COLONIAL TOWNS

MADRAS, CALCUTTA, BOMBAY

PRANATHI REDDY – 15031AA042

SHRAVYA GOTETI - 15031AA056
 COLONIALISM
Colonialism is taking over a less powerful country and using its resources
and wealth for the benefits of the powerful country.

o Colonial cities arose in societies that fell under the

domination of Europe and North America in the early
expansion of the capitalist world system.
o Their major cultural role was to the colonial political
institutions like
— Bureaucracies, police, and the military (By which
the core ruled the colony, and the economic structure)
— Banks, merchants, and moneylenders (Through
which wealth drained from colony to core.)
o Colonialism started in the countries like Spain, Portugal,
Britain, Russia, France during the 15th century to 1914.
o It occurs when a country or a nation takes control of other
lands, regions, or territories outside its borders by turning
them into colonies.
o Therefore, there was an increase in exploitation.
TYPES OF COLONIALISM
SETTLER COLONIALISM:
o motivation like religious, political or economical believes formed groups of
settlers

EXPLOITATION COLONIALISM
o usually consist of salves and focus is on the exploitation of labour, resources
and population

SURROGATE COLONIALISM
o settlement done by power as all the settlers doesn’t belong to the same
ethnic group.
o Internal colonialism: notion of uneven structural power between areas of
a state.

“Therefore, these are the types of colonies in colonialism. Colonialisation started in 1498
in India. India was under the rule of British for 200 years. Hence India was exploited,
especially exploited for spices and other agricultural products.”
COLONIAL TOWNS
• Colonial developments in three big cities –
o Madras (Chennai),
o Calcutta (Kolkata) and
o Bombay (Mumbai).
All three were originally fishing and weaving villages. They became
important centres of trade due to the economic activities of the English
East India Company.

• Company agents settled in Madras in 1639 and in Calcutta in 1690.

• Bombay was given to the Company in 1661 by the English king, who had
got it as part of his wife’s dowry from the king of Portugal.
• The Company established trading and administrative offices in each of
these settlements.

• Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were the presidency cities during the
British rule in India. Therefore, these three states became the centre of
British rule. All the trading routes were declining when the centres move
to the presidency states of India. Hence the local trader and the markets
collapsed due to the regional power. Thus giving rise to de-urbanisation.
• By the middle of the nineteenth century these seltlements had
become big cities from where the new rulers controlled the
country.
• Institutions were set up to regulate economic activity and
demonstrate the authority of the new rulers.
• Indians experienced political domination in new ways in these
cities. The layouts of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta were quite
different from older Indian towns, and the buildings that were
built in these cities bore the marks of their colonial origin.
• From the bungalow of the government officer, the palatial house
of the rich merchant to the humble hut of the labourer, buildings
reflect social relations and identities in many ways.
 Towns and Cities in Pre-colonial Times
What gave towns their character?

o Towns were often defined in opposition to rural areas. They came

to represent specific forms of economic activities and cultures.
o In the countryside people subsisted by cultivating land, foraging in
the forest, or rearing animals. Towns by contrast were peopled
with artisans, traders, administrators and rulers.
o Towns dominated over the rural population, thriving on the
surplus and taxes derived from agriculture. Towns and cities were
often fortified by walls which symbolised their separation from
the countryside.
o there was a reverse flow of humans and goods from towns to
villages. When towns were attacked, people often sought shelter
in the countryside. Traders and pedlars took goods from the
towns to sell in the villages, extending markets and creating new
patterns of consumption
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES
• the towns built by the Mughals were famous for their concentration of
populations, their monumental buildings and their imperial grandeur and
wealth.
• Mansabdars and jagirdars who were assigned territories in different parts
of the empire usually maintained houses in these cities
• Grain from the countryside was brought into urban markets for the town
dwellers and the army.
• The treasury was also located in the imperial capital. Thus the revenues of
the kingdom flowed into the capital regularly.
• The emperor lived in a fortified palace and the town was enclosed by a
wall, with entry and exit being regulated by different gates.
• Within these towns were gardens, mosques, temples, tombs, colleges,
bazaars and caravanserais. The focus of the town was oriented towards
the palace and the principal mosque.
• In the towns of South India such as Madurai and Kanchipuram the
principal focus was the temple.
• These towns were also important commercial centres. Religious festivals
often coincided with fairs, linking pilgrimage with trade. Generally, the
ruler was the highest authority and the principal patron of religious
institutions.
Shahjahanabad in 1857 The walls that surrounded the city were demolished after
1857. The Red Fort is on the river side. At a distance on the ridge to the right, you
can see the British settlements and the cantonment.
 CHANGES IN THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY
• All this started changing in the eighteenth century.
• With political and commercial realignments, old towns went into decline
and new towns developed.
• The gradual erosion of Mughal power led to the demise of towns
associated with their rule.
• Changes in the networks of trade were reflected in the history of urban
centres. The European commercial Companies had set up base in different
places early during the Mughal era:
• the Portuguese in Panaji in 1510, the Dutch in Masulipatnam in 1605, the
British in Madras in 1639 and the French in Pondicherry (present-day
Puducherry) in 1673.
• With the expansion of commercial activity, towns grew around these
trading centres. By the end of the eighteenth century the land-based
empires in Asia were replaced by the powerful sea-based European
empires. Forces of international trade, mercantilism and capitalism now
came to define the nature of society
A view of the city of Goa from the river, by J. Greig, 1812
• As the British gradually acquired political control after
the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the trade of the
English East India Company expanded, colonial port
cities such as Madras, Calcutta and Bombay rapidly
emerged as the new economic capitals.
• They also became centres of colonial administration
and political power.
• New buildings and institutions developed, and urban
spaces were ordered in new ways.
• New occupations developed and people flocked to
these colonial cities. By about 1800, they were the
biggest cities in India in terms of population.
The Old Fort Ghat in Calcutta, engraving by Thomas and William Daniell, 1787 The Old
Fort was on the water-front. The Company’s goods were received here.
The ghat continued to be used for bathing purposes by the local peopl
 COLONIAL CITIES
o By the eighteenth century Madras, Calcutta and Bombay had
become important ports.
o The settlements that came up here were convenient points for
collecting goods.
o The English East India Company built its factories (i.e., mercantile
offices) there and because of competition among the European
companies, fortified these settlements for protection.
o In Madras, Fort St George, in Calcutta Fort William and in Bombay
the Fort marked out the areas of British settlement.
o Indian merchants, artisans and other workers who had economic
dealings with European merchants lived outside these forts in
settlements of their own.
o Thus, from the beginning there were separate quarters for
Europeans and Indians, which came to be labelled in
contemporary writings as the “White Town” and “Black Town”
respectively.
o Once the British captured political power these racial distinctions
became sharper.
An old map of Bombay The encircled
area marked “castle” was part of the
fortified settlement. The dotted
areas show the seven islands that
were gradually joined through
projects of reclamation.
o From the mid-nineteenth century the expanding network of railways
linked these cities to the rest of the country.
o As a result the hinterland – the countryside from where raw
materials and labour were drawn – became more closely linked to
these port cities.
o Since raw material was transported to these cities for export and
there was plentiful cheap labour available, it was convenient to set
up modern factories there.
o After the 1850s, cotton mills were set up by Indian merchants and
entrepreneurs in Bombay, and European-owned jute mills were
established on the outskirts of Calcutta.
o This was the beginning of modern industrial development in India.
o Although Calcutta, Bombay and Madras supplied raw materials for
industry in England, and had emerged because of modern economic
forces like capitalism, their economies were not primarily based on
factory production.
o The majority of the working population in these cities belonged to
what economists classify as the tertiary sector.
o Calcutta, Bombay and Madras grew into large cities, but this did not
signify any dramatic economic growth for colonial India as a whole.
The Old Court House and Writers’ Building, engraving by Thomas and William Daniell, 1786 The Court House
on the right, with an open arcaded veranda and Ionic columns, was pulled down in 1792. Next to it is the
Writers’ Building where the East India Company servants in India (known as Writers) stayed on arrival in the
country. Later this building became a government office.
 COLONIAL TOWNS
• Economic activity near the river or the sea led to the
development of docks and ghats.
• Along the shore were godowns, mercantile offices, insurance
agencies for shipping, transport depots, banking
establishments.
• Around the periphery of the fort, European merchants and
agents built palatial houses in European style. Some built
garden houses in the suburbs. Racially exclusive clubs,
racecourses and theatres were also built for the ruling elite.
• The rich indian agents and middlemen built large traditional
courtyard houses in the black town in the vicinity of bazaars.
they bought up large tracts of land in the city as future
investment.
The new buildings at Chourangee (Chowringhee), engraving by Thomas and William
Daniell, 1787 Along the eastern side of the Maidean private houses of the British
began coming up in the late eighteenth century. Most were in a Palladian style with
pillared verandas that were meant to keep off the summer heat.
• The nature of the colonial city changed further in the mid-
nineteenth century. after the Revolt of 1857 british attitudes
in india were shaped by a constant fear of rebellion.
• they felt that towns needed to be better defended, and
white people had to live in more secure and segregated
enclaves, away from the threat of the natives.
• pasturelands and agricultural fields around the older towns
were cleared, and new urban spaces called CIVIL LINES were
set up. White people began to live in the civil lines.
• Cantonments - places where Indian troops under European
command were stationed - were also developed as safe
enclaves.
The Marble Palace, Calcutta. This is one of the most elaborate structures built by an
Indian family belonging to the new urban elite.
Chitpore Bazar by Charles D’Oyly. Chitpore Bazar was at the border of the Black Town
and White Town in Calcutta. The different types of houses here: The brick building of
the wealthy landlord and the thatched huts of the poor.
 HILL STATIONS
• In case of contonments, hill stations were a distinctive
feature of colonial urban development. The founding and
settling of hill stations was initially connected with the needs
of the British army.
• Simla (Shimla) was founded during the course of the Gurkha
war (1815-16); the Anglo-Maratha War of 1818 led to British
interest in Mount Abu; and darjeeling was wrested from the
rulers of Sikkim in 1835.
• Hill stations became strategic places for billeting troops,
guarding frontiers and launching campaigns against enemy
rulers.
• In 1864 the viceroy John Lawrence officially moved his
council to simla, setting seal to the practice of shifting
capitals during the hot season. Simla also became the official
residence of the commander-in-chief of the indian army.
• In the hill stations the british and other europeans sought to
recreate settlements that were deliberately built in the
european style. Individual houses followed the pattern of
detached villas and cottages set amidst gardens.
• The Anglican Church and educational institutions
represented British ideals.
• The introduction of railways made hill stations more
accessible to wide range of people including Indians.
• Hill stations were important for the colonial economy. With
the setting up of tea and coffee plantations in the adjoining
areas, an influx of immigrant labour from the plains began.
A Village near Manali, Himachal Pradesh.
While the British introduced colonial
architectural styles in the hill stations, the
local population often continued to live as
before.
 BIGGEST CITIES OF COLONIAL INDIA
Madras, Calcutta and Bombay gradually developed into the
biggest cities of colonial india.

MADRAS:
● Modern Chennai had its origins as a colonial city and its initial
growth was closely tied to its importance as an artificial harbour
and trading centre.
● When the Portuguese arrived in 1522, they built a port and named
it São Tomé, after the Christian apostle St. Thomas, who is
believed to have preached there between the years 1552 and
1570.
● The region then passed into the hands of the Dutch, who
established themselves near Pulicat just north of the city in 1612.
● Both groups strived to grow their colonial populations and
although their populations reached into 10,000 persons when the
British arrived, they remained substantially outnumbered by the
local Indian population.
CALCUTTA:
The city was a colonial city developed by the British East India Company and
then by the British Empire. Kolkata was the capital of the British Indian empire
until 1911 when the capital was relocated to Delhi. Kolkata grew rapidly in the
19th century to become the second city of the British Empire.

BOMBAY:
• In 1687, the English East India Company transferred its headquarters from
Surat to Bombay. The city eventually became the headquarters of the
Bombay Presidency. Following the transfer, Bombay was placed at the
head of all the Company's establishments in India.
• The encouragement of the trade of Bombay with Jeshwanth combined
with the Company's military successes in the Deccan paved the way for the
educational and economic progress which characterized the city during
the nineteenth century leading to the city development during 1817-1885.
• By 1845, all the seven islands had been connected to form a single island
called Old Bombay having an area of 435 km2(167.95 sq mi) by the Hornby
Vellard project due to the water famine in 1824.
 DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL CITY
CHENNAI: •
• Chennai formerly known as Madras, is the capital of the state of Tamil
Nadu and is India's fourth largest city.
• It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. With an
estimated population of 8.9 million (2014), the 400- year-old city is the 31st
largest metropolitan city in the world.
• Chennai boasts of a long history from the English East India Company,
through the British Raj to its evolution in the late 20th century as a services
and manufacturing hub for India.
• The modern city of "Chennai" arose from the British settlement of Fort St.
George and its subsequent expansion through merging numerous native
villages and European settlements around Fort St. George into the city of
Madras.
• Modern Chennai had its origins as a colonial city and its initial growth was
closely tied to its importance as an artificial harbour and trading centre.
• Francis Day and his superior Andrew Cogan can be considered as the
founders of Madras (now Chennai).
• Their small fortified settlement quickly attracted other East Indian traders
and as the Dutch position collapsed under hostile Indian power they also
slowly joined the settlement. This area became the Fort St. George
settlement.
• It is otherwise referred to as THE WHITE TOWN.
• To differentiate these non-European and non-Christian area from "White
Town", the new settlement was termed "Black Town.” Collectively, the
original Fort St. George settlement, "White Town", and "Black Town" were
called Madras.
• In the later part of the 17th century, Madras steadily progressed during the
period of the East India Company and under many Governors. Although
most of the original Portuguese, Dutch, and British population had been
genocided during the Golkonda period, under the Mughal protection, large
numbers of British and Anglo-American settlers arrived to replenish these
losses.
• As a result during the Governorship of Elihu Yale (1687–92), the large
number of British and European settlers led to the most important political
event which was the formation of the institution of a Mayor and the
Corporation for the city of Madras.
• The expansion of Chennai lead to the acquisition of other areas nearby.
This confiscation of the areas developed which resulted the present day
core area of Chennai we see today.
• In the latter half of the 18th century, Madras became an important British
naval base and the administrative centre of the growing British dominions
in southern India.
• The British also fought four wars with the Kingdom of Mysore under Hyder
Ali and later his son Tipu Sultan, which led to their eventual domination of
India's south. Madras was the capital of the Madras Presidency, also
called Madras Province.
• Consequently, they expanded the Chartered control of the company by
encompassing the neighbouring villages of Triplicane, Egmore,
Purasawalkam and Chetpet to form the city of Chennapatnam, as it was
called by locals.
• The development of a harbour in Madras led the city to become an
important centre for trade between India and Europe in the 18th century.
• Spencer's started as a small business in 1864 and went on to become the
biggest department stores in Asia at the time.
• Development of Railway station, High Court, Educational Institution and
other major administrative and commercial buildings had taken Chennai to
its new heights.
• In the 1900’s Chennai acquired the status of a city due to its increased
population growth and advancements in terms of infrastructure and
amenities.
MADRAS IN 1955 MADRAS IN 1990
 • The city’s major economic activity was entirely based on the sea and other
small scale industries inside the city.
• On the whole, the colonial rule provoked the growth of Chennai to a multi
potential city which attracted people from all over TamilNadu for the past
40-50 years.

CONCLUSION:
• The concept of colonialism started way back in 1492 when
Columbus went in search of India, but accidently discovered
America.
• The colonial rule impacted the whole world, creating a new
settlement to the creation of a new religion to the creation of a new
country.
• Colonial India had contributed to the modern India we see today
with the establishment of Modern city lifestyle and also in the
growth of Mega cities like Mumbai, Chennai etc.,
• The Imperialism of the British over the entire world has resulted the
tremendous improvement in trade and commerce which we have
at present.
• There wouldn’t have been a Megacity like Mumbai or Chennai if
colonial rule had not existed.
COLONIAL MORPHOLOGY