During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Rai Chunnamal emerged as one of the wealthiest men in Delhi, having astutely read which way the wind was blowing, and made a vast fortune supplying provisions to the British.

The poet Mirza Ghalib specifically mentioned the name of Rai Chunnamal while lamenting that men of low birth and less honour, like Chunnamal, were crowing and exulting in their glittering "illuminated mansions," while honourable men of old and noble families were "sifting the dirt" after being trampled down by the British.

After the Muslims were expelled from the city in 1857, the mosque was deemed redundant, and was auctioned by the British with the intention that it be demolished and the land be used for building new houses and shops.

[4][5] Lala Chunnamal (†29 January 1870), a Hindu belonging to an orthodox, upper-caste family, did not demolish the mosque but preserved it.

The actress Simi Garewal was briefly married to Ravi Mohan, a scion of the Chunnamal family.

[9] Today, this ancestral Chunnamal Haveli which stands at the Katra Nil section of Chandni Chowk - the heart of Old Delhi, is the last mansion to survive in a well-preserved condition.

On 9 August 1942, a protest against the British Rule was organized just outside Katra Neel, Chandni Chowk, Delhi by Sh.

[15] When India celebrated the 25th anniversary of its independence from British rule on 15 August 1972, Hon'ble Prime Minister Smt.