<em>Answer:</em>
Calcutta, the main centre of British Raj till then, had fallen out of favour as it had become politically unstable.
The British government wanted to shift the capital and Delhi won on many counts. It was closer to Shimla, the summer capital and was well connected by rail.
In the next 20 years, New Delhi would be carved out of scattered villages and a rocky ridge inhabited by jackals. The new capital and its imposing buildings would come to define Delhi for the next 100 years. The capital, however, would keep growing beyond the garden city planned by Edwin Lutyens - and continues to grow.
