Delhi GK: Formation, Monuments and Exam Facts
Delhi general knowledge for exams: its constitutional position, districts, geography, seven cities, monuments, world heritage sites, institutions and census figures.
By GK24 Editorial Team· Published · 4 min read
Delhi is asked in two different ways. State level papers for Delhi itself ask about its administration, districts and civic bodies, while national papers ask about its monuments, its history as a capital and its place in the Constitution. What makes Delhi unlike any state is that it is a union territory with a legislative assembly of its own, so the Lieutenant Governor and the elected government share powers in a way no state has to work out.
Constitutional position and government
Delhi was a Part C state from 1952, became a union territory under the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, and got its present shape through the Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991, which inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB and named it the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The arrangement came into force on 1 February 1992. Its Legislative Assembly has 70 seats, and the Council of Ministers may not exceed a tenth of that strength, which works out to seven ministers including the Chief Minister. The assembly can make laws on the State List and the Concurrent List except for public order, police and land, which stay with the Union, and the Lieutenant Governor is the administrator. Delhi sends seven members to the Lok Sabha and three to the Rajya Sabha. The Delhi High Court was established in 1966, and the Assembly sits in the Old Secretariat on Alipur Road, the building that housed the Central Legislative Assembly from 1912 to 1926.
Geography and districts
Delhi covers about 1,483 square kilometres and is bordered by Haryana on three sides and by Uttar Pradesh on the east. The Yamuna is its only major river, entering near Palla in the north and leaving in the south east. The Delhi Ridge, the last northern spur of the Aravalli range, runs through the territory in four parts and is the city's green lung. Delhi has eleven districts: New Delhi, Central, North, South, East, West, North East, North West, South East, South West and Shahdara. It has no national park, and the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary on the southern ridge is its only wildlife sanctuary, while the Yamuna and Aravalli Biodiversity Parks are restoration projects on former wasteland.
Delhi as a capital, and its seven cities
At the Delhi Durbar of 12 December 1911, George V announced that the capital of British India would move from Calcutta to Delhi. The new city was planned by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, Lutyens designing the Viceroy's House, now Rashtrapati Bhavan, and Baker the two Secretariat blocks and the Council House; New Delhi was formally inaugurated in 1931. Long before that, successive rulers had built their own cities on the same ground, and the traditional list of seven is Lal Kot with Qila Rai Pithora, Siri, Tughlaqabad, Jahanpanah, Firozabad, Dinpanah or Purana Qila, and Shahjahanabad. Delhi was also the seat of the Delhi Sultanate through its five dynasties, the Slave or Mamluk, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi lines, and of the Mughals after Shah Jahan moved his court here.
Monuments and world heritage
| Monument | Built by | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Qutub Minar | Begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, completed by Iltutmish | World Heritage Site, 1993; the Iron Pillar of Gupta times stands in the same complex |
| Humayun's Tomb | Commissioned by his widow Bega Begum | World Heritage Site, 1993; the first great garden tomb of the Mughals |
| Red Fort | Shah Jahan | World Heritage Site, 2007; the Prime Minister speaks from it on Independence Day |
| Jama Masjid | Shah Jahan | One of the largest mosques in India |
| Tughlaqabad Fort | Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq | Rubble-built fort of the Tughlaq city |
| Jantar Mantar | Sawai Jai Singh II | Masonry astronomical instruments, built in 1724 |
| India Gate | Edwin Lutyens | Memorial to soldiers of the First World War and the Third Afghan War |
Delhi therefore has three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Qutub Minar complex, Humayun's Tomb and the Red Fort. The Lotus Temple of the Bahai faith, Akshardham, Purana Qila, Firoz Shah Kotla, Hauz Khas, the Lodi Gardens and Safdarjung's Tomb are the other monuments a paper may name.
Institutions, memorials and census facts
- Memorials: Raj Ghat for Mahatma Gandhi, Shanti Van for Jawaharlal Nehru, Vijay Ghat for Lal Bahadur Shastri, Shakti Sthal for Indira Gandhi and Veer Bhumi for Rajiv Gandhi.
- Education and research: the University of Delhi of 1922, Jamia Millia Islamia, founded in 1920 and moved to Delhi in 1925, Jawaharlal Nehru University of 1969, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences of 1956 and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
- Transport: the Delhi Metro, run by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation formed in 1995, whose first stretch from Shahdara to Tis Hazari opened in December 2002, and Indira Gandhi International Airport.
- Census of 2011: a population of about 1.68 crore, a literacy rate of 86.21 per cent, a sex ratio of 868 women per thousand men, and the highest population density among the states and union territories.
Hindi is the official language, with Urdu and Punjabi as additional official languages. The National Capital Region, planned under the Act of 1985, takes in districts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan around Delhi, and the Republic Day parade on Kartavya Path is the city's best known annual event.
Exam Point of View
For the Delhi state services the assembly's 70 seats, Articles 239AA and 239AB, the three subjects kept with the Union, the eleven districts and the civic bodies are asked almost every year. For national papers the questions are historical: who announced the shift of the capital and in which year, who designed New Delhi, which monuments are World Heritage Sites and in which year each was listed, and who built the Qutub Minar, Tughlaqabad and the Jantar Mantar. A steady favourite is the list of the seven cities of Delhi in order. Learn the memorials by the leader they belong to, and remember that Delhi has a wildlife sanctuary but no national park, and that the Iron Pillar in the Qutub complex is far older than the Minar beside it.
Important Facts
| Constitutional status | National Capital Territory under Articles 239AA and 239AB, from the 69th Amendment of 1991 |
|---|---|
| Assembly seats | 70; Council of Ministers limited to seven |
| Subjects with the Union | Public order, police and land |
| Parliament seats | Seven in the Lok Sabha, three in the Rajya Sabha |
| Districts | Eleven |
| Area | About 1,483 square kilometres |
| River and hills | Yamuna; the Delhi Ridge, the northern end of the Aravallis |
| Wildlife sanctuary | Asola Bhatti, the only one; no national park |
| Capital shift announced | Delhi Durbar, 12 December 1911, by George V |
| New Delhi designed by | Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker; inaugurated 1931 |
| World Heritage Sites | Qutub Minar complex and Humayun's Tomb, 1993; Red Fort, 2007 |
| Jantar Mantar | Built by Sawai Jai Singh II in 1724 |
| Delhi High Court | Established 1966 |
| Delhi Metro | DMRC formed 1995; first line Shahdara to Tis Hazari, December 2002 |
| Census 2011 | Literacy 86.21 per cent, sex ratio 868, highest density in the country |
Practice MCQs on this topic
Which Metro system is the world's first completely green Metro system?
- A.Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway
- B.Singapore Mass Rapid Transit
- C.Delhi Metro Rail Corporation
- D.London Underground
Show answer
The Delhi Metro was the first metro and rail based system in the world to be certified by the United Nations for earning carbon credits, because its regenerative braking returns electricity to the grid each time a train slows.
Read the full explanation →Which Constitutional Amendment Act gave Delhi a Legislative Assembly and named it the National Capital Territory?
- A.The Sixty-ninth Amendment Act, 1991
- B.The Seventy-third Amendment Act, 1992
- C.The Sixty-first Amendment Act, 1988
- D.The Seventy-fourth Amendment Act, 1992
Show answer
It inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB into the Constitution, renamed the union territory of Delhi as the National Capital Territory of Delhi and gave it a legislative assembly and a council of ministers, with the arrangement coming into force in February 1992.
Read the full explanation →How many seats does the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi have?
- A.60
- B.70
- C.90
- D.40
Show answer
The Delhi Legislative Assembly has seventy seats, all filled by direct election, and the Council of Ministers may not be larger than a tenth of that strength, which means at most seven ministers including the Chief Minister.
Read the full explanation →The shifting of the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi was announced at the Delhi Durbar of
- A.1877
- B.1903
- C.1911
- D.1919
Show answer
At the Delhi Durbar held on 12 December 1911, King George V, who had come to India for his coronation durbar, announced that the capital of British India would be moved from Calcutta to Delhi.
Read the full explanation →New Delhi as a planned capital city was designed mainly by
- A.Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker
- B.Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret
- C.Charles Correa and B V Doshi
- D.Otto Koenigsberger and Albert Mayer
Show answer
After the 1911 announcement the two British architects planned the new capital, Lutyens designing the Viceroy's House, now Rashtrapati Bhavan, and laying out the central vista, while Baker designed the two Secretariat blocks on Raisina Hill and the circular Council House that became Parliament House.
Read the full explanation →Which monument of Delhi was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007?
- A.Qutub Minar
- B.Humayun's Tomb
- C.Red Fort Complex
- D.Jantar Mantar
Show answer
Shah Jahan built the fort between 1639 and 1648 as the citadel of his new capital Shahjahanabad, and it was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2007.
Read the full explanation →The construction of the Qutub Minar in Delhi was begun by
- A.Iltutmish
- B.Qutb-ud-din Aibak
- C.Alauddin Khalji
- D.Firoz Shah Tughlaq
Show answer
He began the tower, of which only the first storey was raised in his lifetime, and it stands beside the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque he built in the Qutub complex.
Read the full explanation →The Jantar Mantar of Delhi, a set of masonry astronomical instruments, was built by
- A.Sawai Jai Singh II
- B.Shah Jahan
- C.Muhammad Shah
- D.Raja Man Singh
Show answer
The ruler of Amber and founder of Jaipur built the Delhi Jantar Mantar in 1724, the first of the five observatories he raised, the others being at Jaipur, Ujjain, Mathura and Varanasi.
Read the full explanation →Which is the only wildlife sanctuary in the National Capital Territory of Delhi?
- A.Sultanpur
- B.Asola Bhatti
- C.Okhla
- D.Surajpur
Show answer
The Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary lies on the southern Delhi Ridge, the last northern spur of the Aravalli range, and covers old mining land that has been restored to thorn forest.
Read the full explanation →The fort of Tughlaqabad in Delhi was built by
- A.Muhammad bin Tughlaq
- B.Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq
- C.Firoz Shah Tughlaq
- D.Sikandar Lodi
Show answer
The founder of the Tughlaq dynasty built Tughlaqabad in the early fourteenth century as the third of Delhi's historic cities, with massive sloping rubble walls on a rocky outcrop in the south of the present city.
Read the full explanation →The Delhi High Court was established in which year?
- A.1950
- B.1956
- C.1966
- D.1991
Show answer
Until then cases from Delhi went to the Punjab High Court, and a separate High Court for Delhi was set up in 1966 by an Act of Parliament, with jurisdiction that then extended over Delhi and for some years over other areas as well.
Read the full explanation →Shanti Van in Delhi is the memorial of which national leader?
- A.Mahatma Gandhi
- B.Jawaharlal Nehru
- C.Lal Bahadur Shastri
- D.Indira Gandhi
Show answer
Shanti Van, the forest of peace, lies north of Raj Ghat on the bank of the Yamuna and marks the place where the first Prime Minister of India was cremated in 1964.
Read the full explanation →Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Delhi called a union territory with a legislature?
Because the Constitution Sixty-ninth Amendment Act of 1991 inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB, giving Delhi an elected assembly and a council of ministers while keeping it a union territory under a Lieutenant Governor. Public order, police and land stay with the Union, so its assembly has narrower powers than a state's.
How many seats does the Delhi Legislative Assembly have?
Seventy. The Council of Ministers may not exceed ten per cent of that number, which means at most seven ministers including the Chief Minister. Delhi also sends seven members to the Lok Sabha and three to the Rajya Sabha.
When was the capital of British India shifted to Delhi?
The announcement was made by George V at the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911, and the capital moved from Calcutta. The new city planned by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker was formally inaugurated in 1931.
Which monuments of Delhi are UNESCO World Heritage Sites?
Three: the Qutub Minar and its monuments and Humayun's Tomb, both inscribed in 1993, and the Red Fort complex, inscribed in 2007. The Iron Pillar of Gupta times stands within the Qutub complex but is not a separate listing.
What are the seven cities of Delhi?
Lal Kot with Qila Rai Pithora, Siri built by Alauddin Khalji, Tughlaqabad of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq, Jahanpanah of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, Firozabad of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, Dinpanah or Purana Qila of Humayun's time, and Shahjahanabad of Shah Jahan.
Does Delhi have a national park?
No. Delhi has no national park. Its only wildlife sanctuary is Asola Bhatti on the southern Ridge, and the Yamuna Biodiversity Park and the Aravalli Biodiversity Park are restoration projects rather than protected areas under that name.
Sources
- Delhi at a glance: administration and districts — Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi
- The Constitution of India, Articles 239AA and 239AB — Legislative Department, Government of India
- Census of India 2011: NCT of Delhi profile — Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India
- World Heritage List: Qutb Minar, Humayun's Tomb and Red Fort Complex — UNESCO
