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The sociolinguistic composition of Delhi changed radically and quickly over that initial decade, she remembers. The city expanded far beyond the existing Shahjahanabad area of Old Delhi , and the still-young enclave for the British in New Delhi -- to the area south of Lodhi Garden that had been farmland and forest till then.

Between 1941 and 1951, Delhi’s population shot up by 90%, an increase that was never seen before or after those years in the nation capital. These were the years when refugees from Pakistan came to India, most of them to Delhi. Many of them built the Delhi we know today.

Settling and integrating these people into the city and the country was not an easy task, especially considering the numbers . As per census numbers, following the promotion of Delhi as the capital of the British Indian Empire in 1911, the population grew from 238,000 in 1911 to 696,000 in 1947. The census has an official record of 459,391 “displaced people” who moved to Delhi in 1947, almost doubling the population of the city.

What is historically known as one of the largest migration of people across borders, Partition affected Delhi the most, throwing all planning for the nation capital out of gear. The meticulously planned New Delhi designed by British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, became a glorified refugee camp in a matter of days.

“In 1947, the population of Delhi was around 7 lakh (700,000). Within two months between July and September, about 5 lakh people came to Delhi and the population was suddenly 12 lakh (1.2 million). People just overtook whatever space they could find. The initial camps were in Purana Quila and Firozshah Kotla, but eventually, the entire city was flooded by people who occupied roads, public parks, closed schools, areas around Connaught Place or any other open area that they found. The government tried its best to provide ration, food, medicine, tents and other facilities but resources were limited,” said A K Jain, one of the first commissioners of Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

New Delhi was declared the capital of India in December 1911 and the people who settled in it thereafter were mainly government officials. This sudden pouring in of lakhs of people into the city posed a major challenge for the government which had been planning a city for the urban elite based on the British and American design philosophies.

“They were planning a ring-and-radial patterned city. Raisina Hills emulated the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. This garden city was supposed to have a one-acre park for every 10 acres of residential area. Suddenly, the entire focus shifted to accommodating more people in less area,” said PS Uttarwar, retired additional commissioner of DDA.

The government soon constituted a Ministry of Refugees that took care of the facilities at the camps. It operated for about a year, after which it was converted to the Ministry of Rehabilitation (MoR). According to letter from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) available in the National Archives, official orders from the PMO in 1947 stated that the task of accommodating refugees was to be treated with the gravity of a “national emergency”.

KK Balli was three years old when he moved to Delhi in 1952 with his father. His family shifted from Pakistan to the Indian side of Punjab months before Independence to stay with relatives. After spending the initial few years in parts of Punjab and Haryana, the family moved to Delhi.

“The first few years just went into trying to move around till things were more peaceful, but Delhi was ultimately the place to go if you came from Pakistan. My father also found his footing once he moved here. We found rented accommodation initially in Gandhinagar as most of the other areas were already crowded. My father got a government job as he was well educated. After a few years, we bought land in the same area and built a house. Our fourth generation is living in that house now,” said Balli, a businessman based in Gandhinagar.

The Baseline Report for Delhi Master Plan 2041 states that by December 1950, accommodation for 100,000 refugees was constructed in 21 colonies by MoR, which included Azadpur, Rajinder Nagar, Patel Nagar, Shakti Nagar, Kingsway, Tilak Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Krishna Nagar, East Nizamuddin, Jangpura, Lajpat Nagar, Kalkaji, Geeta Colony, Sheikh Sarai, Rajouri Garden, and Malviya Nagar.

By 1955, 15 more colonies were added as people who left Pakistan continued to pour into the city till the late 1950s.

“My grandfather belonged to the Jhang district of Pakistan where his sister’s husband was killed during partition. He left his well-settled business and moved to Rajasthan with his sister’s family. They were given wasteland as compensation in Loharu area of Rajasthan. He knew that moving to Delhi was the only way to prosper. My family moved here in 1953 and my grandfather worked odd jobs before he started a garment business. Delhi was all about the railway stations and parts of Old Delhi areas initially. Everything else was deserted. We lived in Shahdara, which had one police station that time; there are over 30 police stations now,” said Naresh Sikka, a businessman in Shahdara.

Some areas saw residents from a particular area in Pakistan settling, and took on names that reflected this. Thus came about Punjabi Bagh, Gujranwala Town, and Derawal Nagar .

The people who moved into camps were initially given refugee cards that were replaced with provisional ration cards and other identification as the government started allotting houses to them. Officials say that the government allotted a total of 70,000 plots across these colonies to displaced people against a nominal rent. About 10,000 other plots were allotted free of cost with small rooms built on them with asbestos sheet roofing for those who were poor.

“Most of the allotted plots were 80-100 square yards in size. The allottees had to pay a monthly instalment of ₹12 and 50 paise for 15 years. Later as the government realised that space was limited, some smaller plots of 50-60 square yards were also added. One of the most far-sighted things done by the government was the acquisition of large land parcels from farmers in 1912-13, which made it possible to chart out these colonies,” said Jain.

He added that the Indian government acquired around 10,000 acres to build “New Delhi” and another 10,000 acres for the cantonment. In addition, it acquired another 30,000 acres for extending the city. On this land came up Najafgarh, Rajouri Garden and Janakpuri as extensions to the west, Karol Bagh and beyond towards the south and parts of Kamla Nagar, Roop and Shakti Nagar towards the North.

These “refugee” colonies, typically U-shaped developments with a park in the middle, became the template for subsequent neighbourhoods, partly because they were built by the same urban planners who shaped Delhi through the 50s and 60s. This was the beginning of Rajinder Nagar, West Patel Nagar, Moti Nagar, and Rajouri Garden. By the middle of the 1950s, refugees moved into empty flats in Lodhi Colony and built homes around the villages in Nizamuddin and Jangpura. All of this was on what was once the deserted south side of Lodhi Road.

By the end of 1950, the government had allotted nearly 2,958 acres and housed 300,000 refugees — 190,000 in evacuated houses and 100,000 in newly constructed houses. The government also set up a Rehabilitation Finance Administration to oversee monetary aid to refugees who needed it. Delhi also provided aid for small shopkeepers, relief schemes, grants, loans to students, and those who wanted to start businesses or industries.

Business boomed. In 1953, the city’s growing middle class contributed to the growth of Delhi significantly and building activity accelerated. By the mid-1950s, elite neighbourhoods of Golf Links, Sunder Nursery, Jor Bagh, etc. with large plot sizes from 400 square metres to 1000 square metres came up in the South. The projects were planned and designed by Delhi Improvement Trustand executed by L&DO (Land and Development Office).

By then DIT’s role and effectiveness was already being questioned. And the government also realised that the planning of Delhi could not continue to be restricted to haphazard allotment of colonies.

“After partition of the country in 1947, there was enormous population influx into Delhi, which caused haphazard growth of colonies, land encroachment and creation of slums, scarcity of the resources, pressure on accommodation facilities, etc. DIT tried various city expansion schemes, but was compromised by land speculation and little access of the new areas to the city’s poor. DIT’s role came under massive criticism after Independence,” said the baseline report for MPD 2041.

The GD Birla committee appointed to investigate the DIT’s working and social mandate in 1950 undertook a comprehensive review of the organisation’s work and in a report presented in 1951 said DIT had failed to provide a healthy civic environment in the city, provide housing to the poor , resulting in the unplanned growth of the city without effective zoning or a comprehensive Master Plan.

Eventually, the Delhi Development (Provisional) Authority (DDPA) was constituted in 1955 ; DDA was formed in 1957(the allotment of plots to the refugees went on till the early 1960s).

In 1958, after staying at the rented accommodation in Kamla Nagar for 11 years, Mridula Mukherjee’s parents were allotted a plot in Lajpat Nagar. Mukherjee was eight when she moved to her house in Lajpat Nagar ; she spent her entire childhood and adolescent years there.

“Lajpat Nagar 1, 2 and 4 had smaller houses that were built by the government and allotted. Lajpat Nagar 3 had the bigger plots that were allotted against a nominal price to people who could afford them. My father had taken one of these bigger plots,” said Mukherjee, former chairperson of the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University..

Lajpat Nagar was “quiet” compared to the busy thoroughfare it is today, she recollects. “Lajpat Nagar was a residential colony of middle-class professionals and not the specialised garment market that everyone visits these days. The market there was a colony market that residents would visit for their daily groceries, medicines or for an evening chat or to get your pictures framed. It was a close community neighbourhood where everyone knew everyone. Hardly anyone had cars. So, we would cycle around all of Lajpat Nagar and it was safe to do that,” said Mukherjee.

Across the road was Defence Colony, which was settled around the same time by military officials. She remembers it as a favourite hang-out with good bakeries. “We had school friends from Defence Colony and we would walk across the road to have an éclair or patty at the bakeries there. I cannot even imagine anyone walking across the Link Road today from Lajpat Nagar to Defence Colony,” adds Mukherjee, who lived at the JNU campus as a faculty member for 40 years.

She moved back to her Lajpat Nagar childhood home four years ago after retiring.

The first Master Plan of Delhi was finally prepared in 1962 by DDA and the Town and Country Planning organisation with technical assistance from the Ford Foundation.

And the city never looked back.