Under the British Raj significant and different changes took place in the making and functioning of the Indian cities. In most of cases, there was a segregation of the Indians and the British areas of settlements, the levels of segregation varying in different cities. Here I take the example of Punjab during the three different periods.
British Raj:
In case of Punjab, there were three types of towns during the British Raj. The Indigenous town which was the walled town that remained majorly as it is, with the congested areas. The Anglicized town consisted the extensions as suburbs around the walled city. These suburbs were had low density with bungalows for the elite i.e. the civil lines (where the British people lived) and cantonment area (where the militants lived). The offices were between the walled city and residences. Other recreational places and cemeteries also came about. The Colony town, which was completely made on the west side on alluvial plains was a “modeled settlement” that had grid patterns with wide streets or streets radiating from chowks in case of Lyallpur. The upper castes lived here like that in mohallas of the old town and the lower castes lived on the outskirts. There were various ideas about which town followed which spatial organization. The colony town resemble “rich center, poor periphery” to an extent whereas the other two towns resemble multiple nuclei.
Making of Modern Indian state:
After the Independence, the province got split into Himachal Pradesh, Pakistan, Punjab and Haryana. Himachal Pradesh had Shimla as capital and Pakistan had Lahore. Punjab and Haryana didn’t have any existing capital or a city which could be termed as a capital. Thus, a new city capital was in the making that was shared to be shared by both the states i.e. Chandigarh. Jawaharlal Nehru had asked for Le Corbusier to plan the city according to the ideals of democracy he wished to implement. Corbusier imposed the principles of Radiant City i.e. the Three Human Establishment with grid pattern and sector divisions with specific roles. He emphasized on Assembly Hall and the structured it according to the spaces for judiciary, legislative and executive. The sectors included residences, commercial zones, industrial areas around it, crematories on the outskirts, and educational facilities ling with residences.
Contemporary India:
With the growth of the city came up the (we can say inevitable) slums on the peripheries. As stated, there can never be any kind of housing cheap enough so that squatters won’t happen. Currently, there are 56 sectors in Chandigarh. Maloya colony has been established on the outskirts (9.3km from Chandigarh Sector 17) where around 2800 people in slums had been rehabilitated. While this doesn’t hamper the existing structure of Chandigarh, the extensions are not according to the previous master plan as that didn’t take into consideration the poor and the economically weaker section of the society. It was considered as a city of riches, which it is but the ground reality is that the poor exist as well.
References- Chandigarh and the Modern City The City in Indian History
chandigarh.gov.in/cmp2031/land-use.pdf