it is the population of delhi (pop. 7,2 06,704), sometimes called Dilli, is an Indian union territory and the second largest city in India. Only Mumbai has more people. It is made up of three main census areas--Old Delhi, New Delhi, and Delhi Cantonment, including 214 villages in the surrounding countryside. The Delhi union territory has an area of 1,483 square kilometres.
Old Delhi covers 932 square kilometres. New Delhi is the official capital of India. It covers 439 square kilometres.
New Delhi was built by the British five kilometres to the south of Old Delhi in the early 1900's. Old Delhi was India's capital from 1912 until 1931, when New Delhi, was established as the capital just south of Delhi. But the two cities have since merged to form a single metropolis with a population of 8,419,084. This figure is used to indicate a central city area and the developed areas surrounding it (see METROPOLITAN AREA).
Delhi lies on the Jumna (or Yamuna) River, a tributary of the Ganges (or Ganga), in north-central India. It is about 150 kilometres south of the Himalayas.
As it includes the nation's capital, Delhi is a union territory under the control of the central government, rather than a separate state. To the east lies the state of Uttar Pradesh, and to the north, west and south, Delhi is surrounded by the state of Haryana.
City
Delhi, including both Old and New Delhi, lies within a roughly three-sided area of land known as the Delhi Triangle, bounded on two sides by hills of the Aravalli range and on the third side by the Jumna. The contrast between Old and New Delhi is striking.
Old Delhi consists of a twisted maze of narrow winding streets cut through by a few broad roads. The central section of the city is within the ruins of walls that were built in the mid-1600's. Three of Delhi's original 14 gates are still standing.
Living conditions in Old Delhi are overcrowded and cramped. Many of Delhi's industries are in these heavily populated residential areas. The location of these industries is partly responsible for the city's crowded living conditions. The busiest and most colourful street is Chandni Chowk. The name literally means "silver street." But Chandni Chowk is in fact a wide boulevard measuring 21 metres across and lined with tiny shops, in which silversmiths and other craftworkers produce exquisite products. It is also packed with stalls and multicoloured temples. It was laid out in 1650 on the orders of the Mughal princess, Jahan Ara.
New Delhi was designed by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, assisted by Sir Herbert Baker. It was laid out on a well-drained site standing slightly above the level of the surrounding plain. The builders used explosives to blast away the top layer of the land to flatten it and provide earth to fill in the nearby valleys. The resulting complex is a spacious, attractive, and carefully planned city, with broad, treelined avenues and many open areas, parks, gardens, and fountains.
Many of New Delhi's best-known landmarks lie on a line running from east to west through the city. The line starts at the National Stadium. Then it passes through the Children's Park and the War Memorial Arch along the impressive Raj Path, through Central Vista Park, to Rashtrapati Bhavan (the residence of the president of India). A similar line running north-south, known as "Janpath," goes from the main shopping centre, Connaught Place, to residential suburbs. Several districts retain their own character. The Civil Lines, originally laid out to house British colonial officials, is now a residential area for well-off Indian government officials. A large industrial area, Okhla, is on Mathura Marg in the south. Kotla Mubarakpur has the appearance of a sprawling country village. Chanakyapuri is an area set aside for foreign embassies. The vast sports complex, built for the 1982 Asian Games, contains a stadium that seats 30,000 people. Delhi also has India's finest zoo, with rare white tigers.
Delhi contains what are probably the finest monuments in any city in India. The Qutab Minar, one of the city's most famous sights, is a 5-storey, 72-metre tower of red sandstone. It was begun in 1199 as a symbol of Muslim victory and power and used for hundreds of years by muezzins (mosque officials) calling the faithful to prayer. Near the Qutab is one of Delhi's most remarkable sights, a simple pillar, set up about A.D. 400. It weighs over six metric tons, stands more than seven metres high and has never rusted. The citadel of Tughluqabad was a major centre of power for about ten years in the 1300's and has been a wasteland of ruins ever since. In the beautiful Lodi Gardens is the cemetery of the Lodi kings, who ruled India from Delhi during the 1400's and were overthrown by the Mughals in 1526.
Shah Jahan's Lal Qila (Red Fort) was built between 1639 and 1648. Its walls of red sandstone enclose elegant halls and pavilions where the Mughal emperors held lavish ceremonies and gave audience to subjects and ambassadors. The majestic Jama Masjid is the biggest mosque in all India and was also built by Shah Jahan. It is built of marble and sandstone and has three marble domes.
Between Delhi and New Delhi is a shrine called the Rajghat. It marks the place where the body of the Indian leader Mohandas K. Gandhi was cremated in 1948.
People. More than 50 per cent of the inhabitants of Delhi are immigrants to the area. Four out of five residents are Hindus. Muslims are the largest minority, but there are also Jains, Christians, and Buddhists.
Education and culture. Delhi has three higher education complexes, the University of Delhi, the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the Jamia Millia Islamia. All three are federal universities. Delhi is also home to the Sangeet Natak Akademi, for the performing arts; the Lalit Kala Akademi, for painting, sculpture, architecture, and applied arts; and the Sahitya Akademi, for literature and languages. In addition, New Delhi has the National Museum and the National Gallery of Modern Art. There are also museums dedicated to Mohandas K. Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and to the Indian Air Force, rail transport, dolls, stamps, Tibet, and natural history.
Culture and the arts flourish thanks to the variety of the population and encouragement from the government. Indian dance, drama, and music remain popular, but young people in Delhi also enjoy going to the cinema to watch both Western films and the products of India's thriving film industry.
Delhi is noted for the wide variety of its cooking. Mughlai court food consisted of rich meat and vegetable dishes in the Persian style, cooked in spices and rich cream. Visitors to Delhi can still enjoy such cooking. Other local specialities include marinated kebabs, chicken, mutton, or fish cooked slowly in a tandoor (clay oven), and chack, a refreshing drink made of thin yoghurt flavoured with ginger, cumin, coriander, and chillies. Southern Indian, Chinese, European, and Lebanese restaurants also flourish in the city.
Economy. The government itself is the largest employer in Delhi, followed by industry, and then commerce. A large number of people work in the Indian Civil Service and Delhi's local administration. Others work in law and other professions and a wide variety of service industries.
Delhi has long been famed for its luxury crafts--ivory carving, painting, and embroidery. This tradition of highly skilled work now also includes the manufacture of machine tools and precision instruments. Delhi also has India's largest concentration of electronics factories. Companies in the city manufacture metal products, rubber, and radio and television parts. Plants in Delhi produce chemicals and fertilizers. Other major industries include the making of garments, leather goods, and sporting equipment. Railways are the most valuable part of the city's transportation industry.
Old-fashioned handicrafts still survive, supported in part by the tourist trade. Weavers, jewellers, and goldsmiths still work in Old Delhi. Craftworkers in wood, brass, and terracotta display their skills at the city's Crafts Museum.
Delhi's geographical and political importance make it a major centre of finance and commerce in India. Wholesale and distributive trades are among its chief activities. It has also become the focus of India's banking system and insurance business.
Delhi suffers major problems that hamper its economy. One is a housing shortage, which results in a third of the population being crammed into slums and illegal shanties. An irregular electrical power supply forces factories to close down production without warning. Hard-pressed water and sewerage services struggle to keep up with the requirements of the city.
Government. Delhi has a complicated three-level system of local administration. At the top is a lieutenant governor and executive council of four, all appointed by the president of India. Then there is an elected metropolitan council, which discusses issues but has no direct power. Finally, there is an elected municipal corporation, which organizes such services as electricity and water supply, cleaning and sewerage, public transport, the fire brigade, and the police.
Delhi is the place from which the whole of India is governed, and has imposing government buildings. The most impressive building is the huge Rashtrapati Bhavan (Presidential House). Designed by Lutyens as a home for the viceroy of India, it is now the official residence of the president of India. Nearby stands the Sansad Bhavan (Parliament House), designed by Sir Herbert Baker. Its three semi-circular halls were originally intended to house the Chamber of Princes, Council of State, and Legislative Assembly. They now contain the upper house, Rajya Sabha (Council of the States), the lower house, Lok Sabha (House of the People), and a magnificent library.
Transport and communication. All land routes from north-west India to the eastern plain pass through the Delhi area. This makes it the hub of the country's transport system, where five national highways and several railway lines converge. Indira Gandhi International Airport, to the south-west of the main city, is a stopover in the international airway system. The airport has boosted the city's tourist trade. Palam Airport is used for domestic flights.
India's leading newspapers all have their head offices in Delhi. They are The Times of India, The Statesman, The Hindustan Times, and The Indian Express. All-India Radio, the state radio service, has studios in Delhi. Many of the state-run television programmes also originate from the Indian capital.
History
There is a reference to a settlement called Indraprastha in the great epic poem Mahabharata. Archaeologists believe that this settlement was located in the Delhi area at the village of Indapat. Excavations in the Old Fort have revealed that a settlement existed there before 2000 B.C. and that people lived there continuously until about A.D. 1000. In the 1100's, Prithviraja III of the Chauhan dynasty made Delhi his capital, only to be displaced by the Muslim conqueror Qutb-ud-Din Aibak. The city was the first of at least seven to be built in the Delhi Triangle.
Successive Turkish and Afghan dynasties built cities on different sites in the Delhi area between 1193 and 1354. The devastating invasion of Tamerlane in 1389-1398 caused the capital to be shifted to Agra. But Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty and empire, moved the capital back to Delhi in 1526. His son, Humayun, built another city, which was destroyed in 1540 by the invader Sher Shah.
The Mughal emperor Akbar kept court at Fatehpur Sikri. His successor, Jahangir, was based in Agra. But in 1638 Shah Jahan commenced the building of the seventh city--Shahjahanabad--now known as Old Delhi. The city once more became the capital. Later, as Mughal power weakened, Delhi was repeatedly raided and robbed of its treasures. The most terrible attack was the invasion of the Persian Nadir Shah in 1739. The British took possession of the city in 1803 but did not immediately make it their capital. Calcutta, the gateway to the earliest British conquests, remained the capital of British India.
During the Indian Revolt of 1857, Indian soldiers held Delhi for five months. The British recapture of the city involved fierce fighting and much destruction. In 1877, the British authorities announced at Delhi the proclamation of Queen Victoria as empress of India.
In 1911, Delhi was the setting for a glittering spectacle called a durbar, or royal gathering, at which the 562 princes of India met to pay their respects to George V, the only king-emperor ever to visit the country. The royal visitor chose the occasion to announce that the capital was to move from Calcutta to Delhi. The formal move took place in 1912. In the same year, work began on planning and building New Delhi to house the new seat of government.
New Delhi was intended to be the British imperial equivalent of Rome, imposing, and capable of expanding to something even greater. About 30,000 labourers were needed just to put up the official buildings and plant 10,000 trees. When India became independent in 1947, New Delhi became its capital.
Great industrial growth took place in Delhi after India gained independence from Britain. The city's population began to increase greatly at the same time. This increase resulted partly from the arrival of thousands of Indian refugees from the newly independent nation of Pakistan nearby. Delhi's population is six times larger than it was in 1951.
In 1955, the government started a programme to direct the growth of Delhi. New residential and industrial areas have been created, but the city still faces many problems caused by its rapid growth.
See also INDIA; INDIA, HISTORY OF; NEW DELHI.
