Colonialism and the City
The Story of an Imperial Capital

Q17. Why Viceroy Lytton organized durbar in 1877?

Ans. In 1877, Viceroy Lytton organized a Durbar to acknowledge Queen Victoria as the Empress of India.

Q18. What were called havelis?

Ans. The Mughal aristocracy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries lived in grand mansions called havelis.

Q19. When was Lahore Gate improvement scheme planned? Who devised it?

Ans.  In 1888 an extension scheme called the Lahore Gate Improvement Scheme was planned by Robert Clarke for the Walled City residents.

Q20. What was the main idea behind the ‘Lahore Gate Improvement Scheme’?

Ans.  The idea was to draw residents away from the Old City to a new type of market square, around which shops would be built.

Q21. Mention the cities that were deurbanized during the nineteenth century.

Ans. Cities such as Machlipatnam, Surat and Seringapatam were deurbanized during the nineteenth century.

Q22. Why did the British remove the marks of Mughal beauty and glory in Delhi after the 1857 war?

Ans. The British removed the marks of Mughal beauty and glory in Delhi after the 1857 war because they wanted Delhi to forget its Mughal past.

Q23. What is Khanqah?

Ans. Khanqah – A sufi lodge, often used as a rest house for travellers and a place where people come to discuss spiritual matters, get the blessings of saints, and hear sufi music.

Q24. Why was a Durbar held in Delhi in 1911?

Ans. In 1911, when King George V was crowned in England, a Durbar was held in Delhi to celebrate the occasion. The decision to shift the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi was announced at this Durbar.

Q25. Who lived in the “white” areas in cities such as Madras?

Ans. In colonial cities such as Madras, Bombay or Calcutta, the living spaces of Indians and the British were sharply separated. Indians lived in the “black” areas, while the British lived in well-laid out “white” areas.

Q26. What did the census of 1931 reveal?

Ans. The census of 1931 revealed that the walled city area was horribly crowded with as many as 90 persons per acre, while New Delhi had only about 3 persons per acre.

Q27. Why did Machlipatnam lose its importance as a port town by the late 18th century?

Ans. Machlipatnam developed as an important port town in the seventeenth century. Its importance declined by the late eighteenth century as trade shifted to the new British ports of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta.

Q28. Which two industrial cities of Britain grew rapidly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? Give reason.

Ans. In Britain, industrial cities like Leeds and Manchester grew rapidly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as more and more people sought jobs, housing and other facilities in these places.

Q29. What is Delhi renaissance?

Ans. The establishment of the Delhi College in 1792 led to a great intellectual flowering in the sciences as well as the humanities, largely in the Urdu language. Many refer to the period from 1830 to 1857 as a period of the Delhi renaissance.

Q30. What were the causes of decline of havelis?

Ans. Many of the Mughal amirs were unable to maintain these large establishments under conditions of British rule. Havelis therefore began to be subdivided and sold. Often the street front of the havelis became shops or warehouses. Some havelis were taken over by the upcoming mercantile class, but many fell into decay and disuse.

Q31. Write a short note on The Delhi Improvement Trust.
Or
Describe the new style of living that emerged in 1936.

Ans. In 1936, The Delhi Improvement Trust was set up and it built areas like Daryaganj South for wealthy Indians. Houses were grouped around parks. Within the houses, space was divided according to new rules of privacy. Instead of spaces being shared by many families or groups, now different members of the same family had their own private spaces within the home.