Old Delhi, New Delhi

LESSON IX

Capital City – what does it mean?• What is a capital city? Is it always the most important city in a country?• What is a capital city responsible for? What does it need to do?• What might we expect to find in a capital city? Good things and bad things…• How does a city become large or successful enough to be a capital? How did Budapest become the capital of Hungary?• Why do so many millions of people come to capital cities? What problems or benefits does this bring? How are these problems overcome?

Delhi is the capital city of India, located in the heart of the country. • Why might the city of Delhi have become the largest and most important or successful city in this part of the world?• Is the location important? What can you see on the maps which might be significant?

Delhi is the ultimate city of extremes, the most ‚Indian’ city in this sense. Even its official name ‚New Delhi’ separates the past from the present

• City population:

• Size of the city (sq km):

• Number of people living in slums:

• Date of official founding:

• Number of official religions:

16,754,265

1483

Approximately 3 million

650 BC (although people have lived here for at least 4000 years)

At least 12

But how do most people live in this mad city? Have a look at a typical Delhi home and think about how there could be any aspect of ‚Indian’ culture in it. Is there any?

Even though Delhi may be trying (or perhaps forced into being) ‚new’, it cannot escape its past or the cultures which formed it. Can you recognise these cultures and their architectural styles by now?

Delhi has also become a considerable tourist attraction. Within the modern buildings and between the endless business centres and slums, there are some magnificent examples of old and new architecture.

• Have a look at your worksheet and in groups of 3 put the sentences in the correct order.• When you see the photo which connects with the information you have put together, read it to the class. Which ‚culture’ are we seeing here?

So, we see evidence of several types of ‚Hindu’, Christian, Islamic and Buddhist architecture in the make-up of Delhi as a city

• But this perhaps makes the city confused and divided, often violently so. There is not much ‚unity’ in Delhi – many things are separated and to an extreme level – rich and poor, this religion or that one, old and new.• This makes a modern architect’s job in Delhi a nightmare. The city, indeed, the country, has something of an identity crisis: it isn’t sure who or what it is, or who or what it wants to be.• Delhi’s job as a capital city is to represent ALL Indian people. Is this possible? How could it be done?• Is there any way an architect can bring together the old and the new, or people of different backgrounds and religions?

One building attempts this, and possibly succeeds…

The Baha’i temple in New Delhi is an inspired building which attempts to bring together all these different factors. Here we can see an elevation and a ‚birds eye’ view of the building. What is so interesting about this design?

But perhaps some of the other new buildings in Delhi fail to harmonise quite so well.• The new design for the Indira Ghandi airport was quite controversial and upset a lot of Indian people when it was revealed. However, it was very popular with visitors to India, who saw it when they arrived in the country. Why might this be?

Has Delhi and India become a ‚cartoon’ of itself? Does India want to be seen as a modern, unique country… or as this paradise we see in the tourism adverts?

• The question of ‚what is India’? Or ‚What is the Indian identity’ is an interesting one which hopefully we have thought about over this course. We have seen the huge differences between the desert and jungle cultures, the Buddhist architecture and the Islamic empire in India. All of these things are real places, populated with real people. The idea of uniting and bringing together these different people as ‚Indians’ has to happen for the country to move forward…but how?