Delhi villages find an archive on Instagram through local projects

A 1915 photograph outside a Kadipur haveli, a nearly 60-year-old house in Nilothi and memories of Khera Kalan’s pond are entering a growing digital record of Delhi’s villages.

Delhi Villages Culture, started more than a year ago by Nilothi resident and teacher Hardeep Shokeen, documents village architecture, customs and family archives through its Instagram account, which has more than 42,000 followers. Shokeen visits villages and meets older residents who have kept photographs, newspaper clippings and folk songs. “Whatever history remains now is largely with the elders,” he said.

In Nilothi, he has recorded a haveli with floral motifs, jaali work and a colourful facade, along with a structure believed to be about 300 years old. He also records practices including visits to the gram devta shrine before weddings, a child’s birth or the first harvest.

Names beneath newer neighbourhoods

The project documents villages whose names have been overtaken in everyday use by newer neighbourhoods built on their land. Shokeen cites Nilothi and Vikaspuri, Masoodpur and Vasant Kunj, Pilanji and Sarojini Nagar, Zamrudpur and Greater Kailash, and Madipur and Punjabi Bagh.

Dilli Dehat Project, founded in mid-2023 by Puneet Singh Singhal, Gagandeep Singh Khadar Bidhuri and Parth Shokeen, is building a similar archive through maps, interviews, photographs and videos. Its account has nearly 70,000 followers. Puneet said the project receives around 70 direct messages and emails each month from people sharing material or seeking information about their villages.

In Kadipur, Puneet, Parth and volunteer Lavanya Rana recorded the haveli of Harpal Singh Rana’s family. The family has a black-and-white photograph dated January 10, 1915, showing a large gathering outside its main gate. In Khera Kalan, the team documented a village known for its pond, where many older houses have been replaced.

Both projects continue to collect photographs, memories and other material from families and village communities.