1911, a very different story

It’s been a 100-year race and the outcome is absolutely poetic. Delhi, completing a century as capital of India, is once again its largest and most populous city, ahead of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras — all hand-reared products of the Raj.
But a hundred years ago, few would have put their money on Delhi. Its sunset started in the 18th century, turning into one interminable night after the events of 1857, when the British systematically avenged themselves upon it.
Delhi in 1911 was still a scarred city. Meanwhile, younger rivals were thriving . Bombay, Calcutta and Madras were already the country’s three biggest cities, with Bombay touching the million-mark . Delhi’s erstwhile subject-cities — Lucknow and Hyderabad — had outgrown it too. Delhi lagged in literacy and medical facilities — only 3% of the population could read English. Few foreigners were drawn to it (Meerut had 2,162 while Delhi had 992). Its economy was heavily agrarian, and modern trades like power generation and news publishing had few takers.
As a city, Delhi was way behind its time. For example, one of the occupational heads in the 1911 census is: “Toy, kite, cage, fishing tackle etc makers, taxidermists etc” . The listed products symbolize a medieval-decadent lifestyle. Bombay with 979,445 people had only 61 workers in this trade, while Delhi had 230 for its 232,837 residents.
All that is history. A century on, 1911’s has-been city is happening like never before.