Delhi passed to British control in 1857 after the First War of Indian Independence; the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II was pensioned to Rangoon, and the remaining Mughal territories were annexed as a part of British India. Shortly after the First War of Independence, Calcutta was declared the capital of British India but in 1911 the capital was again moved to Delhi.

Parts of the old city were pulled down to create New Delhi, a monumental new quarter of the city designed by the British architect Edwin Lutyens to house the government buildings. A brief but fascinating account of the Indian contractors behind this construction can be found in Khushwant Singh’s autobiography Truth, Love and a Little Malice. New Delhi was officially declared as the seat of the Government of India after independence in 1947.

During the Partition of India thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees from West Punjab migrated to Delhi. In 1984, the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi led to a violent backlash against the Sikh community, resulting in the deaths of 5,000 people. Relations have improved considerably since then.

Delhi has seen many invaders through the ages. Tamarlane plundered it in the 14th century and in 1739 the Persian Emperor Nadir Shah sacked the city and carted the Kohinoor Diamond and the famous Peacock Throne off to Iran. The British captured it in 1803 but during the Indian mutiny in 1857 Delhi was a centre for resistance to the British. Prior to partition Delhi had a very large Moslem population and Urdu was the main language. Now Punjabis have replaced many of the Moslems and Hindi predominates.