Click to play videoNew Delhi: The question of identity in this rapidly changing city has never been more critical. An issue Journalist Basharat Peer is more than familiar with. His memoir Curfewed Night, about growing up in Kashmir also addresses the difficulties he faced moving to Delhi.
“I lived in this neighbourhood - Munirka gaon - for more than five years. This is one of the few neighbourhoods in Delhi which is not very prejudiced against renting you a room if you come from the wrong demographic, in my case, that was being a Kashmiri and Muslim,” says author of Curfewed Night Basharat Peer.
This is the uglier side of a city which has forgotten its full, multi-cultural history. As historian Ram Guha writes in India After Gandhi - Delhi is a city that till 1911 was largely Muslim in character, before adopting a British imperial look and then transforming as the capital of independent India.
"Delhi has also become a commercial centre. In a mere century there have been these four demographic shapes and with all these shapes there have great political, economic and cultural implications," Guha writes.
"One of the nice things about Delhi, which shows the layers of its history are its street signs. There is this Tees January Marg, which is written in four languages and four scripts - English, Hindi, Devnagari, Gurmukhi for Punjabis and Urdu."
There are so many strands of Delhi, so many identities jostling for space and nothing seems to encapsulate that more than this, there's the never-ending traffic and honking on one side, and centuries of history, just sitting here, waiting to be discovered afresh.
But, who defines Delhi today, especially in its modern avataar, built on the ashes of seven dead cities?
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
 |
 |
 |
|
More on IBNLive Right Now
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
