New Delhi
Capital city of India
New Delhi (; , ) is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Sansad Bhavan, and the Supreme Court. New Delhi is a municipality within the NCT, administered by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which covers mostly Lutyens' Delhi and a few adjacent areas. The municipal area is part of a larger administrative district, the New Delhi district.
Although colloquially "Delhi" and "New Delhi" are used interchangeably to refer to the National Capital Territory of Delhi, both are distinct entities, with the municipality and the New Delhi district forming a relatively small part within the megacity of Delhi. The National Capital Region is an even larger entity, comprising the entire NCT along with adjoining districts in the two neighbouring states forming a continuously built-up area with it, including Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Meerut, YEIDA City, Gurgaon, and Faridabad.
The foundation stone of New Delhi, south of central Delhi, was laid by George V during the Delhi Durbar of 1911. It was designed by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker. The new capital was inaugurated on 13 February 1931, by Viceroy and Governor-General Irwin.
History.
Establishment.
Until December 1911, Calcutta was the capital of India during the British Rule. However, it had become the centre of the nationalist movements since the late nineteenth century, which led to the Partition of Bengal by Viceroy Curzon. This created massive political and religious upsurge including political assassinations of British officials in Calcutta. The anti-colonial sentiments among the public led to a complete boycott of British goods, which forced the colonial government to reunite Bengal and immediately shift the capital to New Delhi.
Old Delhi had served as the political and financial centre of several empires of medieval India and the Delhi Sultanate, most notably of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857. During the early 1900s, a proposal was made to the British administration to shift the capital of the British Indian Empire, as India was officially named, from Calcutta on the east coast, to Delhi. The Government of British India felt that it would be logistically easier to administer India from Delhi, which is in the centre of northern India. The land for building the new city of Delhi was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act 1894.
During the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911, George V while laying the foundation stone for the viceroy's residence in the Coronation Park, Kingsway Camp, declared that the capital of the Raj would be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. Three days later, George V and his consort, Mary, laid the foundation stone of New Delhi at Kingsway Camp. Large parts of New Delhi were planned by Edwin Lutyens, who first visited Delhi in 1912, and Herbert Baker, both leading 20th-century British architects. The contract was given to Sobha Singh. The original plan called for its construction in Tughlaqabad, inside the Tughlaqabad Fort, but this was given up because of the Delhi-Calcutta trunk line that passed through the fort. Construction really began after World War I and was completed by 1931. The gardening and planning of plantations was led by A.E.P. Griessen, and later William Mustoe. The city that was later dubbed "Lutyens' Delhi" was inaugurated in ceremonies beginning on 10 February 1931 by Viceroy Irwin. Lutyens designed the central administrative area of the city as a testament to Britain's imperial aspirations.
Soon Lutyens started considering other places. Indeed, the Delhi Town Planning Committee, set up to plan the new imperial capital, with George Swinton as chairman, and John A. Brodie and Lutyens as members, submitted reports for both north and south sites. However, it was rejected by the Viceroy when the cost of acquiring the necessary properties was found to be too high. The central axis of New Delhi, which today faces east at India Gate, was previously meant to be a north–south axis linking the Viceroy's House at one end with Paharganj at the other. Eventually, owing to space constraints and the presence of a large number of heritage sites on the north side, the committee settled on the south site. A site atop the Raisina Hill, formerly Raisina Village, a Meo village, was chosen for the Rashtrapati Bhawan, then known as the Viceroy's House. The reason for this choice was that the hill lay directly opposite the Dinapanah citadel, which was also considered the site of Indraprastha, the ancient region of Delhi. Subsequently, the foundation stone was shifted from the site of Delhi Durbar of 1911–1912, where the Coronation Pillar stood, and embedded in the walls of the forecourt of the Secretariat. The Rajpath, also known as King's Way, stretched from the India Gate to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The Secretariat building, the two blocks of which flank the Rashtrapati Bhawan and houses ministries of the government of India, and the Parliament House, both designed by Baker, are located at the Sansad Marg and run parallel to the Rajpath.
In the south, land up to Safdarjung's Tomb was acquired to create what is today known as Lutyens' Bungalow Zone. Before construction could begin on the rocky ridge of Raisina Hill, a circular railway line around the Council House (now Parliament House), called the "Imperial Delhi Railway", was built to transport construction material and workers for the next twenty years. The last stumbling block was the Agra-Delhi railway line that cut right through the site earmarked for the hexagonal All-India War Memorial (India Gate) and Kingsway (Rajpath), which was a problem because the Old Delhi Railway Station served the entire city at that time. The line was shifted to run along the Yamuna River, and it began operating in 1924. The New Delhi Railway Station opened in 1926, with a single platform at Ajmeri Gate near Paharganj, and was completed in time for the city's inauguration in 1931. As construction of the Viceroy's House (the present Rashtrapati Bhavan), Central Secretariat, Parliament House, and All-India War Memorial (India Gate) was winding down, the building of a shopping district and a new plaza, Connaught Place, began in 1929, and was completed by 1933. Named after Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught (1850–1942), it was designed by Robert Tor Russell, chief architect to the Public Works Department (PWD).
After the capital of India moved to Delhi, a temporary secretariat building was constructed in a few months in 1912 in North Delhi. Most of the government offices of the new capital moved here from the 'Old secretariat' in Old Delhi (the building now houses the Delhi Legislative Assembly), a decade before the new capital was inaugurated in 1931. Many employees were brought into the new capital from distant parts of India, including the Bengal Presidency and Madras Presidency. Subsequently, housing for them has developed around Gole Market area in the 1920s. Built in the 1940s, to house government employees, with bungalows for senior officials in the nearby Lodi Estate area, Lodi Colony near historic Lodi Gardens, was the last residential areas built by the British Raj.
Post-independence.
After India gained independence in 1947, limited autonomy was conferred to New Delhi and was administered by a Chief Commissioner appointed by the Government of India. In 1966, Delhi was converted into a union territory and eventually the Chief Commissioner was replaced by a Lieutenant Governor. The Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991 declared the Union Territory of Delhi to be formally known as the National Capital Territory of Delhi. A system was introduced under which the elected government was given wide powers, excluding law and order which remained with the Central Government. The actual enforcement of the legislation came in 1993.
The first major extension of New Delhi outside of Lutyens' Delhi came in the 1950s when the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) developed a large area of land southwest of Lutyens' Delhi to create the diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri, where land was allotted for embassies, chanceries, high commissions and residences of ambassadors, around a wide central vista, "Shanti Path".
Geography.
With a total area of , the municipality of New Delhi forms a small part of the Delhi metropolitan area. Since the city is located on the Indo-Gangetic Plain, there is little difference in elevation across the city. New Delhi and surrounding areas were once a part of the Aravali Range; all that is left of those mountains is the Delhi Ridge, which is also called the Lungs of Delhi. While New Delhi lies on the floodplains of the Yamuna River, it is essentially a landlocked city. East of the river is the urban area of Shahdara.
Seismology.
New Delhi falls under the seismic zone-IV, making it vulnerable to earthquakes. It lies on several fault lines and thus experiences frequent earthquakes, most of them of mild intensity. There was a spike in the number of earthquakes between 2011 and 2015, most notable being a 5.4 magnitude earthquake in 2015 with its epicentre in Nepal, a 4.7-magnitude earthquake on 25 November 2007, a 4.2-magnitude earthquake on 7 September 2011, a 5.2-magnitude earthquake on 5 March 2012, and a swarm of twelve earthquakes, including four of magnitudes 2.5, 2.8, 3.1, and 3.3, on 12 November 2013.
Climate.
The climate of New Delhi is a dry-winter humid subtropical climate (Köppen "Cwa") bordering on a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSh") with high variation between summer and winter in terms of both temperature and rainfall. The temperature varies from in summers to around in winters. The area's version of a humid subtropical climate is noticeably different from many other cities with this climate classification in that it features long and extremely hot summers with dust storms, relatively dry and mild winters with wildfire haze, and a monsoonal period. Summers are long, extending from early April to October, with the monsoon season occurring in the middle of the summer. Winter starts in November and peaks in January. Winters are very mild. The annual mean temperature is around ; monthly daily mean temperatures range from approximately . New Delhi's highest temperature ever recorded is on 28 May 2024 at Met Delhi Mungeshpur while the lowest temperature ever recorded is on 11 January 1967 at Indira Gandhi International Airport (formerly known as Palam Airport). The average annual rainfall is and monsoon rainfall from June to September is about , most of which is during the monsoons in July and August.
Air quality.
In Mercer's 2015 annual quality-of-living survey, New Delhi ranks at number 154 out of 230 cities due to bad air quality and pollution. The World Health Organization ranked New Delhi as the world's worst polluted city in 2014 among about 1,600 cities the organisation tracked around the world. In 2016, United States Environmental Protection Agency listed New Delhi as the most polluted city on Earth and IQAir listed New Delhi as the world's most polluted capital city for the second straight year in year 2019.
In an attempt to lessen air pollution in New Delhi, which gets worse during the winter, a temporary alternate-day travel scheme for cars using the odd- and even-numbered licence plates system was announced by Delhi government in December 2015. In addition, trucks were to be allowed to enter India's capital only after 11 pm, two hours later than the existing restriction. The driving restriction scheme was planned to be implemented as a trial from 1 January 2016 for an initial period of 15 days. The restriction was in force between 8 am and 8 pm, and traffic was not restricted on Sundays. Public transportation service was increased during the restriction period.
On 16 December 2015, the Supreme Court of India mandated several restrictions on Delhi's transportation system to curb pollution. Among the measures, the court ordered to stop registrations of diesel cars and sport utility vehicles with an engine capacity of 2,000 cc and over until 31 March 2016. The court also ordered all taxis in the Delhi region to switch to compressed natural gas by 1 March 2016. Transportation vehicles that are more than 10 years old were banned from entering the capital.
Analysing real-time vehicle speed data from Uber Delhi revealed that during the odd-even program, average speeds went up by a statistically significant 5.4 per cent (2.8 standard deviations from normal). This means vehicles have less idling time in traffic and vehicle engines would run closer to minimum fuel consumption. In bordering areas, PM 2.5 levels were recorded more than 400 (ug/m3) while in inner areas in Delhi, they were recorded between 150 and 210 on an average. However, the sub-city of Dwarka, located in the southwest district, has a substantially low level of air pollution. At the NSIT University campus, located in sector 3 Dwarka, pollution levels were as low as 93 PPM.
On 7 November 2017, the Indian Medical Association declared a public health emergency due to high pollution levels. The highest being in the Punjabi Bagh district with an air quality index of 999 and in the RK Puram district with an index of 852. The lowest index recorded was in the Anand Vihar district with an index of 319. Levels of PM2.5 were recorded at 710 μg/m3, more than 11 times the World Health Organization's safe limit.
In a 2018 study, New Delhi was found to be the most polluted capital out of 61 capital cities around the world. In December 2019, IIT Bombay, in partnership with the McKelvey School of Engineering of Washington University in St. Louis, launched the Aerosol and Air Quality Research Facility to study air pollution in New Delhi, among other Indian cities. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India, the water quality of the Yamuna and Ganges river basins have improved as industries are closed due to the lockdown. The air quality has also significantly improved during the lockdown. On 5 November 2020, New Delhi recorded its most toxic day in a year, as the concentration of poisonous PM2.5 particles was recorded at 14 times the WHO's safe limit.
Demographics.
As of 2011, the New Delhi Municipal Council area has a population of 249,998. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in New Delhi and the lingua franca of the city. English is primarily used as the formal language by business and government institutes. New Delhi has a literacy rate of 89.38% according to 2011 census, which is the highest in Delhi.
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Religion.
According to 2011 census, Hinduism is the religion of 89.8% of New Delhi's population. There are also communities of Muslims (4.5%), Christians (2.9%), Sikhs (2.0%), Jains (0.4%). Other religious groups include Parsis, Buddhists, and Jews.
Government.
The national capital of India, New Delhi is jointly administered by both the Central Government of India and the local Government of Delhi, it is also the capital of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi.
New Delhi is administered through a municipal government, known as the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). The other urban areas of the metropolis of Delhi are administered by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Delhi Cantonment Board. As of 2015[ [update]], the government structure of the New Delhi Municipal Council includes a chairperson, three members of New Delhi's Legislative Assembly, two members nominated by the Chief Minister of the NCT of Delhi and five members nominated by the central government.
The districts of the NCT were redrawn in 2012 and include a district called New Delhi, albeit with different borders than the municipality. The New Delhi district includes not only the area of the municipality of the same name but also encompasses the Delhi Cantonment and parts of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi area.
Economy.
New Delhi is the largest commercial city in northern India. It has an estimated net State Domestic Product (FY 2010) of () in nominal terms and ~ () in PPP terms. As of 2013[ [update]], the per capita income of Delhi was Rs. 230000, second highest in India after Goa. GSDP in Delhi at the prices for 2012–13 is estimated at Rs 3.88 trillion (short scale) against Rs 3.11 trillion (short scale) in 2011–12.
Connaught Place, one of North India's largest commercial and financial centres, is located in the northern part of New Delhi. Adjoining areas such as Barakhamba Road, ITO are also major commercial centres. The government and quasi-government sector was the primary employer in New Delhi. The city's service sector has expanded due in part to the large skilled English-speaking workforce that has attracted many multinational companies. Key service industries include information technology, telecommunications, hotels, banking, media, and tourism.
The 2011 World Wealth Report ranks economic activity in New Delhi at 39, but overall the capital is ranked at 37, above cities like Jakarta and Johannesburg. New Delhi, with Beijing, shares the top position as the most targeted emerging markets retail destination among Asia-Pacific markets.
The government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi does not release any economic figures specifically for New Delhi but publishes an official economic report on the whole of Delhi annually. According to the "Economic Survey of Delhi", the metropolis has a net State Domestic Product (SDP) of Rs. 830.85 billion (for the year 2004–05) and a per capita income of Rs. 53,976 ($1,200). In the year 2008–09 New Delhi had a per capita Income of Rs. ($2,595). It grew by 16.2% to reach Rs. ($3,018) in 2009–10 fiscal. New Delhi's per capita GDP (at PPP) was at $6,860 during 2009–10 fiscal, making it one of the richest cities in India. The tertiary sector contributes 78.4% of Delhi's gross SDP followed by secondary and primary sectors with 20.2% and 1.4% contribution respectively.
The gross state domestic product (GSDP) of Delhi at prices for the year 2011–12 has been estimated at Rs 3.13 trillion (short scale), which is an increase of 18.7 per cent over the previous fiscal.
Culture.
New Delhi is a cosmopolitan city due to the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural presence of the vast Indian bureaucracy and political system. The city's capital status has amplified the importance of national events and holidays. National events such as Republic Day, Independence Day and "Gandhi Jayanti" (Gandhi's birthday) are celebrated with great enthusiasm in New Delhi and the rest of India. On India's Independence Day (15 August), the prime minister of India addresses the nation from the Red Fort. Most Delhiites celebrate the day by flying kites, which are considered a symbol of freedom. The Republic Day Parade is a large cultural and military parade showcasing India's cultural diversity and military might.
Religious festivals include Diwali (the festival of light), Maha Shivaratri, Teej, Durga Puja, Chhath Puja, Mahavir Jayanti, Guru Nanak Jayanti, Holi, Lohri, Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha, Easter, Raksha Bandhan, and Christmas. The Qutub Festival is a cultural event during which performances of musicians and dancers from all over India are showcased at night, with the Qutub Minar as the chosen backdrop of the event. Other events such as Kite Flying Festival, International Mango Festival and "Vasant Panchami" (the Spring Festival) are held every year in Delhi.
In 2007, the Japanese Buddhist organisation Nipponzan Myohoji decided to build a Peace Pagoda in the city containing Buddha relics. It was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama.
Historic sites, museums and gardens.
New Delhi is home to several historic sites and museums. The National Museum, which began with an exhibition of Indian art and artefacts at the Royal Academy in London in the winter of 1947–48, was later at the end was shown at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in 1949. Later it was to form a permanent National Museum. On 15 August 1949, the National Museum was formally inaugurated and has 200,000 works of art, both of Indian and foreign origin, covering over 5,000 years.
The India Gate, which was built in 1931, was inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It is the national monument of India commemorating the 90,000 soldiers of the Indian Army who died while fighting for the British Raj in World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. The monument is barricaded now with entry to the inside arch restricted.
The Rajpath, which was built similar to the Champs-Élysées in Paris, is the ceremonial boulevard for the Republic of India, located in New Delhi. The annual Republic Day parade takes place here on 26 January. The Beating retreat takes place here two days later.
Gandhi Smriti in New Delhi is the location where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life and was assassinated on 30 January 1948. Rajghat is the place where Gandhi was cremated on 31 January 1948 after his assassination and his ashes were buried and make it a final resting place beside the sanctity of the Yamuna River. The Raj Ghat in the shape of the large square platform with black marble was designed by architect Vanu Bhuta.
Jantar Mantar located in Connaught Place was built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur. It consists of 13 architectural astronomy instruments. The primary purpose of the observatory was to compile astronomical tables, and to predict the times and movements of the sun, moon and planets.
New Delhi is home to Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum, National Gallery of Modern Art, National Museum of Natural History, National Rail Museum, National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, National Philatelic Museum, Nehru Planetarium, Shankar's International Dolls Museum. and Supreme Court of India Museum,
In the coming years, a new National War Memorial and Museum will be constructed in New Delhi for million ().
New Delhi is particularly renowned for its beautifully landscaped gardens that can look quite stunning in spring. The largest of these include Buddha Jayanti Park and the historic Lodi Gardens. In addition, there are the gardens in the Presidential Estate, the gardens along the Rajpath and India Gate, the gardens along Shanti Path, the Rose Garden, Nehru Park and the Railway Garden in Chanakya Puri. Also of note is the garden adjacent to the Jangpura Metro Station near the Defence Colony Flyover, as are the roundabout and neighbourhood gardens throughout the city.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area was declared the cleanest in North India, based on solid waste management, access to sanitation and other parameters of cleanliness, under the zone-wise Swachh Survekshan 2017.
Cityscape.
Much of New Delhi, planned by the leading 20th-century British architect Edwin Lutyens, was laid out to be the central administrative area of the city as a testament to Britain's imperial ambitions. New Delhi is structured around two central promenades called the Rajpath and the Janpath. The Rajpath, or King's Way, stretches from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the India Gate. The Janpath (), formerly Queen's Way, begins at Connaught Circus and cuts the Rajpath at right angles. Nineteen foreign embassies are located on the nearby Shantipath (), making it the largest diplomatic enclave in India.
At the heart of the city is the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan (formerly known as Viceroy's House) which sits atop Raisina Hill. The Secretariat, which houses ministries of the government of India, flanks out of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Parliament House, designed by Herbert Baker, is located at the Sansad Marg, which runs parallel to the Rajpath. Connaught Place is a large, circular commercial area in New Delhi, modelled after the Royal Crescent in England. Twelve separate roads lead out of the outer ring of Connaught Place, one of them being the Janpath.
Architecture.
The New Delhi town plan, like its architecture, was chosen with one single chief consideration: to be a symbol of British power and supremacy. All other decisions were subordinate to this, and it was this framework that dictated the choice and application of symbology and influences from both Hindu and Islamic architecture.
It took about 20 years to build the city from 1911. Many elements of New Delhi architecture borrow from indigenous sources; however, they fit into a British Classical/Palladian tradition. The fact that there were any indigenous features in the design was due to the persistence and urging of both the Viceroy Hardinge and historians like E.B. Havell.
In the year 2019, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Government of India introduced the Central Vista redevelopment project proposing the redevelopment of over , costing ₹ crore ().
Transport.
Air.
Indira Gandhi International Airport, situated to the southwest of Delhi, is the main gateway for the city's domestic and international civilian air traffic. In 2012–13, the airport was used by more than 35 million passengers, making it one of the busiest airports in South Asia. Terminal 3, which cost () to construct between 2007 and 2010, handles an additional 37 million passengers annually.
The Delhi Flying Club, established in 1928 with two de Havilland Moth aircraft named "Delhi" and "Roshanara", was based at "Safdarjung Airport" which started operations in 1929, when it was the Delhi's only airport and the second in India. The airport functioned until 2001; however, in January 2002 the government closed the airport for flying activities because of security concerns following the New York attacks in September 2001. Since then, the club only carries out aircraft maintenance courses, and is used for helicopter rides to Indira Gandhi International Airport for VIP including the president and the prime minister.
In 2010, Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) was conferred the fourth best airport award in the world in the 15–25 million category, and "Best Improved Airport" in the Asia-Pacific Region by Airports Council International. The airport was rated as the "Best airport in the world" in the 25–40 million passengers category in 2015, by Airports Council International. Delhi Airport also bags two awards for "The Best Airport in Central Asia/India" and "Best Airport Staff in Central Asia/India" at the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2015.
A second airport, Noida International Airport, is currently being built in Jewar.
Road.
New Delhi has one of India's largest bus transport systems. Buses are operated by the state-owned Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), which owns the largest fleet of compressed natural gas (CNG)-fueled buses in the world and Delhi Transit. Personal vehicles especially cars also form a major chunk of vehicles plying on New Delhi roads. New Delhi has the highest number of registered cars compared to any other metropolitan city in India. Taxis and Auto Rickshaws also ply on New Delhi roads in large numbers. New Delhi has one of the highest road density in India and average vehicle speed is around in peak hours in the city.
Some roads and expressways serve as important pillars of New Delhi's road infrastructure:
National Highways.
New Delhi is connected by road to the rest of India through National highways:
Railway.
New Delhi is a major junction in the Indian railway network and is the headquarters of the Northern Railway. The five main railway stations are New Delhi railway station, Delhi Junction, Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, Anand Vihar Terminal and Sarai Rohilla. The Delhi Ring Railway, a circular railway network in Delhi that runs parallel to the Ring Road, is a part of Delhi's suburban railway services.
Metro.
The Delhi Metro is a rapid transit system serving Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Noida in the National Capital Region of India. Delhi Metro is the world's 12th largest metro system in terms of length. Delhi Metro was India's first modern public transportation system, which had revolutionised travel by providing a fast, reliable, safe, and comfortable means of transport. Presently, the network consists of 10 colour-coded lines serving 255 stations with a total length of . The network has now crossed the boundaries of Delhi to reach Ghaziabad and Noida in Uttar Pradesh, and Faridabad and Gurgaon in Haryana. All stations have escalators, elevators, and tactile tiles to guide the visually impaired from station entrances to trains. It has a combination of elevated, at-grade, and underground lines, and uses both broad gauge and standard gauge rolling stock. Four types of rolling stock are used: Mitsubishi-ROTEM Broad gauge, Bombardier MOVIA, Mitsubishi-ROTEM Standard gauge, and CAF Beasain Standard gauge. According to a study, Delhi Metro has helped in removing about 390,000 vehicles from the streets of Delhi.
Delhi Metro is being built and operated by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC), a state-owned company with equal equity participation from the Government of India and the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi. However, the organisation is under administrative control of the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. Besides the construction and operation of the Delhi metro, DMRC is also involved in the planning and implementation of metro rail, monorail and high-speed rail projects in India and providing consultancy services to other metro projects in the country as well as abroad. The Delhi Metro project was spearheaded by E. Sreedharan, the managing director of DMRC and popularly known as the "Metro Man" of India. He famously resigned from DMRC, taking moral responsibility for a metro bridge collapse which took five lives. Sreedharan was awarded with the Legion of Honour by the French government for his contribution to Delhi Metro.
Sports.
The city hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games and annually hosts Delhi Half Marathon foot-race. The city has previously hosted the 1951 Asian Games and the 1982 Asian Games. New Delhi was interested in bidding for the 2019 Asian Games but was turned down by the government on 2 August 2010 amid allegations of corruption in 2010 Commonwealth Games. The city also had a bid to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, but withdrew in March 1986, seven months before the host selection.
Major sporting venues in New Delhi include the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Ambedkar Stadium, Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Arun Jaitley Stadium, R.K. Khanna Tennis Complex, Dhyan Chand National Stadium and Siri Fort Sports Complex.
International relations and organisations.
The city is home to numerous international organisations. The Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology of the UNESCAP servicing the Asia-Pacific region is headquartered in New Delhi. New Delhi is home to most UN regional offices in India namely the UNDP, UNODC, UNESCO, UNICEF, WFP, UNV, UNCTAD, FAO, UNFPA, WHO, World Bank, ILO, IMF, UNIFEM, IFC and UNAIDS. UNHCR Representation in India is also located in the city.
New Delhi hosts 145 foreign embassies and high commissions.
Summits, conferences and conventions.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development hosted its second meeting conference in the year 1968 at New Delhi.
New Delhi hosted the 7th NAM Summit in 1983, 4th BRICS Summit in 2012, IBSA Summit in 2015, and 5th Global Conference on CyberSpace in 2017. India has also host the G20 summit in 2023 in New Delhi.
References.
Citations.
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André Bloc
French sculptor
André Bloc (Algiers, May 23, 1896 – New Delhi, November 8, 1966) was a French sculptor, magazine editor, and founder of several specialist journals. He founded the "Groupe Espace" in 1949.
His work is related to that of architects Auguste Perret, Henri Sauvage, and Jourdain.
Biography.
Born in Algeria, he moved to France in 1898. He studied engineering until 1920, then worked in motor and turbine factories.
In 1921 he met Le Corbusier who became influential in his career. After this meeting, Bloc moved towards architecture.
In 1922 he became the general secretary of the journal "Science et Industrie". One year later, in 1923, he became the general secretary of the journal "Revue de l'ingénieur".
In 1924 he founded the journal "Revue général du Caoutchouc". In 1930 he founded the renowned journal L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui. Bloc ran the publication until 1966. He appointed Pierre Vago as editor-in-chief in 1932.
Starting in 1940, Bloc turned towards sculpture. He created his first large sculptures in Paris between 1949 and 1956. From 1949 on, he founded several journals, such as "Art d'Aujourd'hui." These projects were part of his perennial interest in the "synthèse des arts", or synthesis of the arts"."
In 1951, in company with several artists, Bloc formed the group Espace. Its goal was to bring the ideals of constructivism and neo-plasticism to urbanism and the social arena. Artists and urbanists such as Jean Dewasne, Etienne Bóthy, Jean Gorin, Félix Del Marle, Edgard Pillet, Victor Vasarely, Sonia Delaunay, Nicolaas Warb (née Sophie Warburg), Simone Servanes and Nicolas Schöffer were members of the group, which considered architecture, painting, sculpture and art in general as a social phenomenon.
In 1952 the project and construction of the Bellevue house at Meudon was finished. From then until his death in 1966, Bloc worked primarily as a sculptor and decorator. In 1959 he participated at II. documenta in Kassel. Bloc completed several sculptures, including pieces in Tehran, Nice, Jacksonville, and Dakar. His sculptures demonstrate an organic sculptural form somewhere between architecture and sculpture.
Sculptures.
Carlson/Bloc Tower.
André Bloc sought to combine the disciplines of sculpture and architecture. The 1965 California International Sculpture Symposium's collaborative merging of art and industry echoed his notions. Bloc's dynamic career pushed the theoretical, social, and technological boundaries of design and function, exemplifying the symposium's organizer Kenn Glenn's desire to "challenge the sculptors to expand their creative limits." Bloc, a renowned engineer, artist, and architect, took on the project and spent eight weeks in the summer of 1965 working with structural engineers, architects, and builders to prepare drawings, blueprints, and a miniature maquette of this massive tower. While financial issues delayed the building of Bloc's design for seven years, the Carlson/Bloc Tower finally soared 65 feet above the CSULB campus, establishing a visible emblem of the institution’s student population of 30,000 students while also showcasing Bloc's innovative oeuvre. Bloc once stated that his idea for the tower design came from his studies since towns used to be distinguished by aesthetically beautiful and functional monuments like this. He connected his project to a lengthy historic past of structures, such as the Islamic minaret, whose winding interiors might evoke in man a spiritual journey to enlightenment, by deploying a coiled framework.
California State College at Long Beach released a press announcement on December 2, 1971, six years after the symposium, announcing the long-awaited building of the Carlson/Bloc Tower. The tower's construction had been postponed since the 1965 symposia, with an estimated cost of $44,900. Finally, work on the tower could begin courtesy of Louise Carlson's generous donation and extra funding from the LBCSC Foundation.
Bloc’s effort for carving out relationships between both people and the organic form continues to shine brightly on the CSULB campus thanks to the magnificent grandeur of the Carlson/Bloc Tower.  "With my work, I seek to unite man with his environment in a warmer, more personal relationship," he once stated. Bloc's tower will continue to unify the CSULB campus for many years to come.
The "Carlson/ Bloc Tower" (1965-1972) is a public artwork located in the CSULB campus and created by French artist André Bloc. Constructed between the Molecular Science building and the University Student Union, the "Carlson/ Bloc Tower" stands as both an historical landmark and an artwork that was included in the 1965 California International Sculpture Symposium (CISS). Designed by André Bloc, the 157-ton, white concrete tower came to fruition in 1965, after a seven-year delay related to the funding for the sculpture. During this period, Bloc collaborated with several professionals, including structural engineers, architects, and contractors to develop plans and a maquette for the sculpture. Due to the immense quantity of concrete needed to execute the sculpture, and with the uncertainty of funding, construction of Bloc’s tower came to a halt, and was the only sculpture, out of the nine created for 1965 sculpture symposium, that was incomplete. Six years later in December 1971, and after generous donations from the Louise Carlson fund and the LBCSC foundation, the California State College at Long Beach (name of CSULB at the time) announced that the "Carlson/ Bloc Tower" was to be constructed. In the Spring of 1972, the completion of the "Carlson/ Bloc Tower" finally came to realization with a total cost of $44,900. Standing at 65 feet, the architectural sculpture tapers lightly toward the sky, and, at the time in 1972, was capable of being seen from a distance of over fifteen miles.
Before creating the "Carlson/ Bloc Tower", André Bloc was completing a series of experimental structures known as “sculptures habitacles,” which translates to “habitable” in English. As an artist that merged both sculpture and architecture, Bloc first started experimenting with his habitacles at his home in Meudon, France. After completing "Habitacle 1" in 1962, he completed two more on his home grounds. His final habitacle to be realized was his "Carlson/ Bloc Tower".
References.
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Saint-André, Réunion
Commune in Réunion, France
Saint-André () is the fifth-largest commune in the French overseas department of Réunion. It is located on the northeast part of the island of Réunion. The small lake Étang de Bois Rouge is located in the commune.
This area between the Saint-Jean and the Mât rivers has been populated since the middle of the 17th century. Indeed, the first exiles were confined to Bourbon in 1646 by Mr. Promis, governor of the French Comptoir of Fort-Dauphin, to curb their mutinous ardor. Disembarked from the Saint-Laurent, they were settled in the Quartier des Français, on the banks of the Saint-Jean River. The region of Saint-André has historically seen the landing of the first French.
Geography.
Climate.
Saint-André has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification "Af"). The average annual temperature in Saint-André is . The average annual rainfall is with March as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in February, at around , and lowest in July, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Saint-André was on 18 March 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 3 July 2005.
History.
The Hôtel de Ville was completed in 1897.
Population.
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Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 debris.
On 29 July 2015, airliner marine debris was found on a beach in the commune, later confirmed to be a part of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 which disappeared about east of Réunion on 8 March 2014.
References.
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Anton Blok
Dutch anthropologist (1935–2024)
Anton Blok (15 February 1935 – 24 June 2024) was a Dutch anthropologist, famous for studying the Mafia in Sicily in 1960s. Anton Blok was a visiting associate professor at the University of Michigan (1972–73) and the University of California, Berkeley in 1988. From 1973 until 1986, he served as full professor of cultural anthropology at Radboud University, Nijmegen. He then accepted a chair at the University of Amsterdam, where he remained until his retirement. For that occasion, thirty of his international colleagues and former students contributed essays in his honor, an edited volume titled as "Miniature Etnografiche" (SUN, 2000). Later a professor "emeritus" at U Amsterdam, Dr. Blok also spent one semester at Yale as a fellow. Blok died on 24 June 2024, at the age of 89.

André Bloch (mathematician)
French mathematician (1893–1948)
André Bloch (20 November 1893 – 11 October 1948) was a French mathematician who is best remembered for his fundamental contribution to complex analysis.
Bloch killed three of his family members, for which he was institutionalized in a mental asylum for 31 years, during which all of his mathematical output was produced.
Early life.
Bloch was born in 1893 in Besançon, France. According to one of his teachers, Georges Valiron, both André Bloch and his younger brother Georges were in the same class in October 1910. Valiron believed Georges to have the better talent, and due to lack of preparation, André finished last in the class. André was spared from failing the class by convincing Ernest Vessiot to give him an oral exam. The exam convinced Vessiot of Andre's talent and both André and Georges entered the École Polytechnique.
Both brothers served for a year in the military prior to World War I. Both André and Georges studied for only one year at the École Polytechnique before the outbreak of the war.
World War I.
Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, André and Georges Bloch were drafted. André, as a second-lieutenant in the artillery, was assigned to the headquarters of General de Castelnau in Nancy.
Both Bloch brothers were injured: André suffered a fall from an observation post, while Georges sustained a head wound which cost him an eye. Georges was released from service and returned to the École Polytechnique on 7 October 1917. André, however, was allowed to convalesce but not released from duty.
Murder.
On 17 November 1917, while on convalescent leave from service in World War I, Bloch killed his brother Georges and his aunt and uncle. Several conjectures about the motives for Bloch's crime exist among mathematicians. However, Cartan and Ferrand quote Henri Baruk, who was the medical head of the asylum where Bloch was confined. Bloch told Baruk that the murders were a eugenic act, in order to eliminate branches of his family affected by mental illness.
Commitment and mathematical career.
After the murders, Bloch was committed to the asylum at Charenton in Saint Maurice, a suburb of Paris. Bloch continued his mathematical career while confined. All of his publications, including those relating to Bloch's constant, were written while he was committed. Bloch corresponded with several
mathematicians, including Georges Valiron, George Pólya, Jacques Hadamard and others, giving his return address as only "57 Grande rue, Saint-Maurice", never mentioning that this was in a psychiatric hospital. Several of his correspondents were thus unaware of his confinement.
During the German occupation of France, Bloch (who was Jewish) wrote under aliases, in order to avoid advertising his presence to Nazi occupiers. In particular, Bloch is known to have authored papers under the names of René Binaud and Marcel Segond during this time.
According to Pólya, Bloch had the habit of dating his letters with 1 April, regardless of when they were written.
Bloch was transferred to the Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris on 21 August 1948 for an operation. He died from leukemia in Paris on 11 October 1948.
Mathematical work.
Most important works of Bloch belong to complex analysis.
His early contribution is known as Bloch's theorem. This theorem asserts the existence of a certain absolute constant which is called the Bloch constant. The exact value of the Bloch constant is still unknown as of 2024[ [update]]. Research originating from this theorem led to introduction of Bloch's functions which form the so-called Bloch space. (This usage should not be confused with Bloch's functions of Swiss physicist Felix Bloch.)
Bloch formulated two important philosophical principles which proved to be useful in research in complex analysis. The more famous of these two is the so-called Bloch's principle.
In Bloch's own words it is formulated (in Latin) as follows:
"Nihil est in infinito quod non prius fuerit in finito", translated as "There is nothing in the infinite that did not exist before in the finite". Guided by this principle, Bloch was able to discover several important facts which were later proved by other mathematicians, for example, the five-island theorem. There is an intensive current research related to Bloch's principle.
Bloch's ideas stimulated much of the research on holomorphic curves in the 20th century and remain central in this subfield. He stated a fundamental theorem on holomorphic curves in complex manifolds whose irregularity exceeds dimension. (This can be considered as a deep and far-reaching generalization of Picard's theorem.) His proof of this theorem contained gaps (which he recognized), and later the theorem was known as "Bloch's conjecture". Bloch's conjecture, as stated, was proved by Takushiro Ochiai, Pit Man Wong, and simultaneously by Yujiro Kawamata in 1980, and the related research started a new area which is called holomorphic curves in Abelian varieties (and semi-Abelian varieties).
Bloch was the first (jointly with Pólya) to consider the distribution of roots of random polynomials, which is another area of research which is intensively developing
since the middle of 20th century.

Marc Bloch in World War II
Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (; ; 6 July 1886 – 16 June 1944) was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France. He worked at the Universities of Strasbourg (1920 to 1936), Paris (1936 to 1939), and the Montpellier (1941 to 1944).
During World War II, Bloch volunteered for service, and was a logistician during the Phoney War. Involved in the Battle of Dunkirk and spending a brief time in Britain, he unsuccessfully attempted to secure passage to the United States. Returning to France, he found his ability to work curtailed by new antisemitic regulations. However, he applied for and received one of the few permits available, allowing Jews to continue working in the French university system. He had to leave Paris, and complained that the Nazi authorities had looted his apartment and stole his books; he was also forced to relinquish his position on the editorial board of "Annales". Bloch worked in Montpellier until November 1942 when Germany invaded Vichy France. Bloch then joined the French Resistance, acting predominantly as a courier and translator. In 1944, he was captured in Lyon and executed by firing squad. Several of his books were published posthumously.
Background.
Marc Bloch was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France over the course of his career. As an academic, he worked at the University of Strasbourg (1920 to 1936), the University of Paris (1936 to 1939), and the University of Montpellier (1941 to 1944).
Born in Lyon to an Alsatian Jewish family, Bloch was raised in Paris, where his father—the classical historian Gustave Bloch—worked at Sorbonne University. Bloch was educated at various Parisian lycées and the École Normale Supérieure, and from an early age was affected by the antisemitism of the Dreyfus affair. During the First World War, he served in the French Army and fought at the First Battle of the Marne and the Somme. After the war, he was awarded his doctorate in 1918 and became a lecturer at the University of Strasbourg. There, he formed an intellectual partnership with modern historian Lucien Febvre. Together they founded the Annales School and began publishing the journal "Annales d'histoire économique et sociale" in 1929.
Outbreak of war.
On 24 August 1939, at the age of 53, Bloch was mobilised for a third time, now as a fuel supply officer. He was responsible for the mobilisation of the French Army's massive motorised units. This involved him undertaking such a detailed assessment of the French fuel supply that he later wrote he was able to "count petrol tins and ration every drop" of fuel he obtained. During the first few months of the war, called the Phoney War, he was stationed in Alsace. He possessed none of the eager patriotism with which he had approached the First World War. Instead, Carole Fink suggests that because Bloch felt himself to have been discriminated against, he had "begun to distance himself intellectually and emotionally from his comrades and leaders". Back in Strasbourg, his main duty was evacuating civilians behind the Maginot Line. Further transfers occurred, and Bloch was re-stationed to Molsheim, Saverne, and eventually to the 1st Army headquarters in Picardy, where he joined the Intelligence Department, in liaison with the British.
Bloch was largely bored between 1939 and May 1940 as he often had little work to do. To pass the time and occupy himself, he decided to begin writing a history of France. To this end, he purchased notebooks and began to work out a structure for the work. Although never completed, the pages he managed to write, "in his cold, poorly lit rooms", eventually became the kernel of "The Historian's Craft". At one point he expected to be invited to neutral Belgium to deliver a series of lectures in Liège. These never took place, however, disappointing Bloch very much; he had planned to speak on Belgian neutrality. He also turned down the opportunity to travel to Oslo as an attaché to the French Military Mission there. He was considered an excellent candidate for the position due to his fluency in Norwegian and knowledge of the country. Bloch considered it and came close to accepting; ultimately, though, it was too far from his family, whom he rarely saw enough of in any case. Some academics had escaped France for The New School in New York City, and the School also invited Bloch. He refused, possibly because of difficulties in obtaining visas: the US government would not grant visas to every member of his family.
Fall of France.
In May 1940, the German army outflanked the French and forced them to withdraw. Facing capture in Rennes, Bloch disguised himself in civilian clothes and lived under German occupation for a fortnight before returning to his family at their country home in Fougères. He fought at the Battle of Dunkirk in May–June 1940 and was evacuated to England with the British Expeditionary Force on the requisitioned steamer MV "Royal Daffodil", which he later described as taking place "under golden skies coloured by the black and fawn smoke". Before the evacuation, Bloch ordered the immediate burning of fuel supplies. Although he could have remained in Britain, he chose to return to France the day he arrived because his family was still there.
Bloch felt that the French Army lacked the "esprit de corps" or "fervent fraternity" of the French Army in the First World War. He saw the French generals of 1940 as behaving as unimaginatively as Joseph Joffre had in the first war. He did not, however, believe that the earlier war was an indication of how the next would progress: "no two successive wars", he wrote in 1940, "are ever the same war".
To Bloch, France collapsed because her generals failed to capitalise on the best qualities humanity possessed—character and intelligence—because of their own "sluggish and intractable" progress since the First World War. He was horrified by the defeat which, Carole Fink has suggested, he saw as being worse, for both France and the world, than her previous defeats at Waterloo and Sedan. Bloch understood the reasons for France's sudden defeat: not in the rumours of British betrayal, communist fifth columns or fascist plots, but in her failure to motorise, and perhaps more importantly, her failure to understand what motorisation meant. He understood that it was the latter that allowed the French army to become bogged down in Belgium, and this had been compounded by the French army's slow retreat. He wrote in "Strange Defeat" that a fast, motorised retreat might have saved the army.
Two-thirds of France was occupied by Germany. Bloch, one of the few elderly academics to volunteer, was demobilised soon after Philippe Pétain's government signed the Armistice of 22 June 1940 forming Vichy France in the remaining southern-third of the country. Bloch moved south, where in January 1941, he applied for and received one of only ten exemptions to the ban on employing Jewish academics the Vichy government made. This was probably due to Bloch's pre-eminence in the field of history. He was allowed to work at the "University of Strasbourg-in-exile", the universities of Clermont-Ferrand, and Montpellier. The latter, further south, was beneficial to his wife's health, which was in decline. The dean of faculty at Montpellier was Augustin Fliche, an ecclesiastical historian of the Middle Ages, who, according to Weber, "made no secret of his antisemitism". He disliked Bloch further for having once given him a poor review. Fliche not only opposed Bloch's transfer to Montpellier but made his life uncomfortable when he was there. The Vichy government was attempting to promote itself as a return to traditional French values. Bloch condemned this as propaganda; the rural idyll that Vichy said it would return France to was impossible, he said, "because the idyllic, docile peasant life of the French right had never existed".
Declining relationship with Febvre.
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It was during these bitter years of defeat, of personal recrimination, of insecurity that he wrote both the uncompromisingly condemnatory pages of "Strange Defeat" and the beautifully serene passages of "The Historian's Craft".
 R. R. Davies
The war also impacted Bloch's professional relationship with Febvre. The Nazis wanted French editorial boards to be stripped of Jews in accordance with German racial policies; Bloch advocated disobedience, while Febvre was passionate about the survival of "Annales" at any cost. He believed that it was worth making concessions to keep the journal afloat and to keep France's intellectual life alive. Bloch rejected out of hand any suggestion that he should, in his words, "fall into line". Febvre also asked Bloch to resign as joint-editor of the journal. Febvre feared that Bloch's involvement, as a Jew in Nazi-occupied France, would hinder the journal's distribution. Bloch, forced to accede, turned the "Annales" over to the sole editorship of Febvre, who then changed the journal's name to "Mélanges d'Histoire Sociale". Bloch was forced to write for it under the pseudonym Marc Fougères. The journal's bank account was also in Bloch's name; this too had to go. Henri Hauser supported Febvre's position, and Bloch was offended when Febvre intimated that Hauser had more to lose than both of them. This was because, whereas Bloch had been allowed to retain his research position, Hauser had not. Bloch interpreted Febvre's comment as implying that Bloch was not a victim. Bloch, alluding to his ethnicity, replied that the difference between them was that, whereas he feared for his children because of their Jewishness, Febvre's children were in no more danger than any other man in the country.
The Annalist historian André Burguière suggests Febvre did not really understand the position Bloch, or any French Jew, was in. Already damaged by this disagreement, Bloch's and Febvre's relationship declined further when the former had been forced to leave his library and papers in his Paris apartment following his move to Vichy. He had attempted to have them transported to his Creuse residence, but the Nazis—-who had made their headquarters in the hotel next to Bloch's apartment—-looted his rooms and confiscated his library in 1942. Bloch held Febvre responsible for the loss, believing he could have done more to prevent it.
Bloch's mother had recently died, and his wife was ill; furthermore, although he was permitted to work and live, he faced daily harassment. On 18 March 1941, Bloch made his will in Clermont-Ferrand. The Polish social historian Bronisław Geremek suggests that this document hints at Bloch in some way foreseeing his death, as he emphasised that nobody had the right to avoid fighting for their country. In March 1942 Bloch and other French academics such as Georges Friedmann and Émile Benveniste, refused to join or condone the establishment of the Union Générale des Israelites des France by the Vichy government, a group intended to include all Jews in France, both of birth and immigration.
French resistance, capture and death.
In November 1942, as part of an operation known as Case Anton, the German Army crossed the demarcation line and occupied the territory previously under direct Vichy rule. This was the catalyst for Bloch's decision to join the French Resistance sometime between late 1942 and March 1943. Bloch was careful not to join simply because of his ethnicity or the laws that were passed against it. As Burguière has pointed out, and Bloch would have known, taking such a position would effectively "indict all Jews who did not join". Burguière has pinpointed Bloch's motive for joining the Resistance in his characteristic refusal to mince his words or play half a role. Bloch had previously expressed the view that "there can be no salvation where there is not some sacrifice". He sent his family away and returned to Lyon to join the underground.
Despite knowing a number of "francs-tireurs" around Lyon, Bloch still found it difficult to join them because of his age. Although the Resistance recruited heavily among university lecturers—and indeed, Bloch's alma mater, the École Normale Superieure, provided it with many members—he commented in exasperation to Simonne that he "didn't know it is so difficult to offer one's life". The French historian and philosopher François Dosse quotes a member of the "franc-tireurs" active with Bloch as later describing how "that eminent professor came to put himself at our command simply and modestly". Bloch used his professional and military skills on their behalf, writing propaganda for them and organising their supplies and materiel, becoming a regional organiser. Bloch also joined the "Mouvements Unis de la Résistance" (Unified Resistance Movement, or MUR), section R1, and edited the underground newsletter, "Cahiers Politiques". He went under various pseudonyms: Arpajon, Chevreuse, Narbonne. Often on the move, Bloch used archival research as his excuse for travelling. The journalist-turned-resistance fighter Georges Altman later told how he knew Bloch as, although originally "a man, made for the creative silence of gentle study, with a cabinet full of books" was now "running from street to street, deciphering secret letters in some Lyonaisse Resistance garret"; all Bloch's notes were kept in code. For the first time, suggests Lyon, Bloch was forced to consider the role of the individual in history, rather than the collective; perhaps by then even realising he should have done so earlier.
Capture and execution.
Bloch was arrested at the Place de Pont, Lyon, during a major roundup by the Vichy "milice" on 8 March 1944, and handed over to the Gestapo. Bloch was using the pseudonym "Maurice Blanchard", and in appearance was "an ageing gentleman, rather short, grey-haired, bespectacled, neatly dressed, holding a briefcase in one hand and a cane in the other". He was renting a room above a dressmaker's shop on rue des Quatre Chapeaux; the Gestapo raided the place the following day. It is possible Bloch had been denounced by a woman working in the shop. In any case, they found a radio transmitter and many papers. Bloch was imprisoned in Montluc prison, during which time his wife died. While imprisoned, he was tortured, suffering beatings and ice-baths. On occasion, his torturers broke his ribs and wrists, which led to his being returned to his cell unconscious. He eventually caught bronchopneumonia and fell seriously ill. It was later claimed that he gave away no information to his interrogators, and while incarcerated taught French history to other inmates.
In the meantime, the allies had invaded Normandy on 6 June 1944. As a result, the Nazi regime was keen to evacuate and "liquidate their holdings" in France; this meant disposing of as many prisoners as they could. Between May and June 1944 the Nazi occupying forces shot around 700 prisoners in scattered locations to avoid the risk of this becoming common knowledge, thus inviting Resistance reprisals around southern France. Among those killed was Bloch, one of a group of 26 Resistance prisoners picked out in Montluc and driven along the Saône towards Trévoux on the night of 16 June 1944. Driven to a field near Saint-Didier-de-Formans, they were shot by the Gestapo in groups of four. According to Lyon, Bloch spent his last moments comforting a 16-year-old beside him who was worried that the bullets might hurt. Bloch fell first, reputedly shouting "Vive la France" before being shot. A coup de grâce was delivered. One man managed to crawl away and later provided a detailed report of events; the bodies were discovered on 26 June. For some time Bloch's death was merely a "dark rumour" until it was confirmed to Febvre.
At his burial, his own words were read at the graveside. With them, Bloch proudly acknowledged his Jewish ancestry while identifying foremost as a Frenchman. He described himself as "a stranger to any formal religious belief as well as any supposed racial solidarity, I have felt myself to be, quite simply French before anything else". According to his instructions, no orthodox prayers were said over his grave, and on it was to be carved his epitaph "dilexi veritatem" ("I have loved the truth"). In 1977, his ashes were transferred from St-Didier to Fougeres and the gravestone was inscribed as he requested.
Later events.
Febvre had not approved of Bloch's decision to join the Resistance, believing it to be a waste of his brain and talents, although, as Davies points out, "such a fate befell many other French intellectuals". Febvre continued publishing "Annales", ("if in a considerably modified form" comments Beatrice Gottlieb), dividing his time between his country château in the Franche-Comté and working at the École Normale in Paris. This caused some outrage, and, after liberation, when classes were returning to a degree of normality, he was booed by his students at the Sorbonne.
Intellectual historian Peter Burke named Bloch the leader of what he called the "French Historical Revolution", and Bloch became an icon for the post-war generation of new historians. Although he has been described as being, to some extent, the object of a cult in both England and France—"one of the most influential historians of the twentieth century" by Stirling, and "the greatest historian of modern times" by John H. Plumb—this is a reputation mostly acquired postmortem. Henry Loyn suggests it is also one which would have amused and amazed Bloch. According to Stirling, this posed a particular problem within French historiography when Bloch effectively had martyrdom bestowed upon him after the war, leading to much of his work being overshadowed by the last months of his life. This led to "indiscriminate heaps of praise under which he is now almost hopelessly buried". His legacy has been further complicated by the fact that the second generation of Annalists led by Fernand Braudel has "co-opted his memory", combining Bloch's academic work and Resistance involvement to create "a founding myth". The aspects of his life which made Bloch easy to beatify have been summed up by Henry Loyn as "Frenchman and Jew, scholar and soldier, staff officer and Resistance worker ... articulate on the present as well as the past".
Notes.
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Blokovi
Blokovi () or Novobeogradski blokovi () is the semi-formal plural name for a group of urban neighborhoods in Belgrade's municipality of New Belgrade.
The neighborhood is located in the southeastern urbanized section of the New Belgrade municipality, on the left bank of the Sava river, across from the islands of Ada Međica and Ada Ciganlija. It is bound by the neighborhoods of Bežanija and Bežanijska Kosa from the north, Block 58 from the southeast (neighborhood of Savski Nasip) and the neighborhood of Dr Ivan Ribar from the west.
When construction of New Belgrade began in 1948, the area designed for the future urban expansion was divided in 72 blocks (with several sub-blocks, like 8-a, 9-a, 9-b, 70-a, etc., and some numbers are missing). Not having any specific name like most other parts of the newly built New Belgrade, over time, this area became colloquially known simply as "Blokovi" ('Blocks').
The population of the neighborhood is 79,310, including the neighborhood of Dr Ivan Ribar. But the boundaries of the Blokovi neighborhood are very informal and roughly can be divided into two sections separated by the Yuri Gagarin Street: the north part or, so-called Bežanijski blokovi ('Bežanija Blocks') and the south part or Savski blokovi ('Sava Blocks').
Sava Blocks.
Characteristics.
The neighborhood is known for its two rows of over one hundred residential buildings, especially blocks 45 and 70 with original setup of two sets of 21 (totalling 42) identical four and two-story buildings close to the river, with large playgrounds in between, and two sets of over 40 (totalling 80) similar red brick skyscrapers close to the "Jurija Gagarina street". The area close to the river is a continuous embankment on the Sava river, stretching throughout the whole neighborhood, known as the Sava riverbank ().
The rows of two-story and 4-story buildings in Block 70 and especially Block 45 are also known as "Naselje Sunca" (), because of the peaceful environment ideal for kids and optimism and positive energy that prevailed in 1970s Belgrade. Also, the Block 45 was inhabited by a large number of artists and intellectuals, though the structure of the population has changed a bit since the 1970s.
"Omladinskih brigada street" divides Block 70-a from Block 70, "Gandijeva street" Block 70 from Block 44 and "Nehruova street" Block 44 from Block 45. Through the middle of the whole neighborhood curves the long "Lazaro Kardenas promenade". At the end of the Gandijeva street, on the Sava riverbank, a monumental bust of Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi (after whom the street was named) was erected in 2007, as a pre-celebration of October 2, Gandhi's birthday (Gandhi Jayanti) and the UN proclaimed International Day of Non-Violence
The Galovica canal, which flows into the Sava, drains the large area of the east Syrmia and the Fruška Gora mountain, due to its interconnections with the Jarčina river-canal system. As streams in the upper watershed flow through the numerous settlements, farms, industrial and artisan complexes and warehouses, wastewater pollutes Galovica. In addition, various smaller drainage canals also pollute the Galovica, which then empties large amounts of untreated sanitary and technological wastewater into the Sava.
A new park, Park Block 70, was opened in 2011 and is one of the youngest parks in Belgrade. It is located in the east-central section of the Block 70, along the Lazaro Cardenas promenade. It consists of the open green areas, children's playground, fitness equipment in the open, small wooden pavilion and 158 tree seedlings.
In January 2022, city announced that new buildings will not be built in the remaining non-urbanized areas of blocks 44, 45, 70 and 70-A. They might eventually be turned into the playgrounds, parking lots, sports fields, etc.
Block 45.
The residential complex of Block 45 was built from 1968 to 1972, when the first tenants moved in. The block was fully settled in 1973 and 1974.
Prior to 1968 the land along the river was a thick forest while the inland was a swamp which was drained and filled with sand. The area was known for its wildlife, especially the water birds. The block covers an area of and has 45 skyscrapers and 23 4 and 2-storey buildings. Chief architects were Grgur Popović (who designed the skyscrapers), Mihailo Čanak (8-storey buildings) and Rista Šekerinski (4 and 2-storey buildings).
The complete urban arrangement of the block continued in the next several years: green areas (trees, lawns), promenades, school,