History

Delhi traces its ancestry to the legendary city of Indra-Prastha, glorified in the Indian epic the Mahabharata, best known for an Armageddon-like battle. The legacy has continued through the millennia, right down to the political sparring of its present incarnation. Delhi was a trophy fought over by first the Hindu Rajputs and then the Muslim dynasties of Slave Kings and the Mughals. The latter left a grand architectural legacy which the British Raj sought to rival by commissioning Edward Lutyens and Herbert Baker to build a city befitting the ‘brightest jewel in the British crown’. The imperial capital was shifted here from Calcutta in 1911. After India’s independence in 1947, Indian bureaucrats and ministers simply moved into the grand homes and offices left by the British. The Lutyens Bungalow Zone could rank among the world’s most beautiful urban spaces.

Politics

Delhi is both national capital and a city-state capital. Politics is at the hub of its economic, social and cultural life. In a rapidly liberalised business environment, corporate India no longer has to pay obeisance here for the smallest licence and permit. Instead it is setting up offices. Not surprisingly, embassies and development agencies occupy significant spaces, both physical and social. The equivalent of 10 Downing Street is not 7 Race Course Road, the official prime ministerial residence, but 10 Janpath, home of the Sphinx-like Sonia Gandhi. Its mystique remained even when her Congress party was not in power. The Hindu rightist party the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) headed the earlier ruling alliance, and its influence over the city, and its media, remains. The State chief minister looks like an affable aunt, speaks like a society lady, but is a tough cookie who has considerably cleaned up Delhi’s notorious pollution.

Religion

India is a secular country and the many flavours of its religious stew pot are reflected in Delhi. Old Delhi’s historical mosque, the Jama Masjid, looks down on the Muslim quarter on one side and the Hindu trader warren on the other. The proximity of the Punjab means a large contingent of Sikhs live here and you’ll find several of their historic gurdwaras. Colonial Delhi left its legacy of churches and it’s still the headquarters of the Protestant church of North India. The Baha’is have a beautiful new lotus temple, the Buddhists have their place of prayer, and so do the Zoroastrians—all of 600 of them in Delhi.

Economy

Even 10 years ago, Delhi was a company town, the company being the government along with all the ancillary industries of a political capital. The rest of the economy was fuelled by traders, largely Punjabi migrants, who had arrived penniless and emotionally scarred by Partition but had created wealth by sweat and a native astuteness. But almost overnight Delhi has acquired a corporate persona, not in Old or New Delhi but in what has been officially demarcated as the National Capital Region, comprising Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad, which are actually in the neighbouring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. This is a swanky hive of industry, corporate headquarters (including that of Coke), business processing outsourcing companies, flashy malls and entertainment hubs. The fashion industry is one of the fastest growing in Delhi, and indeed in India.

Population

The population of Delhi is about 14 million. Today, the local ‘Dehliwalla’, the original Punjabi migrant and Urdu poetry-spouting Muslim, is overwhelmed by a multi-ethnic frenzy. People from every state can be found here, either as businesspeople, government employees, hoteliers, auto-rickshaw drivers or domestics. Mobility brings empowerment. A young woman from a remote tribe can, by upgrading her skills, end up as an English-speaking maid at an embassy residence. Tibetan girls work in beauty parlours. Of the ethnic enclaves, the Bengali Chittaranjan Park is perhaps the most robust. Hindi, Punjabi and English (Punglish, Oxbridge and Yankee) are widely heard.