ABSTRACT
Delhi, the capital of India, is a vibrant city with cosmopolitan culture, and has a rich past. Its history can be traced back to the times of the Mahabharata. Delhi is a classic case of “superdiversity” in terms of geography, cultures, communities, and even spatial expansion. Its diversity is a hybridisation of cultures in a very unique sense, that has evolved over centuries. Superdiversity in Delhi has reached a stage that can be called “post-diversity”, the stage where the rough edges of discordance that emerge from diversity, over time, have been tempered and finely polished into smooth contours. The focus of the chapter is to understand why Delhi is a specific case within the debate of cities on migration. Tracing the evolution of superdiversity in Delhi, the chapter attempts to understand how the contours of socio-cultural, political, and value systems have supported diversity in Delhi.
