The Colonial Experience

The story of industrialisation in the West is often told as a story of machines, factories, and the mass movement of people into cities. In Britain, the first industrial nation, the shift was dramatic: in 1800, well under 20 per cent of the population lived in towns of more than 10,000 people; by 1900, that figure had jumped to 74 per cent. London itself swelled from about 1.1 million people in 1800 to over 7 million by the start of the twentieth century, becoming a vast manufacturing, commercial, and financial centre at the heart of the British empire.

But the impact of the same British industrialisation on India was the opposite. Instead of drawing people into cities, it pushed them into agriculture. This is the central paradox of the colonial experience: industrialisation in the core (Britain) led to deindustrialisation in the periphery (India).

The destruction of traditional industry

Traditional Indian exports — especially cotton and silk manufactures — collapsed in the face of competition from machine-made goods from Manchester. This period saw the decline of old commercial cities like Surat and Masulipatnam, while new colonial port cities like Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta (Kolkata), and Madras (Chennai) grew.

When the British took over Indian states, towns like Thanjavur, Dhaka, and Murshidabad lost their royal courts. With the courts gone, the artisans and court gentry who had depended on royal patronage also left. Urban luxury manufactures — the high-quality silks and cottons of Dacca or Murshidabad — were hit first by the simultaneous collapse of indigenous court demand and the loss of external markets.

Village crafts in the interior survived longer, especially in regions where British penetration was not as deep. They were seriously affected only later, with the spread of railways, which allowed cheap factory goods to reach even remote villages.

The growth of new colonial cities

Colonial cities were not just accidental byproducts of trade. They were deliberately planned as the prime link between the economic centre (Britain) and the periphery (colonised India). Coastal cities like Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras were favoured because from here, primary commodities could be easily exported and manufactured goods cheaply imported.

Bombay, for example, was planned and redeveloped so that by 1900, over three-quarters of India's raw cotton were shipped through the city. Calcutta exported jute to Dundee, while Madras sent coffee, sugar, indigo dyes, and cotton to Britain.

Kolkata was one of the first of these colonial cities. In 1690, an English merchant named Job Charnock leased three villages — Kolikata, Gobindapur, and Sutanuti — by the river Hugli to set up a trading post. In 1698, Fort William was established by the river for defensive purposes, and a large open area (the Maidan) was cleared around the fort for military engagements. The fort and the Maidan formed the core of the city that emerged rapidly.

The dual city: European town and native town

Colonial cities were sharply divided. The European town had spacious bungalows, elegant apartment houses, planned streets with trees on both sides, and clubs for afternoon and evening get-togethers. Open space was reserved for Western recreational facilities — race courses, golf courses, soccer, and cricket. When domestic water supply, electric connections, and sewage links were available, the European town residents utilised them fully. Their use was quite restricted in the native town.

Industrialisation and new social groups …