Is Delhi set to regain its numero uno status as the

city of the twenty-first century?

By Rupen Ghosh on Friday, January 20, 2012 at 7:32am
Delhi is the symbol of old India and new. Even the stones here whisper to
our ears of the ages of long ago and the air we breathe is full of the dust and
fragrances of the past, as also of the fresh and piercing winds of the
present - Jawaharlal Nehru
'Kaun jaaye par ab Zauq, Dilli ki galiyan chhorkar, Zauq Ibrahim, the
celebrated poet of Delhi, roughly translated as 'who would like to leave the
lanes and by lanes of Delhi with its rich tapestry of history and culture and
settle elsewhere?'

Introduction
The oft-repeated story of Delhi overtaking Mumbai as the
number one city of India hit the headlines again as Delhi
recently celebrated 100 years of being the capital, after
the British colonial rulers had decided to shift base from
Calcutta, much to the lament and chagrin of the
inhabitants of the then Empires first city and of Bengal
itself. Despite the celebrations being on a low key, a
section of Delhites lamented the city's lack of values,
shrinking cultural spaces, the unbearable strain on its
civic infrastructure and amenities, the growing pressures
of living in a city of great distances and the necessity of
adjusting to its rapid transformation from a laid-back city
to a thriving, pulsating mega polis, all in a span of a
quarter of a century.
As someone famously quipped, 'Calcutta was a great city
of the 19th century and Bombay a great mega polis of the
20th, then, the 21st century belongs to Delhi.' It is a
reality which has not sunk in Mumbai yet, which is a pale
shadow of its earlier glorious past and would find it
difficult to regain its place as in all civic indicators by
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which a modern urban conglomerate is judged, it is now

lagging behind Delhi, being the seat of governmental
power and, aided no doubt by ample government
largesse of budgetary support. Be that as it may, Delhi is
soon to regain the prima donna status it enjoyed before
the British wrested control of the three presidencies of
Bengal, Bombay and Madras and established its
suzerainty over India. After all, Delhi has been the heart
of India for close to 1000 years, at least. The earliest
architectural relics - an inscription of the Mauryan
Emperor Ashoka - date back to the Maurya Period (300
BC) was discovered near Srinivaspuri, which is near
present day Noida. It has, after all, been the centre of
power for a succession of regimes from the time when it
was Indraprastha in the Mahabharata era to being Dilli or
Dillika under the Chauhans and Tomars in the 9th-10th
century AD, to the Slave and Khalji dynasties and other
sultanates, to the great Mughals, and finally to the British
who moved in 1911, each one of them creating its own
impression and leaving footprints in the sands of time
and each one bequeathing a legacy rich in history and
heritage, which has given the city a unique civilisational
ethos, a cultural continuity stretching back to 3000 years.
Contrast this with the other three mega cities, which were
a colonial and imperial construct, with no history worth
the name before the time the British landed on the shores
of the sub-continent.
The eclipse of Mughal Delhi
With the decline of Urdu as the lingua franca of the
cultured and equally of its ordinary denizens and with it
the eclipse of Urdu tehzib, it is now difficult to even
entertain the thought that at one time, barely two
centuries ago, Delhi was the very centre of Urdu poetry.
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The 19th century has been labelled as the golden age of

Urdu poetry with poets like Mirza Ghalib, Zauq Ibrahim,
Dard, Momin and Mir Taqi Mir being the torchbearers in
their time in Delhi. Today, as the capital marks its
centenary celebrations, it is tempting to take a walk down
memory lane, through Delhis rich legacy, its heritage, its
culture and history, its delectable cuisine and sartorial
elegance, the warmth and welcoming nature of its people
and its generous way of life, its assimilative and inclusive
traits, leaving upto the adage of 'Dilli Dilwaloka shahar
hai', meaning Delhi is city of large hearted, magnanimous
people', a reputation it acquired over the centuries of
being at the crossroads of civilisations, of different
cultures intermingling and finding harmony and unity.
Such was the charm and magnetic attraction of its unique
culture and lifestyle that those who lived in those
congested lanes and by lanes of old Delhi, could not even
dream of leaving and settling elsewhere. Zauq, the
celebrated poet of Delhi was said to have quipped: Kaunj
aaye par ab Zauq, Dilliki galiyan chhorkar. But today's
Delhi is unrecognisable from Delhi of Ghalib and Zauq,
though the narrow, crowded by lanes of old Delhi remains
to remind us of its once glorious past and conversely also
that these areas suffer from severe urban decay and
severe neglect. But for the renovation of Mirza Ghalib's
haveli in Gali Qasimjan in Ballimaran area in the heart of
old Delhi and other commendable measures to
commemorate his works, undertaken by the Delhi
Government recently, the greatest poet of Delhi,
otherwise remains sadly forgotten. It is to the credit of
central and state governments though, that the
underground metro has transformed the walled city, as it
is popularly known, like never before and has made
communication with other parts of the city possible,
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which could not even be imagined earlier. A once

conservative place with its distinct ethos now
intermingles with other parts of the metropolis, blurring
the distinction between the newer and older quarters.
To come back to the neglected poet laureate of Delhi,
Mirza Asadullah Khan, known to the world by his nom de
plume of Ghalib, he spent almost all his life in the city,
which then was in a transition phase. The Mughal dynasty
fell and the British took over and with that a civilisation
ended. Ghalibs poems were a testimony to the
tumultuous last days of the Mughals and such was the
power of his poetry that one could relate to the twilight
years of Mughals and to the destruction of Ghalibs city in
reading his ghazals and nazms:
"We smashed the wine cup and the flask
What is it now to us?
If all the rain that falls from heaven
Should turn to rose-red wine?"
Need one say that Ghalibs poetry is full of philosophical
speculations and deep contemplations, imbued with Sufi
thought, at times melancholic, on other occasions honest,
full of life. A sensitive muse, his poetry was pure
epiphany, so to say. What was sad was that he died a
disillusioned and broken man, hurt by the tragic turn of
events after the Mutiny, finding death and destruction
and ruin wrought upon his beloved city by the British,
though he was also not beyond seeking their favours and
keeping them in good humour to keep his pension
coming.
Even Bahadur Shah Zafar, the ill-fated last Mughal
emperor, who was himself a poet of no mean repute
could not withstand his separation from his beloved Delhi
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and died at a faraway Rangoon, a sad and forlorn figure,

penning soul stirring couplets, after his sons had been
brutally killed and Delhi wantonly and mercilessly
destroyed by the mercenaries of East India Company. It
was not the first time, though, that Delhi had been raided
and death and destruction wrought upon its unfortunate
residents, with Timur, Nadir Shah, Ahmed Shah Abdali
and other marauders who had earlier targetted the
capital of what was then Hindustan and caused butchery
and massacres on such a savage scale, that defied
description. Such tales of infamy and abiding shame are
also part of the history of the city, though perfectly in
tune with the violent times that medieval world
represented.
Delhi emerging as the city of the future
Delhi for all its terrible reputation of being misogynistic,
boorish, wild, aggressive and lawless, an image which it is
assiduously trying to shed, is the only city on which
everyone - every Indian can lay an equal claim. It is
inclusive,
assimilative,
accommodative
and
nonsectarian; simply by virtue of it being the capital of India,
it cannot openly discriminate in favour or against any
community or linguistic group. The same cannot be said
of other metros. Mumbai or Bombay or what Suketu
Mehta referred to as the 'Maximum City', the most
cosmopolitan, vibrant, happening city, the 'Big Apple' in
apparent reference to New York City which happened to
be the role model for Bombay, the melting pot, is fast
losing its inclusive, cosmopolitan and multi-hued
character, its unique romance, its universal and forward
looking culture, and is no longer the preferred and
favoured destination of those who dreamt big or were
willing to take risk on their way to success. In short, it is
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no longer the 'El Dorado' of India, the place where one

struck gold, so to say, and sadly it does not strike the
same resonance of an indescribable romance with the
city, an image created by the abiding attraction of Hindi
cinema, as it did a couple of decades back, even if the
tinsel towns make-believe world only existed in dreams
and had no place in reality.
Calcutta, now Kolkata, the other great city, is
unrecognizable from its once glorious past, and has
unfortunately now been relegated to the backwaters. It
was once Indias first city and the second greatest city of
the British Empire and the greatest, east of Suez. At its
height in the nineteenth century when Singapore was a
mere fishing village and Hong Kong a non-descript
harbour, Calcutta was a veritable cultural melting pot and
a thriving commercial hub, with Armenians, Zoroastrians,
Iraqis, Afghans, Nepalis, Burmese and Chinese and, of
course, Europeans, literally rubbing shoulders, and
making it their home. It was Calcutta which was the
centre of Bengal renaissance and efflorescence of the
high point of culture, a result of meeting of the best of
eastern and western civilisations. The city was in the
forefront of the nascent freedom movement and gave
birth to many of the nationalists and freedom fighters,
often of the extremist hue. It was home to some of the
finest men and women, some of the greatest poets,
writers, intellectuals, social reformers, scientists and later
the iconic film makers. But in its present avatar, Kolkata
has been reduced to a regional ghetto, industrial and
commercial wasteland and is unlikely to regain its past
glory, though it remains humane, tolerant and
sympathetic to its poor, and is the only city which has
given voice to its marginalized. In fact, so long as
Calcutta was the capital of the British empire, Bengal was
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the source of India's cultural, intellectual, and political

leadership. But with the shifting of the capital, much of its
glory and predominance was lost, which a section of the
Bengalis blames on the impulsiveness of the Bengali
youth to their proclivity towards underground politics and
violent campaigns in securing independence. It ultimately
frightened British so much that they decided to move the
capital to Delhi. Is Bengal's current decline linked to the
Partition of the province and losing a more numerous,
bigger and more prosperous half and its deleterious and
baleful effect on the entire eastern region of the country
or due to the freight equalisation policy of the centre that
hurt West Bengal economically and crippled it or to its
militant trade unionism? Partition affected Calcutta more
than anything else. The result in Bengal was that
Calcutta, the jute procuring and export centre of India,
became a city without a hinterland, while across the
border in Bangladesh, the jute was grown without
anywhere to process or export it. The massive influx of
immigrants across the border what was the other day the
United Bengal, combined with our own postwar
population explosion, led to Calcutta becoming an
international urban horror story. It has been a matter of
very often animated, at times extremely heated debate
to deconstruct the events leading to the sorry impasse,
with fervour and frenzy between those who are
indoctrinated and others who have contempt for the
ideology which ruled West Bengal for more than 30 years.
Are Calcutta and Bombay mere victims of the ebb and
flow of time and history? Is Delhi the beneficiary of their
relative decline?
Madras or its present avatar of Chennai was never that
cosmopolitan and its dominant culture had or has always
been monochromatic and unidimensional, though
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unhurried, simple and less frenzied it may have been in

its approach and lifestyle. Compared to the laid back or
what some may call it staid culture of Chennai,
Bangalores rise as a metropolitan city has been
phenomenal and it can rightly claim to have eclipsed
Chennai as the premier city of the south and alongwith
Hyderabad could be the most preferred urban destination
in the future.
It goes without saying that a city is more than just an
assemblage of buildings, roads, parks, shopping arcades
and malls, important though they are in sustaining a
modern, urban living. Every city has a soul and a
heritage, unique to its own, and cities are incomplete
without its people; it is the denizens who build a city and
give it a life. People are the life blood of a city. Each city
has its dominant ethos, its history, its cultural moorings
and its soul, unique to itself. The life that a city nurtures
and celebrates holds mirror for its citizens to be proud of
its culture and its myriad achievements. A citys
development, the growth of its people and its social and
economic indicators are important parameters to judge,
assess and compare the quality of life a city offers vis-vis others.
Delhi - the intermingling of cultures and peoples
The city has seen intermingling of various cultures and
religions with different faiths and places of worship
existing together and with their followers living side-byside, literally cheek by jowl, relatively peacefully. It has
been a remarkable journey for a city which has
transformed itself from a mere four hundred thousand
inhabitants barely a century ago to more than 17-18
million today and at this growth rate could be expected to
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cross 20 million mark in about two decades. There are

negatives too; Delhi being part of the socially backward
north has one of the worst male-female ratio of 866
females to 1000 males. No doubt, the city's terrible
reputation of being not women friendly continues, its
efforts to improve this image notwithstanding.
Its welcoming ambiance and its hospitality to millions of
migrants and those who made the city their home has
given a unique cosmopolitan, eclectic and composite
dimension to its culture. Despite its misogynistic
reputation, boorishness, aggression against women and
other vulnerable sections and selfishness in its daily
discourse, the city has become a cultural melting pot and
is slowly but imperceptibly leaving its wild past behind
and transforming itself into a more civilised and tolerant
place.
When we debate whether Delhi has eclipsed Mumbai or
whether Bangalore holds the future in the south, one is
tempted to ask whether our cities could hold their own
against such illustrious names like NY, London, Tokyo,
Paris or Berlin or even Shanghai or Singapore. Of course,
none of our metros could stand anywhere, be it the urban
infrastructure, the quality of living, the civic amenities,
the thriving urban, cosmopolitan culture. India, after all
still in many respects, is a third world country and despite
a section of urban middle class harbouring delusions of
India having already emerged as a economic superpower,
its cities cannot overnight become a Shanghai or a
Singapore as there are competing developmental
priorities
and
no
government
claiming
to
be
representative of its people, can afford to ignore the
pressing needs of the majority, who are still residing in
the villages.
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Lutyens Delhi may be an over-pampered urban space

and being the seat of political power, it may still display
its old bureaucratic-political dominance, but thanks to its
growing infrastructure and civic amenities, its pride - the
metro - its eateries, its glistening airport, its shopping
arcades, it is transforming itself into a great commercial
and economic hub. It can now safely boast of having the
largest number of English bookshops in the country, with
impressive footprints and its theatre and music festivals
enrich its cultural landscape. While a section of its middle
class enjoys unprecedented prosperity in the last two
decades of liberalization of the economy, the daily grind
and struggle for survival for the teeming millions may be
soul destroying. Their development needs and concerns
require be mainstreamed and giving priority, when
viewed against urban decay and unbearable pressure on
civic infrastructure. Contrast this with the vulgarly
ostentatious lifestyle of it rich and famous and its page
three glitterati and a picture of a highly unequal and
deeply divided society emerges, the city being the
microcosm of the country.
Conclusion
Not so long ago, Delhi used to be derided and dismissed
with a withering contempt as a philistine city, an overgrown village, a provincial hick town and fared poorly
with its more suave, urbane, cosmopolitan and
sophisticated and cultured counterparts of Mumbai and
Kolkata. Times have changed and gone are those epithets
and sneering remarks, though its reputation as a wild and
aggressive city persists to some extent. However, it just
cannot be overlooked that Delhi has evolved over the
years, from an imperial capital to the capital of a thriving
economy and it has grown to become a cultural centre
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too. From a relatively humble beginning barely half a

century ago as the capital of the new republic, it has
transformed itself into a modern, vibrant 21st century city
and there is a growing realization that Delhi is regaining
its place as the heart of India, with its rich history of close
to 3000 years of recorded civilisation. While the city is
growing at a frenzied pace, eclipsing other metros,
somewhere it should pause and look back to regain its old
world values of being tolerant and accommodative of the
concerns of the underprivileged, of being caring and
considerate towards the old and infirm and those who are
on the margins of the society, of according equal status
to women, of making the place safer for women and
being more gender sensitive, if the city truly deserves to
be rated as a civilised, modern, twenty-first century city.

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