The Last Delhi Durbar
littering pageants held to mark the coronations of British India’s emperors and empresses, the Delhi Durbars were the gaudiest spectacles of the Raj, designed to enthrall the populace and remind correspondent at the time, “in what a quandary [the queen’s] refusal to mount such an animal placed on the Indian officials.” Given that Mohandas Gandhi’s return to India was only three years away, those same officials would soon have better things to occupy their attention.
