The Indian government has abruptly terminated the lease of one of the country’s most elite and historic private members’ clubs, sparking a debate over its colonial history and the loss of a cultural institution.
The Delhi Gymkhana Club was founded in 1913 when India was under British rule and originally called the Imperial Delhi Gymkhana Club. London-born colonial administrator Spencer Harcourt Butler was the club’s first president, according to its website.
After India became independent in 1947, the word “Imperial” was removed from the name, and the club has evolved into a popular – if exclusive – watering hole for Indian bureaucrats, diplomats, military officers and influential Delhi families. Membership fees are prohibitively expensive, reportedly in excess of 2 million Indian rupees (over £15,500) a year for private citizens, pricing out most Delhi residents.
The Indian government has directed the club to vacate the 27.3-acre property it occupies in Delhi by 5 June, arguing that the land was urgently required for defence and security-related infrastructure. The club sits in a prime central Delhi location, close to government ministries and the prime minister’s residence.
Though it has cited national security in its eviction order, the government has for months been involved in a dispute with the club over alleged financial and administrative irregularities.
According to The Print, the government’s Land and Development Office (L&DO) sent three notices between September last year and May this year demanding around Rs 475m (£3.7m) in unpaid ground rent and other dues. The government reportedly warned that non-payment could trigger proceedings to reclaim the property under the conditions of its lease.
In a letter to the club’s secretary, the L&DO said the land next to prime minister Narendra Modi’s official residence was “critically required for strengthening and securing of defence infrastructure and other vital public security purposes”.
Officials in Modi’s government have long questioned the justification for having elite private members’ clubs occupying large tracts of prime public land in the capital.
Critics of the government have described the eviction notice as a political manoeuvre, arguing that the Modi administration has specifically been targeting institutions with long cultural links to the opposition Congress party and the legacy of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
For example, in 2023, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society was renamed the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society – a move that critics argue reduced Nehru’s centrality in the historical narrative of India’s independence journey.
Rashid Alvi, a senior opposition politician, accused the government of targeting Gymkhana because Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is one of its members. “What can be a greater fault of the Gymkhana Club committee than that it made Rahul Gandhi a member and did not make people considered close to the Prime Minister as members. This is enough to demolish it and take it over,” he told The Times of India.
In 2022, a tribunal replaced the Gymkhana’s elected management committee with government-appointed administrators following allegations of mismanagement and lease violations.
The club’s main building at its present location was constructed in the early 1930s and designed by British architect Robert Tor Russell, who also designed two major landmarks of New Delhi – Connaught Place and the Teen Murti House, which became Nehru’s home.
Historian Swapna Liddle told the Press Trust of India that while the institution undeniably had elitist roots, the focus should be on reforming it and making it more accessible and relevant to a wider section of people. “It is a pity that cultural institutions are shrinking; they must evolve, not ossify,” she said.
In a separate interview with India Today, she cited the club’s first-rate sports facilities and library as having cultural value to the city. “So, I would be sorry to see [it getting erased] … I can understand arguments that are made against … elitism … but the fact is it is an important cultural institution, as well as [being] very historic. It’s a heritage space, it’s part of the New Delhi landscape.”
Club member Rumnita Mittal told ANI that it was a “myth that Gymkhana Club belongs to super-rich people with big cars or a lot of money”. She said most of the permanent members were retired members of the armed forces or bureaucrats. “It is a sports club and is used by veterans and retired people. So it would be very unfair to them that overnight you take away their place from them,” she said.
But not everyone was mourning the news. One user wrote on X that the club was “built by highly privileged people, for the enjoyment of highly privileged people, on government land”.
“The issue is that the club is reportedly charging membership fees in lakhs [thousands of pounds], while the club itself pays only around ₹1,000 per year in rent to the government for 27 acres of prime land.”
The Gymkhana’s current management has raised concerns about the future of the club’s roughly 14,000 members and more than 500 employees if it is forced to vacate.
When the notice from the government arrived, one of the members of the club, Vijay Khurana, and the Staff Welfare Association of the Delhi Gymkhana, filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against the government order.
On Tuesday, the High Court said there was no immediate need for intervention after the government assured judges that no forcible eviction would occur without due legal procedure and prior notice, according to legal news website Bar and Bench.
The club has said it wants to continue operating and is seeking talks with the government. The Independent has reached out to the club’s management, as well as to the L&DO, for comment. A government spokesperson told the BBC: “It is a property leased by the government. Everything has happened according to the rule book and relevant laws.”
