Today New Delhi is the second largest city after Mumbai and the capital of India. It is one of the subcontinent’s megacities with a population of around 11 million people.
The cityscape reflects the more recent historical development of the country: Old Delhi is the historically grown, oriental-style old part of the city with bazaar areas, but also poor areas. As the former administrative center of the English, New Delhi is strictly geometrical. The colonial style characterizes the modern metropolis, which is also the country’s cultural and industrial center.
New Delhi is India’s second largest city in terms of population after Mumbai (Fig. 1). Both, like Kolkata (Calcutta), Chennai (Madras), Bangalore and Haiderabad, are megacities of the Republic of India. The population of New Delhi amounts to around 11 million people – the metropolitan area even has over 16 million residents. The Indian capital New Delhi only accounts for around 300,000 of these.
According to ABBREVIATIONFINDER, New Delhi is located in the north-west of the country in the union territory of the same name, which covers an area of 1,483 km² and is home to around 14 million people. It is located at 215 m above sea level on a plain between Punjab in the west and the Ganges plain in the east. The watershed between the river systems of the Ganges and the Indus runs near New Delhi.
History of the city
New Delhi reflects the eventful history of the subcontinent.
There is evidence of a settlement in the New Delhi area as early as the 3rd century BC. By the Rajputs, but of great importance for the city are the Islamic conquests from Afghanistan, which took place in the narrow gateway between the Thar desert in the south and the Himalayan ranges in the north. In 1193, the Afghan ruler MOHAMMED VON GHUR (1150-1206) founded the first Delhi as a power base for further conquests at a strategically favorable location between the plateaus of Afghanistan and the fertile Ganges plain. After MOHAMMED VON GHUR’s assassination in Afghanistan in 1206, his general QUTB-DU-DIN AIBAK declared himself a sultan and founded the Sultanate of Delhi ,that existed until the Mughal Empire was founded. The oldest surviving Islamic monument in India, the Qutub Minar, which was trend-setting for the architecture of India, dates from the time of the first Delhi. The Qutub Minar was built as a victory column from 1199 and was intended to document the eastern border of the Islamic empire.
The first Delhi was destroyed like five other city foundations in the Delhi area, e.g. B. 1398 by the Mongolian TIMUR LENK, also known as TAMERLAN. Only the seventh foundation survived, the Shahjahnanbad, built from 1638, today’s Old Delhi. The ending “-bad” indicates an Islamic foundation, while cities with the ending “-pur” are Hindu cities. Shahjahnanbad was founded as early as the Mughal period, which began in 1526. However, Delhi did not become a royal seat again until 1658, when Emperor AKBAR and his successors had ruled from Agra. Despite multiple conquests and looting, including in 1739 by the Persian NADIR SHAH and the Afghans AHMED SHAH DURANI in the 18th century, famous and magnificent buildings were built during this time . like the Red Fort or the Friday Mosque.
Old Delhi is a typical example of a historically grown, oriental-style city with winding bazaar areas and stalls. In addition to the Jama Masjid Mosque (1644–1658), one of the largest mosques in the world, and the Red Fort, the old town also houses many palaces and tombs. Bazaar and residential areas are grouped along the approximately 1 km long main axis of the old town, the Chandi Chowk.
In this actual center of the city, however, poverty, need and disease are also at home. Almost all of the large slums in Delhi are in the old town.
After the British East India Company had increasingly gained control of India from 1818, India became a British Crown Colony in 1858 after the dissolution of this company and Queen VICTORIA had assumed the title of Empress of India in 1877, the colonial rulers moved the state capital from Calcutta to Delhi. The British viceroys resided here since 1912. In addition to the old Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi), the new metropolis New Delhi emerged. Since then, the city has been the country’s political and economic center.
The foundation stone for the administrative center was laid in 1911 by King GEORG V, but it was not inaugurated until 1931. The facility is strictly geometrical. Broad avenues, radially extending from large circles, define the picture. Sandstone building in Colonial styles line the streets. Arcades and parks define the image of a by no means typical Indian city, but a modern metropolis with European characteristics. In addition to representative government buildings, there are many high-rise office buildings with branches of western companies.
New Delhi consistently consists of two clearly separated parts of the city, New Delhi, which was systematically built up by the British, and the former Mughal metropolis Old Delhi, which is strongly influenced by its Islamic past.
Today’s New Delhi not only functions as a capital city, it is also an important cultural center of the country. Four universities alone and numerous technical and other colleges, but also important museums, are located in Delhi. The city is also the third largest economic and industrial center in the country after Bombay and Calcutta. Textile and rubber works, the chemical industry, vehicle construction, metal processing and the consumer goods industry provide jobs.
The functions of New Delhi as a capital and as an industrial center, in connection with the enormous expansion of the city, lead to a large volume of inner-city traffic. An international airport connects New Delhi and India with the countries of the world.