# The Delhi Durbar and a new capital
**दिल्ली दरबार और नई राजधानी**

- Canonical page: https://indianepics.online/event/delhi-durbar-1911/
- Chapter: [Crown and the freedom struggle](https://indianepics.online/chapter/raj.md)
- Track: evidence (archaeology and documents)
- When: 1911 CE – 1931 CE
- Where: Coronation Park, Delhi (28.7231, 77.1969)
- Tags: political, colonial

## Summary

At the 1911 Durbar George V announces that the capital will move from Calcutta to Delhi and Bengal will be reunited; New Delhi opens in 1931.

1911 के दरबार में जॉर्ज पंचम ने राजधानी को कलकत्ता से दिल्ली ले जाने और बंगाल को फिर एक करने की घोषणा की; नई दिल्ली 1931 में उद्घाटित हुई।

## Account

George V and Queen Mary, the only King-Emperor and Queen-Empress ever to visit India, held the durbar on 12 December 1911 on the plain north of Delhi where Lytton's Imperial Assemblage of 1877 and Curzon's durbar of 1903 had also been staged. Princes came forward in turn to pay homage, and the Gaekwad of Baroda's short bow was taken as a slight. At the end the King announced two decisions kept secret until then: the capital would move from Calcutta to Delhi, and the partition of Bengal would be undone. Bihar and Orissa became a separate province and Assam a chief commissionership again.

Delhi was chosen for its Mughal associations and its distance from Calcutta's politics. The King laid foundation stones on the durbar ground on 15 December; they were later moved to Raisina hill, where Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker built the new city. A bomb thrown at the Viceroy, Hardinge, during his state entry into Delhi on 23 December 1912 wounded him and killed an attendant. Lord Irwin inaugurated New Delhi on 13 February 1931.

The durbar ground is now Coronation Park. The marble statue of George V that stood under the canopy at India Gate until 1968 was moved here, with other viceroys' statues.

## Sources

- The Historical Record of the Imperial Visit to India, 1911 (1914) — https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.35773

## Image

Delhi durbar 1911 2. Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADelhi_durbar_1911_2.jpg

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