Historical Urban Studies

Series editors: Riihard Rodger and Jean-Luc Pinol

Titles in this serics include.

Who Run the Citie~.' Civ Elites 2nd Urban Power Structures in Etirope

and Nortb Anrrrita, 1750--19.10 edited by Roberr Beachy and Ralf Roth

Corruptinn in Urban Politics and Society, Britain 1780-1 9.70 edited by James Moore and John Smith

Medicme, Charity dnd Mutual Atd The Consumption of Health and Welfare in Britain, r.2 5561 950

edited by Anne Borsay and Peter Shapely

Testi~nonies of the City Identrty, Community and Change in a Contemporary Urban World

edited by Richard Kodger and Joanna Herhert

PU bltc Health and Mltntcipal Policy Making Britain and Sweden, 1900-1 940

Mariaana Niem~

Parrs-Edinburgh Cultural Convectiotrs in tbe Belle Epoque

Siin Reynnlds

The City and the Senses IIrhnn Cultirre Since IS00

edited by Alexander Cowan and Jilt Steward

Ths T~unsfomation of Urbatt Lileralism Party Polttics and Urban G o v ~ ~ n a n c r in Late Nineteenth-Centtrry England

James R. Moore

Civil Society, Associations and Urban Places Class, Nation lrnd C u l ~ r e in Nineteenth-Cefit~rry Europe

cditcd by Grac~rlc Murtun, Boudien de Vr~es and K.]. Morris

Property, Tenancy and Urban C; rowth in Stockhodm and Berlin, 1860-1 920 HAkan Forsell

The Making of a n Indian Metropolis

Colonial Goven~a~lce and Public Culture in Bombay, 1890-1920

1

PRASHANT KIDAMBI

ASHGATE

r3 Prashant Kldambi 2007

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The making of ar. Indian metrr,polls : colon~al Rovtrrlance and public culture In Bortlbay, 1 8 9 k 1 9 2 0 . - (Historical urban studier) 1. Urbanization - Indla - Bombay - History 2. Bombay (tndia) - H~srory 3 . Bmnbay (India) - Pol~r~cs and government 4 Bornbay trodia] - Socbal conditions 1. Title 320.8'5'0954792

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicar~on Data Kidaolbi, Prashant, 1970-

Thc making of an Indian rnetropol~~ : colonial governance and puhl~c culture in Bombay, 15961920 / b y Prashant Kidarnbi.

p. cm. - (Historical urbar, studies series) insludcs b ib l i~~raphica i references and ~ndex. ISBN 978-0-7546-561 2 -5 (alk. paprr] 1. Bombay (India)-Pollt~cs ~ n d govcrnmcnt-19th century. 2. C iv~l society-Indla-Bombay-

History-19th century. 3. City planning-India-Bombay-H~stary-19th century I. Title.

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Historical Urban Studies General Editors' Preface

Density and proximity are two of the defining characteristics of the urban d~mension. Itis these rhar identify a placeas uniquely urban, though the threshold for such pressure points varies from place ro place. What is considered an important cluster in one context - may not be considered as urbar: elsewhere. A third defining characteristic is functionality - the commercial or strategic position of a town or city which conveys an advanrage over other places. Over time, these functional advantages may diminish, or the balance of advantage may change within a hierarchy of towns. To understand how the relative importance of towns shifts over time and space is to krasp a set of relationships which is fundamental to the study of urban history. Towns and cit~es are products of history, yet have themselves helped to

shape 111story. As the proportion of urban dwellers has increased, so che urban dimension has proved a leg~tlmate unit of analysis through which to understand the spectrum of human experience and to explore the cumularive memory of past generations. Though obscured by layers of economic, social and political change, thr study of the urban milieu provides insights into the functioning of human relationships and, if urban historians themselves are not directly concerned w ~ t h current policy studies, few contemporary concerns can be understood without reference to the historical development of towns and cities.

This Ionger historical perspective is essential to an understanding of social prmesses. Crime, housing conditions and property values, health and education, discrimination and deviance, and the formulation of regulations and social policies to deal with them were, and remain, amongst the perenc~al preoccupations of towns and cities - no historical period has a monopoly at these concerns. They recur in successive generations, albeit in varying mixtures and strengths; the details may differ.

The central forces of class, power and authority in the city remain. If this was the case for different periods, so it was for different geographical entities and cultures. Both sc~entific knowledge and techn~cal information were available across Europe and showed little respect for irontiers. Yet despite common concerns and access ro broadly similar knowledge, different solutions to urban problems were ~roposed and adopted by towns and cities in different parts of Europe. This comparative d~mens~on informs urban historians as to which were systematic factors and wbich were of a ~ure ly local nature: general and particular forces can be distinguished.

These analytical and comparative frameworks inform t h ~ s book. Indeed, thematic, comparative and analytical approaches to the historical study

xii THE MAKING OF AN INDIAN METROPOLLS

of towns and cities is thc hallmark of the Historical Urban Studics series which now extends to over 30 titles, either already published or currently in production. European urban historiography has been extended and enriched as a result and this book makes anothtr important addition to an intellectual mission to which we, as General Editors, remain firmly committed.

Richard Rodger Jean-Luc Pinol

University of Leicester Uniuersite de Lyon I1

Acknowledgements

I have accumulated a large number of debts in writing this book, which it is a pleasure to record here. I would like to express my deep gratitude to David Washbrook, who helped me conceive this proiect and has been a constant source of support ever since. Richard Rodger nudged me to think comparatively about the themes of this book and gave generously of his time and expertise. Several people read and commented on parts of this study at various stages in its evolution: I am particularly grateful to Sirnon Gunn, Maria Misra, Rosalind O'Hanlon, Radhika Singha and Keith Snell. I owe a special debt to Samira Sheikh, whose critical scrutiny has immeasurably improved the final outcome. Tim Davies and Gervase French offered invaluable help in readying the text for publication. At Ashgate, Tom Gray and Melissa Peake dealt patiently with my queries and efficiently shepherded the manuscript through the editorial process.

I would like to thank the staff at the following instirutionsfor their invaluable assistance in facilitating my research: the Indian Institute Library, Oxford; the Oriental and India Office Collections at the British Library, London; the National Archives of India, New Delhi; the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library at Teen Murti, New Delhi; the Maharashtra State Archives, Bombay; the office of the Commissioner of Police, Bombay; the Bombay Millowners' Association, the Library of the University of Bombay, and the Library of the University of Leicester. For their generous financial support I am grateful to the Rhodes Trust, Oxford; the Beit Trust, Oxford; the Board of the Frere Exhibition; the Radhakrishnan Memorial Bequest; the British Academy's Society for South Asian Studies; and the President and Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford.

Versions of Chapters 3 ,4 and 5 have been previously published. Chapter 3 appeared in Urban History, 3 1 2 (2004); extracts from Chapter 4 were published in Studies in History, NS, 17:l (2001), and sections of Chapter 5 in Crime, History and Societies, 8:l (2004). 1 am grateful to the editors and publishers of these journals for granting me permission to reproduce this material.

My colleagues in the School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester, provided a congenial environment in which ro complete this work. For their encouragcrnent and support, I wish especially to thank Clare Anderson, Bernard Attard, Huw Bowen, Rob Colls, Phi1 Cottrell, Chris Dyer, Peter Fearon, Peter Musgrave, Dave Postles, Roey Sweet and David Williams. I have also benefited greatly from the generosity and help of numerous friends and fellow-travellers: Neeladri Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Kaushik Bhaumik, Pratik Chakraborty, Vinayak Chaturvedi, Rajarshi Dasgupta, Reidar Due, Nandini Gooptu, Ramachandra Guha, David Hall-Matthews, Douglas

xiv THE MAKINC OF AN INDIAN METROPOLLS

Haynes, Shekhar Kr~shnan, Matr and Mallica Landrus, Prabhu Mahapatra, Jim Masseios, Jaldeep Mukherji, Adirupa Sengupta, Shalini Sharma, A.R. Venkatachalapathy, Carey Watt and Chris Will~ams.

My greatest debt is ro my family, who have watched the progress of this book with bemused forbeara tlce; and ro Rochana, without whose perspicacity none of this would have been possible.

AARBIT

AFRB ARMCR

A R P B

B.B. & C.I. BG BGOS BIT BMOA BPPSAI C E H l EPW CD GOB G01 HMSO IESHR IPC IT1 IAS JD MAS MCRP

M S A Nhl NS OIOC

PP RBDC RDPI RIFLC RNNBP SSQ TO1

List of Abbreviations

Annual Administration Repnrr of the Bombay lrnprot~emcnt Trust Annual Factory Report for the Bomboy Presidency Admitlistration Report of the Munic~pal Commtritoncr of Bombay Annual Report on the Poiice i~ the Touln dnd l s h n d O/

Bombay Bombay, Baroda and Cenrral lndian Ra~lway Bombay Gazette Bombay Gazette and Overland St;tt~tttary City of Bombay Improvement Trust Bombay Mill Owners' Association Bornboy Presrdency Police Secret Abstracts of Intelligence Combridge Ecortomic History of India Economic and Political Weekly General Department Government of Bombay Government of India HIS Majesty's Stationery Office Indian Economic and Social History Reutew lndian Plague Commission Indian Textile Journal Journul of Asian Studies judicial Department Modern Asian Studies Report of the Municipal Commissioner on the Plague in Bombay Maharashtra State Archives (Bombay) National Archives of India (New Delhi) New Series Oriental and India Office Collections (British Library, l.ondon) Parliamentary Papers Report of the Bombay Development Committee Report of the Department of Public Instruction Report of the lndtan Fdctory Labour Commission Report on N r ~ t i t l ~ Newspapers in the Bombay Presidency Social Service Qt t~r ier ly Times of lndta

Glossary

Ashrnf Badmash Bania Bazaar Bkaiyya

Bhajat~ Bhirrrgi Bigarri Brahman

Bud t t~~ i sh Chamar Charpae Cha WI Chitpavan

Crore Drlda

Dana Dharrna Dhed Gllllt Ganpuri Goonda Haialkhorr.

Hava!dz r Holr fmarnbavu

gymnasium; meeting place; res~dcncc of religious mendrsanrs spear-headed black banner of Imam Hussein and Imam Hasan carried In procession during Muharcam an assembly; a Muslim association Hindu revivalist organizntlon Founded in 1875 racial category used to distinguish speakers of Indo-European Ianguages from so-called Dravidians respects ble Muslim hooligan trader. moneylender, grain dealer; a l k a caste name market literally, brother; colloquial term for migrants from North India Hindu devotional song caste title of 'untouchable' waste-reniovcrr sweeper member of Hindu priestly caste; highest and purest order in the traditional fourfold uarna system criminal caste title ot 'unrouchable' leather workers in Norch India cot or bedstead tenement sub-caste of Brahmans serrled In the Konkan region of Maharashtra ten million literalty, 'elder brother'; colloquial term for neighbourhood tough charity literally, duty; code of morality and righteous C O ~ ~ U C ~

caste tide of 'untc~uchable' scavengers in Cularat alley; lane elephant-headed Hindu god ruffian, thug sweeper who removed rrfuse .~nd excreta from houses and streets constable Hindu festival of colnurs that heralds the onset of spring a religious enclosure or building maintained by Shla con~n~unities i n India

xviii

Lakh Latbi Mal~djurn Mahnr

MauIui Mela Miscr$maistj Mofussil Moholla Mnccudum/ mukad~trz 0th Punchayat PO nj L~

THE MAKING OF A N INDIAN METROPOLIS

community gatherings of Muslims e~~dogamous sub-caste; a specific named 'birth-group' rtorer of a commodity worker final night of the Muharram festival title of caste with trad~tion of scritral livelihoods Hindu devotional song title of western Indian pastoralisr and fishing community; regarded as the oldest ind~genous inhabitants of Bombay. member of Hindu warrior caste; second highest order in the :raditional fourfold varna systcm one hundred thousand a long and stout srick merchants' guild, assembly, association title of a large labouring caste in Maharashtra; regarded as 'unclean' by upper-caste Hindus s collective gathering; here, a mourning ar;sembl y during Muharram association, committee, society Hindu temple pavilion or place w ~ r h car,opy above caste title of dominant 'warrior-peasants' in Maharashtra native nf Marwar in Rajasthan; ;l comrnllnlry well-known throughout India fur its moneylending and n~ercantile activities collective outpouring of grief; public rituals of collective chest beating or self-flagellation during Muhurrarn, in remembrance of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein at Kerbala Muslim priest or learned man fair, festival; company of dancers raking part Ir, a festival

y foreman, master-workman, artisan province or hinterland neighbourhood, quarter of a town

foreman or supervisor, labour contractor verandah or porch council or trthunal, typ~cally consijting of f ive persons Iirerally an aaregate of five; here, i t refers to a model of n hand with five fingers extended, each representing a member of Prophet Muhammad's farnlly, wh~zh was paraded dur~ng Muharram here, il model coffin paraded durtng Muharram society society or ~ssociatlon; 3 committee associat~on, organization Forem+3n, labour iontractor, jobber, comrnunlty leader

Seva Sbdir Shethlsheria Shimga Shimpi Shivqi S ~ J ~ U Sena

Shrof,

i Skudra

h Somr I Swadeshi I

Ugarani Vaishya

Waaz Wadi

GLOSSARY X ~ X

government foreman who recruited and supervised labour among stevedores and ships' workers service bard; poet wealthy financier; merchant; head of trade guild another name for the Holr festival the caste of tailors eighteenth-century M a r a t h ~ warrior k~ng literally, army of Shivaji; militant H ~ n d u nationalist organization in Bombay banker, money-changer the lowest of the orders i n the fourfold traditional Hindu uarna system the caste of goldsmiths iiterally 'of one's own country'; hqme industry; specific political campaign launched in early twentieth century by Indian nationalists to boycott British-made goods self-rule model of thc tomb of Hussalnat Kerbala carried in procession during the Muharram festival (also known as tazla) literally, education; gymnasium folk theatre leader of a gang nf labourers anlong stevedores and ships' workers g m g of men; colloquial term for the wandering gangs during public festivals the collection of money which IS considered to be due member of a Hindu mercantile caste; third in the ranked order of the traditional fourfold vamn system the traditional Vedic fourfold hierarchical scheme of ranked orders Islamic sermon; delivered usually in mosques compact residential precincr within a town

Fig f Map of Bombay island. 1909

F Ward E Werd 28 Paret

21 22 Tardeo Kamrliwrr 23 Firstneoporh 30 Sion 24 Secondnmgprda

G Ward 25 Byculla 3t Mahim 26 fadwadi 32 Warli 27 Muageon

Fig 2 Map of Bombay City, c. 1919: Municipal Wards and Sections

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

You can only expres3 rhlngs properly by detalls ... Yet a dcrall ceases to mean anything when it becomes nothing but a colour and a shape, when we feel it's a detail and nothing more.'

In recent years, scholarly accounts of urban modernity in Europe have focused increasingly on historical processes [hat transcended the boundaries of the

,

local. The emergence of modern forms of state power and urban governance, the growth of civil society and the rise of the putrlic~sFhere have emerged as key themes in the h i s to r~ogra~h~ . In turn, this has led to a growing recognition of the comparative possibilities afforded by the analvtical study of these trans- national developments. Historians have been especially keen to explore the similarit~es and differences that characterized the modernization of urban socicry in diverse European contexts.

Curioi~sly, however, there has b e ~ n relatively muted recognition of the extent KO which imperial expansion and overseas colonization lent a global dimension to many of these historical processes. Yet even a cursory survey would show that many of the contemporary megacities in the former colonial societies of Asia and Africa acquired their recognizably modern characteristics during the 'imperial global~zation' of the nineteenth and early twenr~eth centuries. The fabric of urban life in many colonial cities was transformed by the rise of a global economic system based on industrial capitalism and its atrendant technologies of power. A t the same time, the dense concentration of modern factories, commercial firms, western-educated local intelligentsias and cultiirally diverse migrant communities rendered colonial atics decisive sites of the encounter between European and non-European societies.' A vigorous public culture emerged in these cities, buoyed by a thriving print industry and a variety of associarional activities. The experience of urban modernity in the colonial context thus offers fertile terrain for the comparative analysis of processes and ideas that may have originated In Europe but became truly global in reach and scope during the age of empire.

These themes and their scholarly appra~sal constitute the point of departure for this book, which explores the dynamics of urban change in a premier colonial city a t a pivotal juncture in its emergence as a modern metropolis. Drawing together strands that have hitherto been treated in an isolated and

' Czeslaw Milosz, The Serture o/Potivr (Lnndon, 19851, pp. 42-3. Susan Bayly, 'The Evolution of Colonial Cultures: N~ncrtcsrh-Century Arm', ~n Andrew

Portcr (ed.), The Oxford H~rrory ofthe Brrt~sh Ernprrt: ( I vols. Oxfnrd, 19991, 111, pp 447-69.

2 1'tlE MAKING OFAlr; INDIAN METROPOLIS

piecemeal manner, this micro-study investgates the social history of Bombay in the late Victorran and Edwardian rras. In ssarnining the ccrlontal ev~ericnce of histor~cal processes rhat have attracted cons~dera ble attenr Ion in recent European scholarship, the inquiry seeks to highlight the global dimension to il

comparative disc~ssion of these themes. At the same time, the book does not construe modernizat~on in the colonial context as the inexorable ~~nfolding of industr~al capi:alism, 'westernization' U: 'go~ernmtnrali t~ ' . Rath t r , i r 1s

interpreted here asa contested and contingent set of outcomes that flowed from the contrad~ctorv currcrlts generated hy the marker, state and pulitics akainst a background of rapid technological change, demographic growth, urbantzation and mass migration.' [n particular, the book highlights the manner in which the rurhulent changes unlenshed by European ~~toderr~ iry were negotiated, appropriated or resisted by the colonized.

This book also seeks to contribute tu the currtnt revitalirarion of urban studies in India. For long, as scholars have noted, the perception that the defining feature of Indian society was its predominantly agrarian character had tended to obscure the significance of its cities.' It was the village rather than the modern city that dominated rhe Indian incel!ectual landscape. As with many other representarions of the subcontinent, the notion thar India had been since time immemorial a land of sclf-contained village communities was a construct ui n~netee~th-century colon~al discourse.' bionethelejs, it was embraced by rducated todians of differing ~deolagical persuasions and exerted a profound influence on their cultural and political imagination in the twentieth c e n t ~ r y . ~ The village was regarded as the authentic repository of the timeless values and virtues of Indian civilizariun, wl~rreas the modern city was viewed with profound ambivalence as a spurious Western implant.' These attirudm also suffused the scholarship within the social sciences: anthropologists, sociologists and poiitical scientists jargely focused on rht c ~ u n t r ~ s i d c sincc t1;r 'rral' I~ id ia was believed to reside, Iitera!ly as well as tigurativeIy, in her viIlage~.~

There rrere, of course, intermirtent flashes of inrerest in thc modern Indian city. One of the earllest attempts at studying procensps of contemporary urbanism in the subcontinent was undertaken not very long after the

Marthall Brrrnan. Ail Th3c rs Solid Mrlu ~ n t v Air: Thr Expervnce o{Mderv tv (Lcndon, 19831, P. 16. '

Rajnara yan Chandavarkar, Tht. Orsgins of Industrra~ CaprlaIism in Indla: Busincsr Srrd!egrer and the Working Cl~ssr s tn Bornhdy. 19OU-1940 (Can~brdgc, 1.9941, p. 2.

' Thomas R. hlctcall, The New Cnmbndge Hsstorl: of Ind18, vol. 111, part 4: Idedogres of the Raj Delhi. 19981, p p . 68-71; L.ouir D ~ m u n t , 'Tnc "Village Community" from Maine ro hiunro'. Crmr~tburiow to Indl~)o Socso!ogy, P h1966i- 67-39, Cllye Dcwry, ' lmags of rhe Village Comrn~nlry: A Study i n Anglo-Indian Ideology', Modern Armn St~dres ~hcrcafter MAS), G/2 (19721. 291-32s.

"~yan Prakash,'Tht Urban Turn'. In Ray1 Varudevan cr al. tcds), Surd1 Reder 0: Cit~es of Evepday L~ie (Delhi, 20021, p . 3 .

' Parr ha L'harterjee, The P~lrrrcs of rhe Governed: R~flectiorrr on Popular Pvlitics in blosr

o/ he World (Dclh~, 200.1). pp. 140-41. Janaki hair, The Promsse of lhe Merr~pd i~ : Bangalore's Twsnheth Century (Delhi, 2305),

pp. 1-10,

embryonic Field of 'urban planning' had begun to crystallize in Brlra~n ar thc dawn of the twentjeth century. This was initiated by Pattick Geddes (1854-1932), the renowned Scottish polymath, 'social euoluf~onist' and civic visionary who spent prolonged periods of time in India between 1914 and 1924. Having in~t ia l l ) arrlved In the country on the eve n F the Firs! World War with his per1pate:ic City and Town Planning Exhib~tion, Geddes staved on to investigate rhe eifects of economic and social change on ics cities. In the years that followed, he prepared over fifty 'town-plann~fig' reporrs on lndian urban centres. In 1919, Geddes also took up a professorship in the newlg- created department of Sociology and Civics at t h ~ Un~versjty of Bombay. I n has writings and lectures, Ceddes questioned many of the prevailing shibboleths of urban '~mprovemenr' thar he encountered in colomal India, regardtng them as historically ill-informed and destructive. Instead, he advocated ecologically sensitive fortns oi town planning that were attuned to the rich architectural, civic and cultural traditions of thc Indian urban cnvir~nment.~ Gcddcs's work triggered a short-lived burst oi enthusiasm for studyrg Indian urbanism. In particular, it produced an interest in indigenous trad~tions of urbanisrn and spawned attempts to search for solutions to contemporary civic problems in the prescriptions of the past. But on the whole, his influence was restricted to a few individuals and did not have a lasting irnpar;t.Io Indeed, one of the intriguing features of the late colonial period i s that even though the leading lights of the b d ~ a n intelligenrsia were ~ roduc t s of the crry, they 'devoted most of their energies to rhe task of producing an idea not of the future Indian city but of a rural lndia f j r for the modern age'." Thls seeming paradox has yet to be satisfactorily accounted for, but any plausible explanation would surely have to consider che impacr of Gandhi on Indian intellectual life in these years.

The contemporary Indian ciry resurfaced as an obiect of tncellecrual scrullrly in the 1950s. The nat:onalrst endeavour to ctln5trucr Arcing capital cities for newly-created regionai states,'; the need to accommodate w~thin towns and cltics thc massivc ~nflux of Partition affected refugees and the burgeontng international lnterest in processes of 'modernization' it1 postcoIonial societies, all combined ro create new polirlcal situations in which urban issues attracted scholarly artentron. Several dtvelnpments attest to thls newfound inrerest in the ciry. A numbcc of theoretically-driven anthropological and sociological accounts

Hclen Mtller, P~rrtck Gcddes: Socml E~*o,uriontri od Ctry Plasnur (Landan, 1990). See nlsn Jacqueline Tvrwhitt (ed.), Potrtck Gcddes in India (London, 19471.

Narayanl Cupra, 'Brltrsh Town-Planner4 and India', in Narayani Gupta and Mush~rul I laoan ~rds), Irrdm's Colonid/ Enco~~rrrer: E s n y s rn Honsur o ) Erir Stokes (Dtlhi. 19931. pp. 243-4. The most prom.nent lndian followers of Gcddes in the intcr-war ytars wcrc K.A. Tuoth~ hts studcv at Bomhy whom hc sent to England for further rra~ning, and Radhakamal Mukhcrlee, who was basec in the Drpartmcnt of Sociology at Lucknow. Howcver. anorhr ~tudenr. G.F. Lh~.rye , kcamc 'vinlently' disaffected by the ' ind~rr inar ion In civ~c rccons~ructi~n' that ht rtcc\ved (rotrr Gcddeies. Mcllcr. Putrick Crdjes, pp. 225-7

' I Chatterlet, Pobrtcs ~f the Governed, p. 140.

For an averview, sce Sunil Khilnani, The ldea uf India {Delhi, 19991, pp. 1117-149.

4 THE MAKING OF AN lNDIAN METKOPOLIS

of Indian titles were published in this decade.]' The topic of 'urbanization' aiso came to form a separate segment within thc Indian Sociologjcal Association and the Indian Economic Association,14 while 'Town-Planning' became a recognized subject in the undergraduarr curric~lurn. '~ Equaily sig&cant was the decision of the Indian Planning Commission's Reseatch Programmes Committer to inir~ate and sponsor ~ocio-economic surveys of a number of maior cltlcs.lb

The urban surveys of rhe 1950s inaugurated an enduring tradition of cirscriptivr studies detailing the economic, demographic and morphological fcntures of contemporary Indian c~ries." Bur their wealth of detail was rarely matched by a depth of historical perspective. Historians, for their part, did not begin to engage with the modern Indian city until the 1960s. Two developments III that decade served to awaken their mterest. First. scholars embarking on the serious study of the Indian nationalist movement were drawn to the urban centres in which 'modern' politics emerged. Thus, a number of studies sought to locate the rise of Indian nationalism within specific urban con~exts.'%econd, a growing intercst in the 'irldus~rialization' of developing socleries led some scholars t o undertake the historical investigation oi these themes in relation to particular ciries." Common to all thew works was a tendency to view the city merely as the backdrop for the larger economic and political processes that were the principal focus of analysis.

In thc follawing two decades, however, scholars b e g ~ n to pursue fresh lines of enquiry that construed the social history of the modern Indian city as an important object of stud) in its own right. Three noteworthy strands can be discerned within this h is tor i~graph~. F m t , hiqtnrians began to explore the ways

rn which the built environment and publ~c architecti~re of Indian cities under

l' Kh~lnan~, IJm of Indra, p 235; Anthon) D. Krng, Urbanrrm. Colon~nl r~~t~ , and lhe World- Economy: Cultural urrd Sputrui f r ,undu~tun~ 11f the World Urb,rrr System (London and New York, 1991). pp 13-14. The most noteworthy of these are Robert Redfield and Mllton S~ngcr, 'The Culrural Role of C~tits'. Man In Indra. Xi3 119561: 161-94; Mllton Singer, 'The Gredr Trad~r~on In a Mctropolltan Centrr Madras', ro Mllton Singer (ed ). TradrrromI Indsa Structure nod Chnnge IPhlladelphla, 1959); and G.S. Ghurye, 'Crrles of lndla', Soctologrcal Builerrrr, 1112 ( 1 Q53). 47-7 1.

" Na~r, Promrse oj tl)c Metropolis. p. h l ' Gupra, 'Brirish Town-Planners and Indla', p. 244.

M.S.A. Rao {ed.), Utbar: Soc;ology in Indra: Reader and Sowrcsbook {Hyderabad. 1974), p 1 1 .

l ' Ibrd., pp. 11.- 12; Nalr, Prv~rtrsc of tlrz ~Vctrvpulrr, pp. 6 7 . I s J.C. Masselos, Towards Natronahrm: Group Afilianons nnd the P o l r t ~ ~ s o j Publri

Associations in N~neteenth Centwry Western Indin (Bombay, 1974); Anil Seal, The Emer$ance i l f

Indrsv Natrodirrll: Co:an~petitron and Coliobora:ion in rhr Lnter N ~ ~ t e e n t h Cefltury (Cambridge, 19681; E.R . 1.cach and S.N. Muhhtrlre (eds) Elaes rn Svuth As13 (Carnhridgc, !9701, pp. 33-73; C:hr~rrin~ nobbln, U r h o ~ Leader~brp i* Wcsrrrn Indro. i'oltrics und Commlrrrrrrr, rn Bolnbay Civ, 184685 (Oxford, 1972); C.A. Ba).Iy, T ~ J E Loal Roots o f indrnn Politics: Allah~bad, 18' /O-i9iO [llxford, 197jl. Even though many afthesc works werc published in the early 1970s, the wsearch on which they were bascd had In most instanzts been rnrrlatcd In rht previous &<a&

l9 Morris D. Morris, Tbe Emergencc of an indurnroi Labcur Force: A Study of the Bombay C~lt lon Mills. 7R.W-1947 (He~krlpy, 196.5)

colonial rule was shaped by rhe ideology and cultural values of the European i ruling elite.'"ome works within this genre emphasized the centrality of the

events of 1857 in reshaping colonial arrltudes to urban governance in the cities nf North Sccnnd, scholars began to explore the social history ot'a variety of urban groups. Some focused on particular intermediate classes or ethnic c~rnrnuni t les ;~~ others examined the soc~al formation and political culture of the urban working classes.23 Finally, there emerged a new interest in the public culture of Indian cities during the colonial period. There was an attempt to reconsider the political culture of Indian elires in the light of the analytical perspectives drawn from cultural anthropology and 'ethnohistory'.14 A t the same time, rhe growing incidence of 'communal' violence in contemporary Indian cities, as well as wider intellectual trends, prompted a new interest in urban 'popular culture' and collective mentalities."

Notwithstanding the interest exhibited in the modern Indian city by individual scholars and the formation of the Urban Hiscory Association of India,l6 the countryside conrinued to dominate the scbolatly agenda in the 1970s and 1980s. Village studivs revulving around cab, kinship and ritual

'' Anthony D. Klng, Colonrul Urban Drvelopmenr. Culture, Sotml Power, and Envirvnmenr

(London, 1976); Kennerh Ballhatchet and J. Harrison (cdrl, Tha C~ty in Sotrrl7 Asra: Premodem and M ~ d e r * r (London. 1980); Susaa Nield, 'Colonial Urbanism: Thc Development of Madras Ciry in the Elghtcenth and Ninctecnth Centur~cs'. MAS, 13 (19791: 2 1 7 4 6 ; Thomas Mctcalf. Air lrr~perra( V~ston: hdtan Archrteclrrre and Brrtum:< Ray (Berkclrtb and Lm Angcks, 19891: Mdr iam Dnsssl, Imperial D e s i p s andIndrtln Rculiliea: Tl!c Plunning vf Born6dy Gly , 184 5-1 B75 (Bombay. 1976).

" Vcrna Talwar Oldcnburg, Tbt Mahrng C o l m l ~ l Lucknow, 1856-1877 (Prrnceron, 1984); Narayani Gupra, Delhi Bctwqen Tu-o Empires. 1803-IOi1 SOCK?+, Governmcni drtd

Urban Growth (Delhi, 1981 ). " C.A. Bayly, R u l . ~ , . T o m ~ m e . r and Duzuars: Nurih Indirln Su~icry m rlre Age of British

Expnmton, 177Ck1870 (Cambrrdgc, 19831; Thomar A . Ttrnberg, The Marwaru: Fton Traders to Indrtsfiiul~sts (Dclhi, 1978); J.C. Massclor, 'Power In rhe Bombay 'Moholb", 1704-15: An InririalExploration into the World of the Indian Urban Muslim', South Asm, 6 (1976): 75-95. " Ka,nnrayan Chandavarkar, 'Workers' Polirics and the Mill Districts in Bombay bttwccn LIK Wars', MAS, 1513 (19811: 603-647; Chirra Joohi. 'Bonds DI Gcrnrnunlty. Tits of Religion: Kanpur Textllc Workers in thc Early Twcnr~tth Century1. Indian Eronomic and $octal Htrtory Rtview (hcrcaftcr IESHR) , 2U3 (1985): 251-80; Dipcsh Chakrabarty, 'Communal Riots and Labour: Bcngal's Jurr Mill-hands in tbc 1890sq, Past and Present, 9 l11 (1981 1. 140-69.

l' Douglas Hayr.cs, Rhetoric and Rrtslal tn Colcnrol India: The Shap~ng of a P 3 1 i c Culture irr Sumt City, 1852-1 923 (Dclhi, 1992). " Sumanta Banerlw, T h e Parlour and (Cc Street: Elite ond Popular Cwlrute I N Nmetemth Cenrrrry CaIcrrt~a (Calcurra, 1989); J.C. Masselur, 'Changc and Custom In rhe Format of the Bombay Mohurram durrng the Nlnetecnth and Twentlcth Centurrct', South Asm, NW Strles. 512 (1982): 47-67; Sandria Freitag, Collactrt-e Actron and Commrrsir)l: Pubitc Arenas ond rha Emergence of C o m m u ~ l i s m in Norrh InJiu (Delht, 1 940); Sandria Freitag Ird.), Crrltwre and Power in Bamrns (&rktlty, 1989); N.ta Kumar, The .4rtrsaw oCBenarer, I88GI980 IPrlnccron, 1988); Gyantndra Pandey, 'Encounrers and Calamities: The history c,f a north lnd~a qasba in the n~nttccnrh century', in Ranajit Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies [II: Wn'tings on South Astatt Hrrrory snd Socirtp (Otlhi, 19841, p p 23 1-70.

Id For dcrall9, sat Indu R a n p frd ), Thr C'rrj, In Ircirrrs HlrinSi .Delhi. 194 11.