The port cities have an imperial and pre-imperial phase. The imperial phase is well-documented but here we shall see how these cities designed in the first place.
- They were meant to be in most cases European cities transplanted on an alien Asian soil.
- But first and foremost they had to accommodate a large Indian population. They were the producers of the goods that the British exported.
- An interesting characteristic is that the planners/architects were English and the masons and labourers were Indians—new material such as chunna was used.
Completely controlled by the East India Company these fortified factories were erected at village sites leading to the development of hybrid towns that had their own distinctive characteristic.
Unlike the traditional organic cities the planned city had a few new characteristics:
- More uniform lay-out within the walls.
- Streets intersect at right angle to make communication quicker. (Unlike the Ahmedabad pols where roads are winding but quickest way to reach is from the terraces of the row houses in the different localities.)
- The roads led to, in the context of colonial cities, to the fixed central space occupied by a building or symbolic importance.
- But Madras and Calcutta grew in a more organic manner.
The problem of creating completely planned cities is that an uninhabited area and central planning authority has to be present. The colonies provided that opportunity. However, when the cities were built the motive of the East India Company was profit rather than glory. The English port cities in India were established for trade relation. They were called ‘factories’. These trading stations were meant to provide accommodation for Company agents and people working under them. They also became the bases from where the Company exercised their military and trading activities and expanded inland.
- One important characteristic was that these cities were multinational. The Company encouraged people of different caste, creed and nationality to settle down. The population was informally segregated into European and Indian parts. Europeans lived around the fort, the nucleus of the city, and Indians on the periphery. Chennai had weavers who produced the essential export commodity called chintz (calico cotton) which was essential for the survival of the city. The weavers also preferred the greater security of the city. In Madras this segregation was formalized with the construction of a wall in 1661. In Calcutta no such formal division existed. Indians simply lived to the north of Fort William. No such distinction could be enforced in Bombay because Bombay was a discontinuous series of islands and European and Indian population was scattered all over.
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