Question

Write a comparative note on old delhi and new Delhi under the British rule.

Answer 1

Old Delhi is a city built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in between 1638 - 1648 and served as the capital of the Mughals till 1857 when their reign ended.

Old delhi was a 12 gated walled city build in sandstone and marble. Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, the architect of Taj mahal designed this beautiful city.

Old Delhi houses a lot of monuments which are of great importance both historically and culturally. Its from the ramparts of Red Fort that the Prime minister of India unfurls the tiranga(Tricolor) every independence day. Jama Masjid one of the largest mosques in the sub-continent is in Old Delhi. Ghalib the greatest poet in Urdu lived here.

Today Old Delhi is symbol of the bygone era. It once had huge mansions in which affluent and aristocrats lived , very few are in a liveable condition now.

Post the first war of Indian Independence in 1857, new markets mushroomed in this area and today we know them as Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazaar.

New Delhi is the capital of India and one of Delhi city's 11 districts. Although colloquially Lutyen’s Delhi and New Delhi are used interchangeably.

The foundation stone of the city was laid by George V, Emperor of India during the Delhi Durbar of 1911.

It was designed by British architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker. The new capital was inaugurated on 13 February 1931, by Viceroy and Governor-General of India Lord Irwin.

New Delhi is planned city built to accommodate the offices and the British Indian government which shifted its capital from Calcutta. Huge buildings were built to house offices, officers, Viceroy, courts, parliaments, markets, and commemoratory structures. It had everything.

Today country’s law makers are given palatial bungalows all of them located here, as low as 53 houses are privately owned in Lutyen’s Delhi the rest are owned by the government.

Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament house , Supreme court, Hyderabad house, Teen murthi Bhavan, Connaught Place and India gate are the most famous buildings of the lot.

Answer 2

was founded as a walled city of Delhi, India, founded as Shahjahanabad in 1639, when Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor at the time, decided to shift the Mughal capital from Agra.The construction of the city was completed in 1648, and it remained the capital of the Mughal Empire until its fall in 1857,when the British Raj took over a paramount power in India. It was once filled with mansions of nobles and members of the royal court, along with elegant mosques and gardens. Today, despite having become extremely crowded and dilapidated, it still serves as the symbolic heart of metropolitan Delhi.