Johnson, David Andrew, Imperial vistas: new Delhi’s role as a symbol of British constitutional Reform in India and the cultural politics of colonial space, PhD thesis, Duke University, 2004**. Brief summary.

“The building of New Delhi between 1912 and 1931 … was originally meant to symbolize the strength and vitality of the British Empire, its progressive institutions, and its imperial legitimacy in South Asia. It did this by erecting large government buildings in the neo-classical style and by interweaving the new city within the ruins of past Hindu and Moslem empires deemed static and despotic in comparison to the benevolent and progressive British Raj. Yet by the time of the city's inauguration in February 1931 it was evident that the new city now represented Britain's weakened imperial stature and its need to negotiate with the emerging power of the Indian independence movement…. This study places the building of New Delhi within the context of constitutional reforms passed during the first three decades of the 20^th century in India. Understood in this way, New Delhi loses much of its irony and becomes, instead, a reflection of imperial policies designed to silence or undermine the Indian independence movement…. British policy-makers and town-planners used New Delhi to portray an imperial vision that offered Indians a greater voice in their own governance while simultaneously locating ultimate authority within the British colonial administration. Yet this new discourse of conciliation and partnership was ultimately undermined by Britain's inability to break from the racial and social assumptions deeply embedded in the imperial project.” From the abstract.

Pp. 157-187 cover the Simon Commission