Old Delhi: new book & exhibit

Delhi’s past is being repackaged in two formats at once: a new 420-page history book from Garuda Prakashan and a Delhi heritage exhibit at the Indraprastha Cultural Festival. (garudalife.in) (festivalsfromindia.com) Garuda’s book, *Delhi: Its History, Genocides, Tragedies and Monuments*, is listed as a 2026 first edition by Sabya Sachi Ghosh, with 420 pages and ISBN 9789347691058. Retail listings say it was published on March 16, 2026. (garudalife.in) (amazon.in) The publisher’s description says the book covers Delhi from the Delhi Sultanate to the fall of the Mughal Empire and argues that standard accounts understate mass violence against non-Muslims. That framing comes from Garuda’s own promotional copy, not from an independent scholarly review. (garudalife.in) The exhibition sat inside a larger state-backed event. The Indraprastha Cultural Festival ran from April 3 to 5, 2026, at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi and was presented by the Government of Delhi with support from Delhi Tourism, Sangam Talks, and Garuda Prakashan. (festivalsfromindia.com) (thestatesman.com) Festival organizers and news reports described the event as a three-day gathering with more than 100 speakers, more than 50 cultural performances, literary sessions, youth town halls, and special exhibitions. Delhi minister Kapil Mishra said at the launch that the festival aimed to foreground Delhi’s “civilizational identity” as Indraprastha. (festivalsfromindia.com) (thestatesman.com) The PRARANG exhibit fits that agenda by leaning on objects rather than performances. PRARANG says its research archive includes rare books, maps, prints, postcards, coins, and other city-related materials collected over roughly 25 years, with one page describing more than 200,000 objects in the founders’ private collections. (prarang.in) (planner.prarang.in) PRARANG presents itself as a city-knowledge project built around urban history, local language content, and archival material tied to Indian towns and cities. Its own “about” pages say books, maps, posters, textiles, and other collectibles form the core of its daily knowledge posts. (prarang.in 1) (prarang.in 2) Both projects arrive in a Delhi culture scene where history is being framed less as neutral chronology and more as public argument over identity, memory, and ownership of monuments. The festival’s official language and the book’s marketing copy both push a civilizational reading of the city’s past. (festivalsfromindia.com) (garudalife.in) That makes the distinction between archive and interpretation important. The exhibit centers original-looking material such as rare books and maps, while the book advances a sharply revisionist argument about conquest and violence that, based on the sources available here, has not yet been tested in mainstream academic reviews. (prarang.in) (garudalife.in) In Old Delhi and beyond, the immediate story is not only that a book was launched and an exhibit opened. It is that Delhi’s past is being presented simultaneously as evidence to study and as a narrative to contest. (garudalife.in) (festivalsfromindia.com)