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Ethnic groups in Delhi

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Punjab (British India) in 1909 from The Imperial Gazetteer of India

Delhi's ethnic groups are diverse. The Yamuna river's flood plains provide fertile alluvial soil suitable for agriculture but are prone to recurrent floods. The Yamuna, a sacred river in Hinduism, is the only major river flowing through Delhi. The original natives of Delhi are those whose ancestors lived in the Yamuna basin, a region which spreads radially from the capital up to a distance of approximately 200 kilometres.[1] This province was not ethnically homogeneous and large amounts of Hindi-speakers resided in the southeast, now Haryana, eastern side, now West Uttar Pradesh and in Delhi's Yamuna Basin. Today the migrant population consists largely of Punjabis, Haryanavis, Bengalis and recently, Biharis and Uttar Pradeshis etc.[2]

During the time of British Raj, Delhi was made a district city of the Punjab Province of British India.[3]

Caste and politics

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See also: List of Scheduled Castes in Delhi
  • According to a 2013 The Hindu article, surveys by the political parties indicate that the dominant voter caste / community groups in Delhi include the Jats (10%), Punjabis (9%), Vaish (8%), Gujjars (7% ) and Sikhs (4%).[4]
  • A 2013 The Pioneer report estimates Jats to be only 5.5% of the total electorate.[5]
  • According to another 2013 The Pioneer report, the Brahmins comprise 12-14% of Delhi's population.[6]
  • According to a 2015 India TV article, the major voter social groups include Punjabis (different castes and religions) (35%), Purvanchalis (24%), Muslims (12%), Jats (8%), Vaish (8%), Gujjars (7%), Sikhs (5%) and around 3.5 million Uttarakhandis.[7]
  • In the 2015 Legislative Assembly election, 12 out of Delhi's 70 constituencies were reserved for scheduled caste (Dalit) candidates because of dominant Dalit population.[8]
  • According to a 2015 report by The Tribune, Delhi has 81% Hindus and 11.7% Muslims. 35% Punjabi population controls 15-20% vote share in at least 20 constituencies. Purvanchalis, as per the report, were at 4 million.[9]
  • A 2017 article by the Indian Express reported a total of 1.2 to 1.4 million voters who have roots in Uttarakhand.[10]
  • As per 2020 report by ThePrint, Migrants from UP and Bihar almost dominate Delhi's population. Two out of every three migrants in Delhi were born in either state.[11]
  • A 2022 article by Times of India, have reported that "People from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who comprise Purvanchalis, are believed to be numerically superior to other ethnicities in 16 of the 70 assembly seats in the city, accounting 30% of the population.[12]
  • Jats, Punjabi Khatris and Brahmins dominated politics in Delhi for many decades.[13]
  • Numerically high, the ethnic Punjabis of all dialects and castes are believed to account for at least 35% to 40% of Delhi's total population,[14] and are predominantly Hindi-speaking Punjabi Hindus with significant population being Punjabi-speaking Sikhs.[15][16][14]

Migrants

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The Indian censuses record the native languages, but not the descent of the citizens. Linguistic data cannot accurately predict ethnicity: for example, many descendants of the Punjabi Hindu and Sikh refugees who came to Delhi following the partition of India now speak Hindi natively. Thus, there is no concrete official data on the ethnic makeup of Delhi.[14]: 8–10 

Delhi is an ancient city, and the people residing in the Yamuna River basin were the original natives of the city.[14]: 12  However, being a historical capital and prominent city, Delhi has always attracted a large number of immigrants. When the capital of British India was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi, a substantial number of government personnel, especially from the Bengal, migrated to Delhi.[14]: 19  Before 1947, Delhi was primarily a city dominated by Urdu-speaking Muslims, Hindu Rajputs and Baniyas.[17]

Following the partition of India in 1947, a large number of people migrated to Delhi. In a few months, its demography changed. Punjabi (including Hindkowan and Saraiki) migrants and refugees, who arrived in hordes from West Punjab and North-West Frontier Province after the Partition, suddenly came to form nearly one-third of the city's population.[18] The large number of Punjabis (with a relatively small number of Sindhis and Bengalis), led to the characterisation of Delhi as a "Punjabi city". Delhi was an absolute de facto Punjabi-speaking majority city from 1947 to till late 1980s.[19] South East Delhi's Chittaranjan Park locality hosts the largest Bengali population in the city, the majority of its residents have settled here just after Partition.[20] According to the first census of 1951 census, Delhi had a total population of 1,744,072 people which included:[14]: 20 [21]

Place of birth of Delhiites in 1951
Place of birth 1951 census[21]
Population Percentage
Delhi 717,310 41.13%
Pakistan
(mainly West Punjab and North-West Frontier Province)[22] 		479,744 27.51%
Uttar Pradesh
(including contemporary Uttarakhand) 		262,098 15.03%
East Punjab
(including contemporary Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab) 		190,586 10.93%
Rajasthan 48,592 2.79%
Bombay 8,956 0.51%
Madhya Pradesh 8,082 0.46%
West Bengal 5,675 0.33%
Kashmir 4,444 0.25%
Madras 3,920 0.22%
Madhya Bharat 1,914 0.11%
Hyderabad 1,870 0.11%
Travancore Cochin 1,695 0.1%
Ajmer 1,499 0.09%
Bihar 1,303 0.07%
Nepal 1,073 0.06%
Ireland 1,010 0.06%
Malaya 855 0.05%
Assam 674 0.04%
Burma 635 0.04%
Saurashtra 575 0.03%
Mysore 492 0.03%
Kutch 266 0.02%
Bhopal 211 0.01%
Africa 115 0.01%
Orissa 83 0.005%
China 69 0.004%
Tripura 34 0.002%
Ceylon 20 0.001%
Russia 18 0.001%
Afghanistan 16 0.001%
Vindhya Pradesh 3 0%
Other places 235 0.01%
Total population 1,744,072 100%

By 1991, the number of those born outside Delhi was 3.7 million (out of a total population of 9.4 million). Most of these included immigrants from Uttar Pradesh (1.75 million) and Rajasthan (0.23 million). However, these neighbouring states are themselves ethnically diverse, so it is hard to use this data for determining the ethnic make-up of Delhi.[14]: 19  There are also a large number of immigrants from the East Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bengal. The number of South Indians is relatively less, with most of them coming from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There are also several immigrants from the North-East India, who have migrated to Delhi because of the conflicts and bad economy in their native states.[23]

The number of Afghan Indians, as well as Afghan students, workers and refugees, living in the neighbourhood of Lajpat Nagar has resulted in it being referred to as Afghan Nagar.[24][25] The suburb has two Afghan "bakeries and three restaurants, and many guesthouses and apartments housing Afghan students, guests, medical refugees and asylum seekers."[24] As such, Apollo Hospital in Delhi "has translators on staff, a website in Dari, and even a separate payment desk for Afghans."[26] Most of the Afghans in Lajpat Nagar speak Pashto or Dari.[27]

Today Hindi-Urdu and Punjabi are still the most widely spoken languages in Delhi and have become the lingua franca.[28][29] English is the principal written language of the city and the most commonly used language in government work and in Delhi's huge financial sector. In addition to Hindi, Punjabi and English, Urdu also has official language status in Delhi.[30][31]

References

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  1. ^ Memorandum submitted to the States Re-Organisation Commission Regarding Greater Delhi, 1 May 1954, quoted in Shiv Charan Gupta, Delhi: The City of Future, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1987, pp. 146–156.
  2. ^ Percival Spear, Delhi: The Stop-Go Capital: A Summation, p. 32, in RE Frykenberg, (editor), Delhi Through the Ages: Selected Essays in Urban History, Culture and history. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000.
  4. ^ "Delhi polls: Caste to play crucial role". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 29 August 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  5. ^ Kumar, Rajesh (13 November 2013). "Delhi's Jats: From farmers to determined political climbers". The Pioneer. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  6. ^ "Fight for Brahmin votes intensifies". The Pioneer. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  7. ^ Singh, Raj (6 February 2015). "Delhi Assembly elections 2015: Important facts and major stakeholders". India TV. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  8. ^ Singh, Darpan; Haidder, Faizan (25 December 2014). "For Delhi, the Dalit die is caste". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  9. ^ Singh, Jupinderjit (February 2015). "Why Punjabis are central to Delhi election". The Tribune. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  10. ^ Dutta, Sweta (18 April 2017). "Key to 50 seats on AAP radar: voters from Uttarakhand". The Indian Express. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  11. ^ "Delhi's migrant voters from south prefer AAP but UP & Bihar could decide election outcome". 31 January 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  12. ^ "MCD polls 2022: BJP & AAP go all out to woo 30% of Delhi population — Poorvanchalis". The Times of India. 23 November 2022. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  13. ^ "534 Sanjay Kumar, A tale of three cities". india-seminar.com. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Sanjay Yadav (2008). The Invasion of Delhi. Worldwide Books. ISBN 978-81-88054-00-8. Archived from the original on 8 September 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  15. ^ "Delhi Assembly Elections 2015: Important Facts And Major Stakeholders Mobile Site". India TV News. 6 February 2015. Archived from the original on 30 December 2015. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  16. ^ Jupinderjit Singh (February 2015). "Why Punjabis are central to Delhi election". tribuneindia.com/news/sunday-special/perspective/why-punjabis-are-central-to-delhi-election/36387.html. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  17. ^ George, Sarahbeth (12 August 2023). "Independence Day: How refugee real estate became Delhi's poshest areas". The Economic Times. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  18. ^ "Independence Day: How refugee real estate became Delhi's poshest areas". Economic Times. 12 August 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  19. ^ "The Languages of Delhi – A Microcosm of India's Diversity". The Wire. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  20. ^ "The Refugee History Behind Durga Puja Celebrations in Delhi's C.R. Park".
  21. ^ a b Vashishta, Lakshmi Chandra; India. Superintendent Of Census Operations, Punjab (1951). "Census of India, 1951: Punjab, Pepsu, Himachal Pradesh, Bilaspur & Delhi". p. 328. JSTOR saoa.crl.25803729. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  22. ^ "The decade that changed Delhi". Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  23. ^ Duncan McDuie-Ra (2012). Northeast Migrants in Delhi: Race, Refuge and Retail. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 161–. ISBN 978-90-8964-422-0.
  24. ^ a b Das, Bijoyeta (3 June 2013). "Afghan students flock to India's universities". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  25. ^ Sharma, Mohit (24 April 2014). "The Afghan trail". Millennium Post. Retrieved 23 April 2014. Often called 'Little Kabul', 'Afghan Nagar,' amongst other polysyllables, nomenclature twisting is the latest pastime in the vicinity.
  26. ^ Sharma, Mohit (24 April 2014). "The Afghan trail". Millennium Post. Retrieved 23 April 2014. The Apollo hospital in the city's southwest has translators on staff, a website in Dari, and even a separate payment desk for Afghans.
  27. ^ Sharma, Mohit (24 April 2014). "The Afghan trail". Millennium Post. Retrieved 23 April 2014. Pashto and Farsi chatters, Burqa clad women, glistering restaurants adorned with linguistic signposts mark Delhi's most thronged Lajpat Nagar market.
  28. ^ "About Hindi". University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
  29. ^ Demographics of North India by P.S. Rawat p. 186
  30. ^ "Know about Delhi Fast Facts, Area, population, Geographical Location, Languages". 6 July 2019.
  31. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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