Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Delhi - A City Born of Partition


After the partition of India in 1947 half a million Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan arrived in Delhi. The arrival of half a million extra citizens changed Delhi for ever. In fact the impact of their arrival on the city itself can be observed by comparing the map of Delhi in 1942 to the map of Delhi in 1956.

Delhi - 1942 vs 1956 allows you to directly compare a street map of Delhi in 1942 with a street map of the city from 1956. This interactive visualization uses a circular overlay of the 1956 map which you can move around on top of the 1942 map to view how Delhi changed drastically in short a very short period of time.

The map is a neat visualization of the historical change witnessed by Delhi, which is explained further in the the Hindu Time's article The Decade that Changed Delhi. This article explains how large parts of modern day Delhi grew out of the post-partition refugee camps that sprung up on the edge of the city in 1947.

The Hindu Times article uses the same 1942 and 1956 maps to look closely at some of the new neighborhoods which grew out of the arrival of so many new residents after partition, It also includes a visualization which allows you to switch between the two maps to show the extent by which Delhi changed in such a short space of time.

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