Johnson provides an historically rich examination of the intersection of early twentieth-century imperial culture, imperial politics, and imperial economics as reflected in the colonial built environment at New Delhi, a remarkably ambitious imperial capital built by the British between 1911 and 1931.

The essays presented in this volume, first published in 2000, describe a phenomenon so widespread in human time and space that its importance is easily overlooked. City walls shaped the history of warfare; the mobilisation of manpower and resources needed to build them favoured some kinds of polities over others; and their massive strength, appropriately ornamented, created a visual language of authority. Previous collective volumes on the subject have dealt mainly with Europe, but the historians and art historians who collaborate here follow a comparative agenda. The millennial practice of wall building that branched out from the ancient Near East into India, Europe, and North Africa shows continuities and points of contact of which the makers of urban fortifications were scarcely aware; separate traditions in China, sub-Saharan Africa, and North America illustrate universal themes of defensive strategy and the symbolism of power, each time embedded in a distinctive local context.

In this book, leading scholars working on urban South Asia chart new forms of literature about contemporary Delhi. Incorporating original contributions by Delhi-based commentators and covering significant new themes and genres, it updates current critical understanding of how contemporary literature has registered the momentous economic and social forces reshaping India’s major cities. This timely volume responds not only to the contextual challenge of a Delhi transformed by economic liberalisation and commercial growth into a global megacity, but also to the emergent formal and generic changes through which this process has been monitored and critiqued in writing. The collection includes studies of the city as a disabling metropolis, as a space of marginal (electronic) text, as a zone of gendered spatiality and sexual violence, and as a terrain in which ‘urban villagers’ have been displaced by the growing city. It also provides close analyses of emerging genres such as urban comix, digital narratives, literary reportage, and city biography. Delhi: New Literatures of the Megacity will be of interest to students and researchers in disciplines ranging from postcolonial and global literature to cultural studies, civic history, and South Asian and urban studies. It was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Postcolonial Writing.

The adventurous, the ambitious and the brave coveted its throne. One invader after another crossed the mighty Himalayas to seek a fortune here. A pivot of power down the ages, it fascinated both settlers and rulers, to become the capital of mighty empires. Across centuries, the 'Delhi Triangle' of about 200 square kilometres became the base of many a powerful monarch, with a different name and location every time: Dillika, Siri, Tughlakabad, Jahanpanah, Firozabad, Purana Qila and Shahjahanabad. These seven cities gave the historic hub its grand, varied and colourful heritage. A centre of learning and culture, art and architecture, and trade and commerce, it was a megalopolis like no other. In time, New Delhi emerged from the light and shadows of its past to become the eighth city - modern India's seat of government! Among the oldest capital cities in the world, Delhi is a storehouse of legends and lore, history and mysteries, secrets and stories. Every nook and corner, pathway and rock here hides a tale - of triumph and defeat, riches and ruin; of builders, sculptors and artists, royalty and rebels; of saints and common folk, poets, writers and thinkers - waiting to be uncovered. Are you ready to embark on an exciting journey of discovery?

The rapid expansion, urban form and development of the built environment in the world’s second most populous city, Delhi, has been the consequence of social, political, economic, planning and architectural traditions that have shaped the city over thousands of years. Whilst seamless at times, these traditions have often resulted in the fragmented development of the city’s built environment. This book charts the political, economic and social forces that drove development in India generally and in Delhi in particular, and investigates the drivers and constituents of Delhi’s urban landscape. The book provides a lens through which to examine the development path of a mega-city, which can be used as a guide in the development of emerging urban centres. Furthermore, the strengths and weaknesses of Delhi's built environment are critically analysed, with consideration to the role of the market, finance and policy over time. This book not only provides valuable insight into the physical evolution of Delhi and its surrounds, but it also asks broader questions about how people, power and politics interact with urban environments. It is essential reading for planners, architects, urbanists and social historians.

This book, based on extensive international collaborative research, highlights the state-of-the-art design of smart living for metropolises, megacities, and metacities, as well as at the community and neighbourhood level. Smart living is one of six main components of smart cities, the others being smart people, smart economy, smart environment, smart mobility and smart governance. Smart living in any smart city can only be designed and implemented with active roles for smart people and smart city government, and as a joint effort combining e-Democracy, e-Governance and ICT-IoT systems. In addition to using information and communication technologies, the Internet of Things, Internet of Governance (e-Governance) and Internet of People (e-Democracy), the design of smart living utilizes various domain-specific tools to achieve coordinated, effective and efficient management, development, and conservation, and to improve ecological, social, biophysical, psychological and economic well-being in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of development ecosystems and stakeholders. This book presents case studies covering more than 10 cities and centred on domain-specific smart living components. The book is issued in two volumes and this volume focus on community studies and ways and means.

This handbook provides the most comprehensive examination of Asian cities—developed and developing, large and small—and their urban development. Investigating the urban challenges and opportunities of cities from every nation in Asia, the handbook engages not only the global cities like Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, and Mumbai but also less studied cities like Dili, Malé, Bandar Seri Begawan, Kabul, and Pyongyang. The handbook discusses Asian cities in alignment to the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals in order to contribute to global policy debates. In doing so, it critically reflects on the development trajectories of Asian cities and imagines an urban future, in Asia and the world, in the post-sustainable, post-global, and post-pandemic era. Presenting 43 chapters of original, insightful research, this book will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, students, and general readers in the fields of urban development, urban policy and planning, urban studies, and Asian studies.

AlSayyad and Massoumi's text addresses the ways in which religion can affect the city, and indeed how the city can affect religion. International experts in sociology, anthropology, religious studies, urban planning and geography come together to provide thought provoking pieces on whether a fundamentalist city is possible.

‘... nobody who lives there, nobody at all, has much good to say about Delhi.’ Along with Milton Keynes, Detroit and Purgatory, Delhi is one of the world’s great unloved destinations. So when Elizabeth Chatterjee makes her way from the cool hum of Oxford to the demented June heat of heat of Delhi to research her PhD, she find herself both baffled and curious about the je ne sais quoi of this city of ‘graveyards and tombstones’. As flanêur and sagacious resident, Liz takes us through the serpentine power structures, the idyll, the bullshit­—peeling layer after layer of the city’s skin to reveal its aspirations, its insecurity, its charm and finally its urban dissonance. Uncannily perceptive, predictive, and hysterical, Delhi Mostly Harmless puts a firm finger on the electric pulse of Delhi.