New Delhi Tourism
State : New Delhi (Capital of India)
Area : 491 sq kms
Temperature : 25 C – 40 C (Summer)
7 C
– 21 C (Winter)
Rainfall : 26 inches
Language : Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, English
Best Season : October – November; February - March
Built on the ruins of seven (some claim 15) cities whose fortunes rose
and fell with time, India's capital is a city that's aggressive about
everything - its long tradition of culture and courtliness, its equally
thriving tradition of demonstrations, the ever-growing new colonies and
the erstwhile villages that they've displaced, the brand new supermarkets
and shopping malls, and the bazaars that have been carrying on without
change down the centuries. As befits a city whose history stretches back
over 3,000 years, the past can be found on every street, but its condition
varies.
The streets of old Delhi are narrow & bustling. The
beauty & serenity lies inside the courts of the main buildings. Delhi
has some of the finest museums in the country. Its boutiques and shopping
arcades offer access to a wealth of traditional and contemporary crafts,
from all over the country. New Delhi was proclaimed the capital of India
by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), and is tree-lined
& spacious.
A holiday at Delhi will expose you to innumerable facets of Indian heritage,
culture, and tourism. It will be a holiday much beyond just monuments,
museums or gardens of the Mughal and British period. For it also offers
you an immense wealth of new age tourist attractions to choose from. Visit
the world-renowned high-arched memorial of India Gate that hosts the parade
of the
nation's Republic Day and has inscriptions of all soldiers martyred
in the freedom struggle of the nation. Visit the magnificent Red Fort,
which is the venue for India's Independence Day celebrations. You could
choose to pray peacefully at the Lotus shaped Bahai Temple and the Lakshmi
Narayan temple, or party at any of the pubs or discotheques here.
History
The history of Delhi began in 736 AD with the founding of Lal
Kot by the Tomara clan of Rajputs. Their tumultuous rule was neatly ended
in 1192 by Muhammad Ghauri and his slave general Qutab-Ud-Din Aibak who
swept in from central Asia and conquered North India, introducing it to
Islam and founding the Delhi Sultanate.
For the next 300 years Delhi was wracked by political instability especially
in 1398, when the city was sacked by another Central Asian warlord, Timur.
By the early 16th century the Lodi Dynasty, the Delhi
Sultanate's ruling family, had made its share of enemies in the region.
Too timid to challenge the Sultanate on their own, they requested help
from Timur's grandson, Babur, who battled the Lodis into submission and
launched the Mughal Empire, which would knit together huge swaths of South
Asia for the next two centuries.
The Mughals constantly shifted their capital between Delhi and Agra leaving
each city with tombs, palaces and forts. In fact old Delhi's grandest
edifices were built during the 17th century by the
Mughal Emperor Shah
Jahan. In the 18th century Mughal power declined and the British jumped
into a yawning power void.
India was made an official part of the British Empire
in 1911, the imperial capital was moved to Delhi and the city began to
attract the attention of Indian Nationalists, who proclaimed that the
flag of an Indian Republic would one day fly from the Red fort. With a
speech by the Prime Minister delivered from the Red Fort and a tremendous
parade in front of the city's most important British Buildings, today's
Delhi celebrates the vindication of the nationalist's predictions every
August 15, Independence Day.
