Study on old monuments and villages in New Delhi.

The fascinating and chequered history of Delhi through the centuries has been a popular subject among authors. Yet, only a few other than K.A. Nizami record in rich detail the cultural, social, economic, and spiritual fabric of the city—the ‘gorgeous blaze of glory’ that was Delhi—between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries. He presents his accounts of the periods of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals, and the poet Ghalib through the analyses of wide-ranging sources: original literary, travel, biographical, hagiographical, and administrative accounts in Persian, Hindavi, and Urdu. This book is a compilation of the historian’s lectures delivered at the University of Delhi and the Ghalib Institute in Delhi, first published in Urdu in 1972. The author’s conversational style, replete with literary allusions, makes this an essential read for lovers and admirers of this beguiling city and its historic Sufi culture. Ather Farouqui’s English translation captures the true essence of Nizami’s work and now makes it easily available to a wider readership.

In the ruins of a medieval palace in Delhi, a unique phenomenon occurs: Indians of all castes and creeds meet to socialize and ask the spirits for help. The spirits they entreat are Islamic jinns, and they write out requests as if petitioning the state. At a time when a Hindu right wing government in India is committed to normalizing a view of the past that paints Muslims as oppressors, Anand Vivek Taneja's Jinnealogy provides a fresh vision of religion, identity, and sacrality that runs counter to state-sanctioned history. The ruin, Firoz Shah Kotla, is an unusually democratic religious space, characterized by freewheeling theological conversations, DIY rituals, and the sanctification of animals. Taneja observes the visitors, who come mainly from the Muslim and Dalit neighborhoods of Delhi, and uses their conversations and letters to the jinns as an archive of voices so often silenced. He finds that their veneration of the jinns recalls pre-modern religious traditions in which spiritual experience was inextricably tied to ecological surroundings. In this enchanted space, Taneja encounters a form of popular Islam that is not a relic of bygone days, but a vibrant form of resistance to state repression and post-colonial visions of India.

Johnson provides an historically rich examination of the intersection of early twentieth-century imperial culture, imperial politics, and imperial economics as reflected in the colonial built environment at New Delhi, a remarkably ambitious imperial capital built by the British between 1911 and 1931.

A sensitively written account of a Pakistani writer's discovery of Delhi Why, asks Raza Rumi, does the capital of another country feel like home? How is it that a man from Pakistan can cross the border into 'hostile' territory and yet not feel 'foreign'? Is it the geography, the architecture, the food? Or is it the streets, the festivals and the colours of the subcontinent, so familiar and yes, beloved... As he takes in the sights, from the Sufi shrines in the south to the markets of Old Delhi, from Lutyens' stately mansions to Ghalib's crumbling abode, Raza uncovers the many layers of the city. He connects with the richness of the Urdu language, observes the syncretic evolution of mystical Islam in India and its deep connections with Hindustani classical music - so much a part of his own selfhood. And every so often, he returns to the refuge of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the twelfth-century pir, whose dargah still reverberates with music and prayer every evening. His wanderings through Delhi lead Raza back in time to recollections of a long-forgotten Hindu ancestry and to comparisons with his own city of Lahore - in many ways a mirror image of Delhi. They also lead to reflections on the nature of the modern city, the inherent conflict between the native and the immigrant and, inevitably, to an inquiry into his own identity as a South Asian Muslim. Rich with history and anecdote, and conversations with Dilliwalas known and unknown,Delhi By Heart offers an unusual perspective and unexpected insights into the political and cultural capital of India.