To what extent were social relations transformedin the new cities?
Answers
Answer:
) There was remarkable transformation in social relations in the new colonial cities developed during the British rule in India. The process of urbanisation in colonial India explore the distinguishing characteristics of colonial cities and track social changes within them. The people of different nook and corner, culture, languages, civilisation, classes, occupations, services, taste settled in Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, Panji, Pondicherry, etc.
For the Indian population, the new cities were bewildering places where life seemed always in a flux. There was a dramatic contrast between extreme wealth and poverty.
(ii) New transport facilities such as horse-drawn carriages and, subsequently, trams and buses meant that people could live at a distance from the city centre. Over time there was a gradual separation of the place of work from the place of residence. Travelling from home to office or the factory was a competely new kind of experience.
(iii) A new class within the cities was the labouring poor or the working class. Paupers from rural areas flocked to the cities in the hope of employment. Some saw cities as places of opportunity; others were attracted by the allure of a different way of life, by the desire to see things they had never seen before.
(iv) As far as three biggest colonial cities are concern these were originally fishing and weaving villages. The life of fishermen and women as well as weavers were very hard. As these villages became important centres of trade due to economic activities of the English East India Company, their life was disturbed. They had to live nearby port area outside of the fortified area. They had experience of colour and racial discrimination at the hands of Europeans. The rich Indian merchants use to play as agents of weavers and fishermen.
(v) As modem industries, factories, mills and new institutions, public services, infrastructure develop people from far away small town and village come in new cities in search of work and employment. The rich merchants of Surat, Masulipatnam, Dacca etc. also started coming to new cities to start their new business and extend their activities.
(vi) From the early years colonial government became keen in preparing map of the new cities. They collected datas. These data were use to know exact number of blacks, whom the Europeans generally hated and misbehave.
(vii) The introduction of railways in 1853 meant a change in the fortunes of towns. Economic activities gradually shifted away from traditional towns which were located along old routes and rivers.
(viii) Colonial cities reflected the mercantile culture of the new rulers. Political power and patronage shifted from Indian rulers to the merchants of the East India Company. The rich Indian agents and middlemen built large traditional courtyard houses in the Black Town in the vicinity of the bazaars.
(ix) In the new colonial city the sense of coherence and familiarity of the old towns was no longer there, the creation of public places– for example, public parks, theatres and from the twentieth century, cinema halls–provided exciting new forms of entertainment and social interaction.