New Delhi

New Delhi occupies a unique position in India’s consciousness, simultaneously a municipality with well-defined boundaries and the symbolic heart of a sprawling metropolis. Established as the capital of British India in the early decades of the twentieth century, it now serves as the seat of India’s legislative, executive and judicial branches, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Sansad Bhavan and the Supreme Court. Yet New Delhi proper—administered by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and encompassing chiefly the precincts of Lutyens’ Delhi—is but one fragment of the vast National Capital Territory, itself subsumed within an even broader National Capital Region that spills into neighbouring states and incorporates cities such as Noida, Gurugram and Ghaziabad.

The decision to transfer India’s capital from Calcutta to Delhi was formalized in 1911, when King George V laid the foundation stone south of the old walled city during the Delhi Durbar. Under the direction of Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, the new administrative quarters rose over the next two decades; their arrangement of grand boulevards and formal gardens embodied imperial ambition filtered through Palladian symmetry, yet included pointed evocations of indigenous forms. The central axis, today known as Rajpath, stretches from the hilltop Rashtrapati Bhavan to the India Gate; its intersection with Janpath—previously Queen’s Way—establishes a perpendicular spine that cleaves the city’s main commercial, diplomatic and ceremonial zones. Flanking Raisina Hill, the Secretariat buildings fan outward like architectural extensions of the president’s residence, while the circular colonnades of Connaught Place evoke the Royal Crescent with an unmistakable colonial echo.

Covering a mere 42.7 square kilometres, New Delhi lies on the flat floodplain of the Yamuna River with scarcely a few metres of elevation change. Its perimeter once lay against the southernmost ridges of the ancient Aravali Range, remnants of which form the Delhi Ridge—the so-called Lungs of Delhi. Though landlocked, the city endures seasonal fluctuations in air and earth: it falls within seismic zone IV and rests upon multiple fault lines, experiences frequent tremors—most commonly gentle in scale—and has recorded several significant jolts over the past two decades, including a 5.4-magnitude event in 2015 whose epicentre lay near Nepal.

Climatically, New Delhi is defined by extremes. Summers extend from April through October and routinely ascend beyond 46 °C, accompanied by dust-laden winds and the confining humidity of the monsoon rains. Winters, by contrast, are brief and benign: daytime temperatures hover around 10 °C even as morning mists yield to pale sunlight. The annual mean temperature approaches 25 °C, while average rainfall—most of it delivered between June and September—amounts to roughly 774 millimetres. In 2024, meteorological stations recorded a new high of 49.9 °C, while the lowest temperature on record, –2.2 °C, dates back to January 1967.

At the time of the 2011 census, the NDMC area held just under 250 000 residents. Hindi functions as the lingua franca, with English serving formal commerce and governance. Literacy rates in New Delhi exceed 89 percent—the highest within the larger capital territory. The city’s religious composition is predominantly Hindu (approximately 90 percent), with Muslim, Christian and Sikh minorities, alongside smaller communities of Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Jews.

Economically, New Delhi stands as the financial fulcrum of northern India. In fiscal year 2010, its net State Domestic Product approached ₹1 595 billion in nominal terms and ₹6 800 billion on a purchasing-power-parity basis. Per capita income, assessed in 2013, placed Delhi second only to Goa among Indian states. The formal economy radiates outward from Connaught Place and adjoining corridors such as Barakhamba Road and ITO, with the service sector—information technology, telecommunications, finance, hospitality, media and tourism—benefiting from a skilled, English-proficient workforce. Global surveys have ranked New Delhi among the foremost emerging-market destinations for retail, reflecting both domestic prosperity and international investment.

Beyond commerce, New Delhi’s identity is inextricably bound to statecraft and spectacle. National holidays—Republic Day on 26 January, Independence Day on 15 August and Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October—are celebrated with pageantry along the Rajpath. The Republic Day Parade assembles military units, folk troupes and tableau displays, narrating India’s cultural plurality and martial heritage before a vast public audience. Kite flying remains emblematic of Independence Day festivities, the sky filled with vibrant patterns and taut strings.

Cultural life in New Delhi extends through an annual calendar of religious and aesthetic observances. Diwali ushers in a festival of lights; Holi paints streets and plazas with dyed powders. Durga Puja, Teej and Chhath Puja represent regional traditions, while Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist festivals punctuate the year. The Qutub Festival brings musicians and dancers to the shadows of the towering Qutub Minar, recalling the monument’s thirteenth-century origins as a symbol of Sultanate power. Seasonal fairs—an International Mango Festival, a Kite Flying Festival, six days of Vasant Panchami ceremonies—add local colour.

Architectural heritage and museology converge in a host of institutions. The National Museum, inaugurated in the gates of Rashtrapati Bhavan in 1949, preserves over 200 000 works spanning 5 000 years. Nearby, the India Gate memorializes the Indian soldiers lost in World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War, its arch inspired by Paris’s Arc de Triomphe. Rajpath and its environs host the Beating Retreat ceremony, while Gandhi Smriti and Rajghat recall Mahatma Gandhi’s final days and his funeral pyre. Jantar Mantar, the eighteenth-century observatory of Maharaja Jai Singh II, stands as a testament to premodern astronomical inquiry. Museums dedicated to modern and natural art, railways, handicrafts, stamps and dolls, alongside the Supreme Court’s own gallery, furnish quieter moments of reflection.

Gardens lie at the heart of New Delhi’s green legacy. Lodi Gardens shelters tombs of the fifteenth century beneath sprawling lawns. Buddha Jayanti Park, Nehru Park and the Rose Garden bloom in springtime, while the President’s Estate, Shanti Path and the channels beside the Rajpath sustain horticultural formality. Hundreds of smaller neighbourhood and roundabout plots knit an urban tapestry of shade and seasonal bloom.

The NDMC’s district emerged as the cleanest zone in North India in 2017’s Swachh Survekshan assessment, an accolade reflecting waste-management systems, sanitation access and public awareness. It stands amid moments of renewal: the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, unveiled in 2019, will reconfigure over 440 hectares of central Delhi, including new parliamentary precincts and cultural spaces, with an estimated budget of ₹20 000 crore.

Modern connectivity radiates from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, a major South Asian hub that served over 35 million passengers in 2012–13 and whose Terminal 3 accommodates an additional 37 million annually. Its accolades include Airports Council International awards for best facility within its traffic category. The Delhi Flying Club, once based at Safdarjung Airport, endures as a training and VIP-transfer institution since fixed-wing flights ceased in 2002. A second commercial airport is under construction at Jewar in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

Overland transport depends on a vast fleet of compressed-natural-gas buses operated by the Delhi Transport Corporation, the world’s largest of its kind, augmented by taxis, auto-rickshaws and a high density of private vehicles that contribute to average speeds of barely 15 to 20 km/h during peak periods. The Inner and Outer Ring Roads—51 and 47 kilometres long, respectively—encircle central Delhi with grade-separated junctions. Tolled expressways connect to Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad, while National Highways 19, 44, 48 and 9 link the capital to Kolkata, Srinagar, Chennai and Pithoragarh.

Railways converge at five principal stations—New Delhi, Delhi Junction, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Anand Vihar Terminal and Sarai Rohilla—and loop through suburban services such as the 35-kilometre Ring Railway. Aboveground, the Delhi Metro system, inaugurated in 2002, now comprises ten colour-coded lines over 348 kilometres and 255 stations, extending beyond the NCT into neighbouring cities. Its mixed‐gauge rolling stock and universal accessibility features have removed nearly 400 000 vehicles from city roads. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, co-owned by the national and territory governments and led for years by E. Sreedharan—the “Metro Man”—has exported its planning expertise even as it weathered challenges such as a tragic bridge collapse in 2009.

This fusion of planning, architecture, governance and daily life renders New Delhi a city of layered inscriptions: imperial designs overlaid by indigenous motifs, stilled monuments overshadowed by jungle-like growth, and ceremonial boulevards flanked by street-level commerce. It is a place of rigorous formality and spontaneous celebration, of tranquil gardens and frenetic thoroughfares. Above all, it remains the political and cultural fulcrum of modern India, its history inscribed in stone, its future mapped in steel, glass and endless possibility.