The earliest known settlement in the Delhi area, is believed to have
close to the river Yamuna between 1000 BC and fourth century AD, has been
identified with the city of Indraprastha mentioned in the epic Mahabharata.
Modern Delhi is generally dated from of Lal Kot by the Tomar Rajputs in 736
AD. In 1180 another Rajput clan defeated the Tomaras and renamed the walled
citadel Qila Rai Pithora. After a decade Md. Ghori from Afghanistan invaded
the northern plain. He was defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan but later on Md.
Ghori took his revenge and thwarted Prithviraj in the battle ground of
Panipat. Md Ghori was assassinated in 1206, and his Turkish general
Qutub-ud-din-Aibak founded Delhi Sultanate or Slave dynasty. He led off the
construction of the Qutub Minar, and was completed by his successor
Iltutmish, arguably the greatest of early Delhi Sultans.
Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq, another Turk built Delhi's third city, a fortress,
at Tughluqabad. It was occupied for just five years from 1321, when the
capital was shifted to Daulatabad in Maharashtra. Water scarcity drove the
Tughluks back to Delhi in 1327, and the fourth new city Jahanpanah was
built. History of Delhi changed into a dramatic turn when Mughal came into
the power. Babar ( a descendant of Genghis Khan) defeated Ibrahim Lodhi in
1526. Babar victory was the dawn of new era in the history of Delhi. Babar
was succeeded in 1530 by his son, Humayun, who, in 1540, was pushed back to
Persia by the Afghan king Sher Shah and remained in exile there for fifteen
years.
Humayun recaptured Delhi in 1555 but died the following year and succeeded
by his son Akbar, who then moved the capital to Agra. However, it was under
Shah Jahan that Delhi again came into limelight. Shah Jahan named it's
capital Shahjahanabad where mighty Red Fort with its opulent palaces and
India's greatest mosque Jama Masjid, rose to become the epitome of Mughal
power. Shah Jahan was eventually deposed by his ruthless son Aurangazeb and
imprisoned him at Agra Fort. An iconoclastic ruler Aurangazeb ruled from
Delhi until 1681 and then transferred the capital to Deccan plateau.
After a long era of Mughal British appeared on the scene in 1803 had
already established their toe holds in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, swiftly
took control leaving last Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah with his palace and
pension but with no power. During British Raj Calcutta was the capital of
India, they retained Delhi but all the administrative affairs of state were
controlled from Calcutta. It was in 1911, when King George V came to India
from England and decided to make to Delhi India's new capital.
Delhi was one of the major centers of revolution of Indian freedom
struggle. After much fight and bloodshed, India became finally independent
in 1947. With India's declaration of Independence in 1947, the British,
represented in Delhi by the viceroy, Lord Mountbatten handed over power to
the democratically elected Congress party under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
Independence saw a mass migration of Muslims from Delhi to newly created
Pakistan, and a similar influx of Hindus and Sikhs in the opposite
direction.
