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Delhi ( Introduction )
Delhi is the gateway of
North India to discover the most enchanting place of
the ranges like Agra, Jaipur, Khajurao, Varanasi,
Rajasthan & Hill Resorts of India. Delhi is the
only one of the India's large cities to offer more than
a millenium of history in stone. For, when Bombay and
Madras were small trading ports and Calcutta a village
mudflats. Delhi was the capital of an empire for five
hundred years past. It was from here that various Hindu
and Muslim dynasties and finally the Mughuls ruled
India until they were displaced by the British. It was
here that the British established their seat of
government from 1911 until India's Independence in
1947, completing their dream capital of New Delhi just
about in time to turn it over to the new nation of
India.
So it is not the Indians
who rule from Delhi. They have rung up the curtain on
yet another act in the history of this intriguing city
where all the past and present forces governing India
have left their mark. For Delhi is certainly
intriguing. According to a count by historians, no
fewar than eight cities have been built on this site
and not on top of each other either, in the usual
archaeological layer cake. The went side - by - side
and even though urban sprawl is now welding them
together, it is still possible for a visitor to wander
through the great epochs of Indian history without
eveleaving Delhi. This city is the work of Hindu,
Muslim and British builders. I a few minutes, you can
be transported from the neoclassical architecture of
the 1920, to the vestiges of a Hindu temple or to the
greatest mosque in India.
Delhi has always enjoyed
this role as a capital because it is gateway to the
rich plain of the Ganges. In the past, it commanded the
great trunk roads of India and is still a rail and air
hub today, even though it does not have the economic
importance of Bombay or Calcutta. Ever-changing Delhi
is the home of India's entral Government and of the
architects of modern nation.
Going back through time
is probably the easiest way to describe the procession
of cities in Delhi and it is the most convenient one
for the average traveller who seldom fails to catch his
first glimpse of the city in New Delhi. What he sees is
a garden city of parks, treeshaded boulevards and
mansions swimming in seas monument to its planner Sir
Edwin Luytesn. But he did not have a free hand in its
architecture.
 The city you see is a compromise between Sir Edwin's love of
to European Renaissance and others who wanted a more oriental style.
Lord Harding, the Viceroy at the time added his weight to the arguments
of the pro Indian school. It was he who chose the site for the two main
landmarks of New Delhi, the Secretariat and the Viceroy's House now the
Presidential Palace and known as Rashtrapati Bhawan.
New Delhi's perspectives are best taken in from the Central
Vista, now called Rajpath. This impressive avenue runs from Purana
Quila, an early Mughal Fort, to the Presidential Palace. An excellent
view of the entire architectural conception can be had from a ramp
running up between the two blocks of the Secretariat.
This garden city is probably one of the most elegant Capitals
in the world, particularly in spring when the trees lining its avenues
burst into a blaze of flamming gulmohur and yellow labumum. Winter is
also a delightful time of the year and so is autumn, even though it
starts only in mid-October & lasts for a few weeks. Then New Delhi
can be cool or even cold, a welcome change from the oppressive heat of
its summer.
All the Delhi put together, amounts to a city of about six
million and the dividing line between old and new is quite sharp. From
New Delhi to Old Delhi is a transformation from cool, spacious avenues
and the quiet arcades of a shopping centre to a labyrinth of small
streets studded with mosques, temples, monuments and bazaars.
Delhi began to collect this monument in earnest at the last of
the 12th century when the conquering Muslims made it their capital in
India. After a parade of ruling dynasties, Babar appeared in 1526 as
the first Mughal, but he moved his capital to Agra from where the
Mughals ruled until Shah Jahan returned to Delhi in 1650. Soon
afterwards, he was deposed and imprisoned by his son, the fanatic
Aurangzeb, who brought Delhi to its period of greatest glory. With his
death in the early 18th century, began Delhi's decline. The city was
sacked by Nadir Shah Durrani who made off with the fabulous Peacock
throne and then by an Afghan conqueror Ahmed shah Abdali.
In 1803, Lord Lake captured Delhi for the British who governed
it in fat even though the Mughal monarchy was allowed to survive
nominally. The last of the Delhi emperors, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was the
titular leader of the rebels during the first struggle for
independence, but he died inexile in Burma. With him died the reign of
the Mughals. The city lost its importance, but only temporarily. In
1911, it became the capital of India once more, replacing Calcutta, and
its prestige has grown ever since. The Delhi before your eyes today is
the nerve centre of independent India.
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