India Gate, formerly known as the All India War Memorial, is a prominent war memorial situated on the eastern edge of the ceremonial axis of New Delhi, India, officially known as Kartavya Path. It stands as a memorial commemorating 74,187 soldiers of the Indian Army who died between 1914 and 1921 in the First World War, in France, Flanders, Mesopotamia, Persia, East Africa, Gallipoli and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Around 13,300 servicemen’s names, including those of some British soldiers and officers, are inscribed on the gate. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, the memorial draws inspiration from ancient Roman triumphal arches such as the Arch of Constantine and is frequently compared to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, a memorial structure comprising a black marble plinth, a reversed rifle capped with a war helmet, and surrounded by four eternal flames was established beneath the archway. Known as the Amar Jawan Jyoti (Flame of the Immortal Soldier), it served as India’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from 1971 to 2022. It was customary for the Prime Minister of India and other dignitaries to pay tribute at this site during major national occasions, including Republic Day. In January 2022, the eternal flame at Amar Jawan Jyoti was ceremonially merged with the eternal flame at the National War Memorial, located nearby.
India Gate is counted among the largest war memorials in India and remains an important national landmark. It is also a prominent public space, frequently visited by tourists and historically associated with civil society gatherings and protests.
History
thumb|left|Armoured cars passing through the gate, in the 1930s
The India Gate was part of the work of the Imperial War Graves Commission, which came into existence in December 1917 under the British Raj rule for building war graves and memorials to soldiers who were killed in the First World War. The foundation stone of the Gate, then called the All India War Memorial, was laid on 10 February 1921, at 4:30 p.m., by the visiting Duke of Connaught in a ceremony attended by officers and men of the Imperial Indian Army, Imperial Service Troops, the Commander-in-Chief, and Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy. On the occasion, the Viceroy is reported to have said, "The stirring tales of individual heroism, will live forever in the annals of this country", and that the memorial which was a tribute to the memory of heroes, "known and unknown", would inspire future generations to endure hardships with similar fortitude and "no less valour".
thumb|right|India gate, as seen from Kartavya Path
Ten years after the foundation stone's laying on 12 February 1931, the memorial was inaugurated by the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, who, on the occasion, said "those who after us shall look upon this monument may learn in pondering its purpose something of that sacrifice and service which the names upon its walls record." In the decade between the laying of foundation stone of the memorial and its inauguration, the rail-line was shifted to run along the Yamuna River, and the New Delhi Railway Station was opened in 1926.
The Gate, which is illuminated every evening from 7 o’clock until 9:30 hrs, today serves as one of Delhi's most important tourist attractions. Cars used to travel through the gate until it was closed to traffic. The Republic Day Parade starts from Rashtrapati Bhavan and passes around the India Gate. The India Gate is often a location for civil society protests, including demonstrations in response to the 2011 anti-corruption movement.
In 2017, the India Gate was twinned with the Arch of Remembrance in Leicester, England, another Lutyens war memorial, following a very similar design but on a smaller scale. In a ceremony, India's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom laid a wreath at the arch in Leicester and the British High Commissioner to India laid one at the India Gate.
Design and structure
thumb|Angled view
The memorial gate was designed by Edwin Lutyens, who was not only the main architect of New Delhi but also a member of the Imperial War Graves Commission and one of Europe's foremost designers of war graves and memorials. He designed sixty-six war memorials in Europe, including the highly regarded Cenotaph in London in 1919, the first national war memorial erected after World War I, for which he was commissioned by David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister.
Canopy
alt=Canopy behind India gate|thumb|Canopy in the vicinity of the gate
About east of the gate, at a junction of six roads, is a cupola, inspired by a sixth-century pavilion from Mahabalipuram. Lutyens used four Delhi Order columns to support the domed canopy and its chhajja.
Statue of King-Emperor George V
thumb|Canopy in 1952 with the George V statue still in place
In the autumn of 1930, Jagatjit Singh, the Maharaja of Kapurthala State, organized an appeal amongst the Indian princely rulers to erect a statue of King-Emperor George V in New Delhi to commemorate the sovereign's recent recovery from sepsis. As originally conceived, the statue would have depicted the monarch in marble riding in a howdah atop a red stone elephant; a canopy was not then included in the design. The final concept, approved by George V before his death, dispensed with the elephant, instead incorporating a red stone canopy and pedestal, with the pedestal standing tall. with the completed monument intended to "mark the loyalty and attachment of the Ruling Princes and Chiefs of India to the Person and Throne of the King-Emperor." Following the premature death of Jagger, the statue's head and crown were completed by one of his assistants in England and then shipped to India, while the remainder of the monument was carved in India.
The statue's installation in the autumn of 1936, The statue remained standing at its original site for two decades following the nation's independence in 1947, but certain political factions increasingly objected to its continued presence in its central location, particularly after the tenth anniversary of Independence and the centennial of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. On the night of 12–13 August 1958, the royal insignia of George V and the Tudor Crown atop the canopy were removed.
Subhas Chandra Bose statue
thumb|Prime Minister [[Narendra Modi unveils the statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate, during the inauguration of the 'Kartavya Path', in New Delhi on 8 September 2022.]]
On 21 January 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that a statue of Subhas Chandra Bose would be installed in the canopy at India Gate. The announcement came two days before the 125th anniversary of his birth. A 28 feet high and 6 feet wide 3D holographic statue of Bose was inaugurated at the site on 23 January 2022, celebrated as Parakram Diwas (Courage Day). On this occasion, an award in the name of Bose was instituted for the exemplary work in disaster management. On 8 September 2022, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the newly made statue of Bose near the India Gate.
Amar Jawan Jyoti
thumb|right|241x241px|Amar Jawan Jyoti, beneath the arch of the gate
Amar Jawan Jyoti, or the flame of the immortal soldier, is a structure consisting of black marble plinth, with reversed rifle, capped by war helmet, bound by four urns, each with the permanent light (jyoti) from compressed natural gas flames, erected under the India gate to commemorate Indian soldiers martyred in the war of the liberation of Bangladesh in December 1971. It was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 26 January 1972, the twenty-third Indian Republic Day.
Since the installation of the Amar Jawan Jyoti, it has served as India's tomb of the unknown soldier. It is staffed around the clock by the Indian armed forces. Wreaths are placed at the Amar Jawan Jyoti every Republic Day, Vijay Diwas, and Infantry Day by the Prime Minister and the Chiefs of the Armed Forces.
On 21 January 2022 the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate was merged with the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the National War Memorial.
National War Memorial
In July 2014, the government announced plans to construct a National War Memorial in the C-Hexagon (India Gate Circle), and an adjoining National War Museum. The cabinet allocated for the project. The National War Memorial was completed in January, 2019. Since January 2022, it houses the Amar Jawan Jyoti, or the "Flame of the Immortal Soldier".