City Planning in India under British Rule

Author(s): HOWARD SPODEK

Source: Economic and Political Weekly , JANUARY 26, 2013, Vol. 48, No. 4 (JANUARY
26, 2013), pp. 53-61
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23391350

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Economic and Political Weekly

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
SPECIAL ARTICLE

City Planning in India under British Rule

HOWARD SPODEK

British planning for Indian cities laboured under tserious

the heart of each of the first British cities in
Madras
internal contradictions. As a colonial power, Britain ruled(1644), Bombay (1661) and Calcutta (1
X X cities which the British largely created themselv
India primarilyforitsown benefit; at the same time,
the ground up - was a fort area dominated, desig
it had to address all the usual issues of urban
occupied by the British. They lived mostly inside the
governance, such as control of space, provision ofthe
and in water,
strongly fortified and controlled area ar
sewerage, roads, street lighting and police. sometimes called the "civil lines". Here they built thei
shops, and churches as well as their commercial and
Naturally enough, the British often viewed Indian
trative headquarters. Their armed forces were accom
problems through the lens of Britain's experience
nearbyininits
an area called the "cantonment" or "cam
own first era of rapid industrialisation, urbanisation,
much larger Indian area that sprang up around the Br
was usually referred to as the "native" or "black town". A
and popular democracy. India's conditions were,
control extended across India in the 18th and 19th c
however, quite dissimilar and the immense size and
and encompassed many already existing cities, these p
diversity of India produced divergent policies
of in different
spatial separation by nationality and race were rep
regions and at various times. Even where policies may
In some cities, where British presence was extensi
have been similar, their implementation and receptionof cantonment and civil lines were est
large areas
alongside pre-existing Indian cities. New Delhi, Ba
frequently varied. In England, efforts to plan towns
and Secunderabad (adjoining Hyderabad) are examp
effectively lacked sufficient funding and personnel;
the capitals of India's large princely states, regions
in India, these shortcomings were far moreBritish
severe.
left for local rulers to administer, and in the

Nevertheless, British planning bequeathed toregions

India with numerous smaller princely states, th
built "residency" areas to headquarter their local ad
enduring legacies - positive and negative - in urban
tion and to garrison their troops adjacent to the
architecture, physical planning, and the administrative
native cities.

mechanisms of governance.
British-built Capitals
The British and the Indian areas of town often ap
to be completely separate from one another. For
Rajnarayan Chandavarkar, citing earlier texts, note
"The major geographical division in 18th century Bom
as Burnell put it, between 'its two distinct limits, th
and the Black'." Anthony King noted this racial segreg
urban India more generally but modified the gener
since in the 19th century, some Indians also began
the civil lines.3
This article is slightly expanded and modified from an essay submitted
to the Indira Gandhi National Open University for a new Yet, despite
syllabus it is broad divisions between the white an
preparing on the history of urbanisation in India. It represents
areas ofmythe city, groups and individuals interacted
progress thus far in preparing materials on the subject. My thanks to
another. Even within the fort, only some areas wer
many people who helped me in this task: Jamal Ansari, Partha Chatterjee,
others Indian. When Bombay tried to evict Indian bus
Narayani Gupta, Bimal Patel, Utpal Sharma, Partha Mukhopadhyay and
from
colleagues at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, wherethe fort area, around 1,800, many refused to
the government
I discussed an early draft of this paper, the two anonymous Economic & lacked the legal tools to evict them.4
Political Weekly readers, and especially Janaki Nair, who tirelessly
To shift aedited
large number of Indians outside the Fort walls req
drafts of this paper for the IGNOU publication. In all cases, I reserved to be in possession of detailed land use and
government
final judgment for myself, so I alone am responsible for this final draft.1 Once again, the need for a comprehensive an
information.
revenue survey was greatly felt. Only when the government's
Howard Spodek (spodek@temple.edu) is with Temple University,
all of Bombay's lands were assured, could revenue rates be
Philadelphia, United States.
and assertion of political hegemony have meaning.

Economic & Political weekly ESBS3 January 26, 2013 vol xlviii no 4 53

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
SPECIAL ARTICLE

patterns. Swati Chattopadhyay focused on the British-built

A survey in 1812-13, showed that Indians overwhelmingly
house in Calcutta. While it may have looked like a house in
outnumbered the British in the Fort area. Out of a total popu
lation of 10,801 listed as dwelling in the Fort, 250 were English,
Britain from its exterior, inside the two were quite different. In
5,464 Parsis, 4,061 Hindus, 775 "Moors", 146 Portuguese, England,
and houses were constructed to separate servants from
105 Armenians.5 These groups, however, tended tomasters. be In their homes in India, however, British rulers and
separated within the Fort,6 employers were constantly crossing the paths of their (numer
ous) servants. Chattopadhyay claimed that the British were
with Churchgate Street functioning as an intangible line of demarca
uneasy about the lack of privacy, but proud of their ability to
tion that separated the British settlement to the south, characterised
by 'whitewashed English homes with covered piazzas', fromcommand
the such a large retinue of servants, and to be reminded
brightly painted and carved ethnic Indian houses to the north.
of this command at every turn. On the basis of this domestic
arrangement, Chattopadhyay dismissed the characterisation
Later, suburbs began to develop outside the walls. They were
more fully integrated than the fort areas. of a white town and a black town.
European officials and merchants as well as wealthy
Datta recalled descriptions of yet another style of urban
integration - the street scene jumble of wealthy European
Indians found themselves forming new elite neighbourhoods
together as7 "many Indian magnates began to move out of interspersed with the huts of their Indian servants:13
homes
their wadis and mohallas to European dominated areas
The appearance of the best houses is spoiled by the little straw huts,
such as Malabar and Cumballa Hills, Breach Candy and
and such sorts of encumbrances which are built up by the servants for
Mahalaxmi". In the late 19th century, some middle-class and themselves to sleep in; so that all the English part of town, which is the
largest, is a confusion of very superb and very shabby houses, dead
poor Europeans also lived in the Indian sections of town, such
walls, straw huts, warehouses, and I know not what.
as Tarwadi and Byculla. Meanwhile, the dangerous or offen
The quote is from Calcutta, 1768, but Datta argued that
sive trades of tanners, catgut makers, fat-boilers, and indigo
this style of integration was ubiquitous and enduring.
dyers were relocated to areas farther north, leapfrogging over
the native town. Chandavarkar focused on interactions in the public life of
The suburbs of Madras, too, were integrated, although subBombay, where wealthy Indian businessmen staked out
urban homes here were often larger and surrounded by more claims on power and on space unequalled in the other British
extensive gardens:8 regional capitals.14
Production and trade remained concentrated in the Black Town and Bombay's mercantile elites acquired a grip on important and lucra
adjacent areas, and administration and finance took over Fort tive St areas of the city's economy, including and indeed especially the
cotton textile industry. By marked contrast with Calcutta and
George, while traders, financiers, officials, and other professionals
Madras, the city's elites swiftly acquired a significant share of local
and entrepreneurs, Indian and European alike, continued to lay out
power. From the 1830s onwards, they were firmly entrenched in
enclaves of private residential compounds around the south-western,
western, and north-western perimeter of the city. local government. ...As they battled for power within the Municipal
Corporation where they gained, by the 1880s, greater representation
on a relatively wide franchise, they took particular pride in public
In Calcutta, although the fort was European, some of the
standards in the city.
land in the white town was owned by Indians and rented to
Englishmen.9 Partha Chatterjee added that:10 Reinforcing Chandavarkar's perspective, Preeti Chopra
spoke
There never were clear rules of segregation of White and Black areas of a "joint public realm", "distinct from concrete
in Calcutta - segregation was more the result of regulations of imagined ethnic, religious, racial, and class enclaves", this
and
various economic and public activities. In the 19th century, there
was "a spatial arena that was, in theory, owned by and open
were no laws that prevented anyone from acquiring property any
toof
where in the city or from living anywhere. But an effective system all of Bombay's citizens and helped in the construction of an
segregation did operate. The one place I have seen this documented imagined
is common public."15 She entitled her book: A Joint
in Thacker's Street Directory of Calcutta (annually published from, I
Enterprise: Indian Elites and the Making of British Bombay.
think, the 1870s). It gives the names of residents of individual houses
In Bombay, the British had to consider the wishes of Indian
in what was then the White Town. The concentration of European,
landowners
Armenian, Jewish, Greek, Parsee names along certain streets is when laying out new road systems in some of the
quite remarkable. newly developing tracts outside the fort area.16 They were
dependent on the philanthropy of some of Bombay's business
Styles of Urban Integration elites in constructing the great Victorian architectural gems of
Later, in the nearby suburbs, such as Chowringhee, both
central Bombay.17
Indians and Europeans were establishing their own individual,
Buildings designed for India ...were not simply copies of British build
sizeable family homes, set in their own compounds, in aings. Central to their production was the issue of finding the appropri
ate Anglo-Indian style for India, a style that calibrated the correct
"distinct, discrete, predominantly residential quarter".11 Mean
distance between colonising elite[s] and those they ruled.18
while, "Ballygunge was another popular place of residence for
the Europeans...Well-place and ambitious Indians with close
By the end of the 19th century,19 "wealthy natives, rather
connections to the government also settled here."12 than the ruling race, seemed to control the economy and space
In all three port-capitals, the areas within the fort wallson the island of Bombay". Common public spaces seemed to be
and
immediately around them were the sites of maximum cultural
emerging, but they were sometimes claimed exclusively by the
interchange. At least five recent scholarly works reveal groups
the that built them. Parsis, for example, built many of the

54 January 26, 2013 vol XLViii no 4 DEES Economic & Political weekly

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 SPECIAL ARTICLE

transformed, not into British forms, but into new hybrids as a

hospitals ...of Bombay; "people of other communities - including
Europeans - might not be accepted."20 result of being adapted to new uses. When the British moved
their capital from Calcutta in 1911, they built New Delhi,
Pre-existing Cities a new city outside and separated from (Old) Delhi. In the
capitals of India's large princely states, and in the centre of
In the pre-existing cities, not built by the British but conquered
by them, integration was even more common, and necessary.
regions with numerous smaller states, they built residency
areas to headquarter their local administration and troop
William Glover writes of Lahore, the largest city, and regional
capital of Punjab:21 garrisons adjacent to the existing native cities. Degrees of
segregation
The need to generate social and spatial arrangements for a life of and integration continued, although they differed
by time
racial interaction was far more pressing, continuous, and common a and place.27
One
task for British officials in India than is often realised and was, more exception to this somewhat laissez-faire attitude in
than any other factor, the driving force behind British efforts to under
India's historic cities came in response to the 1857 war of
stand, inhabit, and intervene in India's rural and urban landscapes.
independence, especially in Delhi and Lucknow, two of the
most rebellious of the cities. Here the British intervened
The very design of the civil station, its layout and architecture,
dramatically,
was intended to attract and mould the Punjabi of that time and decisively, and brutally to ensure that such a
revolt
place. The "goal was nothing less than to create a new kind of would never repeat. The entire Indian population of
Delhi
person, and the material environment was thought crucial to was evacuated and allowed to return only group by
the task".22 To a substantial degree, it apparently succeeded.
group, Hindus in January 1858, Muslims not till the end of that
Integration in Lahore mirrored that of other large cities.
year. Muslims who wanted their own property back had to
Mixing between the British and Indians took place mostly
pay in
for it. Army and police forces were increased and British
the newer suburbs; the inner cores of India's largest citiesnumbers
were were increased within them. The poet Ghalib cried
"almost entirely left alone".23 Glover, for example, citedout
thein 1858:28 "Where is Delhi, By God, it is not a city now. It is
a camp. It is a cantonment. There is neither Palace, nor bazaar,
British inability to penetrate the Indian city, and their disinterest
in engaging with it. The old, inner districts were too dense, nor the canal."
too crowded, too dirty, and too "inscrutable" for the BritishIntoLucknow, many key buildings that had housed rebels were
feel competent intervening in. Intervention might alsorazed
haveto the ground and others were seized for British control.
provoked resistance and political protest. Census takers often
Still others were destroyed to make way for wide boulevards
intended, as in the Paris of Baron Haussmann of about the
did not know how to discriminate between a room, a house,
same time, to break up the close-knit residential neighbour
and a household. In addition, "complicated patterns of property
ownership in the Old City meant that purchasing landhoods
for where rebels could hide and escape British forces and to
reconstruction was tedious and costly."24 create roads along which troops could be deployed quickly. New
Even within the civil station, British success in creatingsanitation
new measures included not only water supply and sewer
urban designs that might facilitate some degree of integration
age, they also extended to regulation and health examinations of
had budgetary limits. Urban development - and redevelop
the Indian women who serviced the British troops sexually.29
The British also introduced new taxes and collected them
ment - was expensive. Consider the impoverished, Indian
dominated neighbourhood of Mozang, situated withinmore
the efficiently to make the city pay for the new construction,
civil station of Lahore, as described in 1887:25 services, and police. Finally the British promoted western edu
[W]ithin an area of less than four acres are crowded some 10,000cation
peo of the local elites with the goal of keeping them loyal.30
ple mostly in tortuous lanes and alleys thoroughly saturated with sew
age ...it is a hotbed of disease. Responsibilities for Urban Governance31
Repeatedly British officials proposed remodelling Mozang,
As the need for new forms of urban governance in the "native
cleaning it up, tearing it down, but the proposals were too as well as the civil lines became increasingly apparent,
towns"
costly. Mozang, though located within the civil station,
the East India Company, the rulers of India until the British
crown assumed direct responsibility in 1858, passed the
remained as untouched by the British as was the central city.
Prakash Tandon, writing decades before Glover, also described
Improvement in Towns Act (Act 26 of 1850), an enabling Act,
Lahore in the 1930s and 1940s as two cities:26 which called for contributions to support municipal commis
the Lahore of the Lahorias, people who lived inside the old walled sions
city; that would introduce urban improvements. In 1856, the
Municipal
and the Lahore of the ring of suburbs that grew after the city began to Commission of Ahmedabad came into existence.
respond to the new peace and order. ...The two Lahores were Some
quite towns in the Bengal Presidency also adopted the Act in
different in appearance and character.
the 1850s as did some in the Punjab in the 1860s.32 By the
These descriptions of interactions of British personnel,1860s,
poli a new regime of municipal record keeping and control
cies and plans with Indian people and traditions suggestover
thatbuilding activity in towns and cities was inaugurated33
while clear divisions persisted even in the later stages ofthrough
colo municipal committees which:34
nial rule, interesting "hybrids" were created. Jyoti Hosagrahar
mostly maintained community facilities and services such as water
has argued that Delhi's classical havelis, public spaces, roads,
supply, sewerage, drainage, primary education, roads and streets,
housing clusters, and conceptions of public health were parksall and play grounds, etc, and enforcing building bye-laws. Some

Economic & Political weekly »aavi January 26, 2013 vol xlviii no 4 55

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
special Article

states later empowered their Municipalities to undertake limited

water, brought from the worst part of the Sabarmati River, was
urban development and regulation activities such as constructioncontaminated.
of The wells also were contaminated by seepage
roads, division of land into building plots, enforcing regulations with
from sewage. Cesspools added to the contamination and in
respect to use of land and construction of buildings.
1880-84, the death rate in Ahmedabad, 45.2 per 1,000, was
Initially, persons nominated by the British rulers governed
among the highest in the world. But Ahmedabadis did not give
these municipalities. Later, the municipalities were opened up
to their goals of improvement.
members elected from the city's Indian population as well. Feeling more secure under British rule, beginning in 1840,
In the Punjab, the British also created a network of irriga
some of the wealthy merchants began to build new bungalows
tion canals, and canal colonies such as Lyallpur, Montgomery,
for themselves outside the wall. Inside the walls, they began to
and Sargodha. These colony-towns were built on greenfield
build new institutions, including the first public library in 1857.
sites, and therefore the British had greater control over In
the1856, as noted above, the government established the
planning for sanitation, health, order, and efficiency. They
Municipal Commission of Ahmedabad and, despite some British
were built by the British but primarily for an Indian popula
apprehensions, the city did not rebel in 1857. In 1862, the Royal
tion. Prakash Tandon, who spent a few of his teenage yearsBank
in and the Central Bank opened offices. The railway came in
1864, immediately outside the wall, on the eastern side of the
Sargodha in the early 20th century, describes his experiences
of these hybrids of British design and Indian life as drab
city. Ellis Bridge was constructed in 1870 linking the city on the
and colourless:35 east side of the Sabarmati River to the mostly open fields on the
west. The Gujarat College followed on the western side in 1879.
Sargodha, as can be imagined, was a much cleaner and healthier city
In 1888, Ranchhodlal Chhotalal, who had built Ahmedabad's
■ than Gujrat [another city in Punjab, where Tandon had spent his early
years]. It was planned, well laid out and had plenty of light and air.first
Its textile mill, became the first non-official chairman of the
streets and lanes were wide and straight. ...It was typical of the new
managing committee of the municipality. He pushed for new
spirit of Sargodha that its biradaris [social organisations] tried to stop
water supply systems and new drainage, even though these
wasteful expenditure at weddings by banning fireworks, and had they
benefits incurred new taxes. With the support of the British,
got away with this they would probably have stopped music and enter
tainment as well. But with all this Sargodha was drab and had none he
of prevailed despite the derision and opposition of his fellow
the colour of Gujrat, neither the city nor its people. citizens - some threw rotten vegetables at him - and got the new
Ahmedabad provides a very different example - a pre
water and sewerage works constructed. Unfortunately, the water
works brought more water than the sewerage works could
existing large and important city, always subordinate to Bombay
in British eyes, where only a few British officers came drain,
to and some flooding resulted. Following Ranchhodlal's
work and live.36 By 1817, when the British came to power term
in of office, the municipality declined in efficiency, until the
Ahmedabad, after the Third Maratha War, the city had government
suf superseded it in 1910-15.
The biggest problem in all the large cities was providing
fered years of neglect. The British sought only to "repair and
basic services: water, sewerage, drainage, and lights. Through
restore some of the old, dilapidated structures."37 In 1830, they
his resolution of 1882, viceroy lord Ripon extended the
did shift their regional headquarters from Baroda to Ahmedabad,
and in 1832, they established a cantonment adjacent to the
principles of local self-government to all municipalities under
city. There they built military and residential facilities and
British rule. The chairman was the municipal commissioner,
some administrative offices. However, "the Collectorate, usually
the a British official.39 Civic improvement was only one
Metropolitan Courts and the General Post Office were part
con of the agenda; shifting the burden of tax collection
structed at Gheekanta",38 in the heart of the walled city. from the British to Indians was another. Most citizens did
Ahmedabadis were proud of the degree of self-government
not want to pay the taxes, especially when they perceived no
benefit for themselves. Many authors, such as Mariam Dossal
that they achieved under British rule. In 1830, leading citizens
(Bombay)40 Narayani Gupta (Delhi)41 and Susan Lewandowski
received British permission to establish a Town Wall Committee,
(Madras),42 have noted the shortage of municipal funds and
which included the collector and a judge. Repairs to the town
walls were funded by a small increase in town duties. Later,
the almost total lack of concern for parts of the city where
the committee undertook construction of a reservoir near the poor immigrants moved.
centre of the walled city at Manek Chowk, with a dharamsala
and a grain market nearby. They invested a variety of munici Compromises
pal services, including maintenance of fire engines and roads, Urban government after the Ripon reforms required a series
street lighting, rubbish collection, provision for building and of compromises between "financial austerity and political
cleaning some public toilets and construction of police chowkis. necessity...No Indian town or city could approach the economic
Piped water supply was brought from the river to the centre of resources of a Leeds or Birmingham in the 19th century".43
town, at Manek Chowk, in 1849; part of this supply was brought There was enough in the budget, however,44
even to private homes. to make it worthwhile for local contractors to become politicians
Separate water pumps and latrines were installed for low and win election to the Municipal Council. ...Urban services ...ex
panded most in road construction and lighting ...highly visible
castes (although the collector refused a request to have low
improvements that had great appeal for urban voters, cost relatively
caste residents removed from the city). Unfortunately, the little and provided an important administrative role and patronage
hydraulic engineering for the water supply was faulty and the for politicians.

56 January 26, 2013 vol XLViii no 4 ■ 3353 Economic & Political weekly

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 SPECIAL ARTICLE

and sewerage services paid for by taxes on everyone. Social

Vested interests multiplied and even the highest municipal
planning was non-existent.
officials often felt frustrated. Arthur Travers Crawford, Municipal
Commissioner of Bombay, 1865 to 1871, tried to get dirty
Improvement Trusts
trades out of south Bombay. Crawford bitterly describes the
resistance he met:45 A plague struck Bombay in 1896. Mortality rates in 1896-1900

...Kessowjee Naik brought his dyers back to their old quarters. I prose
reached 65.4 per 1,000, and remained at 64.1 per 1,000 in
cuted them, but was defeated. Kessowjee Naik spent money 1901-05,
like more than double the rate in the previous decades.51
water, eminent physicians swore solemnly that dye-pits were beneWorkers, who had been attracted to the opportunities in
ficial to health! Even the Press was 'nobbled' by sums so large Bombay,
that as moths to a flame, now reversed course. The popu
their Editors could not resist the bait. This infamous success embold
lation of the city plummeted from 8,21,764 in 1891 to 4,00,000
ened a powerful German firm to open a large steam Dyeing Factory
close to Parbadevi Temple, whose refuse waters polluted the fair sands
in 1897-98.52 In the wake of this plague, India's first improve
ment trust was initiated in Bombay in 1898.53 The trust was to
of Mahim Bay. ...An English firm...dumped down on DeLisle Road a bone
crushing and bone manure mill nearly opposite Cowasji Jehangir's address three fundamental challenges.
College in Parel Road. A Khojah firm, still more enterprising, estab The first was the disastrously poor sanitation in Bombay,
lished a sulphuric acid factory close to the bone mills - a few yards
which reached worldwide attention and endangered Bombay's
from the gip Railway line and the Elphinstone College.
international commerce. Already in 1867, at an international
Crawford lamented that he had neither the time nor the conference on cholera convened in Constantinople, French
resources to fight back. and Egyptian representatives called Bombay a "cholera nest".54
They threatened to close their ports to ships that passed
Many Indians saw things quite differently. Members of the
Bombay Association of Ratepayers for instance, saw Crawford
through Bombay. The threat became a reality in 1896 as "plague
initially closed the ports of Europe to ships from Bombay,
as a despot and criticised him for profligacy. They forced his
disrupting the city's export trade and virtually paralysing its
transfer in 1871; they proposed the alternative of elected repre
sentative government.45 commercial life".55
In general, then, the British were concerned mostly withThe second, related, challenge was the overcrowding, con
their own areas of the city - the cantonment, the civil lines,
sidered to be the breeding grounds of the plague.56
and the industrial and port areas. In the regional capitals,The establishment of the Bombay Improvement Trust in 1898 was the
which were all port cities, more attention was paid to interoutcome of a firmly entrenched belief that plague was, in the first
national commercial facilities than to the needs of the instance, the direct result of overcrowding in poorly ventilated and
filth-ridden dwellings.
"native" areas. In Bombay, for instance, three wet docks for
large ships - the Prince's Dock, the Victoria Dock and the points out that there was no building code in most of
Klein
Alexandra Dock - were built between 1875 and 1914.Bombay
India's and this was at least one of the roots of rampant dis
first oil terminal was opened at Sewri, and new wharves, de cites examples from the Census of India, 1901: Lower
ease. He
Colaba
pots, warehouses and railway sidings sprang up to handle the was "thickly crowded and insanitary"; another neigh
millions of tonnes of cargo annually shipped through Bom
bourhood's "high death-rate was attributed to crowding and
insanitation"; "Chowpatty, Girgaum and other sections were
bay.47 The British planted some new buildings and institutions
in the native cities, drove some new roads through oldcesspools' or filthy tanneries and 'horribly offensive' and
'full of
neighbourhoods, supplied some new water and sewerage,
'unutterably foul' charnel houses."57 In addition to those housed
but did not - and could not - fully engage with the in abysmal
city as conditions, The Times of India noted that in the
a whole. 1890s, around 1,00,000 labourers had no homes. They "sleep
In India, where industrialisation was minimal through mostat night in open spaces on footpaths or on verandahs of houses,
of the 19th century, town planning in the late 1880s and 1890sin temple compounds and in Masjids, Dharamshalas, etc".58
had been more "a matter of asserting the Imperial presence by Klein analysed the problem as the free market run amok:59
the construction of impressive buildings for colonial rulers and Since the western rulers believed that laissez faire methods were most
their officers",48 than systematic planning for the development efficient for development, they were not particularly concerned about
of the expanding urban periphery. Viceroys lords Mayo and tremendous disparities in wealth, crowding or urban blight; ...Bombay's
Ripon had extended the principles of local self-government to leaders did not conceive of the urban environment as a separate entity
to be protected for health, comfort or beauty; rather it was viewed as a
all municipalities under British rule, but the chairman was the
resource for development, disposable as a market commodity.
municipal commissioner, usually a British official. The Indian
Civil Service, the so-called steel frame of the British adminis The trust was to chart a new, although limited, path to destroy
tration of India, was insensitive and "uniformly western-orienslums and improve the living conditions of the poor through a
tated".49 Very little professional expertise existed for draftingfocus on physical planning. New streets were created, crowded
and implementing town planning. Even in England, townlocalities opened, and land reclaimed for urban expansion.
planning was in its infancy.50 Key personnel in India were sanThese improvements would also enhance the city's image as a
itary and civil engineers, who cleared slums, built straightcentre of imperial and commercial power.
roads through them, filled up tanks to get rid of mosquitoes; The trust invoked the right of eminent domain - taking over
made sure civil lines were well taken care of with water private land in the public interest - and used this power to

Economic & Political weekly 0EE3 January 26, 2013 vol xlviii no 4 57

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
SPÉCIAL ARtlCLE _ ^ ^

fearing
demolish slums. The British government of India, financial losses, the trust began to raise ren
following
practices established in England, had already drove
enacted
thethe
poor out and turned trust housing into hous
Land Acquisition Act of 1894, creating this power.
those (This Act
not so poor. In effect, by knocking down building
slums and
remains one of the principal tools for urban planning raising building standards, the trust had evi
today.)
Now the improvement trust used it to:60 poor and created middle class housing in its place.64
Surveying the results of the Bombay Improvement T
sub-divide land into plots for houses, open spaces, schools, hospitals,
decade
other public facilities and roads, and sell the plots for privatelater,
ownerin 1908, governor Sydenham Clarke wr
the absence
ship and development in accordance with the rules prescribed. of any definite policy in the past, Bombay
Carry
ing out of development works such as construction permitted
of roads with
to grow up almost haphazard."65 He felt t
streetlights, drains, sewers, water supply and provision of electricity
for coordination among the Bombay Improvement Tru
within the area covered by Town Planning Schemes [instituted after
Port Trust, implementing new schemes for Bombay'
1915] were considered as the responsibilities of Improvement Trusts.
the Railway
At some places, Improvement Trusts were mainly involved in roadBoard, the Bombay Municipal Corporati
Millowners'
widening works and development of adjacent areas. Some Association, which might provide hous
of the acti
vities which the Trusts were engaged in, were thoseworkers,
of improving
and the Chamber of Commerce. He called
extremely congested areas by slum clearance, and undertaking hous
comprehensive development plan for the city.66
ing projects for the low income groups.
Mariam Dossal, blamed conflicts over land and the w
Why improvement trusts? Why not carry outof
this
theactivity
state as the combined cause of this "haphazard" gr
through existing municipalities? The third challenge for the
Conflict over land had a long history and been so acute that
trust was governance. The trust was to keep keyning
urban devel
efforts were marginalised and vested interests determine
opment powers in the hands of appointed officials, whogrowth
mental could in the island city. In this situation, the state h
been dominant nor determined enough to ensure that planni
proceed "unencumbered by accountability to representatives
tives were actually implemented. The essence of Bombay's hist
of local self-governing institutions".61 As improvement trusts
in the conflict between serving the immediate needs of vest
were subsequently extended to other large citiesests
across India
and the long-term benefits for society as a whole.
- Agra, Kanpur, Nagpur, Delhi, Calcutta - they extended the
The and
frictions between the elected municipal governments one the
important planning accomplishment durin
appointed trusts. "This initiated the process of multiplicity of was the completion of a cadastral surve
first world war
city and
authorities that became a major issue of governance island,
after in the third comprehensive revenue su
dependence",62 and remains a major problem today.
their history.68
The physical conditions of the native sections of C
Surveying the Results were apparently even worse than Bombay's, and the
fered from
In pursuing its goals of improving slums - or destroying high rates of illness, disease, and death, al
them
- and making available better living conditionsnot
for from the plague. Calcutta had the highest percen
the poor,
the Bombay Improvement Trust was a failure. At leastof
slums inany
thecity in India. Calcutta's slums:69
short run, the trust was actually reducing the supply of low
were divided into great 'blocks' of buildings, ranging over 2
cost accommodation, and doing it without concern for those
acres (but most commonly about 100 acres) consisting of st
evicted. Thousands of houses were destroyed without dense building.
alterna The total area covered in this way in the city
tives being provided. In order to let light and air [when the Calcutta Improvement Trust was established], w
into homes,
acres covering an area of three square miles.
the Municipal Corporation had rooms inside houses destroyed
to create interior chowks or courtyards. To createThe
thisfirst chairman of the Calcutta Improvement
space,
some residents were displaced; some homeowners added stohad a complete breakdown in health and r
E P Richards,
to England in 1914. From there he wrote a devastati
ries to their houses. The result was more overcrowding.
page
In general, the trust's policies forced the evicted report
slum dwell"On the Condition, Improvement and To
ers to find new homes in other slums. The remaining
ning of houses
the City of Calcutta and Contiguous Areas." It
rose in price, so the poor could not afford them. They left
Richards' or frustration in dealing with the unplanned
total
they squeezed even more tightly into the remaining space.
A casual glance at the Calcutta plans shows instantly that the c
New housing was slow to form. When the trust whole,
did begin to possesses no streets. There are but two small
actually
offer alternative accommodations, many refused them,
Calcuttasince
having the normal street system which is found thro
the whole area of almost every city in the world. ...2,500 a
they now believed that these, too, would soon be demolished.
provided
The poor also did not like the systematic collection of rentonly
by with highly irregular lanes and passages. I
require the creation of 110 miles of ordinary 30-40 ft streets
the trust, often preferring to deal with private owners with
Calcutta into line with even the old built-up sections of European
whom they could negotiate or delay payments. On the other
The provided
hand, they preferred government housing to housing Calcutta Improvement Trust was to concentrate
by their employers, since employers could evict them at the
population centres of the city, rather than on the ou
That restriction limited its source of income; it had little
same time that they sacked them, if they so chose.63
Living conditions in the overcrowded tenements land tocentral
in the sell off for development. As in Bombay at the
districts of Bombay continued steadily to deteriorate. By 1911,
the plague, Calcutta saw its mission mostly as destroyin

58 January 26, 2013 vol XLViii NO 4 laavi Economic & Political weekly

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 SPECIAL ARTICLE

Since no one was completely displaced, while the total value

or at least demolishing slum buildings selectively to provide
increased, the government did not have to pay compensation.
for adequate circulation of traffic and ventilation of air.
The concepts advocated by the National Housing Reform
In the short run, this method was time-consuming, requiring a
Council in Great Britain, and apparent in Britain's first piecegreat
of deal of consultation with the landowners, but, in the long
town planning legislation, the Housing Town Planning Actrun,
of it created less resentment and fewer protests. Neverthe
1909, informed Indian planning. The new British legislation
less, after some time, the process of land pooling gave way to
the use of eminent domain, even in Bombay Province.75
was concerned with purchasing land on the outskirts of cities
To implement its Town Planning Act, the government of
and developing it for the respectable poor with a steady wage,
leaving their abandoned homes in the densest parts of the Bombay
city appointed Arthur Edward Mirams as "Consulting
for the next generation of the poor.71 Surveyor," effectively town planner.76 Mirams drew up devel
opment plans for a number of cities in the province. The five
It was an idea based on the possibility of rising real incomes for the
poor, orderly and controlled administration, and the efficacy heof
prepared for Ahmedabad demonstrate the intersection of
British town planning concepts, the colonial administration,
private initiative. ...Conditions in Indian cities could not have been
more different.
and the growing power of the Indian nationalist movement in
creating its own urban agenda. In 1915, Ahmedabad was the
New Thinking: Town Planning Legislation, home of Mohandas Gandhi, just beginning his rise to the
Rising Nationalism leadership of the nationalist movement, and also of Vallabhbhai
Patel, Gandhi's principal lieutenant in Gujarat. Patel served
The first town planning legislation in India was passed in Bom
for many years as an elected member of the municipality,
bay. The Bombay Town Planning Act of 1915 gave local author
and for several as its president. If Mirams was to implement
ities (municipalities) powers to prepare and implement town
hisItplans, he would have to persuade this highly politicised
planning schemes for urban development or redevelopment.
allowed for zoning, building regulations, acquisition of municipality.
land
for public purposes, and collection of funds for local improve
The town planning schemes for restructuring and bringing
electricity and increased water supply and sewage lines to
ments. The purpose was to provide for orderly development,
sanitation, social amenities, and low-cost housing. The need
Jamalpur and Kankaria, areas just adjacent to and outside the
was felt especially strongly because of the chaotic growthwalls
of of the old city, were generally popular and passed easily.
Bombay's textile mills and the workers' housing that The
sur expansion of the city to the west side of the Sabarmati
rounded them.72 The initiative vested in the local authorities,
River met with opposition from farmers and others in the area,
who felt that they would not be adequately compensated and
although the state government could in special cases direct
that future taxes would be higher. But Vallabhbhai Patel, who
the local authorities to undertake town planning schemes.73
Other provinces followed - the United Provinces in 1919,
felt that the city had to expand, pushed the scheme through.
Madras in 1920. All the plans were physical in orientation.
On the other hand, Patel felt that the plans for pulling down
the city's centuries' old walls and replacing them with ring
Some entrusted the responsibility to local governments, some
to improvement trusts. Some were limited to municipal roads
bor and an electric tram line were too expensive. Besides, he
appreciated the importance to the Muslim community of
ders, some to peripheral areas, some included both. Some ena
bled local governments or authorities to draw up planningretaining the walls, built in the time of the Gujarat Sultanate,
and
acts. The Madras Town Planning Act went further. It "made it preserving the Muslim cemeteries nestled at their base. So
obligatory upon local authorities to prepare General Town
this project languished for two decades before it was imple
mented, without the electric tram.
Planning Schemes with respect to land under their jurisdiction
The most controversial of all the plans was to build a new,
and in the immediate vicinity".74 Most of the town planning
legislation called for government to acquire land by assertingwide
the road, cutting through the middle of the walled city, con
necting the railway station in the east to the river in the west.
right of eminent domain; compensation for the land acquired
could be negotiated, but the government had the final say.Although Patel approved this plan in principle, he resented
The Bombay legislation was different. It called for land
the lack of consultation by the British with the Indians in the
municipal government. He opposed the road; its construction
pooling where possible. In procuring land for road construction
or for local public facilities, for example, each landowner to
wasbeput off until 1933.77
In 1924, the Congress and the Gandhian labour union in
affected by the acquisition would surrender a part of his or her
Ahmedabad agreed that if workers participated in municipal
land to the government, and would keep a part. No one would
keep all of his or her land; neither would anyone completely
elections, they could officially represent their difficulties and
needs. Three Congress candidates stood for election and all
lose theirs. The land remaining after the government's acquisi
won.
tion would be re-parcelled out so that the proportional value of Kacharabhai Bhagat, a harijan dalit, was Ahmedabad's
each person's land to the whole would remain approximately
first labour representative and also the first untouchable repre
sentative. Union leaders proclaimed the significance of this
what it had been. The presumption was that landowners would
approve of this process because the value of their land, election
even for the city and its planning:78
though reduced in size, would nevertheless increase in value With
by Kacharabhai in the Municipality it became easier to call the
virtue of the new road or other facility introduced into the area.
attention of both the Congress party and the municipal officers to the

Economic & Political weekly QSSÜ January 26, 2013 vol xlviii no 4 59

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
SPECIAL ARTICLE

needs of the workers' neighborhoods for roads, lights, water, toilets,death

and rate of 501 per 1,000 infants under one year of age in
other facilities. ...The working classes had been unaware of the respon
Bombay, 464 in Cawnpore and 330 in Calcutta - to empha
sibilities, and the activities, of the municipality, on their behalf, and
sise the need for immediate action, as well as the dense over
they had suffered from feelings of inferiority. At first when the tla
crowding
[union] came to the workers to talk to them about their lack of sensi
in the large cities, the lack of space for recreation
and
tivity to their own basic necessities, the workers had said, "Yes, it mayplay and the need for larger residences. Bogle was an
be like that, but we have no complaints." A welcome change began to engineer, and most of the remedies he proposed were in
occur in that attitude. terms of physical planning, including zoning and more room
for roads. In his introduction to Bogle's manual, Radhakamal
Geddes
Mukerjee, of the University of Lucknow, proclaimed the need
for social
In 1915, at about the same time that Bombay passed planning as well as engineering because all of the
its new
Town Planning Act and Mirams began to draw upindustrial cities had enormous surpluses of male population
his plans,
Patrick Geddes arrived in India. Geddes came aswho might be
a guest ofseduced by "the thought of running away to
liquor
lord Pentland, governor of Madras, who asked him to shopsto
bring and brothels where there is more room space,
India his innovative Cities and Town Planning Exhibition.
more light, and more company".83
Depression
Later, several of the rulers of princely states in India askedin the 1930s, and then the second world war,
brought
Geddes to design city plans for their capitals. Geddes a hiatus to planning in India, as elsewhere. The
stayed
construction
on in India until 1924, the last six years as professor of Civics of New Delhi as a new national capital, which
continuedman
and Sociology at the Bombay University. A remarkable even through the depression, was a major excep
who has influenced town planners for a century,tion.Geddes
Otherwise,84
believed that "the town planner was the propagandist,
the onlythe
important event from the point of town planning around
inspirational genius who would raise the consciousness
this timeof
was the publication of a report in 1946 by the Health
Survey and
the whole community..."79 In 1915, Geddes persuaded Development Committee under the Chairmanship of
lord
Sir Joseph Bhore. It recommended the creation of a Ministry of
Pentland to have the Government of Madras appoint the first
Housing and Town Planning in every Province, well equipped
official town planner in India, H V Lanchester, architect and
Provincial Directorates of Town Planning, appointment of an expert
editor of The Builder.80 in the Central Ministry of Health to advise on and scrutinise
Geddes' ideas were influential but not immediately
Townimple
Planning Schemes in different provinces seeking financial
support from
mented. He advocated an understanding of the historical evothe center, and creation of Improvement Trusts in
all large cities.
lution of the society whose environment was to be planned
Independence
and he wanted objectives that were "realistic, appropriate and in 1947, however, revealed the limitations of
satisfying on economic and social, aesthetic andtownspiritual
planning up to that point - a shortage of professionals,
non-existence
levels".81 His concepts were too romantic, too organic, too of comprehensive town planning legislation in
almostthan
rooted in planning with and for the community rather all theinstates, and lack of organisation of town plan
ning departments. In 1951, the Institute of Town Planners,
physical planning of buildings and roads by professional
India, was not
engineers. Geddes saw British planning as the problem, created with 19 members (290 in 1971, and over
the solution.82 600 in 1979). The central and state governments began
establishing planning legislation and town planning depart
Geddes was totally scathing about the expensive and unrealistic
ments
activities of the British engineers and sanitarians with their at the
belief in state level. New master planning initiatives
wide, open thoroughfares, wholesale destruction of began slum in the 1950s with the preparation of master plans as a
areas,
flushed sewers, etc; whilst Improvement Trusts rarely had the
coordinated set of proposals for the comprehensive physical
powers to make a comprehensive impact on the total environment of
development of whole towns rather than for parts thereof, as
the city.
in the Town Planning Schemes, and going beyond problems
Geddes proposed instead cheap and ameliorative solutions. of crisis management into consideration of future as well as
The princes were more responsive to his ideas. He prepared present needs.85
a two-volume report on and for the princely state of Indore. A new era, with new problems, proclaimed its intention to
Some princes invited Geddes to make new plans for their find and implement new solutions. It would commence its
capital cities, and then set up improvement trusts in these work against the background of the ambiguous planning lega
cities. Geddes' ideas endured, but they had to wait for a time cies of British rule. The examples of monumental architecture,
and place in which community, rather than zoning, would be the roads and public works, and the hierarchies expressed in
the focus of planning. the structuring of public space provided tangible, visible
A few European trained urban planners came to India fol legacies. The powers of bureaucrat over elected official, the
lowing Geddes. Linton Bogle, a graduate of the first British subordination of local government to state and national
university department of civic design at Liverpool came and authorities, the use of eminent domain to seize land, the policy
wrote a treatise on Town Planning in India in 1929 following of low taxes regardless of civic needs, and the pattern of
his experience as chief engineer of the Lucknow Improve patronage in contracting out urban services, although not
ment Trust. Bogle wrote of the need to address the appalling visible in concrete form, provided structures of governance
conditions in the slums. He cited public health indices - a that were no less important.
60 January 26, 2013 vol XLViii no 4 GOES Economic & Political weekly

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 SPECIAL ARTICLE

NOTES 17 Ibid: 21-25. 45 Mariam Dossal (1991): Imperial Designs and

18 Ibid: 71. Indian Realities: the Planning of Bombay City,
1 For information on the entire projected syllabus,
19 Ibid: 188. 1845-75 (New York: Oxford University Press),
contact Abha Singh and for the modern section,
203.
Janaki Nair. 20 Ibid: 159-89.
46 Ibid: 213.
When I accepted the assignment of21writing a (2008): Making Lahore Modern:
William Glover
Constructing and Imaging a Colonial City 47 Hazareesingh, 18.
segment on British town planning in India,
(Minneapolis:
especially for industrial cities, I thought it would University of Minnesota Press),
48 Ibid: 331.
28.
be a straightforward task. I would consult four 49 Ibid: 332.
22 Ibid: 199.
or five books on the subject and synthesise the 50 Ibid: 341.
key points. But 1 could find no books treating
23 Ibid: 199the 51 Cited in Ira Klein (i986):"Urban Development
subject comprehensively and very few articles.
24 Ibid: 58. and Death, Bombay City, 1870-1914", Modern
There is a literature on architecture and on the Asian Studies, 20(4), 729.
25 Ibid: 54.
planning of British Presidency capitals, city 52 Later many returned by 1901, Bombay's popu
26 Prakash Tandon (1968): Punjabi Century 1857
by-city, but no account of general British plan lation had recovered to 7,76,000 and by 1911 to
1Ç47 (Berkeley: University of California Press),
ning policies for other cities. They must be 9,79,445.1891 figure from the Census of India,
1968,183.
explored one-by-one. cited by Klein, 729; 1897-98 figure from Dossal,
27 Jyoti Hosagrahar (2005): Indigenous Moder Theatre, 159.
For general articles and books, see:
nities: Negotiating Architecture and Urbanism
Jamal H Ansari (1977): "Evolution of Town 53 Ansari, "Evolution", 10.
(New York: Routledge).
Planning Practice and System of Urban Gov 54 Dossal, Imperial Designs, 203.
28 Narayani Gupta (1971): "Military Security and
ernment in India", Urban and Rural Planning 55 Hazareesingh, 27.
Urban Development: A Case Study of Delhi
Thought, 20(1), 9-23. 56 Prashant Kidambi (2007): The Making of an In
1857-1912Modern Asian Studies, 5(1), 63.
A review of recent literature is in Eric Lewis dian Metropolis: Colonial Governance and Pub
29 Several authors have addressed the regulation of
Beverley (2011): "Colonial Urbanism and South lic Culture in Bombay, 1890-1920 (Aldershot,
sexual behaviour in the cities. See, for example,
Asian Cities", Social History, 36(4), 482-97. England: Ashgate), 68.
Stephen Legg (2009): "Governing Prostitution
A strong focus on Patrick Geddes is contained 57 Klein, 730.
in Colonial Delhi: from Cantonment Regula
in Helen E Meiler (1979): "Urbanisation and the 58 Kidambi, 38.
tions to International Hygiene", Social History,
Introduction of Modern Town Planning Ideas 34(4), 447-67; Ashwini Tambe (2009): Codes of 59 Ibid: 727.
in India, 1900-25" in K N Chaudhuri and Clive J 60 Ansari, "Evolution", 9.
Misconduct: Regulating Prostitution in Late
Dewey (ed.), Economy and Society: Essays in Colonial Bombay (Minneapolis: University of 61 Kidambi, 72.
Indian Economic and Social History (Delhi: Minnesota Press). 62 Jamal Ansari (2008): "Revisiting Urban Plan
Oxford University Press), 330-50. ning in Southern Asia", unpublished regional
30 Veena Talwar Oldenburg (1984): The Making of
A volume much more focused on architecture
Colonial Lucknow, 1856-77 (Princeton: Princeton study prepared for the Global Report on Human
than planning is Siddhartha Sen (2010) : "Between University Press). Settlements 2009. United Nations Human Set
Dominance, Dependence, Negotiation, and tlements Programme, Nairobi, accessed 10 Janu
31 It is worth noting here that law and order,
Compromise: European Architecture and Urban ary 2013, http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/
beyond everyday policing, in the Indian govern
Planning Practices in Colonial India", Journal docs/GRHS2oo9RegionalSouthAsia.pdf"
mental structure, was not and is not in the
of Planning History, 9(4), 203-31. 63 Radha Kumar (1987): "City Lives: Workers'
hands of local authority, but of provincial or,
For more on architecture, see Jon Lang (2002): now, state governments. Housing and Rent in Bombay, 1911-47", Economic
A Concise History of Modern Architecture in & Political Weekly, 22(30), PE47-56.
32 Personal communication with Narayani Gupta,
India (New Delhi: Permanent Black). 64 Kidambi, 71-110.
10 April 2012.
2 Rajnarayan Chandavarkar (1994): The Origins 65 Ibid: 164.
33 William J Glover (2007): "Constructing Urban
of Industrial Capitalism in India: Business 66 Ibid: 167.
Space as 'Public' in Colonial India: Some Notes
Strategies and the Working Classes in Bombay, 67 Ibid.
from the Punjab", Journal of Punjab Studies,
1900-40 (Cambridge: Cambridge University 15(1), 3-4 68 Ibid:175.
Press), 40.
34 Ansari, "Evolution", 10. 69 Meiler, 338.
3 Anthony D King (1976): "Colonial Urban Devel
35 Tandon, 161. For somewhat more detail on the 70 Geoffrey Moorhouse (1971): Calcutta (London:
opment: Culture, Social Power and Environ Weidenfeld and Nicolson), 263.
concept and implementation of the principles
ment" (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul).
of the canal colonies, see Glover, Lahore, 71 Meiler, 336.
4 Mariam Dossal (2010): Theatre of Conflict, City
pp 45-48. 72 Overall urbanisation in India was not growing
of Hope: Mumbai 1660 to Present Times (New
36 Unless noted otherwise, information on very fast, from 10.8% in 1901 to 13.9% in 1941,
Delhi: Oxford University Press), 57-58.
Ahmedabad from the 19th century is from the last Census of India under British rule, to
5 Ibid: 80. 17.3% in 1951. The total numbers are more
Kenneth Gillion (1968): Ahmedabad (Berkeley:
6 Sandip Hazareesingh (2007): The Colonial City University of California Press). impressive, from about 26 million in 1901 to
and the Challenge of Modernity: Urban Hegemo about 44 million in 1941 to about 62 million in
37 Muktirajsinhji Chauhan and Kamalika Bose
nies and Civic Contestations in Bombay City 1951. The largest cities were growing fastest.
(2007): A History of Interior Design in India.
1900-25 (Hyderabad: Orient Longman), 15. Volume I: Ahmedabad (Ahmedabad: School of 73 Ansari, "Evolution", 10. Also Shirley Ballaney
7 Chandavarkar, 41. Interior Design Research Cell, Centre for (2008): The Town Planning Mechanism in Gujarat,
8 John Archer (1997): "Colonial Suburbs in South Environmental Planning and Technology Uni India (Washington: World Bank Institute).
Asia, 1700-1850 and the Spaces of Modernity" versity), 77. 74 Ansari, "Evolution", 10.
in Roger Silverstone (ed.), Visions of Suburbia 38 Ibid: 79. 75 Ballaney. In the past decade, Gujarat has begun
(London: Routledge), p 45. 39 Meiler (1979) argues that at this time "Concern to use land pooling once again, and other
9 Partha Chatterjee (2012): The Black Hole of over the social and physical condition of the states and local governments are keeping
Empire (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 6. watch over the results.
poor or even the introduction of new civic
10 Private communication from Partha Chatterjee, improvements was totally outside the sphere of 76 Meiler, 341.
3 November 2012. duty", 336. 77 Information on Ahmedabad in the 20th century
11 King, 49. 40 Dossal, Theatre of Conflict. from Howard Spodek (2012): Ahmedabad: Shock
12 Partho Datta (2012): Planning and the City: City of Twentieth Century India (New Delhi:
41 Narayani Gupta (1981): Delhi between Two
Orient BlackSwan).
Urbanisation and Reform in Calcutta c 1800-c Empires, 1830-1931: Society, Government, and
1940 (New Delhi: Tulika Books), 177. Urban Growth (Delhi: Oxford University Press).
78 Shankarlal Banker, quoted in Spodek, Ahmeda
13 Ibid: 138. bad, 101. See also pp 51-52,55-58, 71-72,103.
42 Susan J Lewandowski (1975): "Urban Growth
79 Meiler, 343-44.
14 Rajnarayan Chandavarkar (2004): "Introduc and Municipal Development in the Colonial
City of Madras, 1860-1900", Journal of Asian 80 Ibid: 343.
tion: From Neighbourhood to Nation" in Neera
Adarkar and Meena Menon (ed.), One Hundred Studies, 34(2), 341-60. 81 Ibid: 345.
Years One Hundred Voices: The Millworkers of 43 John Leonard (1973): "Urban Government 82 Ibid: 345.
Girangaon: An Oral History (Calcutta: Seagull under the Raj: A Case Study of Municipal 83 J M Linton Bogle(i929): Town Planning in India
Press), 73. Administration in Nineteenth-century South (London: Oxford University Press), 5.
15 Ibid: xxi. India", Modern Asian Studies, 7(2), 251. 84 Ansari, "Evolution", 11.
16 Ibid: 3-6. 44 Ibid: 246. 85 Ibid: 11.

Economic & Political weekly Q22Ü January 26, 2013 vol xlviii no 4 6l

This content downloaded from

14.139.122.146 on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:39:15 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms