New Delhi, as envisioned at the grand durbar of 1911, was intended to be many things -a political symbol, a modern city, an imperial capital. It was a city meant to symbolize a new era for the British Raj, representative of political change and openness to Indian traditions and public sentiment.


By bringing together some of the key documents on New Delhi between 1911 and 1914, this volume helps throw light on the infant capital's evolution. Reports and correspondence here, collected from the National Archives of India, explain why British authorities judged New Delhi a necessary replacement for Calcutta and how the city took shape in the years before the First World War. New Delhi was much more than an exercise in imperial city planning and architecture. It was a project shaped by historical events such as the 1905 partition of Bengal and the rise of Indian nationalism. It was a city meant to symbolize a new era for the British Raj, representative of political change and the embrace of Indian traditions and public sentiment. But, as these documents show, it was also a project fraught from the very beginning with serious financial concerns -and especially deep concerns about land acquisition and drawn-out litigation- which in time would result in a severely curtailed form for the imperial capital.


This meticulously documented and highly readable volume takes readers on a journey to the past to understand the conceptual origins of the vibrant, modern metropolis that New Delhi is today.