Skip the lies about Delhi Gymkhana Club being a secret power centre and answer 5 questions |
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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit
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More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice
Skip the lies about Delhi Gymkhana Club being a secret power centre and answer 5 questions
The Delhi Gymkhana Club is not the beating heart of India’s wealthy and powerful elite. Nor is it a bastion of the liberal establishment.
The controversy surrounding the Delhi Gymkhana Club reminds me of how differently people define elites — and how our objections to clubs often reflect our own resentments and prejudices.
Take my own example. I am not a member of any of the so-called Raj-era elite clubs. My reasons are hereditary.
My father always refused to join any club with roots in the Raj. Most of India’s great historic clubs were founded by the British Raj for itself. They were places where the white rulers of India entertained one another, and where the only Indians allowed were waiters and cleaners.
Until Independence, these clubs refused not just membership but also physical entry to Indians.
One version of the famous Jamsetji Tata story is that he was refused entry — despite being a knight of the realm — to the Royal Bombay Yacht Club. Other versions name different establishments, but the point remains the same: Jamsetji was so angry that he vowed to build the greatest hotel in India. And he built one just next door to the club — the Taj.
The Taj hired white foreigners, but they worked for Indian owners. And there was no colour bar, though at one stage the Taj did put up a sign that read: “No dogs and South Africans allowed.” (The ban on South Africans was a response to that country’s apartheid policy.) Today, the Taj is famous around the world. The Royal Bombay Yacht Club is mostly forgotten.
My father found this colour-based discrimination deeply offensive and, even when brown people were allowed in after Independence, he refused to join any of these clubs. He professed contempt for the new members who rushed to occupy the dining tables and tennis courts vacated by the Brits — places where our ancestors had once been allowed entry only as servants.
Over time, my father moderated his views to the extent that if someone he liked invited him to one of these Raj-era clubs, he would do his whole flag-waving........