Book traces Delhi’s journey through maps

New Delhi: A new book featuring a study of the maps of Delhi seeks to encapsulate the development of city’s planning from the onset of the 19th century till the master plan of 2021.

The book, called the Maps of Delhi by Italian architect Pilar Maria Guerrieri, touches aspects like the seige of Delhi, structures during World War II and key memorials, roads and marketplaces.

It is billed as the first organised collection of the maps of the city, an illustrated cartographic history of the capital. Each map has been described individually, elaborating on its idiosyncrasies, aesthetic details, and rich historical information.

The collection will enable a study of the territory as such, and will further help in understanding the relationships between its individual parts while facilitating an analysis of the morphologies that developed within. The book includes a chronology of ancient and modern hand-drawings as also digital maps of the city. The evolution of planning and architecture, which unfolds through the maps, mirrors the political, social, and historical progression of the capital.

The maps indicate varying purposes: military intelligence and strategy, complex irrigation or sewage schemes, plans outlining prodigious developments, projects and colonies, tourist maps emphasising the sight-worthy monuments, and of course an abundance of survey maps illustrating the status quo of the territory.

Among the maps is one that seems to have been printed as a sequence of prints and was possibly used for military operations. “The map, as such, depicts the siege of Delhi and was certainly printed after Delhi was re-captured by the British on 22nd of September, 1857, since the grave of General Nicholson and ‘the spot where Gen. Nicholson was shot’ are marked,” the author said.  

“This map of Shahjahanabad precisely positions and labels the various battalions and batteries by their placement as well as their respective commands,” she wrote.