'DEHLVIYAT': HISTORY OF DELHI'S CULTURE

‘Dehlviyat’: The Indo-Islamic Cultural Capital

Dilli ke na they kooche, auraq-e-musavvir they
Jo shakl nazar aayi, tasveer nazar aayi

[Delhi’s streets appeared like galleries of art

Every facet on view was a painting on view]

-         Urdu poet Meer Taqi Meer (1723-1810)

In a romantic vein, Delhi has often been called the ‘dil’ (heart) of India. Being at the centre of the nation’s body politic and socio-cultural ethos, the city has shaped India’s destiny for ages and continues to chart its future. Razed and rebuilt many times over, this quintessential capital has been frequently compared to Rome, given their embarras de richesses in historical architecture.

While Old Delhi brims with its plethora of busy bazaars, forts, temples and mosques, Lutyen’s New Delhi exudes majesty with its broad and green avenues, imposing government buildings, stately bungalows and landscaped gardens. Often, the timelines warp and the past jostles with the present. With the sands of history brimming the hour glass, the city chokes and wallows in self-pity:

Chehre pe saare shahr ke gard-e-malāl hai

Jo dil kā haal hai vahī Dillī kā haal hai

(The city’s face is covered with the dust of despair

The state of my heart is the very state of Delhi)

-         MalikzadaManzoor Ahmad

An ancient capital

In fact, it is the historical heft and obduracy as a seat of power that often turns the city smug and wistful. As a capital city, Delhi is as ancient as the great Hindu epic, such as the Mahabharata. In fact, it is identified with the city of Indraprashtha, referred to in the holy epic, first founded by Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Panadava brothers upon the banks of the Yamuna.

Later, the city is said to have been given its name by Mauryan King ‘Raja Dilu’ (c. 1^st century C.E), identified by Ptolemy as Daidalar. Among other Hindu rulers of the city are Raja Chandra or Dhava, who is said to have built the famous rustproof Iron Pillar (3^rd or 4^th century C.E), Surajpal of the Tomar dynasty and the legendary Prithviraj Chauhan or RaiPithora (12^th century C.E).

The first explicit reference to the city of Delhi is said to have been made by an Apabhramsa writer and poet Vibudh Shridhar in the 12^th century in his ‘Pasanha Chariu’:

हरियाणए देसे असंखगाम, गामियण जणि अणवरथ काम|
परचक्क विहट्टणु सिरिसंघट्टणु, जो सुरव इणा परिगणियं|
रिउ रुहिरावट्टणु बिउलु पवट्टणु, ढिल्ली नामेण जि भणियं

(Translation: There are countless villages in Haryana country. The villagers there work hard. They don't accept domination of others, and are experts in making the blood of their enemies flow. Indra himself praises this country. The capital of this country is Dhilli)

The Political and Cultural Capital

With the coming of Muslim rulers, Delhi gained greater eminence, in that it became the imperial capital of their empires in India. Under the later Mameluk kings, the city had not only become the seat of political and military power (daar-ul-hukuumat), but also earned international prestige by becoming the city of scholarship, where intellectuals from the Muslim world — hunted down by the marauding Mongols following the sacking of Baghdad in 1258 — found refuge.  In fact, the city gave its name to five dynasties that held sway over most regions of the country for over three centuries, from 1206 – 1526 CE. Thus the Delhi Sultanate is the collective name given to five Muslim dynasties of medieval India — the Mameluks, the Khaljis, the Tughlaqs, the Sayyids and The Lodhis.

 The Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta, who travelled from northwest Africa to India and visited Muhammad Tughlaq’s court in the early 14^th century, could not but be mesmerized by Delhi’s majestic thrall:

“Dilli the metropolis is a vast and magnificent city, uniting beauty with strength. It is surrounded by a wall that has no equal in the world, and is the largest city in the entire Muslim Orient.”

It is from here on that Delhi started emerging as the fount of Hindu-Muslim syncretism — a ‘tehzeebee markaz’ (cultural centre) that eventually developed a cross-communal composite ethos or ‘Dehlviyat’ that then spread to the four corners of India. It is for this reason that Delhi was often poetically referred to as the ‘dehleez’ (threshold) of India, not just in its more pragmatic geostrategic context, but from a socio-cultural standpoint. With the passage of time, this distinctive cultural personality of the capital was accorded an honorific by one of its ardent scions Amir Khusrau, who called it ‘Hazrat-i-Dehli’ (or ‘Reverend Delhi’).

It was out of this cultural fusion that a new aesthetic of life emerged — a synthesis, wherein the Indian red sandstone and the Central Asian white marble combined in supreme harmony to create the frozen melody of Indo-Islamic architecture. It then combined the Hindu ‘dhrupad’ and ‘dhamar’ traditions in music with the ‘kyal’ and tarana of Central Asian Sufi traditions. The Islamic gourmet cuisines received the flair and aroma of Indian spices and the foundation for grand banquets and food galas came into vogue.

In addition, the Islamic art of jewellery-making peaked in Delhi with the skill of setting pearl, diamonds, rubies and other precious stones on gold and silver ornaments drawing international admiration and acclaim. Thus, the Indo-Islamic fusion brought great riches to our history. The synergy inspired exquisite works on marbles and ivory, colourful glass murals and floral designs on walls, enamel paintings and calligraphy on newly introduced paper, the art of weaving and dyeing of new forms of fabric, the intricacy of silk brocades, the muslin clothes and the regal carpets.

In fact, Delhi soon became the capital of one of the wealthiest regions in the medieval world. According to renowned British economist Angus Maddison, Mughal India in the 1700s was the world’s largest economy, producing about a quarter of the global GDP, before the country’s economy rapidly declined under British rule in the 19^th century.

Fakir and the King

What is remarkable is that ‘Dehlviyat’ was not a state-sponsored cultural construct imposed from above, but emerged from the popular streets of Delhi and out of the fusion of a disparate class of people.

It became the urban crucible where soldiers and saints, merchants and farmers,  artists and artisans from various parts of the country and the medieval world mingled and seeded a unique civilization.  It is ironic that out of the seven famous medieval cities of Delhi — Mehrauli, Siri, Tughlaqabad, Jahan Panah, Firoze Shah Kotla, Deen Panah and Shahjahanbad — only the habitations built around Sufi fakirs are still bustling with life (Mehrauli and Nizamuddin), while others built by kings, with the exception of Shahjahanabad (Purani Dilli) have virtually fallen into abeyance.

Although being the political capital of India, Delhi organically evolved around Sufi shrines, temples and Gurudwaras. In fact, most rulers of Delhi recognized the power and influence of the so-called ‘fakir’ (pauper saint) and acknowledged their contribution in establishing peace and harmony in society — such as Aibaq and Iltutmish visiting the Sufi cottage of Bakhtiyar Kaki or Muhammad Tughlaq paying homage to Nizamuddin Auliya.

The predilection for poetry

The closest disciple of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya was the mystic polyglot Amir Khusrau. A poet of Persian and Hindavi, he is regarded the father of the Urdu qawwali and ghazal. He is credited with using 11 metrical schemes with 35 distinct divisions. Writing in many verse forms including ‘masnavi’, ‘qata’, ‘rubai’, ‘do-baiti’ and ‘tarkib-band’, he is considered a forerunner of both Urdu and Hindi languages that developed centuries later.

Buried next to the grave of his spiritual patron Nizamuddin Auliya, the contribution of this cultural doyen to India’s composite culture is immense. His poetry is still sung throughout the subcontinent with great passion and fervour, such as this memorable verses:

Chaap tilak sab chheeni re mose nainā milāike
Bāt agam keh dīnī re mose nainā milāike

(You've taken away my vermilion – identity - by just a glance.
You've said the unsaid, just by a glance)

Khusrau baji prem ki main kheli pi ke sang

Jeet gayee so piya mere, haari to pi ke sang

(Khusrau, I play the game of love with my consort
I shall either win him over or lose myself to him)

However, Khusrau is not the only luminary to be buried near the saintly Nizamuddin’s grave. Many of Delhi’s brightest ensured their final resting place near him, such as Jahanara (the devout daughter of Shahjahan), the greatest Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib, Atgah Khan (foster father of Akbar), and Mirza Aziz Kokaltash, who has a beautiful marble tomb called Chausath Khamba. Other beautiful mausoleum’s near Nizamuddin complex include Subz Burj (the Blue Dome at the Nizmuddin roundabout), Barakhamba, Lal Mahal and of course Humayun’s Tomb.

Amir Khusrau heads the triumvirate of Urdu poetry’s greatest exponents, all of whom were surprisingly denizens of Delhi. In aesthetic sensibility and prosody, Meer Taqi Meer (February 1723 - 21 September 1810) is considered the best Urdu poet and a pioneer of the Urdu language — especially in his poetic rendition of ‘Rekhta’ and ‘Hindui’. However, his diction remains close to Hindustani, as he commands a language at once simple, natural and elegant. His verses are part of common conversation to this day and also the staple of Bollywood music composers (such as his popular ghazal sung by Lata Mangeshkar for the film ‘Bazaar’).

Dikhaai diye yun ke bekhud kiya
Hamen aap se bhi juda kar chale

(The sight of my beloved dazzled me so

That my own sense of self abandoned me)

To some Urdu literary scholars, Meer is superior to Ghalib as an artist because the poet’s inspiration comes from an aesthetic appreciation of life and then moves towards philosophical profundity, whereas Ghalib’s poetry is often inspired by philosophical thought in the first place and then moves towards poetic expression (thus Ghalib’s inspiration is often said to be philosophical and not poetic). It is for this reason Meer is often called Khuda-e-Sukhan (God of poetry).

Perhaps, no poet has been more passionate in his love for Delhi than Meer. Having witnessed the assault of the city by several invaders such as Ahmad Shah Abdali and the Marathas, he used to bewail the plight of the ransacked city.

Deeda-e-giryaan hamaara neher hai
Dil-e-kharaaba jaise Dilli sheher hai
 
My weeping eyes are like a canal
My ruined heart like the city of Delhi

But the most popular if not the greatest poet produced by the imperial city is Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan, the man we know by the pseudonym ‘Ghalib‘(‘the dominant’). According to Gopi Chand Narang, the foremost literary authority on the works of Ghalib, many Urdu and Persian poets in Delhi like - Naziri, Urfi, Zahoori, Faizi, Bedil, Asir, Shaukat Bukhari, Zauq, Dard, Daagh Dehlavi and Hali – tried to attain fame but it was only Ghalib who became synonymous with the capital city. One of the reasons for Ghalib’s acclaim was his philosophical profundity and dexterous play on words:

Na Thaa Kucch to Khuda Tha,

Na Kuchh hota to Khuda hota

Duboya mujh ko hone ne

Na hota main to kya hota

When I was naught, I was God

Had I not been, I would’ve been God

My fall lies in my coming into being

Had not I been, what would have been

Whatever be the school of poetry — classicism, romanticism, modern or metaphysical, Ghalib appeals to all tastes and is severally interpreted without any interpretation appearing skewed. The other reason for Ghalib’s eminence is his choice of subjects, ranging from the love of wine, women, mangoes and even a city:

Ik roz apni rooh se poocha, ke dilli kya hai.
To yun Jawab me keh gayi,
Ye duniya maano jism hai aur dilli uski jaan hai

( Translation: "I asked my soul once: What is Delhi? To which she replied in such a way: “The world is the body and Delhi is its life.")

Witness to the great turmoil and slaughter of 1857, Ghalib was not only a poet at the court of the last Mughal King Bahadur Shah Zafar, but also received pension from the British (he was a self confessed ‘namak khwar’ – ‘salt betrayer’ of the East India Company). He writes about the violence the British perpetrated:

Baski fa’al-e-mayureed hei aaj

Har masl hushoor-e-Inglistan ka!

(English soldier today is brutal in entirety

Armed to the teeth, he kills by authority)

The Green City: Architecture and Landscaping

Just like the British, the Muslim rulers adored and adorned Delhi with stately buildings and verdant gardens that are still extant and hold a pride of place in the modern cityscape. Representing the Indian Muslim, the character Dr Aziz in E.M. Forster’s novel Passage to India observes: “We came out of the desert. We came over the Himalayas from Persia and Afghanistan, and wherever we went, we created fountains and gardens.”

Thus, landscaping was always integral to the design of Muslim architectural marvels in medieval India. One of the most famous highlights in this regard is the ‘Char Bagh’ concept in most Indian and Persian architecture, first made famous in the subcontinent by Humayun’s tomb in Delhi, built by the emperor’s devout wife Bega Begum in 1569-70.

Charbagh or Chahar Bagh (Persian) literally means “four gardens” which refers to an Islamic quadrilateral landscape layout based on the reference to four gardens of Paradise in Surah Rahman of the Holy Quran.

“And for him in awe of standing before his Lord, are two gardens ... And beside them are two other gardens.”

(Holy Quran, Surah Rahman, Verses 46 and 62).

Among the other prominent sprawling greens of Muslim Delhi is the famous Lodhi Gardens, which is spread over 90 acres in the middle of the city and houses the tombs of the rulers of Sayyid and Lodhi dynasties.  The majestic edifices here include Shisha Gumba, Bara Gumbad and Tomb of Sikander Lodhi. However, it is the verdant gardens that make this place a tourist’s delight. Thus, Delhi has always been the quintessential ‘Green City’.

Thousand Years of Building

To cite another architectural complex of note is the Qutb complex in Mehrauli, which is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is also the site for the centuries old floral festival ‘Phool Walon ki Sair’. The standout monument of Mehrauli and for that matter Delhi for several centuries has been the Qutub Minar (The Axis Tower). The minaret was first built by Qutbuddin Aibak, and is the world’s tallest brick minaret. Higher than the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Grand Pagoda in Beijing, it stands at a height of 234 feet and tapers from a base of 15 metre diameter to a mere 2.5 metre on the top. There is some evidence to suggest that work on the Qutub Minar was initially begun by Prithviraj Chauhan, or probably earlier by his uncle Vigraharaja, but there is no consensus among historians on this matter.

The Qutub Minar complex also houses the aforementioned Raja Chandra’s Iron Pillar, Alauddin Khiljis half-built Alai Minar (a tower the Khilji ruler wanted to outtop Qutub Minar but was left unfinished due to his death), Iltutmish’s tomb, Alai Darwaza, Quawwatul Islam mosque, etc. It is important to note that Lal Kot or Mehrauli, where the Qutb complex is located, was the capital of the Indian empire for 200 years and according to Percival Spear was one of the largest cities of the world, during its time.

The other great medieval architectural site in Delhi is the Purana Qila. It is said to be the seat of the ancient city of Indraprastha in the epic Mahabharata. Built on the banks of the Yamuna, Humayun called this city ‘Dinpanah’, but he could not finish it. The most fascinating building in the Purana Qila is indeed the Sher Mandal, the library and astrological observatory of Humayun. This is an octagonal (eight-sided building), with very deep steps leading to the roof. Although built by Sher Shah, Humayun converted it into a veritable astrological palace, “with radiating halls of various colours each with the name of a different planet” (Percival Spear). It was while climbing down the stairs of Sher Mandal, on hearing the call to Maghrib prayer, that Humayun slipped and tumbled to his death on 24 January 1556.

Another great monument linked to Humayun’s death is his famous tomb built close to the Purana Qila and the Sufi Dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya. Its architecture is said to have introduced elements of Indian design to Muslim arcjhitecture, particularly Rajasthani elements, including large scale use of the red sandstone, decorative corbel brackets, balconies, kiosks or chhatris. Broadly modelled on Gur-i-Amir (Timur’s tomb in Samarkand), the Humayun’s Tomb inspired several later Mughal buildings, including the Taj Mahal. The tomb complex also features the Tomb of Isa Khan, Bu Halima’s tomb and garden complex, Arab Sarai, Nil Gumbad etc. The complex also houses the graves of  graves of Bega Begum and Akbar’s mother (Humayun’s second wife) Hamida Begum, Dara Shikoh (Shah Jahan’s eldest son) and other later Mughal rulers and high officials namely Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar, Rafiul Darjat, Alamgir II among others.

No alternative to Delhi

Humayun’s son Akbar had hard time consolidating and rebuilding his father’s fledgeling state. For strategic reasons, the young king kept shifting his capital away from Delhi, first to Lahore in 1585 and then to Agra in 1598 in view of his Deccan campaigns. Thus, Akbar hardly ruled from Delhi and mostly held his court at Fatehpur Sikri in the Agra district. However, just as Muhammad Tughlaq’s attempt to shift the capital away from Delhi to Daulatabad in the Deccan (in 1327) did not prove successful, similarly Jahanagir’s successor Shah Jahan decided that it was Delhi, not Agra, which was most suited to be the country’s capital as the former was more connected to northern and western frontiers.

Thus, it was Shah Jahan who built the last walled city of Delhi in 1639, which was named after him — Shahjahanabad. This extremely crowded and dilapidated city is now better known as Purani Dilli (Old Delhi), but it was once a beautifully planned and bustling market and continues to be the symbolic heart of the capital.

Shahjahanabad is home to the grand architecture of the Lal Qila (Red Fort). This fort was the main place of residence for emperors and their households, and the ceremonial and political centre for the Mughal state for 200 years.

Even today, the Prime Minister of India delivers the Independence Day speech on 15^th of August from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort. Constructed in 1639 by Shah Jahan, it houses the Diwan-i-Aam (Hall of Public Audience) and Diwan-i-Khas (the Hall for Elite Audience meant for counsellors of state and special visitors). Inside, the palace imperial apartments consisted several pavilions, connected by a water channel known as the Stream of Paradise (Nahr-i-Bihisht).

These famous Persian verses by Amir Khusrau are inscribed in the Diwan-i-Khas.

Agar fardos ba rue Zamin ast
Hamin ast a hamin ast a hamin ast. 

(If paradise be somewhere on earth, it’s here! It’s here! It’s here!)

The fort was plundered of its artwork and jewels during Nadir Shah’s invasion of Delhi in 1747. The marauder also looted the famous Peacock throne, priceless diamonds and gems such as the Koh-i-Nur and Darya-i-Nur, fine pieces of art, thousands of horses, camels, and elephants, and numerous books and manuscripts as booty. Later, the Red Fort’s precious marble structures were destroyed by the British during the Revolt of 1857. The last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar bemoaned the loss of his capital in the following verse.

Ai vaaye inqilaab zamaane ke jaur se
Dilli Zafar ke haath se pal mein nikal gayi

(Alas! What a revolution, due to cruelty of the age
Delhi slipped out of Zafar’s hands in a moment)

-         Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’, last Mughal emperor

The bustling ‘Old City’

Shahjahanabad is also known for Masjid Jahan Numa (world-reflecting mosque), commonly known as Jama Masjid of Delhi, was built by Shahjahan at a cost of Rupee 1 million of that time between 1644 to 1656. Shahjahanabad is also known for its famous Ghalib’s haveli in Gali Qasim Jan (Ballimaran), Razia Sultan’s tomb (1205-40, Delhi’s only woman ruler before Indira Gandhi) and the famous Chandni Chowk (Moonlight Square) market.

Established by Shah Jahan’s favourite daughter Jahan Ara in 1650s, Chandni Chowk was given elegance by the presence of a pool in the centre of the market, which shimmered in the moonlight (and this perhaps gave the place its name). Shops were also lined up in a half-moon semi-circle shape, now lost. Most of the shops sold silver-ware, which also contributed to the name as silver is referred to as ‘chandi’ in Hindi, a slight variation of which forms ‘chandni’ (moonlight which is silvery in its sheen). The lake was later replaced by a clock tower (Ghantaghar), which existed in the 1950s, although the place is still called the Ghantaghar.

Shahjahanabad also houses famous shrines of various religions, namely the Shri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir (built 1656), the Gauri Shankar Temple (1761), the Shri Shiv Navgarh Mandir Dham, the Central Baptist Church (1814), Gurudwara Sis Ganj (1783), the Arya Samaj Mandir, Sunehri Masjid (1721), Fatehpur Masjid (1650). It also houses historic mansions like Begum Samru Palace (1806), now called Bhagirath Palace, Chunnamal Haveli, Haveli of Zeenat Mahal, Haksar Havel (where Jawaharlal Nehru married Kamla Nehru), Haveli Naharwali (where former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf was born).

Besides these famous places, Delhi is also known for haunted historical sites like the Bhooli Bhatiyaran Ka Mahal, Khooni Darwaza, Gandhak ki Baoli and Firoz Shah Kotla (The Palace of the Jinn).

The Mughlai Cuisine

In his travelogue Rihla (which means ‘journey’), Ibn Battuta gives a detailed account of Delhi’s life in early 14^th century, including its culinary delights. He speaks of eating thin round breads (some sweet dough breads made of almond paste and honey) , slabs of sheep meat, cooked with ghee, onions and green ginger, ‘samubasak’ (triangular non-vegetarian pastries made of ghee), ‘sherbet’ (sugared barley water before and after the meals), and even betel leaf with areca nut.

However, it was under the Mughals that the Indo-Islamic cuisines came into its own. In fact, the so-called Mughlai food was invented by fusing Persian and Indian cuisines. Humayun sympathised with the Hindus under his rule and completely shunned the consumption of beef, which was typically replaced by the meat of goat, fowl and venison. But it was under Akbar, who is said to have more than 400 cooks in the royal kitchen— mostly from Rajasthan — that a host of new delicacies came into existence. It was here that the dish Murgh Musallam was invented —a masala-coated whole chicken, stuffed with a spicy mixture of minced meat and cooked over low heat. The tradition reached completion under Shah Jahan when the lamb kebabs got fully marinated with Indian spices and rice pilaf turned into fulsome biryani, with silver and gold edible foils being used to enhance the appearance of foods.

Slowly, the full menu of Delhi’s Mughlai menu was ready with the much vaunted Haleem, Pasanda, Nihari, Biryani, Roghan Josh, Qeema Matar, Malai Kofta, Mutton Qorma, Seekh Kabab, Shaami Kabab etc. The desserts include Falooda Gulab Jamun, Jalebi, Kesari Firni, Shahi Tukra, Sheer Korma etc. No wonder, Delhi was soon deemed as the food capital of India also. There was also the vegetarian version developed at the Parathe Wali Gali in Old Delhi, with a range from plain laccha paranthas, to paneer paratha and butter naan.

Music and drama

Amir Khusrau, the close disciple of Delhi’s favourite Sufi Nizamuddin Auliya, was not only a great poet but one of the chief proponents of Hindustani music. He is credited with having invented not only the sitar and tabla, but is also known for his many forms of song writing (many of the compositions being still extant) such as qawwali, qaul, qalbana, tarana, khayal, sohela and baseet. He is also said to have composed many classical Hindustani music compositions or ‘ragas’, such as sarpada, yaman khayal, aiman, sazgeeri, bakharaz and even the taal called ‘soolfakhta’.

In the early 18^th century, the Delhi gharana of Hindustani music emerged as an important center for tabla, along with the Purbi gharana in the eastern parts of the city. The Delhi gharana founded by Siddhar Khan Dadi played a great role in the development of tabla language with the invention of compositional structure such as the ‘Peshkars and the ‘Kayadas’.

In modern drama, Muslim playwrights and actors have made significant contributions, ranging from Urdu/Hindi playwright and actor Habib Tanvir to street theatre legend Safdar Hashmi, theatre artists from Delhi’s National School of Drama such as Nadira Babbar to Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan, are Muslim denizens from Delhi who have contributed to the composite socio-cultural ethos of the country.

The decline of Muslim culture

The distinctive dresses of Delhi’s Muslims — the kurta and the sherwani, the shalwar kameez, the ‘churidar’ pajama, the ‘topi’ and the turban — eventually became the dress of every Indian, irrespective of his or her own community. However, it is ironic that Delhi’s Muslims are increasingly wearing the Arab ‘abaya’, the ‘keffiyeh’ these days.

The decline of Muslim culture of Delhi stands in stark contrast to its historical grandeur. Muslim localities in modern Delhi are characterized by their lack of sanitation and cleanliness — open sewers, bad roads, garbage dumped in every place. Muslims coming to the capital from various parts of the country end up living only in Muslim localities, for the supposed reason of ensuring their communal exclusivity and for security.

Thus new unauthorized dingy ghettoes keep coming up that are then suddenly regularized in the election season. Muslim leaders and elected ‘vidhayaks’ are known for their corruption and many simply return huge sums of money allocated by the government for development of Muslim localities, even as Muslim residents complain of shortage of schools, clinics, nursing homes and post offices.

Out of this morass of poverty and unemployment, crime and radical extremism fester. Thus, Muslim ghettoes are increasing in population density be it Okhla, Chandni Chowk, Mustafabad, Seelampur Matiya Mahal, Ballimaran, Seemapuri, etc.

Perhaps, the time has come for the capital to revive its ‘Dehlviyat’ and a a new harmonious socio-cultural ethos evolves to revive the city’s glory. However, the city’s wonderful cultural ethos is not completely lost and is beautifully celebrated by a poem that features on the main page of Delhi’s tourism website:

Dilli kisi jagah ya shehr ka naam nahin

Dilli ek ehsaas hai waqt ki ravani ka

Ek ravayat hai tehzeeb ki

Ek gavahi hai tareekh ki

Dilli dehleez hai

Sarzameene Hindustan ki

Jaan-e-Vatan hai Dilli

Shaan-e-Chaman hai Dilli

(Translation: Delhi is not the name of a place or a city, it is the sensibility of time’s passage. It’s a heritage of high culture; it’s a witness to history. Delhi is the threshold of the glorious land of India. The life of our nation is Delhi, The pride of place is the garden is Delhi)