New Delhi, India
New Delhi, the capital of India, is a vibrant and bustling metropolis that, along with Old Delhi, forms one of the world’s most densely populated urban areas. Serving as the political, economic, and cultural hub of the country, New Delhi has a rich historical backdrop, tracing its roots back to ancient civilizations. The city was established as the capital during British colonial rule in the early 20th century, designed to be an architectural showcase with wide avenues and significant government buildings.
Despite its status as a major urban center, New Delhi faces substantial challenges, including high levels of poverty, inadequate sanitation, and severe air pollution. The city's rapid population growth has led to the expansion of unplanned settlements and slums, highlighting stark contrasts between wealth and poverty. The climate is characterized by extremely hot summers and unpredictable monsoon rains, exacerbated by climate change.
Culturally, New Delhi is home to numerous historical landmarks, such as the iconic India Gate and the sprawling Rashtrapati Bhawan, as well as vibrant markets and diverse communities. The economy is primarily service-based, with a growing emphasis on technology and manufacturing. With a rich tapestry of languages and cultures, New Delhi continues to be a focal point of migration, drawing people from across the country in search of opportunities.
Subject Terms
New Delhi, India
New Delhi is the capital of India. It forms, together with Old Delhi, a sprawling megalopolis that is one of the world's most densely populated urban areas. Since ancient times, Delhi has dominated India's cultural, economic, and political affairs. New Delhi is not only the subcontinent's industrial, commercial, and transportation hub but also home to much of India's intellectual and financial infrastructure. The capital is grappling, however, with enormous challenges. Many of New Delhi's residents live in extreme poverty. Vast, squalid slum areas have exacerbated problems of inadequate sanitation, water and electrical power shortages, traffic congestion, and crime. The city has also consistently ranked among the most polluted in the world. To address these crises, India's leaders have authorized an ambitious plan to transform New Delhi over several decades.
Landscape
New Delhi is strategically situated on the plains of northern India, where the Ganges and Indus river valleys meet. The Delhi urban area sits on both banks of the Yamuna River and covers about 1,500 square kilometers (585 square miles). The division of New Delhi and historical Old Delhi reflects the era of British imperial rule in India. In 1912, the British moved the capital from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi, building the section of the city that would become New Delhi just south of the existing Old City.
The Old City, which is the current incarnation of several cities that have occupied the same site since the Muslims first arrived in India, traces its roots to the seventeenth century. Old Delhi's maze of narrow, winding streets and crowded alleyways follow no regular plan. The presence of several magnificent forts attests to the historical attractiveness of Delhi to foreign invaders over the centuries. The Old City is also home to some of Delhi's most revered temples and monuments.
New Delhi has little in common with the chaotic jumble of the Old City. The British were determined to make the new Indian capital into the architectural crown jewel of their empire. They built a grid of broad, straight, tree-lined avenues and created spacious parks and gardens. A horseshoe-shaped commercial center, Connaught Place, was located in the epicenter of meticulously planned circular streets. The graceful architecture of New Delhi's many government buildings and embassies reflects the stately sensibilities of the city's British planners.
This orderly vision, however, has been transformed over time as a result of the extreme growth taking place in New Delhi. The British designed New Delhi to accommodate 70,000 people, but by 2009 the total population of the Delhi urban area exceeded 20 million. The rapidly increasing population fueled the growth of unplanned shantytowns on New Delhi's periphery. As a result of the population boom, new residents created their own homes, many of which are unauthorized. Many of New Delhi's inhabitants live in slums and unsanctioned structures.
New Delhi's climate is notable for its oppressively hot summers. Temperatures in May, June, and July regularly climb as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). The heat does not significantly subside until October. The spring and summer also subject the city to violent dust storms and hot, dry winds called loo. The monsoon brings some relief when it arrives at the beginning of July. The rainy season lasts through September, bringing with it most of Delhi's annual rainfall.
Climate change has affected New Delhi. Rising temperatures have shortened winter and heavy rains often cause flooding in the city. Droughts and heat waves have become more common.
People
The population of the New Delhi metropolitan area was 32.066 million in 2022, according to the US Central Intelligence Agency. New Delhi's residents come from all over India. In addition to Hindi, the most commonly spoken language in India, English, Urdu, and Punjabi are also common. Many of the capital's newest arrivals are people from rural areas who have moved to New Delhi in search of economic opportunity. New Delhi's latest population boom, however, is only the most recent of a series of dramatic shifts that have taken place in the city.
Prior to the 1947 partition that led to the creation of a predominantly Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan, many of Delhi's residents were Muslim, a reflection of the twelfth-century conquest of India that compelled much of Delhi's population to embrace the faith and culture of their new overlords. The 1947 partition led to an exodus of many Muslims living in Delhi to Pakistan and an influx of many Hindus and Sikhs living in Pakistan into Delhi. As a result, New Delhi's population doubled in the course of one month.
New Delhi's population has continued to experience significant growth since the partition. The massive migration of Indians from outlying areas to the capital has both economic and political roots. While some have chosen to make their way to New Delhi hoping to escape poverty, others have come because they have been displaced from their homes by a series of dams constructed by the government throughout northern India. Largely illiterate and unskilled, these new residents have faced considerable challenges in their pursuit of housing and employment.
The prevalence of panhandlers on New Delhi's streets led to the 2002 passage of legislation that made it illegal to give money to beggars at traffic lights. The poverty in which many New Delhi residents live, however, shows few signs of abating.
Economy
New Delhi is one of India's commercial epicenters. The corporate headquarters of most leading Indian firms are located in the capital, as are the offices of many multinational companies. The nation's key government, financial, medical, and educational institutions are also concentrated in New Delhi.
Tourism is an important component of New Delhi's economy, the largest sector of which is service-based. The banking, hospitality, telecommunications, media, real estate, retail, and entertainment industries make up the heart of the capital's economy. But the city also features a significant manufacturing base, which turns out consumer products including automobiles, pharmaceuticals, sporting goods, razors, textiles, electronic components, and clothing.
The Indian government has taken steps to develop New Delhi as a hub of nanotechnology and biotechnology. In 2005, authorities inaugurated the capital's first Information Technology (IT) Park. Its launch was one of several steps the government has taken to place New Delhi on a competitive footing with the information technology–intensive economies found in Indian cities such as Bangalore and Hyderabad.
According to the Brookings Institution's Global Metro Monitor 2018, a survey of 300 of the world's largest metropolitan economies, the Delhi metropolitan area had the sixth fastest growing economy in 2014–16. During that period, employment in the metro area grew by 4.7 percent and gross domestic product per capita grew by 6.6 percent.
Landmarks
Many of Delhi's historical landmarks are located in the capital's central and southern zones. At the core of Old Delhi is a busy labyrinth of ancient homes and shops known as Chandni Chowk, or Moonlight Square. Standing guard at the eastern entrance to the Old City is the Lal Qila or the Red Fort, an octagonal red sandstone fort built in 1639 when the Mughal emperor decided to make Delhi his new capital.
Opposite the Red Fort at the Old City's western end stands the Jama Masjid. With a courtyard large enough to accommodate 25,000 worshippers, it is India's largest mosque. The Old City is also home to the ancient Dighambara Jain Temple as well as the Hindu temple of Gauri Shankar.
New Delhi is also rich in landmarks. At its center is a monument honoring the 70,000 Indian members of the British military who died during World War I. This monument, the India Gate, stands 42 meters (138 feet) high. On the eastern side of India Gate, ancient citadel, the Purana Qila, or Old Fort, towers over New Delhi.
West of India Gate is the largest palace in all of India, the Rashtrapati Bhawan, originally the home of the British viceroy and now the official residence of India's president. In front of the Rashtrapati Bhawan lies a vast, open plaza, the Vijay Chowk, while behind the palace are the triple-terraced Mughal Gardens, featuring 130 hectares (321 acres) filled with roses, fountains, and gazebos.
Between the Rashtrapati Bhawan and Connaught Place, New Delhi's premier shopping district, is the Jantar Mantar. Built in 1724, it is a vast, open-air observatory commissioned by the astronomer king Sawai Jai Singh. To the west of Connaught Place stands the Birla Mandir, a temple, where worshippers pay homage to the full pantheon of Hindu deities.
New Delhi is home to many museums dedicated to preserving India's ancient history and culture. Some of the most notable include the National Museum, which features artifacts from the full spectrum of Indian civilization dating to the prehistoric era; the National Gallery of Modern Art, which displays paintings from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day; the Rail Transport Museum, which traces the history of the Indian railways; the National Gandhi Museum, which is dedicated to the life of Mahatma Gandhi; and the Indian War Memorial Museum, which traces the development of weaponry from the Mughal era through World War I.
History
Archeological evidence points to the presence of human civilization on the site of present-day Delhi as far back as the first millennium BCE. On the site, multiple cities have existed, disappeared, and been built over as different groups have risen and fallen from power. Because of its strategic central location, Delhi has historically found itself the target of attempts by both indigenous and foreign powers to dominate the Indian subcontinent.
Delhi's two centuries as the center of a Hindu kingdom came to an end at the beginning of the twelfth century with the invasion of Afghan Muslim conquerors. Until the advent of British imperial rule, Delhi remained almost continuously under the rule of various Muslim dynasties.
In 1911, the British decided to move their imperial capital from Calcutta to New Delhi. It took two decades for the British to realize their vision of a city designed to match the architectural splendor of cities such as London and Paris. The city remained India's capital after the nation gained independence from the United Kingdom.
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