Khushwant Singh’s Delhi: Revisiting History

Abstract

“I asked my soul: What is Delhi? She replied: The world is the body and Delhi its life.” (Ghalib) There are a few cities in the world, as ancient and as modern as Delhi. Its history, its architecture and planning, its flora and fauna, the economy, life and rhythm, its culture, its problems and its future have enamoured people who have been at the helm of political and cultural, life of India. Pt. Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India and a historian in his own right wrote: “The cobblestones of the great city whisper the glory of past centuries”. It is a city with the recorded history going back to 3000 B.C; at the same time, today it is an ever expanding city growing into a metropolitan structure as any in the western world. To Hindu, Sikh and Muslim, Delhi is also a sacred city. Its sacred river, the Yamuna and the religious folk tales associated with the river invest the city with a mythic aura.