Red Fort and Delhi: Symbols and narratives of power down the ages

Newsfeeds on Republic Day were dominated by scenes of protests on the ramparts of the Red Fort. The climax of what newspapers referred to as the “storming”, “breach”, or “raid”, was the raising of the Nishan Sahib on the pole normally reserved for the hoisting of the national flag by the Prime Minister on Independence Day.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021

Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned construction of the Red Fort on 12 May 1638, when he decided to shift his capital from Agra to Delhi.

Originally red and white, its design is credited to architect Ustad Ahmad Lahori, who also constructed the Taj Mahal. It was constructed between May 1639 and April 1648.

It was only in the reign of Shah Jahan (1628-58) that the Mughal connection to Delhi was given concrete form, with the founding of the city of Shahjahanabad and the inauguration of its palace citadel, the Red Fort, in 1648.

From that date to the end of Mughal rule in 1857, Delhi would be the formal capital of the Mughal empire.