WORK, LIFE AND LEISURE

GROWTH OF THE CITIESLONDON

ANDBOMBAY

Characteristics Of Cities

• When an increase in food supply supported a wide range of non-food producers.

• Centre of political power, administrative network, trade and industry, religious institutions and intellectual activity.

• Supported various social groups such as artisans, merchants and priests.

• Cities vary in size and complexity. Densely settled modern-day cities are called metropolis.

Industrialization And The Rise Of Modern Cities

London-A large city with huge population. Its population multiplied four folds in the 70 years i.e. 1810-1880 from 1 million to four million.

It attracted many people from country side.

Major employment places in London were:-• London dockyard• Clothing and Footwear• Wood and Furniture• Metal and Engineering• Precision Products as Surgical instruments, Objects of Precious Metals.

By First World War, London began manufacturing motor cars and electrical goods.

IMPACT OF URBANISATION

• LONDON GREW,CRIME FLOURISHED-20000 CRIMINALS IN 1870s

• Criminals belonged to poor families.• To discipline the population, authorities imposed

penalties and offered jobs to deserving poor.• Factories employed women; industrialization

created unemployment and forced them to do domestic work,tailoring,washing and match-box making. A low-paid work.

HOUSING AND TRANSPORT

• Change in London city after the industrialization.• No housing arrangement by factory owners for migrant workers.• Houses-cheap and unsafe apartments.• Poverty- both in countryside and in cities.• Bad living conditions resulted in early deaths-life expectancy to

29yrs and 55yrs for middle and rich class respectively.

Westminister Abbey

Lambeth Palace, residence Of Archbishop, Canterbury

Transport & Multistoreyed buildings

• Rich class demanded removal of slums• Reasons:-

– a serious threat to public health– fire hazards due to poor housing– Fear of social disorder So workers’ mass housing schemes were planned

to prevent the poor from turning rebellious.CLEANING LONDON-VARIETY OF STEPS • To decongest localities, green open spaces, less

pollution-large blocks of apartments were built.• Rent control was introduced to do with housing

shortage.• Congestion in cities required cleaning-green belt by

architect and planner Ebenezer Howard ,later Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker designed the garden city of New Earswick

• Between 2WW(1919-1939) housing was taken care by the British state.

                                                 

TRANSPORT IN THE CITY

• Underground railways-first section of it was opened in 10Jan1863

• By 1880 train service carried 40milllion passengers

• Earlier people were afraid to travel

• Better planned suburbs and a good railway network helped people to live outside central London and travel to work.

INDUSTRIALISATION AND LIFE IN THE CITY

• Ties between members loosened-institution of marriage was breaking down.

• Women worked for wages, had some control over their lives.

• Social reformers needed that the institution of family be saved.

• The city encouraged INDIVIDUALISM among men and women and a freedom from collective values.

• Men and women did not have equal access to urban lives.

• Male-public space, women –domestic sphere.

• Political movements-demanding vote for all adults and limited hours of work in factories.

• Women joined mvmt; demanded right to vote or right to property to married women(1870).

• The family now consisted of smaller units.

LEISURE AND CONSUMPTION• Wealthy Britishers-cultural events, opera, theatre and

classical music performance.• Working class- met in pubs to drink, exchange news and

organize political actions.• Libraries, art galleries and museums were established to

develop pride in the history and achievement of the British.

• Lower classes preferred to go to music halls and cinema.• British industrial workers spend their holidays by the sea.

Charles Dickens

The Royal Albert Hall hosts the concerts.

Library

POLITICS• In 1886- the London poor exploded in a riot demanding

relief from poverty.• In 1887-similar riot, which was brutally suppressed by the

police-BLOODY SUNDAY of Nov 1887.• In 1889-thousands of dockworkers went on strikes and

marched through the city.• A large city population was both a threat and opportunity.

THE CITY OF COLONIAL INDIA

• The pace of urbanization was slow in colonial INDIA-11% lived in cities; esp. 3 Presidency cities- Bombay, Bengal and Madras.

• These were multifunctional cities- major ports, warehouses, homes and offices, army, educational institutions, museums and libraries.

• BOMBAY –premier city of INDIA.

Islands of Bombay

BOMBAY• In the 17th century, Bombay was a group of seven

islands under Portuguese control.• In 1661 it was passed to British after the marriage

of Britain’s King Charles II to the Portuguese princess as dowry.

• At first, Bombay was major outlet for cotton textiles from Gujarat later large quantities of raw material as cotton and opium would pass.

• Later a major administrative and industrial centre.

WORK

• Bombay became a capital of Bombay presidency in 1819.

• Growth of trade in cotton and opium, large communities of traders, bankers, artisans and shopkeepers came to settle.

• Ist cotton mill estd in 1854 led to lot of people migrating to Bombay.

• Women formed a part of mill workforce, but by 1930s women’s jobs were taken away by machines and men.

• Bombay dominated sea trade of INDIA till 20th century.

• Railways also encouraged an even higher scale of migration.

HOUSING• Bombay was an overcrowded city-9.4 sq yds per person in 1840s as

compared to 155 sq yds in London.London had 8 persons per house as compared to 20 in Bombay.

• The Bombay fort area in 1800s was divided into native towns where Indians lived and a European or white section.

• A European suburb and an industrial zone in the north and cantonment in the south of the Fort. A racial pattern also prevalent in other two Presidencies. Chawl

• Water and housing problems were created due to expansion of the city.

• Rich Parsis, Muslim and upper class traders and industrialists lived in bungalows and about 70% of the population lived in congested chawls .

• Chawls were also place of exchange of news of jobs, strikes, riots and demonstrations.

• Many people lived as tenants in one room(4 to 5).In the case of high rent people used to share homes.

• People were living in a miserable conditions.• The jobber in a mill used to be neighborhood leader-

who settled disputes, organized food supplies and credits.

TRANSPORT

Trams, Tongas, Horse carts, buses, cars and trains.

LAND RECLAMATION IN BOMBAY

• The seven islands of Bombay were joined as one over a period of time

• The Bombay Governor William Hornby approved the building of the great wall to prevent the flooding of low lying areas of Bombay.

• Need for more space led to reclamation of land from sea.

• In 1864, the Back Bay reclamation company reclaim the western foreshore from the tip of Malabar Hill to the end of Colaba.

• With population increase more area was reclaimed from the sea.To improve the situation of housing –The City of Bombay Improvement Trust was created in 1898 – clearing poorer homes out of the city centre.In 1918 Rent act was to keep reasonable rents.

BOMBAY AS THE CITY OF DREAMS- CINEMA AND CULTURE

• Bombay appears to many as a ‘mayapuri’-a city of dreams.

• Many Bombay films deal with the arrival of new migrants and their problems and real life pressures.

• Bombay film industry- Harishchandra S B shot a

scene of wrestling match in Bombay’s Hanging gardens and it became India’s first movie.• 1913-Raja Harishchandra by Dadasaheb

Phalke.

Oldest Cinema Hall Regal Cinema Hall

Asiatic Society of Bombay

• 1925- Bombay became first film capital.• Most of the people in the industry were

migrants from Lahore, Calcutta, Madras and contributed to the national character of the industry.

• Bombay film industry contributed in a big way to produce an image of the city as a mixture of dream, and reality,of slums and bungalows.

CITIES AND CHALLENGES TO THE ENVIRONMENT

• Harm to natural features due to more demand for space by factories, housing and other institutions.

• Noise, air and water pollution.• More use of coal in homes and industries- black smoke created

pollution hazards.• Factory owners and steam engine owners did not want to spend on

technologies to improve their machines which produced a lot of smokes.

Congested Living PRESENT--AMCHI MUMBAI

• Calcutta-too had a long history of air pollution- a lot of smoke esp. in winter.

• Main pollutants were in industries and establishments using steam power.

• The authorities tried to clean this but the introduction of railway line brought new pollutants.

• In 1863, Calcutta became the first city to get smoke nuisance legislation.