Karol Bagh

Karol Bagh is a mixed residential/commercial neighbourhood in West-Central Delhi. It is primarily known today as a shopping area, originally centered around the main street, called Ajmal Khan Road. In recent years, commercial activity has expanded into the lanes that lead off it, swallowing once-residential areas which now house, along with a variety of shops, a large concentration of mid-range hotels catering to a mixture of domestic businessmen and foreign tourists. Some of the best-known shops on Ajmal Khan Road include Roopak's,(spice store) Sethi Silk Store (womens apparel showroom) but what the market is mainly known for is Jwellery, clothes and shoes. It has a plethora of shops specializing in clothes (including branches of famous trousseau shops Ram Chandra Kishan Chandra and Zohra, which were featured in Mira Nair's film Monsoon Wedding). Other landmark shops include Cheap Silk Stores, South India Cloth House, and Jainsons Westend. Well-known eating places are mostly old-fashioned sweetshops, including Punjab Sweets and Roshan di Kulfi (supposedly one of the oldest and best kulfi places in the city), and Bikanervala. These are also well-known for their traditional Punjabi vegetarian food options and snacks, such as aloo tikki and excellent chole bhature. The area between Gurudwara Road and Ajmal Khan Road, at the Pusa Road end, specialises in Car accessories. Naiwalan area is biggest Wholesale Market for spare part of two wheelers in India. A little further down, where Ajmal Khan Road meets Pusa Road, is a station of the third line of the Delhi Metro, which links it to Connaught Place and West Delhi. Mondays are given over to one of the largest street markets in the city, though the pavements are full of stalls on all days. Ghaffar Market, a municipal market along a stretch of Ajmal Khan Road, specializes in smuggled electronics and sundry other 'imported' items. Desh Bandhi Gupta runs through the middle of Karol Bagh and leads to New Dehli Railway Station which is at about a distance of 5 km. Liberty Cinema is another important landmark,one of the many places of recreation apart from the shopping street.

History

The area was primarily residential with a large Muslim population until the exodus of many Muslims to Pakistan and an influx of refugees from West Punjab after Partition in 1947, many of whom were traders, made it the hub of a major shopping area, which it remains to this day. There remains a sizeable Tamil-speaking population, and several stores specialising in South Indian kitchen paraphernalia, including filter coffee makers. Karol Bagh was also home to a large Bengali community, and has one of the oldest Durga Puja in the city, though their numbers have now dwindled. The area is of some historic importance, though this has been eclipsed by its commercial success; further along Ajmal Khan Road towards Paharganj one encounters the Tibbia College, a turn-of-the-century centre for 'Unani and Ayrvedic' medicine founded by Hakim Ajmal Khan, who also founded the Unani medicine firm Hamdard. Several disused mosques lie hidden in the small bylanes. Lying in close proximity to Karol bagh is the Jhande Walan Temple. A sacred place of worship for the Hindu's, this temple has a mass devotee following that frequent it.

Neighbourhoods within Karol Bagh

The constituent neighbourhoods are Western Extension Area, Naiwala, Krishan Nagar, Ramjas Road, Dev Nagar, Regharpura, Sat Nagar and Beadonpura.

Social Composition of Neighbourhoods

Other important religious structures include the Gurudwara on the epynomous road, and the Arya Samaj Temple which gives another major arterial road its name. Of anthropological interest are also a Christian settlement further along Saraswati Marg, and a low-income neighbourhood called Regharpura, where, according to some historians, members of the Reghar tribe who were employed by the British colonial administration to work as labourers in the construction of New Delhi were settled after the new capital had been built. Western Extension Area was primarily middle-class but is now mostly commercial.