For most of their time in India, the British didn’t care much for Delhi. They remembered it as the home of the Mughals and for the 1857 mutiny of Indian soldiers, which was brutally repressed.
It was only when King George V announced the capital would move from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911 that they took greater interest in the city, later rechristening it New Delhi. For the next 36 years, as its newest layer was being built, the city was briefly the political and social hub of British India.
British historian and writer William Dalrymple, whose books include “City of Djinns” and “White Mughals,” speaks to us about Delhi’s jackal hunting and Marmite days. Read More »