The India Gate (also known as the Delhi Memorial) was originally called the "All-India War Memorial". It was built as a national memorial to all the 70,000+ soldiers of Undivided India who died in operations or otherwise during the period 1914–21 (covering the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War) - the majority of whom are commemorated by name outside of India. It is one of the largest war memorials in the country and is covered by the names of 13,220 servicemen (and one woman, an Australian army nurse). They are listed in order of rank, unit by unit, without distinction of race, nationality or religion. Of those named, just over 1,000 lie in cemeteries to the west of the River Indus, where maintenance was not possible. The remainder died in fighting on or beyond the North West Frontier and during the Third Afghan War, and have no known grave. There are 12,260 named from Undivided India, 959 from the UK and 1 from Australia. Included are many Muslim soldiers of Undivided India whose units in 1947 became part of the Pakistan Army. It was designed by Sir Edward Lutyens, who was a member of The Imperial War Graves Commission (which later became the Commonwealth War Graves Commission).

The foundation stone was laid by the Duke of Connaught, third son of Queen Victoria, on 10 February 1921 in a ceremony attended by officers and men of the British Indian Army, Imperial Service Troops, the Commander in Chief, and Viceroy Chelmsford. The viceroy said at the time: "The stirring tales of individual heroism will live forever in the annals of this country," adding that the Memorial, which was a tribute to the memory of heroes "known and unknown," would inspire future generations to face adversity with similar fortitude and "no less valour."

Construction lasted until 1931, (the year New Delhi was formally designated as India's capital) and on 12 February Viceroy Lord Irwin inaugurated and dedicated the Memorial to the nation and its future generations. 

The arch stands approximately 138 feet (42 metres) tall and is located at the eastern end of the Rajpath (recently renamed as the Kartavya Path). At the top of the India Gate the cornice is inscribed with Imperial suns, while both sides of the arch have "INDIA", flanked by the dates "MCMXIV" (1914) on the left and "MCMXIX" (1919) on the right. Below the word "India" is the inscription: "To the dead of the Indian Armies who fell and are honoured in France and Flanders, Mesopotamia and Persia, East Africa, Gallipoli and elsewhere in the Near and Far East and in Sacred Memory also of those whose names are here recorded and who fell in India on the North West Frontier and during the Third Afghan War."