becoming one of the most enduring architectural symbols of India’s freedom.
Measuring Dissent in a Modern City
Commissioned by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in 1724, Jantar Mantar was crafted as a monumental masonry instrument. The ramps, towering walls, graduated surfaces, arcs, and carefully aligned openings were engineered to track the sun and other celestial happenings. The decision to build at such an enormous scale was deliberate, as Jai Singh believed that fixed masonry structures could offer greater stability and accuracy than smaller instruments with moving parts. Unlike the forts that became stages for India’s freedom struggle, Jantar Mantar was never built for battle, but its function has shifted significantly over the centuries.
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Situated close to Parliament and Delhi’s government offices, Jantar Mantar evolved into one of the city’s most recognizable sites for protest, particularly from the early 1990s onwards. The decision to place the observatory in such a politically sensitive location was likely not coincidental, given the proximity to the seat of power. The architecture has therefore remained remarkably true to its original purpose: Jantar Mantar was built to observe, calculate, and measure. Today, it serves as a venue where citizens measure the distance between their rights and the government’s actions, using the same precise geometry that once tracked the stars.