10 February: New Delhi

On this date in 1931, inauguration ceremonies began to make New Delhi the capital of India.

1. New Delhi had been capital of British India since 1912 when the British decided to move the capital there from Calcutta, as it was then called (it's now called Kolkata). The area has been inhabited since the 6th century BC and possibly for over three thousand years. It has been the capital city for several different empires. The Sanskrit epic poem Mahabharata which dates back to the 8th or 9th century BC mentions a place called Indraprastha, the capital city of the Pandavas, built on the site of a burned-down forest called Kandavaprastha. Some believe this was Delhi. The foundation stone of the modern city was laid by George V, Emperor of India during the Delhi Durbar of 1911, and it was finally completed in 1931.
2. New Delhi and Delhi are often used interchangeably but they are not the same thing. New Delhi is the new city built by the British to serve as the capital and is actually a district of the much larger metropolitan area of Delhi. The city of New Delhi had a population of 295,000 in 2001 but metropolitan Delhi had a population of over 13 million.
3. In 2016, United States Environmental Protection Agency listed New Delhi as the most polluted city on Earth; but at the same time, it is dubbed one of the greenest cities on earth because about 20% of it is covered by forest and parks, and its bus system runs on Compressed Natural Gas.
4. After Nairobi in Kenya, New Delhi is said to be the world’s second most bird-rich capital city.
5. The city was designed by British architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker. For a while, it was dubbed "Lutyens' Delhi".
6. It has the largest fruit and vegetable market and the largest spice market in Asia. Azadpur Mandi is the fruit and veg market, and the spice market has been operating on a street called Khari Baoli since the 17th century.
7. New Delhi is home to one of the world’s tallest brick minarets. Built in the 13th century by Delhi’s first Muslim Sultan, the Qutb Minar is 73m tall and built from red sandstone. There are 379 steps to the top, but it has been closed to the public since a lethal stampede in 1981.
8. Like any city, New Delhi has lots of museums and cultural centres, including one dedicated to the history of Toilets. It displays examples of examples of every kind of toilet you could imagine, including a replica of one used by King Louis XIV of France. Why have a museum dedicated to loos you may ask? Well. it highlights India’s major issue with sanitation.
9. Five of the original 14 gates of the walled city of Delhi are still standing: Ajmeri Gate, Lahori Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Delhi Gate and Turkman Gate. India Gate is a newer structure built in 1931 and inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It is the national monument of India commemorating the 90,000 soldiers of the Indian Army who lost their lives fighting for the British Raj in World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
10. New Delhi's sister cities are: Moscow, Russia; Beijing, China and Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

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