India, Dec. 20 -- Mutiny to early Independence years

The enclosing wall of Shahjahanabad, built in the 1820s, was dismantled in sections from 1857. To the north was laid out the Civil Lines, to the west the Sadar Bazaar, and there was east-west ribbon development because of the laying of the railway line in the 1860s. Three 'Durbars' (a spectacle that lasted a few days) made areas of east Delhi familiar. As a result, when the leap in the dark was taken in 1911 to shift the winter capital from Calcutta to Delhi, there were many choices - north, east, and south. The choice of and laying out of New Delhi south of Shahjahanabad led to the latter being called 'Old Delhi' (a term earlier used for Mehrauli). The World War and the need to econom...