New Delhi audiotours

New Delhi was inaugurated in February 1931, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker as a statement of British imperial confidence at a moment when that confidence was already faltering. The Rajpath, now renamed Kartavya Path, runs from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan in a straight line that asserts power with every metre. What is remarkable is how thoroughly independent India absorbed and reframed these structures: the ceremonial boulevard now hosts Republic Day parades watched by the world, and Lutyens' bungalow zones house the politicians of the world's largest democracy.

Old Delhi and New Delhi share a city boundary but belong to entirely different centuries.

Old Delhi, the walled Shahjahanabad built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the 1640s, is narrow lanes and spice wholesale markets and Jama Masjid and the Red Fort. New Delhi is wide diagonal avenues, garden roundabouts, and the hushed greenery of Lutyens' zone. Walk between them and the transition on Chandni Chowk Road is one of the most jarring sensory experiences any city offers: from the colonial geometry into medieval commercial density in a single block.