Ethnic groups in Delhi explained

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

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, and are predominantly Hindi-speaking Punjabi Hindus with significant population being Punjabi-speaking Sikhs.^{[14] [15] [16]}

Migrants

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.

Delhi is an ancient city, and the people residing in the Yamuna River basin were the original natives of the city. 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. 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:

Place of birth! colspan="2"

1951 census^[21]
Population	Percentage
Delhi	717,310
Pakistan (mainly West Punjab and North-West Frontier Province)^[22]	479,744
Uttar Pradesh (including contemporary Uttarakhand)	262,098
East Punjab (including contemporary Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab)	190,586
Rajasthan	48,592
Bombay	8,956
Madhya Pradesh	8,082
West Bengal	5,675
Kashmir	4,444
Madras	3,920
Madhya Bharat	1,914
Hyderabad	1,870
Travancore Cochin	1,695
Ajmer	1,499
Bihar	1,303
Nepal	1,073
Ireland	1,010
Malaya	855
Assam	674
Burma	635
Saurashtra	575
Mysore	492
Kutch	266
Bhopal	211
Africa	115
Orissa	83
China	69
Tripura	34
Ceylon	20
Russia	18
Afghanistan	16
Vindhya Pradesh	3
Other places	235
Total population	1,744,072

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. 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] Today Hindi and Punjabi are still the most widely spoken languages in Delhi and have become the lingua franca.^[24] 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.^{[25] [26]}

External links

• Delhi District Gazetteer 1883

Notes and References

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]
3. Book: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. fourth.
4. News: Delhi polls: Caste to play crucial role . The Hindu . https://web.archive.org/web/20200829190155/https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-polls-caste-to-play-crucial-role/article5374994.ece . 29 August 2020. 22 March 2020.
5. News: Delhi's Jats: From farmers to determined political climbers . Kumar . Rajesh . 13 November 2013 . The Pioneer . 10 September 2018.
6. News: Fight for Brahmin votes intensifies . The Pioneer . 10 September 2018.
7. News: Singh . Raj . Delhi Assembly elections 2015: Important facts and major stakeholders . 12 April 2019 . . 6 February 2015.
8. News: Singh . Darpan . Haidder . Faizan . For Delhi, the Dalit die is caste . 20 April 2021 . Hindustan Times . 25 December 2014 . en.
9. News: Why Punjabis are central to Delhi election. Jupinderjit. Singh. February 2015. The Tribune. 22 November 2021.
10. News: Dutta . Sweta . Key to 50 seats on AAP radar: voters from Uttarakhand . 22 November 2021 . The Indian Express . 18 April 2017 . en.
11. Web site: Delhi's migrant voters from south prefer AAP but UP & Bihar could decide election outcome . 31 January 2020 . 31 July 2023.
12. News: 23 November 2022 . MCD polls 2022: BJP & AAP go all out to woo 30% of Delhi population — Poorvanchalis . The Times of India . 31 July 2023 . 0971-8257.
13. Web site: 534 Sanjay Kumar, A tale of three cities . india-seminar.com . 21 March 2019.
14. Web site: Delhi Assembly Elections 2015: Important Facts And Major Stakeholders Mobile Site. 6 February 2015. India TV News. 7 September 2015 . 30 December 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151230215251/https://m.indiatvnews.com/politics/national/delhi-assembly-elections-2015-important-facts-and-stakeholders-25298.html. dead.
15. Web site: Why Punjabis are central to Delhi election. Jupinderjit Singh. February 2015 . tribuneindia.com/news/sunday-special/perspective/why-punjabis-are-central-to-delhi-election/36387.html. 7 September 2015. 9 January 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220109200353/https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/features/why-punjabis-are-central-to-delhi-election-36387. live.
16. Book: Sanjay Yadav . The Invasion of Delhi . 2008 . Worldwide Books . 978-81-88054-00-8 . 14 September 2021 . 8 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210908231734/https://books.google.com/books?id=CTBBL1q5C_EC&pg=PA10 . live .
17. News: George . Sarahbeth . 12 August 2023 . Independence Day: How refugee real estate became Delhi's poshest areas . The Economic Times . 28 June 2024.
18. News: Independence Day: How refugee real estate became Delhi's poshest areas . Economic Times . 12 August 2023 . 10 April 2024.
19. Web site: The Languages of Delhi – A Microcosm of India's Diversity . 31 July 2023 . The Wire.
20. Web site: The Refugee History Behind Durga Puja Celebrations in Delhi's C.R. Park .
21. Web site: Census of India, 1951: Punjab, Pepsu, Himachal Pradesh, Bilaspur & Delhi . saoa.crl.25803729 . 12 May 2024 . 1951 . 328 . Vashishta . Lakshmi Chandra . India. Superintendent Of Census Operations . Punjab . 3 .
22. Web site: The decade that changed Delhi . 31 July 2023 .
23. Book: Duncan McDuie-Ra . Northeast Migrants in Delhi: Race, Refuge and Retail . 2012 . Amsterdam University Press . 978-90-8964-422-0 . 161–.
24. Demographics of North India by P.S. Rawat p. 186
25. Web site: Know about Delhi Fast Facts, Area, population, Geographical Location, Languages. 6 July 2019.
26. Web site: Archived copy . 10 August 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084459/http://delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/d09fd2004bd07ad9a305ab56803943f0/Delhi+Official+Languages+Act+2000.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&lmod=-344844204 . 4 March 2016 . dead .