The Great War's impact on imperial Delhi

In many ways the history of New Delhi is a Great War story. Though the original reason for transferring the capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911 pre-dates the war and was done for reasons specific to Britain’s colonial rule in India, the city was still in the design stages when Britain became immersed in the war. ¹ Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, the renowned architects who designed and built the new capital, had focussed their attention until then on the central forum where the main government structures, Government House and the Secretariats, would rise. ² Dozens of square kilometres of land had been purchased for the capital and its adjacent military cantonment, but the two architects and the Government of India remained undecided on some of the more important features that would occupy spaces within the city. ³ Hence, much of imperial Delhi still was in its formative stages at the beginning of hostilities.