The controversy surrounding the Delhi Gymkhana Club is no longer only about one institution in Lutyens’ Delhi. What began as a dispute over a government lease and a security-related eviction notice has widened into a debate about privilege, heritage and the place of inherited institutions in a democratic republic. The government may insist that the Gymkhana case is exceptional, tied to security and land-use considerations. Yet the questions it has raised extend far beyond one club.

For more than a century, clubs such as the Gymkhana occupied a distinctive place in urban India. Some emerged during the colonial era. Others evolved around military cantonments, administrative capitals, commercial centres or princely patronage. Their histories differ, as do the arrangements under which they occupy land. Some stand on government property; others trace their origins to estates, trusts, endowments or princely families. Their histories are often more complex than public debate assumes. Yet legal distinctions alone do not explain why the present controversy has resonated so widely.

The deeper issue is legitimacy. Modern India is increasingly asking questions that earlier generations rarely raised. Why........

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