India Gate India

Legendary

A war memorial for the 90,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who died between 1914 and 1921.

Photo by Gary Todd

For fifty years, a flame burned under this arch. In January 2022, soldiers carried part of it 400 meters east and merged it with a flame at India's new National War Memorial.

The flame at India Gate went out. The tradition continued somewhere else.

The arch itself is much older. Its foundation stone was laid in 1921, and it was completed ten years later.

The British architect Edwin Lutyens designed it, and it rises 42 meters, about as tall as a ten-story building. It's built from warm Bharatpur sandstone that turns pale gold at dawn and deep amber at sunset.

It honors the soldiers of the British Indian Army who died between 1914 and 1921, in the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Around 74,000 died in that period.

Roughly 13,300 of their names are carved into the stone. They're written small and organized by regiment.

Get close and read a few. Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, and British names sit side by side, which is exactly what the British Indian Army looked like.

Beneath the arch sat the Amar Jawan Jyoti, meaning Immortal Soldier Flame. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lit it on 26 January 1972, after the war that led to Bangladesh's independence.

Its cenotaph is black marble, with a rifle standing barrel-down and a soldier's helmet balanced on top. It stood as India's national war memorial until 2019.

The lawns around India Gate are one of Delhi's favorite gathering places. Families picnic there in the evenings, and children chase ice cream sellers across the grass.

Come at sunset, when the sandstone glows and the crowds arrive. Walk 400 meters east to the National War Memorial, where 25,942 names are inscribed and the flame burns now. Watch the change-of-guard ceremony on Sundays, with regimental music.