HOUSING & NEIGHBOURHOODS

Bombay was a crowded city with average space of 9.5 square yards, with an average of
20 persons.
Bombay was not a planned city and the house especially in the Fort area, were
interspersed with gardens.
--in Bombay the FORT AREA which formed the heart of the city in early 1800s was
divided between a ‘native town’ where most of the Indians lived, and a European or
‘white section.’
--the European suburb & an industrial zone began to develop to the north of the Fort area,
with similar suburb & cantonment in the south. This racial pattern was true of all three
Presidency cities.
--rapid & unplanned expansion of the city and growing mills led to the crisis of housing
and water supply by mid-1850’s.
--like the European elite the richer Parsi , Muslim & upper caste traders & industrialist of
Bombay lived in sprawling spacious bungalows and in contrast, more than 70% lived in
the thickly populated CHAWLS of BombayCHAWLS:
--They were multi-storied structures built from 1860’s in the ‘ native’ parts of the town.
--they were like the tenements in London they were largely owned by the private
landlords as merchants, bankers & building contractors for quick way of earning money
from the migrants.
--chawl was divided into smaller one-room tenements which had no private toilets.
--many families could reside at a time in a tenement, which were of one room with 4-5
occupants.
--people had to keep their windows closed even during the humid weather due to the
‘close proximity’ of filthy gutters, prives, buffalo stables etc.
--water was scarce and there were quarrels over it.
--streets & neighbourhoods were used for a variety of activities such as cooking, washing
& sleeping