Professional Documents
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What Happened to Cities Under Colonial
Rule?
You have seen how life in the countryside changed after the
establishment of British power. What happened to the cities
during the same period? The answer will depend on the
kind of town or city we are discussing. The history of a temple
town like Madurai will not be the same as that of a
manufacturing town like Dacca, or a port like Surat, or towns
that simultaneously served many different functions.
In most parts of the Western world modern cities emerged
with industrialisation. In Britain, industrial cities like Leeds
and Manchester grew rapidly in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, as more and more people sought jobs, housing and
other facilities in these places. However, unlike Western
Europe, Indian cities did not expand as rapidly in the
nineteenth century. Why was this so?
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Fig. 1 A view of
Machlipatnam, 1672
Machlipatnam
developed as an
important port town
in the seventeenth
century. Its importance
declined by the late
eighteenth century as
trade shifted to the
new British ports of
Bombay, Madras and
Calcutta.
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Presidency For
administrative purposes,
colonial India was
divided into three
Presidencies (Bombay,
Madras and Bengal),
which developed from the
East India Companys
factories (trading posts)
at Surat, Madras and
Calcutta.
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Urbanisation The
process by which more
and more people begin
to reside in towns and
cities
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Fig. 3 Image of Shahjahanabad in the mid-nineteenth century, The Illustrated London News,16 January 1858
You can see the Red Fort on the left. Notice the walls that surround the city. Through the centre runs
the main road of Chandni Chowk. Note also the river Jamuna is flowing near the Red Fort. Today it has
shifted course. The place where the boat is about to embank is now known as Daryaganj ( darya means
river, ganj means market)
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Fig. 4 The eastern gate of the
Jama Masjid in Delhi, by Thomas
Daniell, 1795
This is also the first mosque in
India with minarets and full
domes.
Source 1
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Demolishing a past
Before 1857, developments in Delhi were somewhat
different from those in other colonial cities. In Madras,
Bombay or Calcutta, the living spaces of Indians and
the British were sharply separated. Indians lived in
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Gulfaroshan A festival
of flowers
Renaissance Literally,
rebirth of art and
learning. It is a term
often used to describe a
time when there is great
creative activity.
the black areas, while the British lived in well-laidout white areas. In Delhi, especially in the first half
of the nineteenth century, the British lived along with
the wealthier Indians in the Walled City. The British
learned to enjoy Urdu/Persian culture and poetry and
participated in local festivals.
The establishment of the Delhi College in 1792 led
to a great intellectual flowering in the sciences as well
as the humanities, largely in the Urdu language. Many
refer to the period from 1830 to 1857 as a period of the
Delhi renaissance.
All this changed after 1857. During the Revolt that
year, as you have seen, the rebels gathered in the city,
and persuaded Bahadur Shah to become the leader of
the uprising. Delhi remained under rebel control for
four months.
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Source 2
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Activity
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Activity
Imagine yourself
walking up Raisina
Hill, looking towards
Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Do you think Baker
was right in thinking
that looking up to
the building would
create a sense of
awe and emphasise
the power of the
British?
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The vision of New Delhi
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Activity
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Fig. 12 A famous baoli near the
shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya in
Delhi
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Activity
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Amir A nobleman
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ELSEWHERE
Herbert Baker in South Africa
If you look at
Fig.16 and Fig.17
you will find a
startling similarity
between the
buildings. But these
buildings are
continents apart.
What does this
show?
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Fig. 16
Fig. 17 shows the Union Building that Baker designed in the city of Pretoria in South Africa.
It used some of the elements of ancient classical architecture that Baker later included in his
plans of the Secretariat building in New Delhi. The Union Building was also located on a steep
hill as is the Secretariat Building in New Delhi (Fig. 16). Have you not noticed that people in
positions of power want to look down on others from above rather than up towards them
from below? The Union Building and the Secretariat were both built to house imperial offices.
Lets imagine
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Lets recall
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Lets discuss
Lets do
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