New Delhi tourist information

Calcutta was the historic centre of the British presence in India, and effectively the capital of the British East India Company. However, Delhi had been the historic capital of much of the subcontinent for long historic periods. In particular, it had been the most recent capital of the Mughals. There remained an association with Imperial grandeur that the British Raj tried to use by holding several durbars for the Viceroy and visiting Royalty. In 1911, at the King-Emperor George V's Coronation Durbar, the announcement was made that the capital of the Raj was to be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.

New Delhi was laid out to the south of the older city constructed by Shah Jahan, which is now often referred to as Old Delhi. However, New Delhi overlays many of the previous cities constructed there; hence it includes many monuments of previous cities, and constructions.

Much of New Delhi was planned by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who laid out a grandiose central administrative area as a testament to British imperial pretensions. Rajpath - then Kingsway - stretched from the War Memorial - now India Gate to the Viceroy's House - Rashtrapati Bhavan atop Raisina Hill. The scale, extravagance and magnificence of New Delhi was not unlike Washington, or Haussmann and his patron Napoleon III's Paris, both cities designed to awe the newcomer with the power of the central State. The Mughal garden of Rashtrapati Bhavan was designed with more regard to India's climate and design tradition, following a conversation with Constance Villiers-Stuart.

Tucked away are other clues to the worldview of the designers; Herbert Baker's Parliament House is barely visible from Rajpath, as deliberative democracy was not a central part of Britain's plans for India; in fact, the main entrance to the Central Secretariat North Block declares "Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty. It is a blessing which must be earned before it can be enjoyed"