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Book Review
Urbanisation and Indian port cities
KANAKALATHA MUKUND
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Overview of development of cities and sea-borne trade
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PORTS TOWNS CITIES — A Historical Tour of the Indian Littoral: Edited by Lakshmi Subramanian; Pub. by Marg Publications (National Centre for the Performing Arts), Army & Navy Building, 3rd Floor, 148, M.G. Road, Mumbai-400001. Rs. 2500.
The significance of India’s long history of urbanisation and maritime trade often gets overshadowed by the sharp focus on the rural economy and society, and also because of a general predisposition to equate the process of urbanisation in India with colonial port cities.
This beautifully illustrated book, with contributions from some well known historians, provides a corrective to both factors and gives an overview of the development of cities in India’s history, and especially of its sea-borne trade and indigenous ports.
Urban history
In the introductory chapter, Lakshmi Subramanian explores the theoretical underpinnings of urban history and the many facets and roles of cities as centres of administrative, religious, and economic functions. She ends with a brief outline of the history of urbanisation and ports in India over the centuries. The articles cover four phases of urbanisation: the urban civilisation of the Indus valley, urbanisation in ancient India, Mughal ports, and lastly the colonial port cities.
Ranabir Chakravarti, in his account of the Harappan cities, argues that Mehrgarh in Baluchistan was a precursor of the Harappan urban civilisation, and proceeds to discuss the early and mature phases of the latter. He follows it up with a chapter on the early urban centres of the Gangetic valley between 600 BCE and 300 CE. The earlier cities located in the Gangetic valley were ‘primary’ centres, whereas the cities that came up in the later part of this period outside the Gangetic region were ‘secondary.’
Differences
In these articles, Chakravarti emphasises the differences between the urban and the rural environment by examining the organisation of space (dwellings, public places, streets, and fortifications), the nature of economic activity (the proliferation of crafts and manufacturing), and the relations of production (the employment of wage labour and skilled workers) in the urban centres.
Himanshu Prabha Ray, in her article on coastal settlements, stresses the links between religion and maritime commerce in coastal communities. Bridging the ancient and the colonial cities is Farhat Hasan’s article on the Mughal ports of Surat in Gujarat and Hugli in Bengal. Surat, which emerged as the main port of the Mughal empire in the 17th century, also exemplified the symbiotic relationship between the Mughal authorities and local merchant society, which was necessary for the robustness of the commercial base of the city and which also modified the nature of governance in the port city.
The second half of the book is devoted to the four major colonial port cities of India. This section begins with S. Jeyaseela Stephen “mapping the landscape of Pondicherry” in the 17th century, and the segregation of the Europeans and the ‘natives’ in distinct and different quarters. This, he points out, was due primarily to the urban planning first undertaken by the Dutch when they had occupied the city and subsequently followed up by the French.
Jonathan Roy Barlow covers Calcutta — the city’s origin, the architectural styles that evolved as the settlement grew, and the changing relationship of the English with the local society. If Calcutta was marked by the alienation of indigenous society and hegemonic colonial rule, Bombay, as described by Mariam Dossal, stood for partnership in empire and entrepreneurship between the local commercial elite and the English.
On Madras
The last paper in the book is by Lakshmi Subramanian who attempts “to map the development and changing contours of Madras, the historical evolution of its physical space as it was reflected in the changing configurations of power, status and economic activity, and the distinct inflections of early colonial experience in the city.” To cover all this in less than 20 pages is a tall order, considering that Love’s Vestiges of Old Madras covers 160 years of the city’s history in three full volumes! Going beyond the colonial period, her study covers the post-colonial developments in the city’s political and cultural landscape.
The author is evidently not very familiar with colonial Madras, and avoidable mistakes (like when Sunku Rama Chetti becomes Sanku Rama Chetti) mar the chapter.
A major lacuna in the book is the absence of any reference to the extensive maritime trade of peninsular India, which was an important channel for cross-cultural influences between India and southeast Asia. Further, one cannot but notice an element of struggle in the authors to maintain the scholarly depth of a historian while writing for a coffee-table book meant for non-specialist readers.
In the event, many chapters, especially those dealing with the colonial ports, ended up trying to cover too much in too short a space. Overall, the book makes for enjoyable reading, its beautiful illustrations and quality production serving as distinct assets.
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