Question

what were the development in delhi before the revolt of 1857?

Answer 1

Delhi before and after the Seige of 1857
was a picturesque town of decay and ruins less than half the size of Lucknow and a fraction of the size of Calcutta. Delhi smelled of rot and sandalwood and stench and rosewater. The British  even had to create the Bridge of Boats across the river and complete the crucial canal to bring fresh water which Akbar started but no other Mughal bothered to complete.The city was segregated   with strict apartheid to placate  prickly religious and racial elite castes who religiously and ritually could not endure contact even upwind by degraded racial and religious inferiors. Jobs also created segregation. Westerners were expected to obey  segregation and apartheid which was both religiously enforced by the Vedas of Varna Caste  and sharia law as well as culture  and unspoken understanding. The Westerners tended to cluster in districts around banks and mostly clustered outside the British built city walls on the ‘Ridge’ or high rise of land where they built bunglaows and georgian cottages and follies. Cricket greens and polo fields were in this area. The British rebuilt city wall was some 30 feet tall, plus a dry moat, and narrow bridges under bastions with artillery. In 1857 the British would ironically besiege their own rebuilt walls and artillery guns.  Delhi reflected the irony of Mughal Rule which never invested in infrastructure other than forts and palaces and the British who brought infrastructure, metalic (tarmac) roads, steel bridges, canals, and offers to build sewers  (rejected by the Delhiwallahs). Delhi knew that by 1818 it’s economy was bust and since 1818 the British brought money, income, and the scary promise of a railroad to Delhi in 1859 to link Delhi to Calcutta. Delhi was torn between nostalgia for the Mughals who ruined Delhi and the new rich  who wanted Western modernization and global trade to kick-start Delhi.