Delhi
About the Photo
Jama Masjid (Great Mosque), Old Delhi
Explore the Topic
Delhi, India's capital, is a sprawling city, along the banks of the Yamuna River, comprised of three areas: Old Delhi, New Delhi, and the Delhi Cantonment. Archaeological excavations reveal the area was settled as early as 1000 BCE. Delhi, under different names and at various locations within the confines of its present-day territory, became the political, commercial, and cultural capital of a series of powerful empires.
The Rajput Tomar kings founded their city here, calling it Lal Kot, in the 8th century CE. Four centuries later, it was captured by the Chauhan Rajputs and renamed Qila Rai Pithora. In 1192, the city was conquered by the general Qutb-ud-Din Aybak and became part of the kingdom of the Afghan ruler Muhammad of Ghor. In 1206, Qutb-ud-Din Aybak, who commissioned the Qutab Minar, established the first of the five consecutive Muslim dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate.
In 1526, Babur defeated the last Delhi sultan, Ibrahim Lodhi, and founded the Mughal Empire, which continued the Muslim domination of North India until Delhi came under British control in 1803. The Mughal emperors brought the Indo-Islamic architectural style to their monuments, and the Jama Masjid (Great Mosque) displays a number of the characteristics of this new style. The Mughal dynasty ended when the Great Rebellion against the British was defeated in 1857. Delhi was declared the capital of the British Raj in 1911.
Qutub Minar
Qutub Minar (Qutb Minar) in Delhi is an example of Indo-Islamic architecture and the world's largest minaret at nearly 236 feet high. The first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, Qutb-ud-Din Aybak, commissioned the column as a symbol of triumph in 1199. After Aybak died, while playing polo after just four years of rule, his successor added additional stories to the structure. A fifth and final story was added in the 14th century.
Constructed out of red sandstone, quartzite, and marble, each of the minaret's stories has a different design theme. Koranic verses and the story of the tower's construction are inscribed on the structure. Below the towering minar is a mosque, Quwwatt-al-Islam ("Might of Islam"), also built in the early 12th century and constructed using pieces of more than 20 destroyed Hindu and Jain temples.
The Qutab mosque and minar are Islam's oldest surviving monuments in India and part of the Qutub complex named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.
Delhi Sultanate
Qutb-ud-Din Aybak, a slave who rose to the rank of general under the command of the Afghan ruler Muhammad of Ghor, defeated the Chauhan Rajput king, Prithvi Raj, and captured Delhi in 1192. Following the death of Muhammad of Ghor in 1206, Qutb-ud-Din Aybak proclaimed himself Sultan of Delhi and established the Mamluk (or Slave) dynasty, the first of five successive dynasties with their capital in Delhi that collectively came to be known as the Delhi Sultanate. The four unrelated Turkish and Afghan dynasties that followed, including the Khaljis, the Tughluqs, the Sayyids, and the Lodis, ruled North India for more than 300 years, until 1526.
The early sultanate dynasties introduced Persian language, literature, culture, law, as well as practical and agricultural innovations. Ethnic and linguistic pluralism marked this period, with Muslim rulers ruling over a primarily non-Muslim population. Cross-cultural influences can be seen in the tradition of Sufi devotionalism that informed and was informed by Indic bhakti devotion. By the 15th century, the sultanate had broken into a series of regional kingdoms. The sack of Delhi by Timur (or Tamerlane) in 1398 stripped the sultanate of most of its power. In 1526, the sultanate fell to Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, the first emperor of the Mughal dynasty.
Babur
Babur was the founder of the Mughal empire, and his successful raid into India in 1526 established what would become one of the most fabled dynasties in the history of the subcontinent and the world. Zahiruddin Muhammad, known as Babur, was a fierce warrior who was also noted for his love of music, gardens, and poetry. He chronicled his life and exploits in a personal memoir, the Babur-nama. A descendant of the legendary warrior-rulers Genghis Khan and Timur (Tamerlane), he was born in 1483 in the Ferghana region of Central Asia. Babur ascended the throne of his familial kingdom in 1494, following the death of his father, and his territorial ambitions remained focused on Central Asia, most notably the city of Samarkand, which he captured a few times but was never able to hold successfully.
From his base in Kabul, which he gained in 1504, Babur turned his attention to the south and launched five different incursions into northwest India. In 1526, he finally succeeded in toppling the Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi at the pivotal Battle of Panipat. In the following two years, Babur expanded his territory in northern India by defeating the region's other major power, the Hindu Rajput kings. He died unexpectedly in 1530 and his empire passed onto to his son, Humayun, and his grandson, Akbar, who established the political and administrative framework for the Mughal Empire.
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was founded in 1526 CE, peaked around 1700 and steadily declined into the 19th century, severely weakened by conflicts over succession. Mughal rule began with Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, who invaded northern India from his post in Kabul, and overthrew Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi sultans. At its height, the Mughal Empire included most of the Indian subcontinent and an estimated population of 100 million people.
The empire's primary activities of war and expansion were supported by a strong central administrative and political system fully developed under Akbar, the third Mughal emperor. Under Akbar's rule (1556-1605), the empire expanded north to Kabul and Kashmir, east to Bengal and Orissa, south to Gujarat and southwest to Rajasthan. Establishing himself as a spiritual as well as military and strategic leader, Akbar promoted a policy of tolerance for all religions. His son, Jahangir (1605-27), and Jahangir's wife, Nur Jahan, who was highly influential in court politics, carried on Akbar's policies of centralized government and religious tolerance.
India's economy grew under the Mughals as a result of the empire's strong infrastructure, expansion and trade with Europeans, who established bases in various Indian ports. Shah Jahan (1627–58), Jahangir's son, diverted wealth away from the military toward magnificent building projects including the Taj Mahal and a new capital city, Shajahanabad, site of a royal fortress and the largest mosque in India, the Jama Masjid. Shah Jahan's reign marked a turn toward a more Muslim-centered government, which his son Aurangzeb favored in contrast with his other son Dara Shikoh, who favored a more diverse court.
After a two-year fight for succession that resulted in Shah Jahan's imprisonment and Dara's death, Aurangzeb (1658–1707) assumed the throne. He reversed many of Akbar's policies supporting religious tolerance, and Islamic religious law (sharia) became the foundation of Mughal government. By the late 17th century, the empire was in decline, weakened by succession conflicts, an entrenched war waged by Aurangzeb in the south, growing inequality between rich and poor and loss of support from nobles and gentry. By the mid-18th century, the once great Mughal Empire was confined to a small area around Delhi.
Jama Masjid
The Jama Masjid is the grand mosque of red sandstone and white marble located in the part of Delhi known as Old Delhi. The mosque and this section of the city, originally called Shahjahanabad, were constructed during the reign of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan. The Jama Masjid was designed by the architect Ustad Khalil and completed in a span of six years, from 1650 to 1656. It's situated on a rocky outcrop with three monumental, arched gateways—on the north, south, and east—atop a towering flight of broad stairs.
Beyond the mosque's entrance is the immense open courtyard that can hold more than 20,000 people and is surrounded by an arcade with a chattri (domed kiosk) at each corner. The massive prayer hall, oriented toward Mecca, sits at the west end of the courtyard, while a pool for ablutions is located at its center. Three large white marble domes, with black vertical stripes, top the hall and its central doorway is flanked on each side by five cusped archways, above which are panels inscribed with praise for the building and Shah Jahan. At each corner of the hall's façade is a 130 foot, three-story minaret of red sandstone with vertical stripes of white marble.
Great Rebellion of 1857
The Great Rebellion of 1857 (also called the Indian Mutiny, Sepoy Rebellion, and First War of Independence) began as a mutiny by Bengal army soldiers, or sepoys, against their commanders in the army of the British East India Company. The rebellion came out of the sepoy's long-held grievances about unfair assignments, low pay, limited opportunities for advancement, and the reorganization of Awadh, a region from which a third of them had been recruited. A more immediate cause of insult to the sepoys was the new Lee Enfield rifle that required soldiers to reload by biting off the ends of cartridges greased with pig and cow fat, substances offensive to both Muslim and Hindu religions.
On May 10, 1857, the sepoys posted in Meerut attacked officers and marched on Delhi after their colleagues had been punished for refusing to use the new cartridges. Once in Delhi, the uprising gained legitimacy when the sepoys made the 82-year-old Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II the leader of their rebellion. Other soldiers, primarily those stationed in northern India, joined the revolt, and popular uprisings also broke out in the countryside. Central India and the cities of Delhi, Lucknow, and Cownpore (Kanpur) became the primary areas of unrest while areas further south, where the Bombay and Madras armies and many princes and elites remained loyal, were largely untouched by the rebellion.
By September, the British had regained control of Delhi, exiled Bahadur Shah, and killed both of his sons. After the siege of Gwalior in the summer of 1858, the British regained military control, and those sepoys who had revolted were severely punished—a number of captured sepoys were fired from cannons. The army was reorganized to include a higher ratio of British to Indian soldiers, recruitment focused on regions that had not revolted, and units were composed of soldiers representing many Indian ethnicities, so as to prevent social cohesion among sepoys.
Loss of British revenue as a result of the rebellion was severe, and in 1858, an act of the British Parliament transferred the East India Company's rights in India to the Crown. The new administration of India included a British secretary of state, viceroy, and 15-member advisory council. In 1876, Queen Victoria declared herself Empress of India.
British Raj
The British Raj (Hindi for rule) under England's Queen Victoria began in 1858 after the Great Rebellion of 1857 and subsequent transfer, through an act of Parliament, of administrative power from the British East India Company to the Crown. British rule extended over present-day India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan together about a fifth of the world's population. Under the new administration, a governor-general with a five-member council governed in India, while a secretary of state and 15-member council oversaw Indian affairs in Britain. Provincial governments included executive and legislative councils and were divided into districts, each overseen by a commissioner. The Indian Civil Service, composed of magistrates, revenue officials, commissioners, and other bureaucratic positions, formed a fundamental segment of the new government. After 1923, examinations required for entry into the civil service were held in India, not only Britain, and by 1947, most Civil Service officials were Indian.
Policies of nonintervention in religion and recognition of regional princes—numbering approximately 675—were among the first issued under the British administration, perhaps reflecting the religious causes of the Great Rebellion of 1857. A newly restructured army that included more British officers had the foreign policy responsibility of keeping Russia out of Central Asia, leading to the Anglo-Afghan Wars during much of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
By 1910, India had the fourth largest railway system in the world, one that unified the country geographically and economically. However, under British rule, the generally positive advances of social reforms, public works, and unification of the India's disparate regions were coupled with racism and economic exploitation. Lack of Indian representation in government and an economic system that was perceived as a drain on India's wealth were the primary causes of agitation against British rule in India.
In 1885, the first meeting of the Indian National Congress, composed of 73 self-appointed delegates, was held in Bombay. Nationalist opposition increased following World War I and World War II, and in 1946/7, the Congress, guided by its leader Mahatma Gandhi, negotiated Indian independence from Britain.
Discussion Questions
- What has been the enduring importance of Delhi to Muslims in northern India?
- In what ways did the Delhi Sultanate begin to blend Muslim and Hindu cultures?
- How have Hindu-Muslim tensions shaped Indian history? How do these tensions still affect the subcontinent?
