Authors: Chris Stowers and Richard McCallumPublished 2025Pages: TBCLanguage: English
On the edge of the Thar Desert in the west of India in the middle of the city of a million inhabitants is the old walled town of Jodhpur. Except it no longer has much wall. As the city grew during the last century its battlements vanished under a tide of homes and shops; the ramparts reconstituted.
And yet the soul of the old town of Jodhpur is intact. It feels not just distinct from the rest of the city, but unlike any other in India. There is a genius to Jodhpur which is both intangible and many-sided: a collective Marwari pride in a valorous past; the patronage of local monarchy unbroken for centuries; old desert-defying mercantile wealth. These things imbue the city with a vibrancy which, we think, is unique.
At its heart are two square miles of kaleidoscopic design and entrancing architectural beauty. Occasionally, one even finds a wall, (or piece of wall masquerading as a donkey trough).
That is the subject of this book. We are interested in the style and composition of the streets and havelis, the baoris and kitchens, the markets and schools, the rooms and ruins circumscribed by the (un)walled city. Big palaces and little details alike.
Books like this are always a bit self-indulgent but layered over our simple delight in the subject is a serious purpose: to encourage visitors to India to move Jodhpur up their hit-list; to record for posterity the magic of the old town, with hope in our hearts that this will not become a eulogy; and to contribute in a modest way to Jodhpur’s home-grown regeneration initiatives which are quietly reviving neglected parts of the city, such as Stepwell Square, once a rubbish dump and now where local boys swim in clear turquoise waters, surrounded by shops like Fabergé eggs.