More than pomp and frolics

摘要

A Hundred years ago the world came .to Delhi. On December 12th 1911 great lines of elephants bearing princes tramped from the old Mughal city to a patch of land converted into a massive amphitheatre ringed by cupolas. Some 100,000 visitors rattled there along miles of new roads and a special railway line. The fanfare was for a touring British king, George V, in India to celebrate his recent coronation with a "durbar", a show of might designed to attest to the permanency of imperial rule. Few standing in the cool winter sunshine imagined the occupiers would be bundled away within four decades. The durbar caused wonder. British newspapers dubbed it "the greatest show on earth". Some 562 Indian princes-among them noted tyrants, social liberals and the Nizam of Hyderabad, one of the world's richest men-paid homage to the king in his purple and golden robes.