Native name	Delhi
Other name	दिल्ली
Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
Skyline	Delhi Montage.jpg
Skyline caption	From top clockwise: Lotus Temple, Humayun's Tomb, Connaught Place, Akshardham Temple, and India Gate.
Nickname	Dilli, The Heart of India, The City of Djinns, The Capital City, The First City, The Empire City, The City
Locator position	right
State name	Delhi
Leader title	Lt. Governor
Leader name	Tejendra Khanna
Leader title 2	Chief Minister
Leader name 2	Sheila Dikshit
Leader title 3	Mayor
Leader name 3	Prof. Rajni Abbi
Official languages	English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu
Legislature type	Unicameral
Legislature strength	70
leader title4	High Court
leader name4	Allahabad High Court
Area total	1483
Area rank	1st
Area magnitude	9
Altitude	239
Altitude cite
Population as of	2010
Population rank	2nd
Population total	16,753,235
Population total cite
Population as of	2011
Population metro	18,916,890
Population metro cite
Population metro as of	2010
Population metro rank	2nd
Population density	11297
Hdi year	2005
Hdi	0.789
Hdi category	very high
Districts	|titleDistricts of Delhi |1 New Delhi |2 Central Delhi |3 North Delhi |4 North East Delhi |5 East Delhi |6 South Delhi |7 South West Delhi |8 West Delhi |9 North West Delhi
Boroughs	|titleBoroughs / Suburbs of Delhi |1 Gurgaon, Haryana |2 Noida, Uttar Pradesh |3 Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh |4 Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh |5 Faridabad, Haryana |6 Rohtak, Haryana |7 Panipat, Haryana |8 Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
Area telephone	91-11- XXXX XXXX
Postal code	110 xxx
Vehicle code range	DL-xx
Unlocode	INDEL
Website	delhigovt.nic.in
Seal	Emblem of India.svg
Map caption	Location of Delhi in India }}

Delhi, locally pronounced as Dilli (, , }}) or Dehli (, , }}), officially National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest city by population in India. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census. There are nearly 22.2 million residents in the greater National Capital Region urban area (which also includes the cities Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad along with other smaller nearby towns). The name Delhi is often also used to include urban areas near the NCT, as well as to refer to New Delhi, the capital of India, which lies within the metropolis. Although technically a federally administered union territory, the political administration of the NCT of Delhi today more closely resembles that of a state of India with its own legislature, high court and an executive council of ministers headed by a Chief Minister. New Delhi, jointly administered by both the federal Government of India and the local Government of Delhi, is also the capital of the NCT of Delhi.

Located on the banks of the River Yamuna, The Delhi has been known to be continuously inhabited since at least the 6th century BC, though human habitation is believed to have existed since the second millennium BC. Delhi is also widely believed to have been the site of Indraprastha, the legendary capital of the Pandavas during the times of the Mahabharata. Delhi re-emerged as a major political, cultural and commercial city along the trade routes between northwest India and the Gangetic plain after the rise of the Delhi sultanates. It is the site of many ancient and medieval monuments, archaeological sites and remains. In 1639, Mughal emperor Shahjahan built a new walled city in Delhi which served as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857.

After the British East India Company had gained control of much of India during the 18th and 19th centuries, Calcutta became the capital both under Company rule and under the British Raj, until George V announced in 1911 that it was to move back to Delhi. A new capital city, New Delhi, was built to the south of the old city during the 1920s. When India gained independence from British rule in 1947, New Delhi was declared its capital and seat of government. As such, New Delhi houses important offices of the federal government, including the Parliament of India, as well as numerous national museums, monuments, and art galleries.

Owing to the migration of people from across the country(mostly from the Northern and Eastern states of India), Delhi has grown to be a multicultural, cosmopolitan metropolis. Its rapid development and urbanisation, coupled with the relatively high average income of its population, has transformed Delhi into a major cultural, political, and commercial centre of India.

Etymology and idioms

The Etymology and idioms of "Delhi" is uncertain, but many possibilities exist. The very common view is that its eponym is ''Dhillu'' or ''Dilu'', a king of the Mauryan dynasty, who built the city in 50 BC and named it after himself. The Hindi/Prakrit word ''dhili'' ("loose") was used by the Tomaras to refer to the city because the Iron Pillar built by Raja Dhava had a weak foundation and was replaced. The coins in circulation in the region under the Tomaras were called ''dehliwal''. Some other historians believe that the name is derived from ''Dilli'', a corruption of ''dehleez'' () or ''dehali'' () —both terms mean 'threshold' or 'gateway'— and symbolic of the city as a gateway to the Gangetic Plain. Another theory suggests that the city's original name was Dhillika.

Delhi is referenced in various idioms of North Indian and Pakistani languages. Examples include - ''Abhi Dilli door hai'' (or, its Persian version, ''Hanouz Dehli dour ast'' ()) literally meaning ''Delhi is still far away'', which is generically said about a task or journey is still far from complete. del or dili also meaning heart. In Persian 'del or dili have many meaning cordial, heart, center, love, etc. ''Dilli dilwalon ka shehr'' or ''Dilli Dilwalon ki'' meaning ''Delhi belongs to the large-hearted/daring''. ''Aas-paas barse, Dilli pari tarse'' () literally meaning ''it pours all around, while Delhi lies parched''. An allusion to the sometimes semi-arid climate of Delhi, it idiomatically refers to situations of deprivation when there is plenty all around.

History

Human habitation was probably present in and around Delhi during the second millennium BC and before, and continuous inhabitation has been evidenced since at least the 6th century BC. The city is believed to be the site of Indraprastha, legendary capital of the Pandavas in the Indian epic Mahabharata. Settlements grew from the time of the Mauryan Empire (c. 300 BC).

Remains of seven major cities have been discovered in Delhi. The Tomara dynasty founded the city of Lal Kot in AD 736. The Chauhans conquered Lal Kot in 1180 and renamed it Qila Rai Pithora. The Chauhan king Prithviraj III was defeated in 1192 by the Afghan Muhammad Ghori.

In 1206, Qutb-ud-din Aybak, the first ruler of the Slave Dynasty established the Delhi Sultanate. Qutb-ud-din started the construction the Qutub Minar and ''Quwwat-al-Islam'' (might of Islam), the earliest extant mosque in India. After the fall of the Slave dynasty, a succession of Turkic and Afghan dynasties, the Khilji dynasty, the Tughluq dynasty, the Sayyid dynasty and the Lodhi dynasty held power in the late medieval period, and built a sequence of forts and townships that are part of the seven cities of Delhi.

In 1398, Timur Lenk invaded India on the pretext that the Muslim sultans of Delhi were too lenient towards their Hindu subjects. Timur entered Delhi and the city was sacked, destroyed, and left in ruins. Near Delhi, Timur massacred 100,000 captives. Delhi was a major centre of Sufism during the Sultanate period. In 1526, Zahiruddin Babur defeated the last Lodhi sultan in the First Battle of Panipat and founded the Mughal Empire that ruled from Delhi, Agra and Lahore.

The Mughal Empire ruled northern India for more than three centuries, with a sixteen-year hiatus during the reign of Sher Shah Suri, from 1540 to 1556. During 1553–1556, the Hindu king, Hemu Vikramaditya acceded to the throne of Delhi by defeating forces of Mughal Emperor Akbar at Agra and Delhi. However, the Mughals reestablished their rule after Akbar's army defeated Hemu during the Second Battle of Panipat. Shah Jahan built the seventh city of Delhi that bears his name (''Shahjahanabad''), and is more commonly known as the ''"Old City"'' or ''"Old Delhi"''. The old city served as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1638. After 1680, the Mughal Empire's influence declined rapidly as the Hindu Marathas rose to prominence.

A weakened Mughal Empire lost the Battle of Karnal, following which the victorious forces of Nader Shah invaded and looted Delhi, carrying away many treasures, including the Peacock Throne. A treaty signed in 1752 made Marathas the protector of the Mughal throne at Delhi. In 1761, after the Marathas lost the third battle of Panipat, Delhi was raided by Ahmed Shah Abdali. In 1803, the forces of British East India Company overran the Maratha forces near Delhi and ended the Mughal rule over the city.

After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Delhi came under direct rule of the British crown and was made a district province of the Punjab. In 1911, the capital of British India was transferred from Calcutta to Delhi, following which a team of British architects led by Edwin Lutyens designed a new political and administrative area, known as New Delhi, to house the government buildings. New Delhi, also known as ''Lutyens' Delhi'', was officially declared as the capital of the Union of India after the country gained independence on 15 August 1947.

During the partition of India, thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees from West Punjab and Sindh fled to Delhi, while many Muslim residents of the city migrated to Pakistan. Starting on 31 October 1984, approximately three thousand Sikhs were killed during the four-day long anti-Sikh riots after the Sikh body guards of then-Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, assassinated her. Migration to Delhi from the rest of India continues, contributing more to the rise of Delhi's population than the birth rate, which is declining.

The Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991 declared the Union Territory of Delhi to be formally known as National Capital Territory of Delhi. The Act gave Delhi its own legislative assembly, though with limited powers. In December 2001, the Parliament of India building in New Delhi was attacked by armed militants resulting in the death of six security personnel. India suspected the hand of Pakistan-based militant groups in the attacks resulting in a major diplomatic crisis between the two countries. Delhi again witnessed terrorist attacks in October 2005 and September 2008 resulting in the deaths of 62 and 30 civilians respectively.

Geography

The National Capital Territory of Delhi is spread over an area of , of which is designated rural, and urban. Delhi has a maximum length of and the maximum width of . There are three local bodies (statutory towns) namely, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (area is ), New Delhi Municipal Committee () and Delhi Cantonment Board ().

Delhi is an expansive area, in its extremity it spans from Narela in the north to Badarpur in the south. Najafgarh is the furthest point west, and Seemapuri is its eastern extremity. The NCR encompasses towns south and east of the said border, namely Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon.

Oddly, the main expanse of Delhi does not follow a specific geographical feature. The main city area of Delhi does not end until Saket in the South, whilst the northern limit is Jahangirpuri and the western limit is Janakpuri-Dwarka. The terrain of Delhi shows great variation. It changes from plain agricultural fields in the north to dry, arid hills (an offshoot of the Aravalli Hills of Rajasthan) in the south and west. There used to be large natural lakes in the southern part of the city, but most have now dried up. Most of Delhi, including New Delhi, is situated on the western banks of the river Yamuna which separates the main city from eastern suburbs (commonly known as ''trans-Yamuna''), although there is a good connectivity between the eastern and western sides, with a number of road and railway bridges as well as the Delhi Metro.

Delhi is located at , and lies in northern India. It borders the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh to the east and Haryana on the north, west and south. During British Raj it was adjacent to the province of Punjab and still historically and culturally tied closely to the region of Punjab. Almost entirely within the Gangetic plains, two prominent features of the geography of Delhi are the Yamuna flood plains and the Delhi ridge. The low-lying Yamuna flood plains provide fertile alluvial soil suitable for agriculture but are prone to recurrent floods. Reaching up to a height of 318 m (1,043 ft), the Delhi ridge forms a dominating feature in this region. It originates from the Aravalli Range in the south and encircles the west, northeast and northwest parts of the city. Yamuna, a sacred river in Hinduism, is the only major river flowing through Delhi. Another river called the Hindon River separates Ghaziabad from the eastern part of Delhi. Delhi falls under seismic zone-IV, making it vulnerable to major earthquakes, but earthquakes have not been common in recent history. Delhi has the third highest tree-cover among cities in India.

Delhi was one of the world's ten most polluted cities in the 1990s, with vehicles producing 70% of the polluting emissions. In 1996 the Centre for Science and Environment started a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court of India that ordered the conversion of Delhi's fleet of buses and taxis to be run on Compressed Natural Gas and banned the use of leaded petrol in 1998. In 2003, Delhi won the United States Department of Energy’s first ‘Clean Cities International Partner of the Year’ award for ‘‘bold efforts to curb air pollution and support alternative fuel initiatives’’.

Climate

Delhi features an atypical version of the humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cwa''). Summers are long and extremely hot, from early April to mid-October, with the monsoon season in between. Early March sees a reversal in the direction of wind, from the north-western direction, to the south-western. These bring the hot waves from Rajasthan, carrying sand and are a characteristic of the Delhi summer. These are called loo. The months of March to May see a time of hot prickling heat. Monsoon arrives at the end of June, bringing some respite from the heat, but increasing humidity at the same time. The brief, mild winter starts in late November and peaks in January and is notorious for its heavy fog.

Extreme temperatures range from −0.6 °C (30.9 °F) to . The annual mean temperature is 25 °C (77 °F); monthly mean temperatures range from 13 °C to 32 °C (56 °F to 90 °F). The average annual rainfall is approximately 714 mm (28.1 inches), most of which is during the monsoons in July and August. The average date of the advent of monsoon winds in Delhi is 29 June.

Famous for its mixture of historic landmarks, monuments, temples and stylish Art Deco style buildings, the city of New Delhi is filled with interest. Amongst the most notable landmarks within New Delhi are the India Gate, the Lotus Temple (Bahai Temple) and also the President House (Rashtrapati Bhavan).

No trip to New Delhi is complete without a photo or two of its famous Red Fort (Lal Qila), which features a stunning red facade and evening light shows. Just across from the Red Fort is the Raj Ghat, an official memorial to India's spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi. New Delhi's main monuments and landmarks are described below.

Civic administration

As of July 2007, the National Capital Territory of Delhi comprises nine districts, 27 tehsils, 59 census towns, 300 villages and three statutory towns the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD); the New Delhi Municipal Committee (NDMC); and the Delhi Cantonment Board (DCB).

The Delhi metropolitan area lies within the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). The NCT has three local municipal corporations: Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Delhi Cantonment Board. MCD is one of the largest municipal corporations in the world providing civic amenities to an estimated 13.78 million people. The capital of India, New Delhi, falls under the administration of NDMC. The chairperson of the NDMC is appointed by the Government of India in consultation with the Chief Minister of Delhi.

Delhi has four major satellite cities, which lie outside the National Capital Territory of Delhi. These are Gurgaon and Faridabad (in Haryana), and New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) and Ghaziabad (in Uttar Pradesh). Delhi is divided into nine districts. Each district (division) is headed by a Deputy Commissioner and has three subdivisions. A Subdivision Magistrate heads each subdivision. All Deputy Commissioners report to the Divisional Commissioner. The District Administration of Delhi is the enforcing department for all kinds of State and Central Government policies and exercises supervisory powers over numerous other functionaries of the Government.

The Delhi High Court has jurisdiction over Delhi. Delhi also has lower courts: the Small Causes Court for civil cases; the Magistrate Court and the Sessions Court for criminal cases. The Delhi Police, headed by the Police Commissioner, is one of the largest metropolitan police forces in the world. Delhi is administratively divided into nine police-zones, which are further subdivided into 95 local police stations.

Recently, there have been changes in the Police Districts, their jurisdiction etc., although the Administrative Districts of Delhi are nine only, it seems. For instance, an Outer Delhi Police District has been carved out in the Western part of Delhi.

Government and politics

Earlier known as a special union territory, the National Capital Territory of Delhi has its own Legislative Assembly, Lieutenant Governor, council of ministers and Chief Minister. The legislative assembly seats are filled by direct election from territorial constituencies in the NCT. However, the Union Government of India and the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi jointly administer New Delhi, a city in Delhi, which is the capital and seat of government of both the National Capital Territory of Delhi and of India itself.

Services like transport and others are taken care of by the Delhi government, services such as the police are directly under the control of the Central Government. The legislative assembly was re-established in 1993 for the first time since 1956, with direct federal rule in the span. In addition, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) handles civic administration for the city as part of the Panchayati Raj act. New Delhi, an urban area in Delhi, is the seat of both the State Government of Delhi and the Government of India. The Parliament of India, the Rashtrapati Bhavan (Presidential Palace), Cabinet Secretariat and the Supreme Court of India are located in New Delhi. There are 70 assembly constituencies and seven Lok Sabha (Indian parliament's lower house) constituencies in Delhi.

Delhi was a traditional stronghold of the Indian National Congress, also known as the Congress Party. In the 1990s, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Madan Lal Khurana came into power; however in 1998, Congress regained power under Sheila Dikshit, the incumbent Chief Minister. The Congress retained power in the Legislative Assembly in the 2003 and 2008 elections.

Economy

With an estimated net State Domestic Product (FY 2007) of in nominal terms and in PPP terms, Delhi is the largest commercial center in northern India. In 2007, Delhi had a per capita income of at current prices, the third highest in India after Chandigarh and Goa as of 2006–07.

The tertiary sector contributes 70.95% of Delhi's gross SDP followed by secondary and primary sectors, with 25.20% and 3.85% contribution, respectively. Delhi's workforce constitutes 32.82% of the population showing an increase of 52.52% between 1991 and 2001. Delhi's unemployment rate decreased from 12.57% in 1999–2000 to 4.63% in 2003. In December 2004, 636,000 people were registered with various employment exchange programmes in Delhi.

In 2001 the total workforce in all government (union and state) and quasi-government sector was 620,000. In comparison, the organised private sector employed 219,000. Key service industries include information technology, telecommunications, hotels, banking, media and tourism. Delhi's manufacturing industry has also grown considerably as many consumer goods industries have established manufacturing units and headquarters in and around Delhi. Delhi's large consumer market, coupled with the easy availability of skilled labour, has attracted foreign investment in Delhi. In 2001, the manufacturing sector employed 1,440,000 workers while the number of industrial units was 129,000.

Construction, power, telecommunications, health and community services, and real estate form integral parts of Delhi's economy. Delhi has India's largest and one of the fastest growing retail industries. As a result, land prices are booming and Delhi is currently ranked the 7th most expensive office hotspot in the world, with prices at $145.16 per square foot. As in the rest of India, the fast growth of retail is expected to affect the traditional unorganized retail trading system.

Utility services

The water supply in Delhi is managed by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). As of 2006, it supplied 650 MGD (million gallons per day) of water, while the water demand for 2005–06 was estimated to be 963 MGD. The rest of the demand is met by private and public tube wells and hand pumps. At 240 MGD, the Bhakra storage is the largest water source for DJB, followed by the Yamuna and the Ganges. With falling groundwater level and rising population density, Delhi faces severely acute water shortage. Delhi daily produces 8000 tonnes of solid wastes which is dumped at three landfill sites by MCD. The daily domestic waste water production is 470 MGD and industrial waste water is 70 MGD. A large portion of the sewerage flows untreated into the river Yamuna.

The city's per capita electricity consumption is about 1,265 kWh but actual demand is much more. In 1997, Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) replaced Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking which was managed by the MCD. The DVB itself cannot generate adequate power to meet the city's demand and borrows power from India's Northern Region Grid. As a result, Delhi faces a power shortage resulting in frequent blackouts and brownouts, especially during the summer season when energy demand is at its peak. Several industrial units in Delhi rely on their own electrical generators to meet their electric demand and for back up during Delhi's frequent and disruptive power cuts. A few years ago, the power sector in Delhi was handed over to private companies. The distribution of electricity is carried out by companies run by Tata Power and Reliance Energy. The Delhi Fire Service runs 43 fire stations that attend about 15,000 fire and rescue calls per year.

State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and private enterprises like Vodafone Essar, Airtel, Idea cellular, Reliance Infocomm, and Tata Indicom provide telephone and cell phone service to the city. In May 2008, Airtel alone had approximately 4 million cellular subscribers in Delhi. Cellular coverage is extensive, and both GSM and CDMA (from Reliance and Tata Indicom) services are available. Affordable broadband penetration is increasing in the city.

Transport

thumb|The [[Delhi Transport Corporation|DTC operates the world's largest fleet of CNG buses, totaling 9000]]

Public transport in Delhi is provided by buses, auto rickshaws and a metro rail system.

Buses are the most popular means of transport catering to about 60% of the total demand. The state-owned Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is a major bus service provider for the city. The DTC operates the world's largest fleet of environment-friendly CNG buses. Delhi BRTS is Bus rapid transit serving the city which runs between Ambedkar Nagar and Delhi Gate.

The Delhi Metro, a mass rapid transit system built and operated by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), serves many parts of Delhi as well as the satellite city of Gurgaon in the neighbouring Haryana and Noida in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. As of October 2010, the metro consists of six operational lines with a total length of and 130 stations while several other lines are under construction. The Phase-I was built at a cost of US$2.3 billion and the Phase-II will cost an additional US$4.3 billion. Phase-II of the network is under construction and will have a total length of 128 km. It is expected to be completed by 2010. Phase-III and IV will be completed by 2015 and 2020 respectively, creating a network spanning 413.8 km, longer than that of the London Underground.

Auto rickshaws are a popular means of public transportation in Delhi, as they charge a lower fare than taxis. Most run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and are yellow and green in colour. Taxis are not an integral part of Delhi public transport, though they are easily available. Private operators operate most taxis, and most neighborhoods have a taxi stand from which taxis can be ordered or picked up. In addition, air-conditioned radio taxis, which can be ordered by calling a central number, have become increasingly popular, charging a flat rate of 15 per kilometre.

Delhi is a major junction in the rail map of India and is the headquarters of the Northern Railway. The five main railway stations are New Delhi Railway Station, Old Delhi, Nizamuddin Railway Station, Anand Vihar Railway Terminal and Sarai Rohilla. Delhi is connected to other cities through many highways and expressways. Delhi currently has three expressways and three are under construction to connect it with its prosperous and commercial suburbs. The Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway connects Delhi with Gurgaon and the international airport. The DND Flyway and Noida-Greater Noida Expressway connect Delhi with two prosperous suburbs of Noida and Greater Noida.

Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) is situated in the western corner of Delhi and serves as the main gateway for the city's domestic and international civilian air traffic. In 2006–07, the airport recorded a traffic of more than 23 million passengers, making it one of the busiest airports in South Asia. A new US$1.93 billion Terminal 3 handles an additional 34 million passengers annually in 2010. Further expansion programs will allow the airport to handle more than 100 million passengers per annum by 2020.

Private vehicles account for 30% of the total demand for transport. At 1922.32 km of road length per 100 km², Delhi has one of the highest road densities in India. Delhi is well connected to other parts of India by five National Highways: NH 1, 2, 8, 10 and 24. Roads in Delhi are maintained by MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi), NDMC, Delhi Cantonment Board, Public Works Department (PWD) and Delhi Development Authority.

Delhi's high population growth rate, coupled with high economic growth rate has resulted in an ever increasing demand for transport creating excessive pressure on the city's existent transport infrastructure. As of 2008. Also, the number of vehicles in the metropolitan region, i.e., Delhi NCR is 112 lakhs (11.2 million). In 2008, there were 85 cars in Delhi for every 1,000 of its residents. In order to meet the transport demand in Delhi, the State and Union government started the construction of a mass rapid transit system, including the Delhi Metro. In 1998, the Supreme Court of India ordered all public transport vehicles of Delhi to use compressed natural gas (CNG) as fuel instead of diesel and other hydro-carbons.

Northern Peripheral Road

Northern Peripheral Road road is being developed under the public private partnership (PPP) model. This stretch will connect Dwarka with National Highway 8 at Kherki Dhaula and will pass Pataudi Road. The NPR stretch has been planned as an alternate link road between Delhi and Gurgaon, and is expected to ease the traffic situation on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. The road will also provide connectivity to the much-touted Reliance-HSIIDC SEZ besides the Garhi Harsaru dry depot.

Much like Delhi, Gurgaon too will have a BRT corridor to decongest traffic on the Northern Peripheral Road. In several sections, the NPR will have provisions for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor to ensure smooth flow. The road will be fully developed in March 2012.

Demographics

{{IndiaCensusPop |title= Population Growth of Delhi |1901= 405819 |1911= 413851 |1921= 488452 |1931= 636246 |1941= 917939 |1951= 1744072 |1961= 2658612 |1971= 4065698 |1981= 6220406 |1991= 9420644 |2001= 13782976 |2011= 16753235 |estimate= |estyear= |estref= |footnote= source: † Huge population rise in 1951 due to large scale migration after Partition of India in 1947. }}

Many ethnic groups and cultures are represented in Delhi, making it a cosmopolitan city. Being the political and economic hub of northern India, the city attracts workers – both blue collar and white collar – from all parts of India, further enhancing its diverse character. A diplomatic hub, home to the embassies of 160 countries, Delhi has a large expatriate population as well.

According to the 2011 census of India, the population of Delhi is 16,753,235. The corresponding population density was 11,297 persons per km², with a sex ratio of 866 women per 1000 men, and a literacy rate of 86.34%. In 2004, the birth rate, death rate and infant mortality rate (per 1000 population) were 20.03, 5.59 and 13.08, respectively. As of 2007, the National Capital Territory of Delhi had an estimated population of 21.5 million people, making it the second largest metropolitan area in India after Mumbai. According a 1999–2000 estimate, the total number of people living below the poverty line, defined as living on $11 or less per month, in Delhi was 1,149,000 (which was 8.23% of the total population, compared to 27.5% of India as a whole). In 2001, the population of Delhi increased by 285,000 as a result of migration and by an additional 215,000 as a result of natural population growth – this made Delhi one of the fastest growing cities in the world. By 2015, Delhi is expected to be the third-largest agglomeration in the world after Tokyo and Mumbai. Dwarka, Asia's largest planned residential colony, is located within the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Hinduism is the religion of 80% of Delhi's population. There are also large communities of Muslims (10%), Sikhs (7.9%), Baha'i (0.1%), Jains (1.1%) and Christians (0.9%) in the city. Other minorities include Parsis, Anglo-Indians, Buddhists and Jews.

Hindustani language is the principal spoken language while English is the principal written language of the city. Other languages commonly spoken in the city are dialects of Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. The linguistic groups from all over India are well represented in the city; among them are Punjabi, Haryanvi, UP, Rajasthani, Bihari, Bengali, Sindhi, Tamil,Assamese, Garhwali,Telugu,, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati.

52% of Delhi lives in slums without basic services like water, electricity, sanitation, sewage system, proper housing etc.

In 2005, Delhi accounted for the highest percentage (16.2%) of the crimes reported in the 35 cities in India with populations of one million or more. The city also has the highest rate of crime against women (27.6 compared to national average rate of 14.1 per 100,000) and against children (6.5 compared to national average of 1.4 per 100,000) in the country.

Culture

Delhi's culture has been influenced by its lengthy history and historic association as the capital of India. This is exemplified by the many monuments of significance found in the city; the Archaeological Survey of India recognises 1200 heritage buildings and 175 monuments in Delhi as national heritage sites. The Old City is the site where the Mughals and the Turkic rulers constructed several architectural marvels like the Jama Masjid (India's largest mosque) and Red Fort. Three World Heritage Sites—the Red Fort, Qutab Minar and Humayun's Tomb—are located in Delhi. Other monuments include the India Gate, the Jantar Mantar (an 18th-century astronomical observatory) and the Purana Qila (a 16th century fortress). The Laxminarayan Temple, Akshardham, the Bahá'í Lotus Temple and the ISKCON Temple are examples of modern architecture. Raj Ghat and associated memorials houses memorials of Mahatma Gandhi and other notable personalities. New Delhi houses several government buildings and official residences reminiscent of the British colonial architecture. Important structures include the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Secretariat, Rajpath, the Parliament of India and Vijay Chowk. Safdarjung's Tomb is an example of the Mughal gardens style. [File:ISKCON_Temple_in_Delhi.jpg|thumb] Delhi's association and geographic proximity to the capital, New Delhi, has amplified the importance of national events and holidays. National events like Republic Day, Independence Day and ''Gandhi Jayanti'' (Gandhi's birthday) are celebrated with great enthusiasm in Delhi. 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. Over the centuries Delhi is known for its composite culture, and a festival that symbolizes it truly is the Phool Walon Ki Sair, which takes place each year in September, and where flowers and fans embroidered with flowers, ''pankha'' are offered to the shrine of 13th century Sufi saint, Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki, along with the Yogmaya Temple also situated in Mehrauli.

Religious festivals include Diwali (the festival of lights), Mahavir Jayanti, Guru Nanak's Birthday, Durga Puja, Holi, Lohri, Chhath, Krishna Janmastami, Maha Shivaratri, Eid ul-Fitr, Moharram and Buddha Jayanti. 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. The Auto Expo, Asia's largest auto show, is held in Delhi biennially. The World Book Fair, held biannually at the Pragati Maidan, is the second largest exhibition of books in the world with as many as 23 nations participating in the event. Delhi is often regarded as the "Book Capital" of India because of high readership.

Punjabi and Mughlai delicacies like kababs and biryanis are popular in Delhi. The street food there is known to be delicious and includes chaat, golgappe and aloo tikki. Due to Delhi's large cosmopolitan and migrant population, cuisines from every part of India, including Gujarati Rajasthani, Maharashtrian, Bengali, Hyderabadi cuisines, and South Indian food items like idli, sambar and dosa are widely available. Local delicacies include ''Chaat'', ''Golgappe'', ''Aloo-Tikki'' and ''Dahi-Papri''. There are several food outlets in Delhi serving international cuisine, including Italian, Japanese, Continental, Middle-Eastern, Thai and Chinese. Within the last decade western fast food has become more popular as well.

Historically, Delhi has always remained an important trading centre in northern India. Old Delhi still contains legacies of its rich Mughal past, which can be found among the old city's tangle of snaking lanes and teeming bazaars. The dingy markets of the Old City have an eclectic product range, from oil-swamped mango, lime and eggplant pickles, candy-colored herbal potions to silver jewelry, bridal attire, uncut material and linen, spices, sweets. Some of old regal ''havelis'' (palatial residences) are still there in the Old City. Chandni Chowk, a three-century-old shopping area, is one of the most popular shopping areas in Delhi for jewellery and ''Zari'' saris. Notable among Delhi's arts and crafts are the ''Zardozi'' (an embroidery done with gold thread) and ''Meenakari'' (the art of enameling). Dilli Haat, Hauz Khas, Pragati Maidan offer a variety of Indian handicrafts and handlooms. Over time Delhi has absorbed a multitude of humanity from across the country and has morphed into an amorphous pool of cultural styles.

Education

Schools and higher educational institutions in Delhi are administered either by the Directorate of Education, the NCT government, or private organizations. In 2004–05, there were 2,515 primary, 635 middle, 504 secondary and 1,208 senior secondary schools in Delhi. That year, the higher education institutions in the city included 165 colleges, among them five medical colleges and eight engineering colleges, seven major universities (Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU), National Law University, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Jamia Hamdard), and nine deemed universities. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and National Law University are the only state universities; IGNOU is for open/distance learning; the rest are all central universities. Delhi boasts of being home to 3 of top 10 engineering colleges in India – IIT Delhi, NSIT (Formerly DIT) and DTU (Formerly DCE).

Private schools in Delhi—which employ either English or Hindi as the language of instruction—are affiliated to one of two administering bodies: the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) and the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). In 2004–05, approximately 15.29 lakh (1.529 million) students were enrolled in primary schools, 8.22 lakh (0.822 million) in middle schools and 6.69 lakh (0.669 million) in secondary schools across Delhi. Female students represented 49% of the total enrollment. The same year, the Delhi government spent between 1.58% and 1.95% of its gross state domestic product on education.

After completing the ten-year secondary phase of their education under the 10+2+3/4 plan, students typically spend the next two years either in junior colleges or in schools with ''senior secondary'' facilities, during which their studies become more focused. They select a ''stream'' of study—liberal arts, commerce, science, or, less commonly, vocational. Upon completion, those who choose to continue, either study for a three-year undergraduate degree at a college, or a professional degree in law, engineering, architecture, or medicine. Notable higher education or research institutes in Delhi include All India Institute of Medical Sciences, School of Planning and Architecture, Dr.Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital & PGIMER, Maulana Azad Medical College, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Indian Statistical Institute, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi Technological University, National Law University, Delhi, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Indian Law Institute, Delhi School of Economics, Jamia Millia Islamia. As of 2008, about 16% of all Delhi residents possessed at least a college graduate degree.

Media

As the capital of India, New Delhi is the focus of political reportage, including regular television broadcasts of Parliament sessions. Many country-wide media agencies, among them the state-owned Press Trust of India, Media Trust Of India and Doordarshan, are based in the city. Television programming in the city includes two free terrestrial television channels offered by Doordarshan, and several Hindi, English and ''regional-languages'' cable channels offered by multi system operators. Satellite television, in contrast, has yet to gain large-scale subscribership in the city.

Print journalism remains a popular news medium in Delhi. During 2004–05, 1029 newspapers in thirteen languages were published from the city. Of these, 492 were Urdu and Hindi language newspapers, including ''Navbharat Times'', ''Hindustan Dainik'', ''Punjab Kesari'', ''Pavitra Bharat'', ''Dainik Jagran'', ''Dainik Bhaskar'' and ''Dainik Desbandhu''. Amongst the English language newspapers, ''The Hindustan Times'', with over a million copies in circulation, was the single largest daily. Other major English newspapers include ''Times of India'', ''The Hindu'', ''Indian Express'', ''Business Standard'', ''The Pioneer'' and ''Asian Age'' . Regional dailies include ''Malayala Manorama'' and ''Dinakaran''. Radio is a less popular mass medium in Delhi, although FM radio has been gaining ground since the inauguration of several new FM channels in 2006. A number of state-owned and private radio stations broadcast from Delhi, including All India Radio (AIR), one of the world's largest radio service providers, which offers six radio channels in ten languages. Other city-based radio stations include "Aaj Tak", "Radio City(91.1 MHz)", "Big FM(92.7 MHz)", "Red FM(93.5MHz)", "Radio One(94.3 MHz)", "Hit FM(95 MHz)", "Apna Radio", "Radio Mirchi(98.3 MHz)", "FM Rainbow(102.4 MHz)", "Fever FM(104 MHz)", "Oye FM(104.8 MHz)", "FM Gold(106.4 MHz)".

Various news and general interest magazines are also published from Delhi like India Today, Outlook, COVERT and many more.

Sports

thumb|The 2010 Commonwealth Games was the largest sports event held in India. Shown here is the Opening Ceremony at the [[Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi|Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the third largest stadium in India.]]Cricket and soccer are the most popular sports in Delhi. There are several cricket grounds (or ''maidans'') located across the city. The Feroz Shah Kotla stadium is one of the oldest cricket grounds in India and is a venue for international cricket matches. The Delhi cricket team represents the city in the Ranji Trophy, a domestic first-class cricket championship. The city is also home to the IPL team Delhi Daredevils, and ICL team Delhi Giants (earlier named Delhi Jets).

Football is a very popular sport in the city and is home to the newly formed AIFF-u19 club which will take part in the 2011 format of the I League. The only football stadium in Delhi is the Ambedkar Stadium which holds 20000 people though in the past few years due to tremendous rise in popularity of the sport has held up to 50000 people in the past years.Delhi even witnessed India winning back to back trophies in football in the form of the 2007 Nehru Cup defeating Syria 1–0 AFC Challenge Cup 2008 defeating favourites Tajikistan 4–1 by a stellar performance by local Star Sunil Chhetri and the 2009 Nehru Cup.

Rugby has become an increasingly popular sport among youngsters and the city is home to the Delhi Lions and Delhi Hurricanes. The city successfully played host to 2010 Asian Five Nations Rugby Tournament's Division Two match between India and Philippines. The Philippines defeated India to win promotion to Division One in 2011, and maintain their unbeaten record within the tournament in 2010. The Only Stadium in the city for this particular sport is in the Delhi University North Campus. Boxing and shooting figure among increasingly popular sports in the suburb of Gurgaon.

When the Elite Football League of India was introduced in August 2011, Delhi was noted as one of eight cities to be awarded a team for the inaugural season. Named the Delhi Defenders, the team's first season will be played in Pune, and it will be Delhi's first professional American football franchise.

Formula 1 has now got a circuit in India in Greater Noida, a suburb of Delhi in the twin cities area of (Noida-Greater Noida), which is all set to host the Indian Grand Prix in October 2011 with the Jaypee Group constructing the circuit. It is set to be among the top 5 fastest circuits in the world. The team, Force India F1, was formed in October 2007 when a consortium led by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and Michiel Mol bought the Spyker F1 team for € 88 million. Force India F1 represents increased Indian participation within Formula One.

Golf is also a very popular sport in the capital city and the National Capital Region, which is home to the highest number of golf courses in India. Other sports such as field hockey, basketball, tennis, squash, badminton, swimming, kart racing, weightlifting, table tennis, cycling, roller skating and cue sports, such as snooker, billiards and diving are also popular.

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium are other stadiums in Delhi. In the past, Delhi has hosted several domestic and international sporting events, such as the First and the Ninth Asian Games. Delhi hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the largest multi-sport event ever held in India. Delhi lost bidding for the 2014 Asian Games, and considered making a bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics. However, sports minister Manohar Singh Gill later stated that funding infrastructure would come before a 2020 bid. The mess left after the Commonwealth Games prompted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to replace sports and youth affairs minister Manohar Singh Gill with Ajay Maken in the 19 January 2011 cabinet reshuffle.

Sister cities and twin regions

Delhi has the following sister cities, with which it shares good relations:

City	Geographical location	Nation	Since
	! ! align=left

See also

Delhi Metro

List of tourist attractions in Delhi

References

Further reading

Economic Survey of Delhi 2005–2006. Planning Department. Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi. Retrieved on 12 February 2007

Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity by Sam Miller (writer and journalist)

External links

;Government Directory of Indian Government Websites, Delhi

Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi

Municipal Corporation of Delhi

New Delhi Municipal Council

;Other

Delhi Online Travel Guide

Information about Delhi

Category:Capital districts and territories Category:Delhi railway division Category:Divisions of Indian Railways Category:Host cities of the Commonwealth Games Category:Indian Union Territory capitals Category:Northern Railway (India) Zone Category:Places of Indian Rebellion of 1857 Category:States and territories of India Category:Union Territories of India Category:Metropolitan cities in India

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Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
name	Julian Assange
birth date	July 03, 1971
birth place	Townsville, Queensland, Australia
occupation	Editor-in-chief and spokesperson for WikiLeaks
awards	Economist Freedom of Expression Award (2008)Amnesty International UK Media Award (2009)Sam Adams Award (2010)Le Monde Person of the Year (2010)Sydney Peace Foundation gold medal (2011)Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism (2011)
death date
death place	}}

Julian Paul Assange ( ; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian publisher, journalist, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks, with the stated purpose of creating open governments. Assange was a hacker in his youth, before becoming a computer programmer. He has lived in several countries and has made public appearances in many parts of the world to speak about freedom of the press, censorship and investigative journalism.

Assange serves on the WikiLeaks advisory board. WikiLeaks has published material about extrajudicial killings in Kenya, toxic waste dumping in Côte d'Ivoire, Church of Scientology manuals, Guantanamo Bay procedures, and banks such as Kaupthing and Julius Baer. In 2010, WikiLeaks published Iraq War documents and Afghan War documents about American involvement in the wars, some of which was classified material. On 28 November 2010, WikiLeaks and its five international print media partners (''Der Spiegel'', ''The New York Times'', ''Le Monde'', ''The Guardian'' and ''El País'') began publishing U.S. diplomatic cables.

Assange received a number of awards and nominations, including the 2009 Amnesty International Media Award for publishing material about extrajudicial killings in Kenya and Readers' Choice for ''TIME'' magazine's 2010 Person of the Year.

Assange appealed a February 2011 decision by English courts to extradite him to Sweden for questioning in relation to a sexual assault investigation. He said the allegations of wrongdoing are "without basis". On 12 and 13 July 2011, a hearing was held before the High Court, which deferred its decision to a later date.

Early life

Assange was born in Townsville, Queensland, and spent much of his youth living on Magnetic Island.

His biological father was John Shipton, and his mother Christine was the daughter of Scottish-born principal of Northern Rivers College, Warren Hawkins. When Julian was one year old, Christine married theatre director Brett Assange, who gave him his surname. Brett and Christine Assange ran a touring theatre company. His stepfather, Julian's first "real dad", described Julian as "a very sharp kid" with "a keen sense of right and wrong". "He always stood up for the underdog ... he was always very angry about people ganging up on other people."

In 1979, his mother remarried; her new husband was a musician whom Julian Assange believed belonged to a New Age group called Santiniketan Park Association led by Yoga teacher Anne Hamilton-Byrne. The couple had a son, but broke up in 1982 and engaged in a custody struggle for Assange's half-brother. His divorced mother fled her boyfriend across Australia, taking both children into hiding for the next five years. Assange moved 30 times before he turned 14, attending many schools, including Goolmangar Primary School from 1979 to 1983, sometimes being home-schooled. In an interview conducted by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Assange stated that he had lived in 50 different towns and attended 37 different schools.

Hacking and conviction

In 1987, after turning 16, Assange began hacking under the name "Mendax" (derived from a phrase of Horace: "splendide mendax", or "nobly untruthful"). He and two other hackers joined to form a group they named the International Subversives. Assange wrote down the early rules of the subculture: "Don't damage computer systems you break into (including crashing them); don't change the information in those systems (except for altering logs to cover your tracks); and share information". The ''Personal Democracy Forum'' said he was "Australia's most famous ethical computer hacker." The Australian Federal Police became aware of this group and set up "Operation Weather" to investigate their hacking. In September 1991 Mendax was discovered in the act of hacking into the Melbourne master terminal of Nortel, the Canadian telecommunications company. In response the Australian Federal Police tapped Assanges' phoneline and subsequently raided his Melbourne home in 1991. He was also reported to have accessed computers belonging to an Australian university, the USAF 7th Command Group in the Pentagon and other organisations, via modem. It took three years to bring the case to court, where he was charged with 31 counts of hacking and related crimes. Nortel said his incursions cost them more than $100,000. Despite representing hacking as a victimless crime, he nonetheless pleaded guilty to 25 charges of hacking. Six charges were dropped. He was released on bond for good conduct after being fined A$2,100. The judge said "there is just no evidence that there was anything other than sort of intelligent inquisitiveness and the pleasure of being able to—what's the expression—surf through these various computers" and stated that Assange would have gone to jail for up to 10 years if he had not had such a disrupted childhood.

Assange later commented, "It's a bit annoying, actually. Because I co-wrote a book about [being a hacker], there are documentaries about that, people talk about that a lot. They can cut and paste. But that was 20 years ago. It's very annoying to see modern day articles calling me a computer hacker. I'm not ashamed of it, I'm quite proud of it. But I understand the reason they suggest I'm a computer hacker now. There's a very specific reason."

In 2011, court records revealed that in 1993, Assange helped the Victoria Police Child Exploitation Unit by providing technical advice and assisted in prosecuting persons.

Child custody issues

In 1989, Assange started living with his girlfriend and they had a son, Daniel Assange. They split up during the period of Assange's arrest and conviction. They subsequently engaged in a lengthy custody struggle and did not agree on a custody arrangement until 1999.

The entire process prompted Assange and his mother to form Parent Inquiry Into Child Protection, an activist group centered on creating a "central databank" for otherwise inaccessible legal records related to child custody issues in Australia. In an interview with ABC Radio, his mother explained their "most important" issue was demanding "that there be direct access to the children's court by any member of the public for an application for protection for any child that they believe is at serious risk from abuse, where the child protection agency has rejected that notification."

Computer programming and university studies

In 1993, Assange was involved in starting one of the first public internet service providers in Australia, Suburbia Public Access Network. Starting in 1994, he lived in Melbourne as a programmer and a developer of free software. In 1995, he wrote ''Strobe'', the first free and open source port scanner. He contributed several patches to the PostgreSQL project in 1996. He helped to write the book ''Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier'' (1997), which credits him as a researcher and reports his history with International Subversives. Starting around 1997, he co-invented the Rubberhose deniable encryption system, a cryptographic concept made into a software package for Linux designed to provide plausible deniability against rubber-hose cryptanalysis; he originally intended the system to be used "as a tool for human rights workers who needed to protect sensitive data in the field." Other free software that he has authored or co-authored includes the Usenet caching software NNTPCache and Surfraw, a command-line interface for web-based search engines. In 1999, he registered the domain leaks.org; "But", he says, "then I didn't do anything with it."

From 2003 to 2006, Assange attended the University of Melbourne, mainly studying physics and mathematics and briefly studying philosophy and neuroscience. In most of his maths courses, he received the minimum "pass" grade. He did not graduate; the fact that his fellow students were doing research for Pentagon's DARPA was reportedly a factor in motivating him to drop out and start WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks was founded in 2006. That year, Assange wrote two essays setting out the philosophy behind WikiLeaks: "To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not." In his blog he wrote, "the more secretive or unjust an organisation is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie.... Since unjust systems, by their nature, induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance."

Assange is a prominent media spokesman on WikiLeaks' behalf. While newspapers have described him as a "director" or "founder" of WikiLeaks, Assange has said, "I don't call myself a founder"; he does describe himself as the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, and has stated that he has the final decision in the process of vetting documents submitted to the site. Assange says that WikiLeaks has released more classified documents than the rest of the world press combined: "That's not something I say as a way of saying how successful we are – rather, that shows you the parlous state of the rest of the media. How is it that a team of five people has managed to release to the public more suppressed information, at that level, than the rest of the world press combined? It's disgraceful." He advocates a "transparent" and "scientific" approach to journalism, saying that "you can't publish a paper on physics without the full experimental data and results; that should be the standard in journalism." In 2006, ''CounterPunch'' called him "Australia's most infamous former computer hacker." ''The Age'' has called him "one of the most intriguing people in the world" and "internet's freedom fighter." Assange has called himself "extremely cynical". He has been described as being largely self-taught and widely read on science and mathematics, and as thriving on intellectual battle.

WikiLeaks has been involved in the publication of material documenting extrajudicial killings in Kenya, a report of toxic waste dumping on the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, Church of Scientology manuals, Guantanamo Bay procedures, the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike video, and material involving large banks such as Kaupthing and Julius Baer among other documents. In 2008, Assange published an article entitled "The Hidden Curse of Thomas Paine", in which he wrote "What does it mean when only those facts about the world with economic powers behind them can be heard, when the truth lays naked before the world and no one will be the first to speak without payment or subsidy?"

In late 2010, Assange was in the process of completing his memoirs for publication in 2011.

Public appearances

In addition to exercising great authority and editorial control within WikiLeaks, Assange acts as its public face. He has appeared at media conferences such as New Media Days '09 in Copenhagen, the 2010 Logan Symposium in Investigative Reporting at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and at hacker conferences, notably the 25th and 26th Chaos Communication Congress. In the first half of 2010, he appeared on ''Al Jazeera English'', ''MSNBC'', ''Democracy Now!'', ''RT'', and ''The Colbert Report'' to discuss the release of the Baghdad airstrike video by WikiLeaks. On 3 June he appeared via videoconferencing at the Personal Democracy Forum conference with Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg told MSNBC "the explanation he [Assange] used" for not appearing in person in the U.S. was that "it was not safe for him to come to this country." On 11 June he was to appear on a Showcase Panel at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Las Vegas, but there are reports that he cancelled several days prior.

On 10 June 2010, it was reported that Pentagon officials were trying to determine his whereabouts. Based on this, there were reports that U.S. officials wanted to apprehend Assange. Ellsberg said that the arrest of Bradley Manning and subsequent speculation by U.S. officials about what Assange may be about to publish "puts his well-being, his physical life, in some danger now." In ''The Atlantic'', Marc Ambinder called Ellsberg's concerns "ridiculous", and said that "Assange's tendency to believe that he is one step away from being thrown into a black hole hinders, and to some extent discredits, his work." In Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald questioned "screeching media reports" that there was a "manhunt" on Assange underway, arguing that they were only based on comments by "anonymous government officials" and might even serve a campaign by the U.S. government, by intimidating possible whistleblowers.

On 21 June 2010, he took part at a hearing in Brussels, Belgium, appearing in public for the first time in nearly a month. He was a member on a panel that discussed Internet censorship and expressed his worries over the recent filtering in countries such as Australia. He also talked about secret gag orders preventing newspapers from publishing information about specific subjects and even divulging the fact that they are being gagged. Using an example involving ''The Guardian'', he also explained how newspapers are altering their online archives sometimes by removing entire articles. He told ''The Guardian'' that he does not fear for his safety but is on permanent alert and will avoid travel to America, saying "[U.S.] public statements have all been reasonable. But some statements made in private are a bit more questionable." He said "politically it would be a great error for them to act. I feel perfectly safe but I have been advised by my lawyers not to travel to the U.S. during this period."

On 17 July, Jacob Appelbaum spoke on behalf of WikiLeaks at the 2010 Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference in New York City, replacing Assange due to the presence of federal agents at the conference. He announced that the WikiLeaks submission system was again up and running, after it had been temporarily suspended. Assange was a surprise speaker at a TED conference on 19 July 2010, in Oxford, and confirmed that WikiLeaks was now accepting submissions again. On 26 July, after the release of the Afghan War Diary, he appeared at the Frontline Club for a press conference. On 15 March 2011, Assange gave a speech at the Cambridge Union Society. After initially discouraging recording, a video of this has been made available by the Society.

Release of U.S. diplomatic cables

On 28 November 2010, WikiLeaks began releasing some of the 251,000 American diplomatic cables in their possession, of which over 53 percent are listed as unclassified, 40 percent are "Confidential" and just over six percent are classified "Secret". The following day, the Attorney-General of Australia, Robert McClelland, told the press that Australia would inquire into Assange's activities and WikiLeaks. He said that "from Australia's point of view, we think there are potentially a number of criminal laws that could have been breached by the release of this information. The Australian Federal Police are looking at that". McClelland would not rule out the possibility that Australian authorities will cancel Assange's passport, and warned him that he might face charges should he return to Australia. The Federal Police inquiry found that Assange had not committed any crime.

The United States Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation related to the leak. U.S. prosecutors are reportedly considering charges against Assange under several laws, but any prosecution would be difficult. In relation to its ongoing investigations of WikiLeaks, on 14 December 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a subpoena ordering Twitter to release information relating to Assange's account, amongst others.

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg said that Assange "is serving our democracy and serving our rule of law precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations, which are not laws in most cases, in this country." On the issue of national security considerations for the U.S., Ellsberg added, "He's obviously a very competent guy in many ways. I think his instincts are that most of this material deserves to be out. We are arguing over a very small fragment that doesn't. He has not yet put out anything that hurt anybody's national security." Assange told London reporters that the leaked cables showed U.S. ambassadors around the world were ordered "to engage in espionage behavior", which he said seemed to be "representative of a gradual shift to a lack of rule of law in U.S. institutions that needs to be exposed and that we have been exposing."

The WikiLeaks diplomatic cable revelations have been credited with sparking the Tunisian Revolution.

Recognition as a journalist

Assange received the 2009 Media award from Amnesty International for ''Kenya: The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances'', and he has been recognized as a journalist by the Centre for Investigative Journalism. Assange has been a member of the Australian journalist union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, for several years, and in 2011, was made an honorary member. Alex Massie wrote an article in ''The Spectator'' called "Yes, Julian Assange is a journalist", but acknowledged that "newsman" might be a better description of Assange. Alan Dershowitz said "Without a doubt. He is a journalist, a new kind of journalist". Assange has said that he has been publishing factual material since age 25, and that it is not necessary to debate whether or not he is a journalist. He has stated that his role is "primarily that of a publisher and editor-in-chief who organises and directs other journalists".

Financial developments

On 6 December, the Swiss bank, PostFinance, announced that it had frozen assets of Assange's totalling 31,000 euros, because he had "provided false information regarding his place of residence" when opening the account. MasterCard, Visa Inc., and Bank of America also halted dealings with WikiLeaks. Assange described these actions as "business McCarthyism". The English-language Swedish newspaper web-site "Local" quoted Assange on 27 December 2010, as saying that legal costs for the whistleblowing website and his own defence had reached £500,000. The decisions to halt donations to WikiLeaks by Visa, MasterCard and PayPal had cost it £425,000, the same amount it costs the website to publish for six months. Assange said WikiLeaks had been receiving as much as £85,000 a day at its peak.

Autobiography

In December 2010, Assange sold the publishing rights to his autobiography for over £1 million. He told ''The Sunday Times'' that he was forced to enter the deals for an autobiography due to the financial difficulties he and the site encountered, he told them "I don't want to write this book, but I have to. I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat". On 14 February 2011, Assange filed for the trademark JULIAN ASSANGE in Europe. The trademark is to be used for "public speaking services; news reporter services; journalism; publication of texts other than publicity texts; education services; entertainment services".

Criticism

A number of political and media commentators, as well as current and former U.S. government officials, have accused Assange of terrorism. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said "I would argue it is closer to being a high-tech terrorist than the Pentagon papers." In May 2010, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had used the phrase, calling Assange "a high-tech terrorist", and saying "he has done enormous damage to our country. I think he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law". Also in May 2010, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said: "Information terrorism, which leads to people getting killed, is terrorism, and Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism. He should be treated as an enemy combatant."

In July 2010, after WikiLeaks released classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, said at a Pentagon news conference, "Disagree with the war all you want, take issue with the policy, challenge me or our ground commanders on the decisions we make to accomplish the mission we've been given, but don't put those who willingly go into harm's way even further in harm's way just to satisfy your need to make a point. Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is, they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family." Assange responded later in an interview by saying, "There is, as far as we can tell, no incident of that. So it is a speculative charge. Of course, we are treating any possible revelation of the names of innocents seriously. That is why we held back 15,000 of these documents, to review that".

Support

The Australian government had considered charging Assange for treason, but later retracted its previous statements that Assange's actions were criminal. They also found no grounds to withdraw his Australian passport after an investigation by the Australian Federal Police. Since then, government representatives and the major opposition, including Craig Emerson the Minister for Trade and Helen Coonan the former minister for Communications, have made statements supportive of WikiLeaks and deprecated some threats. Emerson stated on ABC's Q&A program; "We condemn absolutely the threats that have been made by some people in the United States against Julian Assange and he deserves all of the rights of being an Australian citizen."

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, then president of Brazil, expressed his "solidarity" with Assange following his 2010 arrest in the United Kingdom. He further criticised the arrest of Assange as "an attack on freedom of expression".

Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin condemned Assange's detention as "undemocratic". A source within the office of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested that Assange be nominated for a Nobel Prize, and said that "Public and non-governmental organisations should think of how to help him."

In December 2010, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank LaRue, said Assange or other WikiLeaks staff should not face criminal charges for any information they disseminated, noting that "if there is a responsibility by leaking information it is of, exclusively of the person that made the leak and not of the media that publish it. And this is the way that transparency works and that corruption has been confronted in many cases."

Daniel Ellsberg, who was working in the U.S. Department of Defense when he leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, was a signatory to a statement by an international group of former intelligence officers and ex-government officials in support of Assange's work, which was released in late December 2010. Other signatories included David MacMichael, Ray McGovern, and five recipients of annual Sam Adams Award: Frank Grevil, Katharine Gun, Craig Murray, Coleen Rowley and Larry Wilkerson. Ellsberg has said, "If I released the Pentagon Papers today, the same rhetoric and the same calls would be made about me ... I would be called not only a traitor – which I was [called] then, which was false and slanderous – but I would be called a terrorist... Assange and Bradley Manning are no more terrorists than I am."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has come under widespread condemnation and a backlash within her own party for failing to support Assange after calling the leaks "an illegal act" and suggesting that his Australian passport should be cancelled. Hundreds of lawyers, academics and journalists came forward in his support with Attorney-General Robert McClelland, unable to explain how Assange had broken Australian law. Opposition Legal Affairs spokesman, Senator George Brandis, a Queen's Counsel, accused Gillard of being "clumsy" with her language, stating, "As far as I can see, he (Assange) hasn't broken any Australian law, nor does it appear he has broken any American laws." Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who supports Assange, stated that any decision to cancel the passport would be his, not Gillard's. Queen's Counsel Peter Faris, who acted for Assange in a hacking case 15 years ago, said that the motives of Swedish authorities in seeking Assange's extradition for alleged sex offences are suspect: "You have to say: why are they [Sweden] pursuing it? It's pretty obvious that if it was Bill Bloggs, they wouldn't be going to the trouble." Following the Swedish Embassy issuing of a "prepared and unconvincing reply" in response to letters of protest, Gillard was called on to send a message to Sweden "querying the way charges were laid, investigated and dropped, only to be picked up again by a different prosecutor."

On 10 December 2010, over five hundred people rallied outside Sydney Town Hall and about three hundred and fifty people gathered in Brisbane where Assange's lawyer, Rob Stary, criticised Julia Gillard's position, telling the rally that the Australian government was a "sycophant" of the U.S. A petition circulated by GetUp!, who have placed full page ads in support of Assange in ''The New York Times'' and ''The Washington Times'', received more than signatures.

Awards

He won the 2009 Amnesty International UK Media Award (New Media), for exposing extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya by distributing and publicizing the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)'s investigation ''The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances''. Accepting the award, Assange said, "It is a reflection of the courage and strength of Kenyan civil society that this injustice was documented."

In 2010, Assange was awarded the Sam Adams Award, Readers' Choice in ''TIME'' magazine's Person of the Year poll, and runner-up for Person of the Year. In April 2011 he was listed on the Time 100 list of most influential people. An informal poll of editors at Postmedia Network named him the top newsmaker for the year after six out of 10 felt Assange had "affected profoundly how information is seen and delivered".

''Le Monde'', one of the five publications to cooperate with WikiLeaks' publication of the recent document leaks, named him person of the year with fifty six percent of the votes in their online poll.

In February 2011, it was announced that Assange had been awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation gold medal by the Sydney Peace Foundation of the University of Sydney for his "exceptional courage and initiative in pursuit of human rights." There have been four recipients of the award in the foundation's fourteen year history: Nelson Mandela; the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso; Daisaku Ikeda; and Assange.

In June 2011, Assange was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. The prize is awarded on an annual basis to journalists "whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda, or 'official drivel'". The judges said, "WikiLeaks has been portrayed as a phenomenon of the hi-tech age, which it is. But it's much more. Its goal of justice through transparency is in the oldest and finest tradition of journalism."

Allegations of sexual misconduct

On 20 August 2010, Swedish police began an investigation into allegations concerning Assange's behaviour in separate sexual encounters involving two different women. Assange has said allegations of wrongdoing are "without basis", describing all the sexual encounters as consensual. In December 2010, Assange, then in Britain, learned that the Swedish authorities had issued a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) to extradite him to Sweden for questioning.

An extradition hearing took place on 7–8 and 11 February 2011 before the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court when the extradition warrant was upheld.

On 2 March 2011, his lawyers lodged papers at the London High Court to challenge the ruling to extradite Assange to Sweden. Assange remains on conditional bail. After a hearing on 12 and 13 July 2011, the High Court deferred its decision to a later date.

Residency

Though an Australian citizen, Assange has not had a permanent address for several years. He has lived for periods in Australia, Kenya and Tanzania, and began renting a house in Iceland on 30 March 2010, from which he and other activists, including Birgitta Jónsdóttir, worked on the 'Collateral Murder' video.

For much of 2010, he was visiting the United Kingdom, Iceland, Sweden and other European countries. On 4 November 2010, Assange told Swiss public television TSR that he was seriously considering seeking political asylum in neutral Switzerland and moving the operation of the WikiLeaks foundation there. In December 2010, it was reported that U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Donald S. Beyer had warned the Swiss government against offering asylum to Assange.

In late November 2010, Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas of Ecuador spoke about giving Assange residency with "no conditions... so he can freely present the information he possesses and all the documentation, not just over the Internet but in a variety of public forums". Lucas believed that Ecuador may benefit from initiating a dialogue with Assange. Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino stated on 30 November that the residency application would "have to be studied from the legal and diplomatic perspective". A few hours later, President Rafael Correa stated that WikiLeaks "committed an error by breaking the laws of the United States and leaking this type of information... no official offer was [ever] made." Correa noted that Lucas was speaking "on his own behalf"; additionally, he will launch an investigation into possible ramifications Ecuador would suffer from the release of the cables.

In a hearing at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on 7 December 2010, Assange identified a post office box as his address. When told by the judge that this information was not acceptable, he submitted "Parkville, Victoria, Australia" on a sheet of paper. His lack of permanent address and nomadic lifestyle were cited by the judge as factors in denying bail. He was ultimately released, in part because journalist Vaughan Smith offered to provide Assange with an address for bail during the extradition proceedings, Smith's Norfolk mansion, Ellingham Hall.

References

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External links

Wikirebels (Documentary about Julian Assange)

home page on Julian Assange's web site iq.org (at the Internet Archive)

Profile: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at BBC News

Interview with Julian Assange on release of Afghan war files – 1 August 2010 Russia Today via YouTube

Frost Over the World – Julian Assange – December 2010. Al Jazeera English via You tube

Julian Assange interviewed by John Pilger on New Statesman January 2011

Julian Assange: The "60 Minutes" Interview interviewed by Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes January 2011.

Interview Julian Assange. Frontline. 4 April 2011.

Category:1971 births Category:Alternative journalists Category:Australian Internet personalities Category:Australian activists Category:Australian computer programmers Category:Australian journalists Category:Australian people of Scottish descent Category:Australian whistleblowers Category:Cypherpunks Category:Internet activists Category:Living people Category:People from Townsville Category:University of Melbourne alumni Category:WikiLeaks Category:Australian memoirists

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This is a list of people whose names in English are commonly appended with the phrase "''the Great''", or who were called that or an equivalent phrase in their own language. Other languages have their own suffixes such as ''e Bozorg'' and ''e azam'' in Persian and Urdu respectively.

In Persia, the title "the Great" at first seems to be a colloquial version of the Old Persian title "Great King". This title was first used by the conqueror Cyrus II of Persia.

The Persian title was inherited by Alexander III of Macedon (336–323 BC) when he conquered the Persian Empire, and the epithet "Great" eventually became personally associated with him. The first reference (in a comedy by Plautus) assumes that everyone knew who "Alexander the Great" was; however, there is no earlier evidence that Alexander III of Macedon was called "''the Great''".

The early Seleucid kings, who succeeded Alexander in Persia, used "Great King" in local documents, but the title was most notably used for Antiochus the Great (223–187 BC).

Later rulers and commanders began to use the epithet "the Great" as a personal name, like the Roman general Pompey. Others received the surname retrospectively, like the Carthaginian Hanno and the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great. Once the surname gained currency, it was also used as an honorific surname for people without political careers, like the philosopher Albert the Great.

As there are no objective criteria for "greatness", the persistence of later generations in using the designation greatly varies. For example, Louis XIV of France was often referred to as "The Great" in his lifetime but is rarely called such nowadays, while Frederick II of Prussia is still called "The Great". A later Hohenzollern - Wilhelm I - was often called "The Great" in the time of his grandson Wilhelm II, but rarely later.

Rulers

Abbas I of Persia (1571-1629), Shah of Iran

Akbar (1542-1605), ruler of the Mughal Empire of South Asia, mainly India

Alain I of Albret (1440-1522), French aristocrat

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), King of Macedonia, Persia, Greece, Egypt, and all of Mesopotamia

Alexander I of Georgia (1386–1446), King of Georgia

Alfonso III of León (c. 848-910), King of León, Galicia and Asturias

Alfred the Great (848/849-899), King of Wessex

Antiochus III the Great (c. 241–187 BC), ruler of the Seleucid Empire

Ashoka the Great (c. 304–232 BC), Indian emperor of the Maurya dynasty

Ashot I of Iberia “the Great”(died 826/830), presiding prince of Iberia (modern Georgia),

Askia Mohammad I (c. 1442–1538), ruler of the Songhai Empire

Bhumibol Adulyadej (born 1927), King of Thailand

Bolesław I Chrobry (967-1025), sometimes called "the Great", first King of Poland

Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the following section)

Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (1736-1809), founder and ruler of the Rattanakosin Kingdom (in what is now Thailand)

Cnut the Great (c. 985 or 995-1035), King of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden

Casimir III the Great (1310-1370), King of Poland

Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Empress of Russian

Chandragupta II (reigned 375-413/415), also known as Vikramaditya, ruler of the Gupta empire in India

Charlemagne (died 814), King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans

Chulalongkorn (1853-1910), King of Siam (now Thailand)

Chlothar II (584-629), King of Neustria and King of the Franks

Conrad, Margrave of Meissen (c. 1097-1157), Margrave of Meissen

Constantine I (c. 272-337), Roman Emperor

Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), founder and ruler of the Persian or Achaemenid Empire

Darius the Great (550 – 486 BC), third ruler of the Persian Empire

Devapala (died 850), ruler of the Pala Empire in the Indian subcontinent

Dionysius I, Greek tyrant of Syracuse

Ferdinand I of León and Castile (c. 1015–1065), King of León and Count of Castile

Frederick the Great (1712-1786), King of Prussia

Genghis Khan (1162?-1227), founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire

Gero (c. 900–965), ruler of Marca Geronis, a very large march in Europe

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1594-1632), King of Sweden, founder of the Swedish Empire, and noted military leader

Gwanggaeto the Great, King of Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea

Hanno the Great, the name of three leaders of Carthage, in the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd centuries BC

Henry I, Duke of Burgundy (946–1002)

Henry IV of France (1553-1610), King of France and King of Navarre

Herod the Great (73/74 BC-4 BC), King of Judea

Hugh the Great (898-956), Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris

Hugh Magnus of France (1007-1025), co-King of France

Hugh I, Count of Vermandois (1057-1101)

Humphrey I de Bohun (died c. 1123), Anglo-Norman aristocrat

Ivan III of Russia (1440-1505), Tsar of Russia

John I of Portugal (1358-1433), King of Portugal and the Algarve

John II of Aragon (1398-1479), King of Aragon and, through his wife, King of Navarre

Justinian I (483-565), Byzantine Emperor

Kamehameha I (c. 1758-1819), first King of Hawai'i

Kanishka (died c. 127), ruler of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia and parts of India

Kvirike III of Kakheti (1010-1029), King of Kakheti in eastern Georgia

Kublai Khan (1215-1294), Mongol ruler in the 13th century and Emperor of China; founder of the Yuan Dynasty

Llywelyn the Great (c. 1172–1240), Prince of Gwynedd and de facto ruler of most of Wales

Louis I of Hungary (1326-1382), King of Hungary, Croatia and Poland

Mangrai the Great (1238-1317), Lanna, northern Thailand

Emperor Meiji (1852-1912), Emperor of Japan

Mircea I of Wallachia (1355–1418)

Mithridates II of Parthia (died 88 BC), ruler of the Parthian Empire (in present day Iran)

Mithridates VI of Pontus (134 BC–63 BC), ruler of Pontus and the Bosporan Kingdom

Mstislav I of Kiev (1076-1132), Grand Prince of Kievan Rus

Narai (1633-1688), King of Ayutthaya (in what is now modern Thailand)

Naresuan (1555-1605), King of Ayutthaya

Odo the Great (died c. 735), Duke of Aquitaine

Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (912-973)

K'inich Janaab' Pakal (603-683), ruler of the Mayan city-state of Palenque

Parakramabahu I of Polonnaruwa (1123–1186), King of Sri Lanka

Peter Krešimir IV of Croatia (died 1075), King of Croatia

Peter the Great (1672-1725), Tsar of Russia

Peter III of Aragon (1239-1285), King of Aragon and King of Sicily

Pompey (106 BC-48 BC), military and political leader of the late Roman Republic, rival of Julius Caesar

Radama I (1793–1828), first king of greater Madagascar

Raja Raja Chola I (c. 947-1014), Indian emperor of the Cholas.

Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1014-1044), Tamil King of India

Ramesses II (reigned 1279 BC – 1213 BC), considered the greatest pharaoh of Ancient Egypt

Ram Khamhaeng (around 1237 to 1247-1298), King of Sukhothai (in present day Thailand)

Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona (1082-1131), also Count of Provence and various other counties

Rhodri the Great (c. 820–878), King of Gwynedd (in present day Wales)

Roman the Great (after 1160-1205), Grand Prince of Kiev

Samudragupta (c. 335–375), ruler of the Gupta empire in the Indian subcontinent

Sancho III of Navarre (c. 992-1035), King of Kingdom of Navarre

Sargon of Akkad (died c. 2215 BC), ruler of the Akkadian Empire

Sejong the Great (1397-1450), Korean king

Shapur II (309-379), king of the Sassanid Empire, Persia

Simeon I of Bulgaria (864/865-927), ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire

Stephen III of Moldavia (1433-1504), Prince of Moldavia (Romania)

Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia (c. 1308-1355), King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks

Taksin (1734-1782), King of the Thonburi Kingdom (Thailand)

Timur (1336-1405), better known as Tamerlane, founder of the Timurid Dynasty

Theobald II, Count of Champagne (1090–1151), Count of Blois and of Chartres as Theobald IV, Count of Champagne and of Brie

Theodoric the Great (454-526), King of the Ostrogoths, regent of the Visigoths and a viceroy of the Byzantine Empire

Theodosius I (347-395), Roman emperor

Tigranes the Great (140-55 BC), Emperor of Armenia

Tiridates III of Armenia (285-339), King of Armenia

Umar (c. 586 to 590–644), second caliph of the Muslim Empire

Valdemar I of Denmark (1131-1182), King of Denmark

Valentinian I (364-375), Roman Emperor

Vladimir I of Kiev (c. 958-1015), ruler of Kievan Rus

Vytautas (c. 1350-1430), archduke of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy

William I, Count of Burgundy (1020-1087), Count of Burgandy and Mâcon

William V, Duke of Aquitaine (969-1030), also Count of Poitou

Xerxes I (519-465 BC), King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire (Persia)

Yu the Great (c. 2200-2100 BC), legendary ruler in ancient China

Religious figures

Abraham the Great of Kashkar (ca. 492-586), monk and saint of the Assyrian Church of the East

Abraham Kidunaia (died c. 366, hermit, priest, and Christian saint of Mesopotamia

Albertus Magnus (1193/1206–1280), medieval German philosopher and theologian

Anthony the Great (c. 251–356), early Christian saint of Egypt

Babai the Great (c. 551–628), Assyrian church leader

Basil of Caesarea (330-379), Greek bishop and theologian

Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the previous section)

Euthymius the Great (377-473), abbot and Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox saint

Gertrude the Great (1256-c. 1302), German Benedictine, mystic, theologian and Roman Catholic saint

Pope Gregory I (c. 540-604)

Hiyya the Great, 3rd-century rabbi, Palestine

Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)

Pope Leo I (c. 391 or 400-461)

Macarius of Egypt (c. 300-391), Egyptian hermit

Pope Nicholas I (c. 800-867)

Photius I of Constantinople (c. 810–c. 893), Eastern Orthodox saint and Patriarch of Constantinople

William of Maleval (died 1157), founder of the Catholic congregation of Williamites

Other

Beli Mawr, a figure in medieval Welsh literature and genealogies

Emmy the Great, folk singer

Matteo Rosso the Great, Roman politician and father of Pope Nicholas III

Prokop the Great, Hussite general in Bohemia

See also

Epithet

List of monarchs by nickname

List of nicknames of European Royalty and Nobility: G-I

James, son of Zebedee, also known as James the Greater, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus

Ajax (mythology), called Ajax the Greater

Notes

Category:Monarchs Great, List of people known as The Category:Greatest Nationals Category:Epithets

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