CHAPTER - 4

The Sadar Bazaar

4.1 The Sadar Bazaar

The general characteristics of the Sadar Bazaar of the British period
have already been described in the foregoing chapters, the present analysis
therefore, discusses in detail the underlying processes that have brought
about a significant transformation in the sadar bazaar area.
The Cantonment town, being the counterpart of the civil
administrative area, represented a particular form of social organization
located in a culturally controlled environment. The successful working of
the Cantonment depended on a code of culturally determined behaviour.
The final sanction which was implemented by the Britishers to exercise
their authority over the indigenous population was military force. The
urban manifestation of this relationship was expressed in Cantonments - a
permanent military station, which was the institutionalized form of a
settlement of British Military officers and troops. The Britishers had
tremendous concern for the health of their troops. Because of this fact,
both the military function and health requirements combined to produce a
unique type of settlement which ostensibly began as "health sanatoria"
functioning as a part of the British colonial ecosystem.
Socially and spatially the Cantonments represented a limited area
modified by one culture and situated in a larger geographic area of another.
The Cantonment town required an infra-structure to support and maintain

83
colonial life-style of their European residents. This infrastructure was
provided by indigenous population settled in the area called the 'sadar
bazaar'. It was this indigenous population that was responsible for
preservation and maintenance of the colonial life style in the Cantonment
town - majority of whom were either engaged in retail trade or offered
their services for domestic purposes. Thus the economic institution of
Sadar Bazaar originated in response to the demands for the commodities
and services by the colonial community. The establishment of bazaar was
strictly controlled through the provisions of the laws and bye-laws of the
Cantonment Act 1899, Government of India. According to the Act, the
Bazaar was established over "any land in the Cantonment which has been
set apart for the purpose of trade or the residences of natives or any other
purposes and the boundaries of which have been demarcated by pillars or
posts.... under the authority of the General Officer in Command."
The Cantonment Board or its delegated civil area committee was
competent to specify places for carrying on particular trades. The
Cantonment Board usually constructed a small number of shop structures
near the boundary area adjoining the bazaar section which were either
given out on rent directly or through auction. The Cantonment authorities
were highly concerned about the products sold by these shops which were
the daily requirements in the European households. The strict control of the
Cantonment authorities was made mandatory by the Cantonment rules. No
trader could set up a shop or any other economic institution without due
sanction and approval of the Board. As per the Cantonment regulations, the
Cantonment bazaars were strictly supervised. There existed rules which

84
pertained to the sales and the prices of goods; sale, mortgage and
construction of shops, houses, registration of births and deaths etc. Besides
these rules, there were rules which controlled the general activities of the
bazaar. Some of them enlisted in the Poona Directory; 1853:12-15 are as
follows:-
"No weights or measures shall be used in the Cantonment except
those issued and stamped by the office of the superintendent of the Bazaars
and Police." "No lights shall be allowed after 11 o'clock p.m.; without
special permission; and no fireworks or discharge of firearms shall be
allowed in the Cantonment without such permission." "No Panchayat
affecting a camp follower or resident in the bazaar shall be assembled in
the Cantonment, without the permission of commanding officer, conveyed
through the superintendent of bazaar and police; and their power shall be
restricted to making a report on the subject submitted for their opinion. No
fine or punishment shall, on any account, be inflicted without sanction."
The fact that there were specific rules for the establishment of the bazaar
played a restrictive influence unlike the bazaars which came up in the
native city - Pune. The Cantonment rules gave a unique character to the
bazaar section.
The bazaar in the Pune Cantonment town increased in area as a
result of immigration of traders from the neighbouring states of
Maharashtra and alsofromthe city of Pune. Another reason for the growth
of the bazaar section in Pune Cantonment could be attributed to natural
increase. As a result, the level of residential crowding is very high as
compared to the military area within Pune Cantonment town. The

85
Cantonment authorities developed the bazaar area as an almost self
sufficient functional unit as it is evident from the clear division as well as
multiplicity of many amenities such as schools, markets, libraries,
hospitals, gardens etc. Basic health services also like the police station,
fire brigade etc., meant for indigenous population was located in the bazaar
area. (Fig. 4:1)
Though the bazaar section of Pune Cantonment was the counterpart
of the traditional Pune city, yet in Pune city, the division of social space
was primarily in terms of caste, while in the bazaar section of Cantonment
it was based on class and profession. The only distinct social area in the
bazaar section is the Shimpi Ali, Bhimpura, Kamathipura, Butler Mohalla,
Kotwal Mohalla, Gavaliwada etc. (Fig. 4.2)
The Cantonment Board had certain duties and discretionary
functions to perform according to the funds at its disposal. It had also to
adopt all measures to promote the safety, health and convenience of the
inhabitants of the community, such as lighting the streets, watering of
streets and other public places, to construct, alter and maintain streets,
culverts, markets, slaughter houses, privy, drains drainage and sewrage
works. The imposition of heavy fines promoted maintenance of a neater
hazard free environment in the bazaar section, yet due to overcrowding and
general lack of sense of cleanliness, there was a great danger from the
zygotic diseases which rose from stagnant water, excreta, decaying
vegetable matter etc. through a process analogous to fermentation. The
Pune Cantonment town has from time to time enforced the rules in the
Cantonment Act, relating to sanitation practices, embodied in the Act of

86
 References:
] Parsi Fire Temple
Convent School
St.Xaviers's Chappel
Bazaar Office
Cantonment Garden
Centre Street
Main Street
8 East Street
9 Old Burial Ground
10 Tank
11 Ghasiram's Tank
12 Roman Catholic Chappel

300 400 500

Yards

Fig. 4:1 Sadar Bazaar about 1890

(After the Plan of Cantonment and part of Suburban limits, Poona, 1891)
Source: British Library, London
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1864, Metropolitan legislation particularly in Public Health Act 1848,
Nuisance Removal and Disease Prevention Act of 1855. However, the
strict control of Cantonment rules did not exert such influence so far as the
internal residential streets in the bazaar section are concerned, and
remained as an area of dirt and squalor, heightened by the narrowness of
the street.

4.2 The Sadar Bazaar : A vibrant commercial area

The Pune Cantonment Board has, for the sake of administrative
convenience, divided die entire Cantonment town into seven wards, i.e.,
ward No. 1,2,3 and 4 belong to the civil lines and the sadar bazaar area,
while the other wards, i.e., ward No. 5, 6 and 7 comprise the military area
and the bungalow compound complex. Here the population has been of a
transitory nature, therefore, it has not been compatible with the rest of the
permanent population of the Cantonment town. (Fig. 4:3).
Since the purpose of this analysis is to analyze the stable population
of the Cantonment and determine the social structure of the Cantonment, it
was thought prudent to determine this on the basis of ward jurisdiction, 2, 3
and 4 which fall within the jurisdiction of the sadar bazaar. It may be
mentioned here that the basis of delimiting the ward boundaries is on the
basis of population size due to this, it seems that the boundaries thus drawn
end abruptly and cut across the social areas, thereby segregating areas
which belong together. For example, a single street may run into several
wards. To overcome these problems, in addition to wardwise social
composition, an analysis of street-wise structure has also been determined.

87
This would bring out the finer details of inter and intra-ward distinctions in
social areas. To obtain a generalized notion of the ward's social
composition, the first exercise undertaken was to determine the
concentration of different ethnic groups on the basis of voters' lists. This
gave a fairly clear notion of the caste and the regional/linguistic affiliations
of the population. This distribution pattern of population was used to
identify the contemporary pattern of population. In addition to the
secondary data from the voters' lists, a primary survey was conducted,
using the street as the basic unit of investigation. On the basis of oral
interviews of old residents of the area, the earlier structure was
reconstructed. This helped in assessing the changes that have occurred in
the social pattern and the processes which have created the contemporary
residential structure of the Pune Cantonment town, after the city of Pune
became an emerging metropolis of twenty-five million population. (Fig.
4:4) A spatio-temporal perspective can be gleaned by comparing and
contrasting the differences in the pattern in the last fifty years, which spans
a period between the independence of the country and fifty years later.
Though the Europeans segregated their residential areas from those
of the residential areas of the indigenous population, it was necessary for
them to have interaction with the native population to fulfil their daily
needs - both in terms of groceries, perishables and other goods for day-to-
day living. The other requirement was personal services: domestic as
cooks, bearers, chokra (helper to the cook), butler, gardener, dhobi
(washerman), coachman, watchman, lampman (mashal), bishti (water-
carrier), sweeper (mether) etc. As mentioned earlier, the Cantonment

88
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authorities allocated a place to the west of the Military area, where the
indigenous population could reside and carry out commercial activities to
earn their livelihood. This area later became the sadar bazaar - a
commercial and an economic base in the Pune Cantonment town. Besides
the sadar bazaar, other bazaars, which were comparatively smaller in size,
were subsidiary markets- Ghorpuri bazaar, Sholapur bazaar, Wanorie
bazaar were also established to cater to the needs of the Indian sepoys and
the camp followers in the respective areas. The area of sadar bazaar about
three hundred and fifty acres, leads from the Cantonment to the city with a
large concentration of indigenous population which settled here during the
colonial period and has remained virtually intact even today, with some
additions and further crowding and congestion in the lanes and alleys.

4.3 The Process of Peopling of the Sadar Bazaar

Early records show that the Parsis - an important business and
service community migrated to Ghodnadi- Shirur as the British Garrison
was earlier located there. However, in 1818, when the Peshwa was
defeated by the British, the Military authorities thought it was fit to disband
the encampment of Ghodnadi-Shirur and shift it to the Old Gar Pir in Pune
- the place which was declared ideal for the encampment. The Parsi
community also left Ghodnadi-Shirur and came to Pune along with the
troops and therefore it can be said that the association of the Parsi
community with the Cantonment was right from its establishment. The
other communities that moved into the Cantonment area were the
Mohammadens both, Shia muslim i.e., the Bohara muslims and the Sunni

89
muslims, the former having migrated from Gujarat while the latter from
Kutch.
Initially, the Cantonment authorities permitted only the grain-
dealers and traders to settle in the camp who could supply goods to the
troops. Two rows of thatched huts were set up by traders along the Main
Street (M.G. Road) and the Taboot Street. As the street patterns were laid
out, the thatched huts became permanent structures, with four wide roads
running more or less parallel to each other in the north-south direction and
were named the East Street, Main Street, Centre Street and the West
Street. These four main streets were intersected by narrow roads in the
east-west direction. The Indian traders, which included Maheshwari
Banias, who traded in cloth and grocery (immigrants from Rajasthan),
Marwari Banias (from Jodhpur and Sirohi in Rajasthan), Gujaratis who
traded in cloth as well as grains from (Gujarat), were given small pieces of
land to build their shops and houses on the top of their shops, according to
their taste. The Parsi community, along with the Muslim Boharas and
Iranis did trading in hardware, European goods, foreign liquor and also
owned taverns. Among the early settlers, the Parsi community was the
richest and owned landed property in the Cantonment. The Parsis were
also perhaps the first community to be allowed by the British to reside in
the posh bungalow areas of Arsenal Road, Neutral Lines and along the
Napeir Road. Other members of the Parsi community, who were not
involved with business did jobs such as watch repairers, painters, clerks,
carpenters, school teachers, etc. Some of the Muslim Boharas who dealt in
the business of hardware, were also buyers of the scrap material auctioned

90
by the British government. The scrap was later repaired and sold to the
native population. The entire Saifee Lane was then called as "Lover's
Lane" and was a very calm and quiet place - though the garden was not
kept properly. The entire row of the houses in this area, where now people
of different communities, were formerly! Ijad the stables for the horses of
the race-course. This is evident from the iron rings to harness the horses
that are still attached to the plinths of the houses. One Mr. Jaffer Sayyed,
richest among the Bohara community dealt with the horse business.
Another group which was also found in large numbers was that of
the Goan Christians and the Eurasians. They not only lived in the Sholapur
bazaar area or Ghorpadi and Wanorie bazaar area but also had their shops
like that of grocery, bakery, cigars, tea, coffee, etc. Here too, the owners of
the shops had residences on the top of their shops. In general all the streets
of Pune Cantonment had an element of Christians especially around the
church areas which were spread throughout the Cantonment town. The
Bene-Israelis who were the soldiers in the British army, stayed back in
India after their retirement and settled in Pune in the 1850s. They set their
shops in the bazaar area and were known by their former profession as
oilpressers (teli). The Jewish community was in the minority but wealthy,
and had settled outside the Cantonment area in Rasta Peth. Here a Jewish
street still exists with a synagogue which still functions, unlike, David
Synagogue in the Suburban Municipality, which no longer holds any prayer
services.

91
 It is interesting to know that even today, the original population
structure has remained virtually the same as it is evident from the voters'
lists. Certain additions however have been made with the arrival of
displaced persons from Pakistan who have introduced the Sindhi, Punjabi
and Muslim ethnic elements in the Cantonment population, thereby adding
to its diversity.
Also, with the migration of the Anglo Indians to England after
Independence, their residences which were located in the East Street and on
the other streets adjoining the Civil Lines were purchased by the Parsis,
Boharas and Iranis. The street-wise distribution of ethnic groups reveals
some interesting patterns with certain streets being the preserves of certain
communities. On a broad level of generalization, the major streets namely,
the Main Street, Center Street, East Street, Sachapir Street, Vincent Street,
Dastur Meher Road and Gen. Thimamayya Road, all have high
concentrations of Parsis, Muslims, Boharas, Memhans and other non-
Marathi speaking communities like Gujaratis, Jains, Marwaris, Sindhis,
Punjabis and Christians. (Fig. 4:5).
During the 1820s, the grain trade in the city flourished and the
Gujaratis and Marwaris along with the Lingayats formed the largest group
of traders. The majority of them dealt in the business of grain and pulses,
buying in bulk, from Pune city, from the wholesale traders and selling in
retail in the Pune Cantonment town. Some of the Gujaratis and Marwaris
also dealt with the European piece-goods brought from Bombay and cheap
local cloth. Earning interest on money loaned to the native population was
perceived as a business opportunity by some Gujaratis and Marwaris.

92
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Bhopla Chowk, on the Center Street had licensed money lenders for the
army officers. These still exist and carry out brisk business as the army
officers are always in need of cash for the races (Hira Bankers). The other
illustration, in this regard is of the present R.S. Kedari Road, wherein, at
one time the area was predominantly a muslim dominated area. The
Muslims who had their residences here were engaged in the business of
meat and beef which was carried out in the main market i.e., today's
Shivaji Market. However, as the Muslim Gaikasais and Bakrakasais were
perpetually borrowing money from the Gujaratis for all occasions like
festivals, weddings, sickness in the family etc., their properties were taken
over by the moneylenders. As a result, it is seen today that the majority of
shops and houses on the R.S. Kedari Road which formerly belonged to the
Muslims, now belong to the Gujarati and Marwari communities. The other
streets which still show a concentration of Gujarati, Marwari and the Jain
communities are the Vallabhai Street, Synagogue Street, Moledina Road
and Dastur Meher Road.
In contrast to the main roads and streets, the side lanes have a
mixture of the lower castes from other states, from Maharashtra as well as
from me native city - Pune. But these are mainly the artisans and
untouchable castes, who are engaged in menial work and other lowly
occupations. Thus besides the migrant communities in Pune Cantonment
town, there were a number of mohallas or enclaves which are exclusive
localities of other caste groups and are denoted by the professions of castes
that inhabit them. For example Kokni mohalta- where Kokni speaking
Goan Christians stayed, Kotwal mo/w/fa-where the Kotwals stayed, Butler

93
mohallch where the cooks and khansamas stayed, Kolsa Galli - where the
Kolsawalas who belonged to the Bohara community dealing in the business
of coal and now replaced by glass frames and other glass works, stayed,
Shimpi Ali- where the derzi i.e.,., the tailors stayed, Gavalhvada was
another locality where the dairy cattle- mainly buffaloes were maintained.
The Kamathis were from Andhra Pradesh and did the masonry and
construction work. Most of the Public Buildings mat were constructed in
the Civil Lines in the early period after the establishment of the Cantonment
have been constructed by the Kamathi community. (Fig. 4:6).
Also there were inmigrants from North India, especially Uttar
Pradesh who were mochis (cobblers). They not only made leather boots for
the army personnel and for the local market but also exported them to
Europe. Goldsmiths and silversmiths had migratedfromGoa, Ratnagiri and
from Pune city to the Cantonment. Much later, Gujarati goldsmiths called
sartis also joined the immigrant goldsmiths. These goldsmiths had a large
clientele, which included native as well as the European community.
The above mentioned areas formed an enclave of the native elite in
the social structure of the bazaar area of Pune Cantonment. However,
adjacent to this, in the lanes and bye lanes, adjoining the main streets, right
up to me Sholapur Road in me west and startingfromme Shivaji Market is
the blighted area called Bhimpura. This is an area, very unique in
character, with a diverse ethnic population, extremely congested and
densely populated, distributed in twenty-nine lanes which run more or less
parallel to each other and perpendicular to the four main streets. This could

94
 B MUSLIM
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be cited as a unique example of a slum-like settlement in the Cantonment
area. (Fig. 4:7).
Jh€ Bhimpura of the sadar bazaar in Pune Cantonment is named
after the great leader of the depressed community- Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.
The place presents an unbroken line of houses which are not very attractive
and though it has an unmistakable outlook, it is interspersed with small
shops, shrines, small industrial units and even schools - all competing for
the limited space available in the lanes. Almost all the lanes of Bhimpura
have common utility services, which include public toilets, latrines, open
drains, water taps and open areas which serve as community space for
festivals. All the twenty-nine lanes of Bhimpura are irregular and vary in
length and width, the densities of residences and a high degree of landuse.
The shops generally open into the lanes, while the residences are located
behind, with internal courtyards. Like for example, the Kamathis in the
Kamathipvra, Shimpis in Shimpi AH, Gavali in Gavalhvada. The Muslims
however, are concentrated in lanes from 18-20. There is a special lane
for the beef trading Muslims i.e.* Gaikasais known as Kure&hi-line. The
lanes numbering 1 to 8* are the strongholds of the Kureshis, while the
scheduled castes* namely the Mahar> Mang and Chambhar castes inhabit
lanes n© 9 to 15. The people residing in some of me above lanes are
popularly called 'Jai Bhim' as they greet one another with this expression.
In some cases groups were formed on the basis of class, region of origin
and occupations rather than castes per se. This is reflected in the social
structure of the population of lanes no.23 to 29. &

95
 Maharastrian(R.C)*
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 Here the lanes present a mixed bag of Muslims, Christians, Hindus
of all creeds and Marwaris, Jains and Gujaratis occupying the two ends of
the lanes. Jm Bhimpura, since colonial times was a colony which
developed almost spontaneously - by accretion of people who strayed into it
to eke out a living from the informal sector. Here were a people who came
from the fringe area of the native city. The Bhimpura was made up of
native population belonging to the downtrodden strata of the society who
formed a supply of cheap labour to be exploited by the British for their
various comforts. Jibs Bhimpura was a ghetto like settlement and formed
a preserve of the urban poor. A large number of the people residing here
were displaced after the fall of the Peshwa, as there was little demand for
the services they provided. Also, the local artisans and untouchable
communities preferred to live in the Cantonment where they were free of
social discrimination and stigma which had reached its peak during the
Brahmin orthodoxy of the Peshwas.
In the overview, ^Bhimpura in the Cantonment can be likened to a
melting pot, since there was nothing like the 'caste system' - which
governed the distribution of various communities in space. It was more or
less a grouping of people on the basis of class, obviously poor class,
which presented a continum of an unbroken landscape. The Bhimpura
portion of the bazaar area of the Pune Cantonment can be compared to the
indigenous native mohallas. A replica of alis and gallis, lanes and bye-
lanes, transported from the old city on a smaller scale. The natives thus
replicated their own townscape in their own special way and created a
distinct landscape in an otherwise alien environment JHe Bhimpura can

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be described as a scaled down version of the indigenous city. A
'microcosm' of the old city as it existed in the old peths of Pune city minus
the higher castes. Another salient feature of the Bhimpwa area is a
virtual lack of open space - except for some space surrounding the
mosques and the temples. In fact, the narrow lanes of Bhimpura are totally
inadequate for the traffic which passes through, especially the two
wheelers and the use the people make of the streets. All attempts of the
Cantonment Board to control the violations and encroachments by
unauthorized structures failed because of the mounting population pressure.
The dwellings abutting the lanes have been converted into shops and in
some cases in the interior of the lanes also, one comes across a grocery
shop, ration shop, cycle repair works or two wheeler repair shops or even
small units of productions like plastic and fabrication units.
The'Bhimpura's spill over character tends to merge into similar
fringe areas of the native city, which is within walking distance from the
Babajan chowk- which marks the last outpost of the camp and the
beginning of the native city.

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