Central New Delhi

The modern area of CENTRAL NEW DELHI, with its wide tree-lined avenues and solid colonial architecture, has been the seat of central government since 1931. At its hub, the royal mall, Rajpath, runs from palatial Rashtrapati Bhavan, in the west, to the India Gate war memorial in the east. At the north edge of the new capital lies the thriving business centre, Connaught Place, where neon advertisements for Wimpy, American Express, hotels and countless airline offices adorn the flat roofs and colonnaded verandas of high white buildings that curve around a central park to form an almost perfect circle. Central New Delhi also has its fair share of more recent high-rise offices and hotels, standing close to pre-British constructions such as the open-air observatory, Jantar Mantar, and a generous smattering of excellent museums covering arts and crafts and the lives of India's post-Independence politicians.

• Bangla Sahib Gurudwara
  This was the royal palace of Raja Jai Singh. He dedicated this palace, to the sacred memory of Guru Harkishan, the eighth Guru of the Sikhs.

• Colonial churches
  No British governmental centre could be complete without a church, and in 1927 work began on the Church of the Redemption, east of Parliament House. Designed by Russell's successor, Henry Medd, the robust structure owes more than a passing nod to Lutyens with its high curved vaults, and subtle yet dominant domed tower – it appealed so much to the then-viceroy, Lord Irwin, that it became known as "Viceroy's Church". The exterior is plain and boldly linear, while within, high rounded arches and shafts of strong light streaming through crescent windows impart an overwhelming sense of space. A company of angels looks down from the curved roof above the altar.

• Connaught Place
  The stylish commercial centre, Connaught Place, with the colourful stalls on Janpath, and the emporia on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, is a shopper's paradise. This round shaped area, divided into blocks A–N by seven radial roads and rimmed by a busy outer Ring Road known as Connaught Place. The whole area, from Plaza Cinema in the north to Jantar Mantar and Tolstoy Marg in the south, is commonly referred to as Connaught Place.

• India Gate
  India Gate is a majestic high arch, 42 meters high, built as a memorial to the Indian soldiers killed in the World War I. Beneath it burns an eternal flame. From the base of the arch one can get a good view of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

• Crafts Museum
  Bhairon Road, Pragati Maidan(Tel.23371641)
  Open: 9.30 A.M. To 5.00 P.M., Closed: Monday
  The museum houses a variety of crafts from different parts of India. Regular demonstrations are held by craftsmen and there is a small handicraft shop as well.

• Gandhi Smiriti Museum
  No.5, Tees January Marg (Tel.23012843)
  Open : All day
  A collection of memorabilia on Gandhi. Exhibition of dolls depicting important landmarks in Gandhi's life. Khadi and village industry products are available on sale.

• Jantar Mantar
  An astronomical observatory with masonry instruments, designed by the astronomer - king Sawai Jai Singh II of Jaipur, in 1724.

• Lakshmi Narayan Mandir
  Popularly known as Birla Mandir, it is a large Hindu temple built in 1938. People of all faiths can enter and worship but one must walk barefoot into the courtyard and further on.

• Art Galleries
  Contemporary Indian art is on display at the Modern Art Gallery. In addition Lalit Kala Academy, Ravindra Bhawan, Triveni Gallery and AIFACS Gallery regularly display the works of arts.

• Modern Art Gallery
  A collection of contemporary Indian art alongwith an art reference library.

• National Museum
  Janpath, New Delhi
  (Tel 23019272)
  Open 10.00 A.M. to 5.00 P.M.
  Closed: Monday
  A comprehensive collection of antique crafts, stone carvings and artifacts. Some of them dating back to the period of Harappa & Mohanjodaro. The museum shows what ancient India was all about.

• National Museum of Natural History
  FICCI Building,Barakhamba Road, New Delhi (Tel.23319173)
  Open: 10.00 A.M. To 5.00 P.M., Closed: Monday
  Here the focus is on ecology. Various galleries take visitors through the gamut of earth's natural resources. The museum also has activity rooms for children to play and learn.

• National Philatelic Museum
  To locate the National Philatelic Museum, at Dak Bhavan, Post Office, Sansad Marg (Mon–Fri 9.30am–12.30pm & 2.30–4.30pm; free), go to the entrance by the car park at the back of the post office on Sansad Marg and report to reception, where you will be given a pass to go up to the first floor and view the extensive collection of rare stamps. These include first-day covers and special cancellations from the pre- and post-Independence eras. A booth in the main post office sells special commemorative stamps to liven up your letters.

• Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
  Built in 1930 as the residence for the British commander-in-chief, the grand and sombre Teen Murti House on Teen Murti Marg later became home to India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and is now the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (Tues–Sun 9.30am–4.45pm; free). A tour of the house leads through rooms laden with photographs recording Nehru's life, from his childhood and student years at Harrow and Cambridge to his formal appointment as leader of India's government in the presence of the king and queen of England in 1948. The years between were dominated by the growth of the Congress party and calls for Independence, decisive periods in India's history that are documented here with excellent displays and reference to all the political activists involved. While Nehru's political life is brought to the fore, his personal effects in a simple bedroom, office and sitting room give some idea of the character of the father of a dynasty that hasn't left the political arena since Independence. Even Sonia Gandhi, reluctant to enter politics, is now something of a figurehead for many Indians.

• Paharganj
  With buzzing Main Bazaar as its centrepiece, the lively area of Paharganj, immediately west of New Delhi railway station, is a fascinating area to stroll around and, for many budget travellers, their first experience of the subcontinent. Renowned for its cheap hotels, it's also packed with restaurants, cafés, internet cafés, travel agents and shops selling anything from plastic toys and hardware to psychedelic clothing, carvings, bronzes and perfumed sandalwood. There's a busy fruit and vegetable market halfway along, a multitude of stalls dishing up tasty snacks, and itinerant hawkers keen to sell you drums, sleeping bags or even whips at the "best prices". A constant stream of cycle and auto-rickshaws, handcarts, cows and the odd taxi squeeze through impossible gaps without the flow ever coming to a complete standstill. The winding alleys where children play among chickens and pigs seem worlds away from the commercial city centre only just around the corner.

• Parliament House (Sansad Bhavan)
  Northeast of Rashtrapati Bhavan at the end of Sansad Marg is Parliament House, now known as Sansad Bhavan. This circular shaped colonnaded building houses the two Houses of Parliament- the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Its domed Central Hall is 90 feet in diameter. From outside, Parliament House presents an unbroken circle of high buff pillars, and a higher storey that seems like a central dome.

• Rashtrapati Bhavan and Rajpath
  After George V, king of England and emperor of British India, decreed in 1911 that Delhi should replace Calcutta as the capital of India, the talented and ambitious English architect Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to plan the new governmental centre. Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the president of India, is one of the largest and most grandiose of the Raj constructions, built by Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker between 1921 and 1929. Originally the Viceroy's House, this salmon-pink H-shaped structure on the gentle slope of Raisina Hill was built to dominate: a symbol asserting imperial power in the face of its doomed struggle against Indian nationalism, it was home to Lord Mountbatten, appointed viceroy in 1947 to supervise the transition to Independence. Its grandeur was considered nothing more than "vulgar ostentation and wasteful extravagance" by Motilal Nehru, while Mahatma Gandhi claimed that the construction of such "architectural piles" was "in conflict with the best interests of the nation".

• Sangeet Natak Akademi
  India's premier institution for music (sangeet), dance (natak), and the performing arts, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, Firoz Shah Road (Mon–Fri 9.30am–6pm; free), is more of a resource centre than a museum, with a large audiovisual archive. A gallery also displays an extensive collection of folk and classical musical instruments, masks and costumes, while its library holds all sorts of rare and otherwise unobtainable volumes.

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• Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad)
  
• South Delhi