Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/58

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46
DELHI

and by the Jumna river, and a few hill streams. An offshoot of the Mewat hills runs in a north-easterly direction nearly across the district. This offshoot forms a sterile, rocky table-land, from two to three miles in breadth, but nowhere exceeding 500 feet above the level of the sur rounding country. The district population, according to a census taken in 1868, numbered 608,850 souls, scattered over an area of 1227 square miles, showing a density per square mile of 496 persons. According to their religious beliefs the inhabi tants are thus classified: Hindus, 438,886, or 72 - 08 per cent.; Mahometans, 130,645, or 21*46 per cent.; Sikhs, 580, or -09 per cent.; others, 38,739, or 6 36 per cent. Four towns contain a population exceeding 5000, viz., Delhi city, population 154,417 ; Sonipat, 12,176 ; Farida- bad, 7990; and Balabgarh, 6281. The principal agricultural products of the district are wheat, barley, sugar-cane, and cotton. In the lands of the northern part, commanded by the irrigation canals, cotton and sugar-cane are the most lucrative staples of the autumn harvest, while jodr (great millet), bdjrd (spiked millet), and makdi (Indian corn) are grown for local consumption. The spring crops consist of the better kinds of grain, such as wheat and barley, and of gram and tobacco. In some irrigated villages a superior kind of rice is grown, but it nowhere forms a staple product. Cotton cultivation is extending, and a ready market for the fibre exists in Delhi city. The total area of the district is returned at 81 4,672 acres, of which 525,255 are cultivated, viz., 206,853 irrigated and 318,402 unirrigated. A tract of 1147 acres, set apart by the native rulers as a hunting ground, is now inclosed by Government as a timber preserve ; and other plantations along the banks of the river have recently been formed and placed under the Forest Department. The hills produce good building stone, and a fair kind of narble of two colours, black and grey. A white clay, supposed to be kaolin, is found at Arangpur, Muradpur, and Kasmpur, and has been employed with success at the Government foundry at Rurkf for making crucibles. At the first named village is a crystal mine, no longer worked. The East India Railway and the Punjab Railway run trains into Delhi from their junction at Ghaziabad, about twelve miles distant, while the Rajputana State Railway traverses the district for about twelve miles in the direction of Gurgaon. The Government revenue of Delhi district in 1872-76 amounted to 383,082, of which 89,036 was derived from the land, 264,909 from salt and custom duties, and 14,086 irom stamps. The land settlement is not a permanent one, but for a term of years. For the education of the people Government in 1872-73 main tained in whole or in part 72 schools, attended by 3645 pupils, at an outlay to the state of 7760. There were also 32 unaided indigenous schools, attended by 529 pupils in 1872-73. Three Government dispensaries gave gratui tous relief to 18,303 patients, at a cost of 925, 8s. (1872-73). For administrative purposes, the district is subdivided into three tahsils of Delhi, Larsauli, and Balab garh. The staff consists of a deputy commissioner, with two assistants and two extra assistant commissioners, a judge of the small cause court, 3 tahsilddrs and 3 naib or assistant tahsilddrs, a superintendent and an assistant superintendent of police, and a civil surgeon. The early history of the district will be found noticed below. In the last century, the Delhi empire fell under the Marhattas, and the emperor Shah Alam be came a pensioner of the Maharaja Sindhia. In 1803 Lord Lake broke the Marhatta power. The Mughul emperor was taken under the protection of the Company, and a considerable tract of country, consisting of nearly all the present districts of Delhi and Hissar, was assigned for the maintenance of the royal family. This tract was placed under charge of a British officer as Resident, and the revenue was collected and justice administered in the name of the emperor. The annual allowance to the royal family paid from this assigned territory v/as originally 100,000; it was afterwards increased to 120,000, and subsequently to 150,000, exclusive of certain crown lands which yielded about 15,000 a year. The emperor received the homage of royalty ; and throughout the assigned territory all judicial decrees were pronounced in his name, and sentences of death were referred to him for approval. The fiscal arrangements were under the entire control of the resident. This continued till 1832, when the office of resident was abolished, the tract being annexed to the North- Western Provinces, and a British Commissioner appointed to administer it. On the outbreak of the sepoy mutiny in 1857, the whole of the district was for a time lost to British rule, and the southern part was not subdued until after the fall of Delhi city in September 1857. In 1858 Delhi district was separated from the North-Western Provinces, and annexed to the then newly constituted lieutenant-governorship of the Punjab.

Delhi, the chief city of the district and division of the same name, and the capital of the Mughul empire, is situated in 28 39 40" N. lat. and 77 17 45" E. long. K abuts on the right bank of the River Jumna, and is inclosed on three sides by a lofty wall of solid stone constructed by the Emperor Shah Jahan, and subsequently strengthened by the English at the beginning of the present century by a ditch and glacis. The eastern side, where the city extends to the river bank, has no wall ; but the high bank is faced with masonry, and bears from the outside the appearance of one. The circuit of the wall is 5-| miles. It has ten gates, of which the principal are the Kashmir and Mori gates on the north ; the Cabul and Lahore gates on the west ; and the Ajmfr and Delhi gates on the west. The imperial palace, now known as " the fort," is situated in the east of the city, and abuts directly on the river. It is surrounded on three sides by an imposing wall of red granite, with small round towers, and a gateway on the west and south. Since the mutiny of 1857 a great portion of the palace has been demolished in order to make room for English barracks. The more beautiful buildings in the palace, viz., the entrance hall, the naubdt khdnd or music hall, the diivdn-i-dm or hall of public audience, the diivdn- i-klms or hall of private audience, the rang mahal, and some pavilions, have been preserved intact. As Mr Fergusson well says, in his History of Architecture, however, these buildings " without the courts and corridors connect ing them lose all their meaning, and more than half their beauty." South of the fort, in the Dariaganj quarter of the city, is a cantonment for a regiment of native infantry, which, with one wing of a European regiment stationed within the fort, makes up the garrison usually stationed at Delhi. On the opposite side of the river is the fortress of Salfmgarh, erected in the 16th century by Salim Shah, and now in ruins. At this point the East India Railway enters the city by a magnificent bridge across the Jumna, passing over Salfmghar, and through a corner of the fort, to the railway station within the city walls. Thence the line proceeds as the Rajputana State Railway, and, after traversing the city, emerges through the wall on the north west. In the north-eastern corner of the city, within the walls, and close to the Kashmir gate, are situated the treasury and other public offices. Dariaganj, the fort, the public offices, and the railway form an almost continuous line along the eastern and northern faces of the city, the angle between them being devoted to public gardens. The area thus occupied amounts to nearly half of that of the entire city; it presents a comparatively open appear-