It was filled up in the early 1930s so that annual Ramlila, held in October, could be shifted here from the reti (sandy) floodplains of Yamuna River behind the Red Fort, where Hindu soldiers of the Mughal army first started staging the Ramila in the 1800s.

[2][3] It quickly became a popular site for political meetings, with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and other top nationalist leaders addressing rallies here.

[3] On Republic Day, 1963 after India's defeat in Indo-China war, Lata Mangeshkar sang the patriotic song, "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo" in the presence of Nehru.

The Joint rally was held at Ramlila and was led by several opposition leaders Jagjivan Ram, Morarji Desai, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Charan Singh and Chandra Shekhar.

[9][10] Ramlila Maidan was also venue for Swami Ramdev for his indefinite hunger strike on 4 June 2011 to bring back the black money stashed in tax havens abroad,[11] which saw 65,000 odd supporters.