The Moghul emperor Shah Jahan built the walled city of Northern India, Shahazanabad, in 1639. It was renamed to Old Delhi when the British took control of the territory in 1857. Since 1772, the colonial capital Calcutta had been the business, commercial, political, and cultural center of British India, and in 1911, the new administrative capital became New Delhi.

As freedom from colonial rule surged inside India, so did the social scenario of religious disruptions to partition the country. Parts of the eastern and the western states, Bengal and Punjab, were separated as Islamic states. The partition of India took place on the midnight of August 14, 1947. India became an independent nation on August 15, 1947.