- The Delhi Gymkhana Club is one of the oldest and most elite private clubs in India.
- The government took official control of the club in 2022.
Members of the Delhi Gymkhana — one of the oldest private clubs in India — are trying to wrest back control after India's far-right government seized it in 2022.
The club was first established by British colonists in 1913 as a sporting club called the Imperial Delhi Gymkhana, according to its website.
Initially, it maintained a "whites-only" policy, offering acceptance only to Indians who could eat the right food, learn the right dances, and "empty glasses of bloody mary's on a Sunday afternoon," according to Salute Magazine.
The club opened up its doors to a new class of Indian army officers and civil servants after the country gained independence in 1947, and by the 1990s, it became "the go-to-place for a new generation of business people," the Financial Times reported.
The central government — helmed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party — had been investigating the club for several years and cited mismanagement and nepotism among the reasons for its takeover, according to The Hindustan Times.
The club reportedly kept government officials on the waiting list for more than 15 years and others on the list for up to 37 years, according to The Hindu. Membership dues were about $27,000, the FT reported, citing court documents. The club had also developed a reputation for exclusivity and nepotism, allowing the adult children of granted members to use the club even while they awaited official membership, the FT reported.
Since taking control of the club, the government has expelled hundreds of members and limited the ability of member's children to join, the FT said.
Some of the club's members say that the government takeover is part of the BJP's broader agenda to control the country's social institutions. Ajai Shukla, a former army colonel, said the takeover reflects motivations to control "instruments of privilege and hand them out as favors."
Meanwhile, Atul Dev, an 84-year-old retired army major leading the club's resistance against the government, suggested that the takeover was less about politics than it was about "score-settling" on behalf of bureaucrats whom it had excluded, the FT said.
"There are some officials in the ministry who have to save face," Dev told the FT.
Dev and other members filed a plea challenging the order last June, according to Outlook India. The case was heard by a court this week, the Financial Times reported. A quick resolution to the case seems unlikely, however, since many of the club's members are affiliated with India's justice system, the FT said.