New Delhi Maiking Of A Capital
Malvika Singh & Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Concept & Visual Research Pramod Kapoor
Praise for the book
Beautiful and pathbreaking… A must-buy for Delhi-dwellers, city planners and lovers of history.’ – Time Out
‘What sets this book apart is the incredible wealth of rare and unpublished material… The making of a Capital was a fascinating odyssey, and so is this book. It explains the concepts behind the broad avenues, the grand buildings, the material used, the choice of greenery, the design and the layout.’– Dilip Bobb in India Today
New Delhi was born at two o’clock on 12 December 1911, as King George V proclaimed it to be India’s new capital at his grand Coronation Durbar. New Delhi: Making of a Capital pieces together the story of the eighth reincarnation of this historic city. Breaking new ground, this book showcases century-old telegrams, maps, plans, drawings, letters, and scraps of paper; the Agreement that the chief architects – Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker – signed together; the sharp arguments the two had on key architectural issues; and a lot more. Numerous newspaper reports, articles, and editorials about the extravagant city, including vigorous debates in the House of Lords have been featured here for the first time.
Exclusive pictures of the earliest stages of levelling the massive Raisina Hill are followed by the blockby- block construction of what are today the Rashtrapati Bhavan (initially known as Government House), the Parliament House (known as Council House), and North and South Block (or the Secretariat buildings). A range of aerial shots capture the growth of the new city from a barren landscape into a bustling metropolis.
This pathbreaking work is an amalgamation of fragments of history, recreating the era of struggle, disquiet, and passion in which this great urban centre was built. New Delhi: Making of a Capital traverses between that formative age and the turbulent present bringing history to you from long-forgotten, dusty shelves.
MALVIKA SINGH belongs to one of the families that built the new capital of India. A reputed journalist who has worked with many leading national publications, she was the editor of The India Magazine and is publisher of Seminar, a journal of ideas and alternatives. She has authored and co-authored several books: Bhutan: Through the Lens of the King; Delhi: Red Fort to Raisina; Delhi: India in One City; and Snowdon’s India.
Internationally acclaimed author and historian, RUDRANGSHU MUKHERJEE is Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University of which he was the founding Vice Chancellor. He holds a D. Phil. in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He taught at the University of Calcutta and has held visiting appointments at Princeton University and the University of California, Santa Cruz amongst others. He was the Editor, Editorial Pages, The Telegraph.
PRAMOD KAPOOR, the founder and publisher of Roli Books (established in 1978), has over the course of his illustrious career, conceived and produced award-winning books that have proven to be game-changers in the world of publishing. Author of the internationally acclaimed Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography, which is published in fourteen editions in most major languages worldwide and 1946 Royal Indian Navy Mutiny: Last War of Independence, he has also compiled pioneering books like The Unforgettable Maharajas; India: Then and Now; Witness to Life and Freedom: Margaret Bourke-White in India; Delhi 360º: Mazhar Khan’s View from the Lahore Gate; and Shahjahanabad: Mapping a Mughal City
Size Guide
×
Trending Now
