Tracing 700 Years of History

In 1303, the second Khalji ruler, Alauddin after winning the Siege of Delhi founded the city of Siri (a circular city with seven gates), on the plains where his armies met the Mongols in battle. Alauddin ordered to build Chor Minar, a 700 years old minaret with 225 holes, situated minutes away from our office in Hauz Khas. Historians suggest that in 1305 during his raids, Alauddin slaughtered a settlement of about 8,000 Mongol people. According to local legends, it also served as a 'tower of beheading', where the severed heads of thieves were displayed on spears through its 225 holes, to act as a deterrent. Our office comes Kharera village whose enclosure wall still stands tall in the Anand's Corporate Office nearby. The 600-year-old Eidgaah of Kharera was built during the Lodi period and Hauz Khas Forest aka Panchsheel Park is also within a walking distance.

Due west, outside the walls of Siri Fort, he commissioned to build another important structure, a large 'hauz' or tank, known as Hauz-e-Alai 'the noble tank', to supply water to his new city. In the years after Alauddin’s reign, the channels that fed the tank silted and the hauz dried up. Firoz Shah Tughlaq (r. 1351–88), the most prolific of the Tughlaq builders, restored the abandoned hauz which then came to be called Hauz-Khas (royal tank). At the same time, Firoz Shah built the 'Madrasa-e-Firoz Shahi' at a focal point in the complex.  The Deer Park and adjacent Rose Garden were parts of the Hauz Khas complex.

After the sacking of Baghdad, Delhi became the most important place in the world for Islamic education. The village surrounding the Madarsa was also called Tarababad (city of joy) in view of its affluent and culturally rich status, which provided the needed supporting sustenance supply system to the Madrasa. In 1388, the sultan was buried in a grand, domed mausoleum beside the madrasa he founded. On the other side, the buildings were edged by beautiful gardens. ■

Sarais around the Hauz

A sarai is a historic wayside inn or halting station where travellers would rest at the end of a day’s journey. They came up during the later Delhi Sultanate and served an important purpose along major movement corridors during the Mughal rule. The sarais adjoining Hauz Khas were built around the royal route between Firoz Shah Kotla and Mughal imperial courts at Shahjahanabad, to their retreat at Mehrauli some 32 km (11 kos) away. Sarais were used both by common people as well as transiting army troops. The British brought the Sarais Act of 1867 to ensure proper operation and functioning of inns or sarais. A dive into the names of localities opens some astonishing chapters.

Sister Sarais : Folklore suggests that 'Lado, Ber, Katwaria, Neb, and Kalo' were five sisters who got married and lived in close vicinity of each other.
Sarai Sahji : Serai Shaji Mahal houses tomb   of Sheikh Farid Bukhari, a Muhgal noble.
Shaikh Sarai : Named after Sufi saint Sheikh Yusuf Qattal.
Other Sarais : Localities like Yusuf Sarai and Jai Sarai are named after Sufi saints or Pir (Muslim guides). ■

Adjoining villages and settlements

The below villages are dotted with Sultanate as well as Mughal period structures.

Mayfair Gardens : Houses a Lodi-era mosque of Makhdum Sabzwari built in the 15th century AD, during the invasion of India by Timur.
Khirki : Named after Khirki Masjid (Mosque of Windows) which is near the edge of southern wall of city of Jahanpanah.
Malviya Nagar : Malviya Nagar was a part of the city of Jahanpanah and was initially populated in the 1950s by refugees from Pakistan.
  It houses Lal Gumbad of Shaikh Kabir–ud-Din-Auliya (a disciple of the Sufi Saint Roshan Chirag-i-Dilli of the Chisti order)
Chirag-i-Dilli : Named in remembrance of Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi. The locality grew around the tomb since 1800s.
Adh-Chini : Adhchini means half-built. The village was earlier known as Sarai Namak.
Hauz-Rani : Literally means 'Tank of the Queens'.
Sahapur Jat : A locality inhabited by Jat clans. Literally translated, it means 'Royal Town of the Jats'.
Begumpur : The area used to be harem of the Sultans. The Begumpur Mosque finds mention in the writings of Ibn Batuta.
Saidul Ajaib : Named after a favorite noble of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, 'Malik Sayyid-ul-Hujjab'. He was a disciple of Sufi saint Shaikh Nizamuddin. ■

Delhi was built and rebuilt several times on different sites throughout history within a triangular area lying between the last ridge of the Aravalli Range and the west banks of River Yamuna. Paleolithic tools, rock paintings, and rock art dating around 1,00,000 BCE were found in 2021 at various sites scattered around Surajkundfrom Mangar Bani in the west to Tuglaqabad in the northeast. 

Recorded towns include the ancient 'Indraprastha' founded by the Pandavas in ~1450 BCE. However, recent archeological finds inconclusively support the view that it was located in the Purana-Qila area. The Gazetteer of the Delhi District of 1883-84 says that “tradition” attributes the foundation of the city to Raja Dillipa, the ancestor of the Pandava brothers. Other traditions, concur in connecting the erection of the pillar with Bilan Deo, or Anang Pal, founder of the Tomara (Tunwar) dynasty, who flourished in the eighth century. Sometimes in the first century BCE, Raja Dillu, tracing an unbroken lineage from the Pandavas (of the Mahabharata), built a city in the vicinity of Chandragupta-II's iron pillar just east of Lal-Kot. It was named Dilli or Delhi. The city then regained its lost importance after 800 years following the Muslim Invasions.

Other scattered medieval towns include 'Dhilba' or 'Dhillika' founded by the Tomar Rajputs in 736 CE located near the present date Mehrauli; and 'Suraj-Kund', a reservoir devoted to the Sun God is said to have been built by king Surajpal of the Tomar dynasty in 1000 CE. Tomar Rajputs had established themselves in the bare and barren hills of the Aravallis as a royal resort; because of its safe shelter and to isolate them from the internal rebellions of the hostile Rajput clans.  In 1109 CE, Anangpal-II peopled Delhi in his Lal-Kot. The area of the Lal-Kot complex was later expanded and called Qila Rai Pithora during the reign of Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan. His defeat at Tarain is seen as a landmark event in the Islamic conquest of India.

Historically, the south-end of Delhi was the seat of power from the very beginning as evident across the landscape from the Rajput city of Lal-Kot to Siri, Tughluqabad, Jahanpanah, and Firuzabad of the Sultans, till the time the Purana-Qila and Shahjahanabad were constructed by the Mughals. Moreover, New Delhi is historically the city built by the British in 1911. All these cities are irregular patchwork quilts, stitched together by history by policy decisions, by community, and initiatives. 

Today the Hauz Khas tehsil of South Delhi District is a vibrant neighborhood brimming with shops, posh restaurants, and bars, and is undoubtedly the trend-setter, and the fashions and lifestyle introduced here become the aspirations of many. However, there are dramatic differences in localities, standards of living, and adherence to traditions which gives Hauz Khas its characteristic flavor.  ■

India Office Records suggest that Delhi was chosen as the capital of British India The East India Company Act (EIC Act 1784), also known as Pitt's India Act The land for building the new city of Delhi was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act 1894. On 12 December 1911, during the Delhi Durbar, George V, then Emperor of India, along with Queen Mary, his Consort, made the announcement

Late Colonial Period (1930-1947)

During the late colonial period, the city of Delhi had areas like the Walled City and earlier colonial settlements like Lutyen's Delhi, the Civil Lines, Paharganj, Sadar Bazaar, military station of Delhi cantonment, etc. In 1930, the Government identified acute ‘congestion’ as a significant problem in the transformation of Delhi into a modern planned city and commissioned Mr. Arthur Parke Hume to prepare a report on relieving congestion in the Delhi Municipal Committee (DMC) Area. Hume in his Report on the Relief of Congestion in Delhi 1936 had recommended the institution of an Improvement Trust. Thus, a statutory body known as Delhi Improvement Trust (DIT) was set up in 1937 to improve and to address the housing issue by implementing schemes for decongesting the existing residential areas and providing better accommodation to the people. Most formal housing activities in Delhi during this period were initiatives by government agencies with a few exceptions like Sujan Singh Park, which introduced “apartment” living on an “ownership” basis for the first time in Delhi.

Post Independence (1947-1962)

After the partition of India in 1947, there was an enormous population influx in Delhi, which caused haphazard growth of colonies, land encroachment, and creation of slums, scarcity of resources, pressure on accommodation facilities. By December 1950, refugee accommodation for one lakh refugees was constructed in 21 colonies by the Minister of Relief and Rehabilitation in Delhi which includes Vijay Nagar, Delhi University, Timarpur, Azadpur, Rajinder Nagar, Patel Nagar, Shakti Nagar, Kingsway Camp, Tilak Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Krishna Nagar, East Nizamuddin, Jangpura, Lajpat Nagar, Chittranjan Park, Kalkaji and Malviya Nagar, etc. The first major extension of New Delhi outside of Lutyens' Delhi came in the 1950s when the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) developed a large area of land southwest of Lutyens' Delhi to create the diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri, where land was allotted for embassies, chanceries, high commissions and residences of ambassadors, around a wide central vista, Shanti Path. In 1942, little existed beyond Civil Lines but by 1956, Delhi’s northern and western limits had expanded. The DIT tried various city expansion schemes, however, its role came under massive criticism after Independence for its inability to house the poor. Elite neighborhoods of Golf link, Sunder Nursery, Jor Bagh came in the South. The projects were planned and designed by DIT and executed by L&DO (Land and Development Office).  Plotted development colonies like Krishna Nagar, Shivaji Park, Model Town, Rajouri Garden, South Extension, Greater Kailash, Kailash Colony, Green Park, Hauz Khas, etc., were developed by private developers like Delhi Land & Finance (DLF Limited). The rising middle class started responding to the government’s policy of Cooperative House Building Societies. A project for resettlement of refugees from Pakistan and light industrial development was initiated in Faridabad, Haryana during this time.

First Master Plan (1962-1981)

With the passage of the DDA Act in 1957, the DIT and DDPA ceased to exist. The DDA realized the need for land-intensive development and decided to decrease the plotted development through Co-operative Housing Building Society (CHBS) which led to the development of Usha Niketan Housing by a private architect. The DDA also encouraged group housing development through Co-operative Group Housing Societies (CGHS) like Saket, Tara Apartments, Yamuna Apartments, Press enclave, and Sheikh Sarai Phase-I were some of the first CGHS projects in Delhi followed by Munirka, Hauz Khas Enclave, Sheikh Sarai Phase II in the subsequent phase. Around this time, CPWD also started to develop R. K. Puram on lines of Group Housing societies. The DDA proceeded to develop the twin colonies Panchsheel Park and Panchsheel Enclave came up between 1965 and 1970 respectively. Other developments include Safdarjung Enclave in South Delhi and a satellite town called Narela. The Delhi Urban Land Ceiling (DUAC) Act 1976, which restricted the maximum per capita landholding to 500 sq. m., was passed.

Meanwhile, on the private front, with the passage of the Delhi Development Act in 1957, the local government assumed control of real estate development in Delhi and banned private real estate developers. As a result, DLF began acquiring land at a relatively low cost outside the area controlled by the DDA, in the district of Gurgaon, in the adjacent state of Haryana. In the mid-1970s, the company started developing their DLF City project at Gurgaon. 

Second Master Plan of Delhi (1981-2001)

Project areas of Rohini, Dwarka and Narela were identified to be developed as the new urban extensions for Delhi. Government staff housing colonies developed as low-rise low-density housing in South Delhi, is proposed to redeveloped as high-rise high-density housing. These include the East Kidwai Nagar and New Moti Bagh staff housing colonies being developed by NBCC, along with 7 GPRA colonies proposed for redevelopment.