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Delhi, India

Contemporary Delhi is the crystallization of a long history of absorption of different epochs and rulers, a place of convergence of influences from all over the world. A city conventionally divided into an old and a new part (roughly corresponding to the center/north and the south of the city), Delhi offers a precious window onto the political and cultural changes that have taken place in India. This entry introduces the city by summing up its history and by offering a few perspectives onto how its developments can be interpreted.

Before Independence

Historically, Delhi is composed of seven cities; all have functioned as centers for their respective kingdoms. First known as Indraprashta (home of the dynasty of the Pandava in the epic Mahabharata), Delhi became known as a capital during the reign of the Hindu dynasty of Tomar (around the year AD 1060) and through a succession of kingdoms lasting until the arrival of the Muslim conquerors. The Islamic Mughal period (which started at the end of the twelfth century and ended with the arrival of the British) was a flourishing period for Delhi. Best known is the phase from the Lodhi dynasty (early sixteenth century) to that of Shahjahan (1627–1658). The latter ruler brought the capital back to Delhi in 1638, after a long period of shifts, and founded Shahjahanabad, which today is the heart of Old Delhi.

When the British Crown took over Delhi from the East India Company in 1858, a new period was inaugurated. In 1911, King George V moved the capital from Calcutta back to Delhi and laid the foundation for the expansion of the city. The construction of New Delhi (located south of the old city) was a grandiose undertaking aimed at producing the ultimate symbol of the empire. Clearly detached from the old city, New Delhi was to develop as an area of low population density and open green spaces. Edwin Lutyens, the creator of the imperial Delhi plan, also created a new square (named after Admiral Connaught) south of the wall of the old city to demarcate even more clearly the distance between New and Old Delhi. Connaught Place was conceived as a natural divide between old/north and new/south Delhi. A topographical buffer zone between the Indian and the British, the colonizers and the colonized, Connaught Place helped the British, who inhabited what was south of Connaught Place, to keep a safe distance from the old city with its high population density, bad planning, lack of hygienic structures, poverty, and congestion.

After Independence

After partition, the economic, infrastructural, and social gaps between different areas of the city Delhi widened even further. By the beginning of 1948, after the exodus of Muslims from India to Pakistan and of Hindus in the opposite direction, roughly 16 million people had lost their homes, and at least 1 million people (according to unofficial estimates) had lost their lives. These years were central to the construction of modern Delhi. Within two months, the population doubled, and the planning of the city experienced a drastic break. New colonies (the local term for block) were created to host the thousands of refugees coming from what had just become Pakistan.

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