Travel to Northern India: Meerut

Forty miles northeast of Delhi, Meerut's a big town these days--several million people.  The only visitors it gets, however, are foreigners interested in the history of the Indian Mutiny, which began in the large cantonment north of town.  We'll look at the famous church there, but--call it perverse--we'll get there only after looking at what's going on in Meerut today.

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Get the picture? Not what you expected, eh? If you can't make out the logos in the lower left, never mind; they're in the next picture.

Wait 10 years and this picture will seem quaint, because the big international retailers--Carrefour, Wal-Mart--will by then operate in India. For now, they're excluded, which is why the mall has only the international fast-food operators, along with stores selling international brands. That's bound to change.

And here's the mall itself, still in the last stages of construction. What do you think?

From another angle.

Office buildings.

Condos.

Those things sure aren't your grandmother's Meerut, but maybe this is: we've come into the old core of the city to see the clocktower that is the town icon. Surely, there must be a dedicatory plaque somewhere, don't you think?

Hah! James Rae Pearson, Collector and Magistrate, 1913. Maybe buried under the posters there's some information about the donor who paid for it--almost surely an Indian.

A block away, there's a building with a long portico now used as a police barracks. It wasn't always so! Want proof?

The bedizened Duke of Connaught was here in 1888.

And here's where he was: the town hall.

Across the street, a Sikh gurdwara.

Military bases, or cantonments, are, by India's urban standards, infinitely spacious. Meerut's, on the north side of town, is no exception. Here, a bank that formerly was... well, who knows? Military headquarters?

And nearby, St. John's Church, completed in 1822, or 38 years before the disaster of '57. The church was dedicated in 1824 by the famous Bishop Heber, who in the space of three years wore himself out travelling around India. He died down south but is commemorated in his own church, in Calcutta.

St. John's is unusual because the nave is flanked by such wide aisles that the floorplan is nearly square.

The nave.

One of the upstairs balconies.

Looking across from one balcony to the other. Notice the black beams running from capital to capital.

Here's a closeup. What's the material? Wrought iron?

A prolix monument, but we'll get a closer look.

Victims of the battle for Bharatpur, 1826.

The base of the monument.

A victim of the Afghans, 1842.

Cholera, 1867.

Outside, a quiet benchmark for the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India.

A few blocks away is the cemetery. Who's under the column?

Here's your answer: a very young lieutenant who died in 1814.

Here?

The schoolteacher's very young wife.