Delhi, 1911-1922 : society and politics in the new imperial capital of India

Abstract

'Delhi, I9II-I9 2 2 1 stems from a discussion with Ravinder Kumar in April 1966. The investigation which arose from that discussion rested on the hypothesis that the transfer of the imperial capital from Calcutta to Delhi, a transfer which took place on 1 October 1913, resulted in significant social and political changes in the city. The major drawback to such a study lay in the fact that there were no extant local newspapers for the period. The major advantage lay in the fact that in view of Delhi's special relationship with the Government of India, a larger number of communications on matters of policy and action passed between the Delhi Administration and the Government of India, than was the case for many similar administrative areas. The material available did not prove conducive to substantiating or disproving this hypothesis. What the available material does substantiate is the thesis that nationalism in Delhi transformed the limited horizons of a restricted number of educated persons who participated in politics in the city prior to 1911 into a movement which drew upon new classes and communities and which focussed upon issues of all-India significance. The corollary to this thesis is that the growth of political consciousness contributed to a heightened awareness of parochial issues. The thesis, then, is most concerned with who participated in nationalist politics in the city of Delhi between 1911 and 1922 and why they did so. The work of George Rude on the French Revolution offers the greatest methodological insight into the problem of assessing mass participation in political movements. It will become obvious to the reader, however, that nothing like the detailed evidence upon which Rude depends is available to the historian of modern India. Show more