National Capital Territory of Delhi
(NCT) is a special
Union Territory of
India. The territory encompasses three statutory towns:
New Delhi (the capital of India),
Delhi and
Delhi Cantonment, along with 59 census towns and 165 villages. The term is also used informally to refer to the
national capital region (NCR) which is a metropolitan region and includes the surrounding satellite cities of
Faridabad,
Gurgaon,
Ghaziabad and
NOIDA.
The NCT was set up as a federally administered Union Territory on
1956-11-01. In December
1991, the NCT was given a
legislative assembly headed by a
Chief Minister, a privilege that it shares only with one other union territory,
Pondicherry. The territory is not classified as a
true Union territory, though the
Central government does have limited control over the functioning of the territory much like other Union territories. Delhi is to eventually become a full fledged state.
The NCT is unique in India in that the municipal control is handled by a locally elected government, while major areas like police, and administration are handled by the
central government.
The establishment of a NCT was with a desire to fuel development of surrounding areas into urban centers. This would help in the de-congestion of the main city which already suffers from an over burden by a constant in-pouring of people from all over India.
Delhi has seen the rise and fall of many empires which have left behind a plethora of monuments that attest to the grandeur and glory of bygone ages. Traditionally, Delhi is said to be the site of the magnificent and opulent
Indraprastha, capital of the
Pandavas in the Indian epic
Mahabharata. A village called Indarpat existed in Delhi until the beginning of the 19th century. The ancient historic village was obliterated to make place for construction of New Delhi by the British.
Excavations have unearthed sherds of the grey painted ware (ca. 1000 BC) that some archaeologists associate with the age of the Mahabharata, but no coherent settlement traces have been found. Some locate Indraprastha in the Purana-Qila area.
The earliest architectural
relics age back to the
Mauryan Period (ca
300 BCE); since then, the site has seen continuous settlement. In
1966, an inscription of the Mauryan King
Ashoka (
273-
236 BCE) was discovered near Srinivaspuri. Two sandstone pillars inscribed with the edicts of Ashoka were later brought to the city by
Firuz Shah Tughluq. The famous
Iron pillar near the
Qutub Minar was commissioned by the emperor
Kumara Gupta I of the
Gupta dynasty (
320-
540) and transplanted to Delhi at some time in the
10th century. Eight major cities have been situated in the Delhi area. The first four cities were in the southern part of present-day Delhi.
The more recent city is believed to be made up of seven successive cities, the remains of some of which can still be seen on the ground. They are# Qila Rai Pithora built by
Prithvi Raj Chauhan, near the oldest
Rajput settlement in Lal-Kot;# Siri, built by
Alauddin Khilji in 1303;# Tughluqabad, built by
Ghiyazudin Tughluq (1321-1325);# Jahanpanah, built by
Muhammad bin Tughluq (1325-1351);# Kotla Firoz Shah, built by
Firuz Shah Tughluq (1351-1388);# Purana Qila built by
Sher Shah Suri and Dinpanah built by
Humayun, both in the same area near the speculated site of the legendary
Indraprastha (1538-1545); and# Shahjahanabad, built by Shah Jahan from 1638 to 1649, containing the
Lal Qila and the
Chandni Chowk.
The
Tomara Rajput dynasty founded Lal Kot, which lies near the Qutub Minar, in
736. In the
Prithvirajaraso, the
Rajput Anangpal is named as the founder of Delhi. The
Chauhan Rajput kings of
Ajmer conquered Lal Kot from the Tomaras in
1180 and renamed it Qila Rai Pithora. The Chauhan king
Prithviraj III was defeated in
1192 by the
Afghan army of
Muhammad Ghori. After
1206, Delhi became the capital of the
Delhi Sultanate. the first rulers were known as the
Slave Dynasty as many of the rulers of this dynasty were former slaves. This includes the first
Sultan of Delhi,
Qutb-ud-din Aibak who was a former slave who rose through the ranks to become a general followed by governor and then
Sultan of Delhi. Qutb-ud-din started the construction the Qutub Minar, instantly recognisable as a symbol of Delhi, to commemorate his victory but died before its completion. He also constructed the Quwwat-ul-Islam (might of Islam), which is the earliest extant mosque in India, in the Qutb complex. He was said to have pillaged exquisitely carved pillars from 27 temples for this mosque many of which can still be seen. After the end of the Slave dynasty, a succession of Turkic and Central Asian dynasties, the
Khilji dynasty, the
Tughluq dynasty, the
Sayyid dynasty and the
Lodhi dynasty held power in the late medieval period and built a sequence of forts and townships that are part of the fabled seven Delhis. In
1526, following the
First Battle of Panipat emperor
Babur defeated the last Lodhi sultan and founded the
Mughal dynasty which ruled from
Delhi,
Agra and
Lahore.
 |
A Bazaar in Old Delhi, 2004 |
In the mid-sixteenth century there was an interruption in the Mughal rule of India as
Sher Shah Suri defeated Babur's son
Humayun and forced him to flee to
Afghanistan and
Persia. Sher Shah Suri built the sixth city as well as the old fort known as
Purana Qila. After his early death, Humayun was able to recover the empire with Persian help as Suri's son was not as able as his father. The third and the greatest Mughal emperor,
Akbar, moved the capital of his empire to
Agra resulting in a decline in the fortunes of Delhi. In the mid-seventeenth century, the
Mughal Emperor
Shah Jahan (1628-1658) built the city that sometimes bears his name (Shahjahanabad), the seventh city of Delhi that is more commonly known as the old city or old Delhi. This city contains a number of significant architectural features, including the Red Fort (Lal Qila) and the
Jama Masjid. The old city served as the capital of the later Mughal empire from 1638 onwards, when Shah Jahan transferred the capital back from
Agra.
Aurangzeb (1658-1707) crowned himself as the emperor in Delhi in 1658 at the Shalinar garden ('Aizzabad-Bagh); a second coronation took place in 1659.
Delhi passed to
British control in
1857 after the
First War of Indian Independence; the last Mughal Emperor,
Bahadur Shah Zafar II, was pensioned to
Rangoon, and the remaining Mughal Territories were annexed as a province of
British India. Delhi ceased to be India's capital with the British preferring their city of
Calcutta. In 1911 the Capital of British India was again moved to Delhi from
Calcutta. Parts of the Old City were pulled down to create
New Delhi, a monumental new quarter of the city designed by the British
architect Edwin Lutyens to house the government buildings. A brief but fascinating account of the Indian contractors behind this construction can be found in
Khushwant Singh's autobiography
Truth, Love and a Little Malice.
The National Capital Territory of Delhi is spread over an area of 1483 square kilometers. It has a maximum length of 51.9 kilometer and the maximum width of 48.48 kilometer. Out of the total area of 1483 square kilometer, 783 square kilometer is rural and 700 square kilometers is urban. There are three local bodies (statutory towns) namely, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (area is 1397.3 square kilometer), New Delhi Municipal Committee (42.7 square kilometer) and Delhi Cantonment Board (43 square kilometers).
| Town | Population (2001) | | Delhi | 9,817,439 |
| New Delhi | 294,783 |
| Sultanpur Majra | 163,716 |
| Kirari Suleman Nagar | 153,874 |
| Bhalswa Jahangir Pur | 151,427 |
| Nangloi Jat | 150,371 |
| Karawal Nagar | 148,549 |
| Dallo Pura | 132,628 |
| Delhi Cantonment | 124,452 |
| Deoli | 119,432 |
| Gokal Pur | 90,564 |
| Mustafabad | 89,117 |
| Hastsal | 85,848 |
| Burari | 69,182 |
| Gharoli | 68,978 |
| Chilla Saroda Bangar | 65,969 |
| Taj Pul | 58,220 |
| Jaffrabad | 57,460 |
| Puth Kalan | 50,587 |
|
Source:
Census of India 2001Delhi is made up of nine
districts. It elects 7 members to the
Lok Sabha and 3 to the
Rajya Sabha, India's
bicameral parliament. The current chief minister is
Sheila Dikshit of the
Indian National Congress.
This is a chart of trend of gross state domestic product of Delhi at market prices
estimated by
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation with figures in millions of Indian Rupees.
| Year ¦¦ Gross State Domestic Product |
|---|
| 1980 | 26,850 |
| 1985 | 54,120 |
| 1990 | 113,280 |
| 1995 | 283,900 |
| 2000 | 627,330 |
Over 12% of the
S&P CNX 500 conglomerates have corporate offices in Delhi Territory.
*
Delhi*
New Delhi*
Federal District
