The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-03-14

prepared by the National Geographic
Society, Washington. d. c.
'HB movement toward the indie
penGence of India has thrown
into prominence three Of the
pivotal cities of the pensin-
sula. From Delhi, capital of India, the
British officials are keeping close
watch Of developments; in Lahore met
the All India Nationalist congress
which issued the declaration of indie
pendence; and in Calcutta, greatest of
the Indian cities, there was recently a
huge demonstration in favor of indie
pendence.
If one spot were singled out in his
tory-steeped India as most historic of
Delhi, for both written records and
oral traditions extending back for ages
tell of power welded from Delhi's site.
New Delhi, constructed to be the seat
of the Empire of India, has been built
on ground where cities have risen and
passed away through the centuries,
and about which are situated beauti-
full and striking monuments of one of
the worlds most powerful empires of
the past.
Legend says that from the dimmeSt
past some sort of capital city, now
of a local kingdom, now of far
flung empire, has existed at Delhi.
For a distance of more than II miles
south OF the "old city'-the city
which has been inhabited now for
many generations-an over an area
several miles wide, are the remains of
old walls and streets, forts and tenn
pies that dimly trace the sites of once
pOpulous centers. Among the ruins
are the more enduring edifices set up
by emperors and princes to COM
memorate victories, to advance re-
ligiOn, or to serve as magnificent
places of interment.
Though legend makes Delhi a place
Of Importance from earliest times, his
tory takes no account of it until about
1850 A. D., when it was the seat of
Hindu ruler. 1t was captured by
Mohammedan invaders from Afghani-
stan in 1893, and from that time onward
was the capital of Mohammedan In
dian empire Delhi, in the days of the
Mohammedan conquest, lay to the
south of the present city, and there
where the new power was set up, the
first Mohammedan ruler, Kutb-ud-din,
built in celebration of his conquest
tower of victory, the Kutb Minar,
which stands today and has been called
1.-THE most perfect tower in the world"
Capital of the Great Moguls.
Timur the Lame (Tamerlane), the
Tatar scourge of Asia toward the end
Of the Fourteenth century, swooped
down from Sarmarkand in 1893 and
sacked Delhi; and in 1926 his lineal
descendant, Baber, took the Tatar
hordes again into India, captured the
city, and founded the Mogul empire,
through the fame of which Delhi is
best known to western ears. In 1858
Shah Jahan, the Augustus of the Mo-
gul emperors, built the present Delhi
to the north of the old city and en-
belished it with mosques and palaces
of great beauty.
Because of it's rich history as the
fountain-head of power in India, Delhi
not Calcutta. which was then the cap
ital-was chosen b 1877 as the site of
the Durbar, or gathering of native
kings and princes, at which Queen Vic
toria was proclaimed empress of In
dia. Again in 1908 Delhi was chosen
when a Durbar was held to crown
King Edward VII emperor, and once
more in 1911 when George V assumed
that title. On the latter occasion the
new emperor announced that this an
Gent city of emperors would be re-
stored as the capital Of India and its
250,O00,000 subjects.
The following year the viceroy and
his administrative council moved into
temporary quarters few miles north
of the city walls of Delhi. 1t is to
the south of the Delhi of recent
decades, near the site of the more an
cient Delhi, however, that the new per-
manent capital, planned on an imperial
scale, has recently risen. The city
has been designed to cover approx
mately $4,000 acres and to house more
than $4,000 people connected with the
administration of the imperial govern
ment.
To the superficial observer OF the
work recently in progress it might ap-
pear that there have been rising the
buildings of great world exposition.
Broad avenues have been laid out and
planted with trees. central feature
is an imposing Professional way at
the end of which rises the main build
ing of the group. Government house.
home of the viceroys of India. 1t M
cIudes guest chambers and spacious
state dining rooms. bathrooms and re-
ception halls. On either side of the
Professional way are secretariat
buildings. Numerous supplemental
buildings. both those for public uses
and those TO serve as dOmiciles will
make up the new city. while The Pro