write a short note on Delhi as colonials city
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Many changes took place during the British to the nature and character of Delhi since it became the capital in 1911. Some of the important changes are:
Unlike other cities like Calcutta and Madras, initially, the British lived alongside the wealthy residents of Delhi in the walled city. This helped in many British adopting Urdu and Persian as a language and appreciating the beauty of the Indian languages.
The Delhi College was established in 1792 which was a centre for studies in humanities, languages and science.
In order to erase the Mughal memory and impact on the minds of Indians, many clearing activities were undertaken. Gardens, pavilions and mosques around the fort were destroyed. Some mosques like Zinat-al-Masjid was converted into a bakery. Prayer was not allowed at Jamma Masjid for over 5 years. Canals were filled up and thus, the beauty of the old city of Delhi was destroyed.
The walls on the west of Shahjahanabad were broken and railway was laid in the1870s.
The British began to reside in the Civil Lines away from the Hindus and Muslims.
After shifting the capital to Delhi in 1911, a new city New Delhi was planned and constructed on and around the Raisina Hill. Edward Lutyens and Herbert Baker planned and laid out the new city, its buildings like the present day Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House and the Secreteriat buildings. Avenues like the Rajpath were laid out. New Delhi had better water supply, drainage and sewage disposal making it hygenic and clean in contrast with the Old City. New Delhi took 20 years to be built.
In 1803, the British defeated the Marathas and gained control of Delhi. But the capital of British India was Calcutta, so the Mughal emperor was allowed to continue living in the palace complex in the Red Fort.
The modern city of Delhi developed only after 1911, when Delhi became the capital of British India.
Demolishing a Past
In the first half of the 19th century, unlike in other cities such as Calcutta and Madras, the British lived along with wealthier Indians in the Walled City (Shahjahanbad). They learned to enjoy Urdu and Persian culture and poetry, and also participated in local festivals.
The establishment of the Delhi College in 1792 led to a great intellectual flowering in the sciences as well as the humanities, largely in the Urdu language, and the period between 1830 and 1857 is often called a period of Delhi/Urdu Renaissance.
But during the four months starting with the Great Sepoys' Mutiny of 1857, Delhi was controlled by rebels who killed many British and declared Shah Jahan as the emperor of India.
So when the British regained control of the city, they either demolished mosques or put them to other uses; Zinat-al-Masjid, for example, was converted into a bakery. No worship was allowed in the Jama Masjid for five years, one-third of the city was demolished, and its canals were filled up.
In the 1870s, the western walls of Shahjahanabad were broken to establish the railway and to allow the city to expand beyond the walls.
The British then began living in the sprawling Civil Lines area that came up in the north, away from the Indians in the Walled City.
The Delhi College was turned into a school, and finally shut down in 1877.
Planning a New Capital
In 1877, to acknowledge Queen Victoria as the Empress of India, Viceroy Lytton organised a Durbar in Delhi, although Calcutta was the capital of British India. The reason to choose Delhi, the former capital of the Mughals, for such an event was to communicate to the Indian people that the Mughal empire was no longer in charge of India.
In 1911, when King George V was crowned in England, a Durbar was again held in Delhi to celebrate the occasion, and the decision to shift the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi was formally announced at this Durbar.
Two architects, Edward Lutyens and Herbert Baker, were called on to design New Delhi and its buildings.
The government complex in New Delhi consisted of a two-mile avenue, Kingsway (now Rajpath), that led to the Viceroy’s Palace (now Rashtrapati Bhavan), with the Secretariat buildings on either sides of the avenue.
New Delhi took nearly 20 years to build, and the idea was to build a city that was in stark contrast to the Mughal capital of Shahjahanabad; there were to be no crowded mohallas, and no mazes of narrow bylanes. In New Delhi, there were instead to be broad, straight streets lined with sprawling mansions set in the middle of large compounds.
The new city was also designed to be a clean and healthy space; it had to have better water supply, sewage disposal and drainage facilities than did the Old City.
Life in the Time of Partition
In 1947, India got independence from the British, but at the same time it was partitioned into India and Pakistan. This led to such a huge migration of refugees from Punjab that it changed the social background of Delhi, and the previous urban culture (largely based on Urdu) was overshadowed by new tastes and sensibilities, in food, in dress, and in the