Delhi’s longest-running play reflects the changing city

A simple premise: what if the 19th-century Urdu and Persian poet Mirza Ghalib was reincarnated in the present day in Delhi, the city that was his home for most of his life? This idea forms the crux of Ghalib In New Delhi, which has been staged in the Indian capital since 1997, performed more than 500 times over 26 years, making it one of the longest-running comedic plays in the country. The play is satirical, with a dynamic script that changes to reflect the political and social shifts in the capital and the country. Inadvertently, Ghalib in New Delhi has charted Delhi's transformations over the last 26 years, acting almost like a chronicler of the city's recent history.

It is fitting that the play's principal character is Mirza Ghalib, an iconic Delhi-ite who lived between 1797 and 1869. Ghalib was born in Agra, some 250 kilometres from Delhi, and witnessed the decline of the Mughal Empire, which ruled much of Southasia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Ghalib witnessed the rule of the East India Company, and then direct administration by the British government after the Indian uprising of 1857. He began writing at the age of 11 and moved to Delhi at 13 years old, and was there to see and later record the city's ruin as British forces stamped out the 1857 rebellion. While Ghalib's work in Persian is much more voluminous than his work in Urdu, and appeared dearer to him, it was his Urdu work that has fed his fame after his death.