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Delhi

Delhi,[a] officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Lying on both sides of the Yamuna river, but chiefly to the west, or beyond its right bank, Delhi shares borders with the state of Uttar Pradesh in the east and with the state of Haryana in the remaining directions. Delhi became a union territory on 1 November 1956 and the NCT in 1995.[21] The NCT covers an area of 1,484 square kilometres (573 sq mi).[5] According to the 2011 census, Delhi's city proper population was over 11 million,[6][22] while the NCT's population was about 16.8 million.[7]

"National Capital Territory" redirects here. For the generic term, see Capital districts and territories.

Delhi

1 November 1956

1 February 1992

1,484 km2 (573 sq mi)

18 km2 (6.9 sq mi)

200–250 m (650–820 ft)

16,787,941

11,312/km2 (29,298/sq mi)

16,349,831 (2nd)

11,034,555 (2nd)

28,514,000 (1st)

₹10.83 lakh crore (US$140 billion)[12]

₹444,768 (US$5,600)[13]

$467.4 billion[14]

110000–110099

Increase 0.839[16] (Very High) · 1st

86.21%[17]

Delhi's urban agglomeration, which includes the satellite cities Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida and YEIDA city located in an area known as the National Capital Region (NCR), has an estimated population of over 28 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in India and the second-largest in the world (after Tokyo).[8]


The topography of the medieval fort Purana Qila on the banks of the river Yamuna matches the literary description of the citadel Indraprastha in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata; however, excavations in the area have revealed no signs of an ancient built environment. From the early 13th century until the mid-19th century, Delhi was the capital of two major empires, the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, which covered large parts of South Asia. All three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the city, the Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, and the Red Fort, belong to this period. Delhi was the early centre of Sufism and Qawwali music. The names of Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrau are prominently associated with it. The Khariboli dialect of Delhi was part of a linguistic development that gave rise to the literature of Urdu and later Modern Standard Hindi. Major Urdu poets from Delhi include Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Ghalib. Delhi was a notable centre of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. In 1911, New Delhi, a southern region within Delhi, became the capital of the British Indian Empire. During the Partition of India in 1947, Delhi was transformed from a Mughal city to a Punjabi one, losing two-thirds of its Muslim residents, in part due to the pressure brought to bear by arriving Hindu and Sikh refugees from western Punjab.[23] After independence in 1947, New Delhi continued as the capital of the Dominion of India, and after 1950 of the Republic of India.


Delhi ranks fifth among the Indian states and union territories in human development index,[24] and has the second-highest GDP per capita in India (after Goa).[10] Although a union territory, the political administration of the NCT of Delhi today more closely resembles that of a state of India, with its own legislature, high court and an executive council of ministers headed by a chief minister. New Delhi is jointly administered by the federal government of India and the local government of Delhi, and serves as the capital of the nation as well as the NCT of Delhi. Delhi is also the centre of the National Capital Region, which is an "interstate regional planning" area created in 1985.[25][26] Delhi hosted the inaugural 1951 Asian Games, the 1982 Asian Games, the 1983 Non-Aligned Movement summit, the 2010 Men's Hockey World Cup, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2012 BRICS summit, the 2023 G20 summit, and was one of the major host cities of the 2011 and 2023 Cricket World Cups.

(अभी दिल्ली दूर है / ابھی دلی دور ہے) or its Persian version, Hanuz Dehli dur ast (هنوز دهلی دور است), literally meaning "Delhi is still far away", which is generically said about a task or journey still far from completion.[36][37]

Abhī Dillī dūr hai

Ās-pās barse, Dillī pānī tarse (आस-पास बरसे, दिल्ली पानी तरसे / آس پاس برسے، دلی پانی ترسے), literally meaning "It pours all around, while Delhi lies parched". An allusion to the sometimes semi-arid climate of Delhi, it idiomatically refers to situations of deprivation when one is surrounded by plenty.

[37]

There are a number of myths and legends associated with the origin of the name Delhi. One of them is derived from Dhillu or Dilu, a king who built a city at this location in 50 BCE and named it after himself.[27][28][29] Another legend holds that the name of the city is based on the Prakrit word dhili (loose) and that it was used by the Tomaras to refer to the city because the iron pillar of Delhi had a weak foundation and had to be moved.[29] According to Panjab Notes and Queries, the name of the city at the time of King Prithviraj was dilpat, and that dilpat and dilli are probably derived from the old Hindi word dil meaning "eminence". The former director of the Archaeological Survey of India, Alexander Cunningham, mentioned that dilli later became dihli/dehli.[30] Some suggest the coins in circulation in the region under the Tomaras were called dehliwal.[31] According to the Bhavishya Purana, King Prithiviraja of Indraprastha built a new fort in the modern-day Purana Qila area for the convenience of all four castes in his kingdom. He ordered the construction of a gateway to the fort and later named the fort dehali.[32] Some historians believe that Dhilli or Dhillika is the original name for the city while others believe the name could be a corruption of the Hindustani words dehleez or dehali—both terms meaning "threshold" or "gateway"—and symbolic of the city as a gateway to the Gangetic Plain.[33][34]


The people of Delhi are referred to as Delhiites or Dilliwalas.[35] The city is referenced in various idioms of the Northern Indo-Aryan languages. Examples include:


The form Delhi, spelled in the Latin script with the h following the l, originated under colonial rule and is an alternation of the spelling based on the Urdu name of the city (دہلی, Dehli).[38]

The Hindu Laxminarayan Mandir was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1933.

The Birla temple in Delhi with its towers.

The Jama Masjid was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1650 and 1656.

The Jama Masjid was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1650 and 1656.

The prayer hall of Sikh Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi which dates to 1783

The prayer hall of Sikh Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi which dates to 1783

First language: , Urdu, English

Hindi

Second language:

English

Private schools in Delhi—which use either English or Hindi as the language of instruction—are affiliated to one of three administering bodies, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE)[255] or the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). In 2004–05, approximately 1,529,000 students were enrolled in primary schools, 822,000 in middle schools and 669,000 in secondary schools across Delhi.[256] Female students represented 49% of the total enrolment. The same year, the Delhi government spent between 1.58% and 1.95% of its gross state domestic product on education.[256]


Schools and higher educational institutions in Delhi are administered either by the Directorate of Education, the NCT government or private organisations. In 2006, Delhi had 165 colleges, five medical colleges and eight engineering colleges,[256] seven major universities and nine deemed universities.[256]


The premier management colleges of Delhi such as Faculty of Management Studies (Delhi) and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade rank the best in India. All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi is a premier medical school for treatment and research. National Law University, Delhi is a prominent law school and is affiliated with the Bar Council of India. The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi situated in Hauz Khas is a premier engineering college of India and ranks as one of the top institutes in South Asia.[257][258]


Delhi Technological University (formerly Delhi College of Engineering), Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (formerly Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology), Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Netaji Subhas University of Technology (formerly Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology), Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and National Law University, Delhi are the only state universities.[259][260] University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia are the central universities, and Indira Gandhi National Open University is for distance education.[261] As of 2008, about 16% of all Delhi residents possessed at least a college graduate degree.[262]


According to the Directorate of Education and GNCTD the following languages are taught in schools in Delhi under the three-language formula:[263]

Delhi metropolitan area

List of people from Delhi

List of twin towns and sister cities in India

Smog tower

Official website

web resources provided by GovPubs at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries

Delhi

at Curlie

Delhi

Wikimedia Atlas of Delhi

Geographic data related to at OpenStreetMap

Delhi