Housing India’s Urban Poor 1800-1965: Colonial and Post-colonial Studies

195 Pages·2020·3.428 MB·English

by  Hans Schenk

HOUSING INDIA’S URBAN POOR
1800-1965
The hinge of this book is 15 August 1947, the day India became
independent. The new leaders of the nation formulated many goals
for India’s speedy development. Among these was the promise
to provide all urban citizens with decent housing, and thus to
clear all slums. This promise structures this book. It is divided
into two sets of questions. The first one refers to the past. It was
apparently necessary to express concern about the poor housing
and sanitary provisions for many citizens before 1947. What was
hence the situation of urban living during the approximately 150
years of colonial rule? What measures were taken (or not taken)
for improvement? The promise to provide decent housing in
independent India structures the second part of this book through
a second set of questions. What were the public actions to bring the
promise nearer by? What has been realized, what faded away finally?
The analysis ends in the mid-1960s when the role of public actors
with regard to housing and the living environment diminished and
the idea of ‘self-help’ and just marginal improvements of hut areas
gained ground. Finally, some answers to the question why Indian
society has as yet not been able to find adequate answers to the
lack of decent housing for a majority of its citizens, are formulated.
The book brings detailed in-depth knowledge on urban housing
and sanitation on several Indian cities together in a comparative
manner and places this local knowledge in a broader context,
crossing urban borders.
Hans Schenk worked at the University of Amsterdam, where he
taught, did research and was involved in consultancies, with a
focus on housing, planning and related aspects of urban Asia. He
has published widely during the last 50 years, on many large and
small Indian and other Asian cities.

Housing India’s Urban Poor
1800-1965
Colonial and Post-colonial Studies
HANS SCHENK
MANOHAR
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2021 Hans Schenk and Manohar Publishers
The right of Hans Schenk to be identifed as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal,
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-55410-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09339-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Adobe Garamond 12/15
by Kohli Print, Delhi 110 051
Contents
Preface 7
1. Introduction 9
2. Voices from the Past, Voices on the Past 26
3. The Days of the Slum are Over 102
4. Conclusion 161
Bibliography 173
Index 187

Preface
I was—and I still am—happy that Mr Ramesh Jain
of Manohar was immediately interested in publishing
my manuscript and I thank the editorial staff of the
publishers for their concerned and efficient efforts to
transform it into a book.
The process of writing the manuscript was short
and intensive, and it was saddening, angering and
inspiring. It was saddening as I was once more
confronted with the miseries of so many millions of
Indian citizens who tried to find shelter. It was
saddening to read about the failed attempts by some
to provide for a few walls, a roof and perhaps even a
tap to these millions, irrespective whether they made
these attempts in the context of a colonial regime or
after India’s Independence. It was even more saddening
and angering to read about those who deliberately
frustrated such attempts.
The process was also inspiring after all. A large
number of outstanding in-depth studies on Indian
towns and cities has been published over the years and
they contribute to a huge pile of knowledge about
8 Preface
urban India. My inspiration was fuelled by comparing
much of this knowledge on different urban places and
bring it here a bit together in a broader context than
that of specific urban borders, but a context that
remained after all the Indian one.
HANS SCHENK
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
15 August 1947: India gains independence. Its leaders
expressed their hopes and plans for the future of the
new nation. Among the desires to develop the country
and its inhabitants, and the confidence among many
new citizens and its leaders that such developments
were feasible, even likely since the colonizers had
departed, were those on the poor housing conditions
of urban citizens. The then minister of health,
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, stated in 1948: ‘That our
cities . . . should be cleared of slum areas and hovels
and our people given decent dwelling-houses at the
earliest possible opportunity is vital to the nation’s
well-being’.1
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave extra weight
to this wish by almost casually stating that such a
housing policy was feasible: ‘the problem is not merely
old slums’.2 Existing slums could apparently be cleared,
and better housing provided.
These statements of confidence found their origins