City and Civilized Society and Their Rise and Fall

 

Mumbai in 1670

 Vasco de Gama after wining the war at Mahim Fort, sent his solders in Mahim Village, to massacre the passing villagers on the streets. He just wanted to terrorize the people.  Later the missionaries followed him to preach ‘Good News’.
 Later Mumbai was given in dowry by Portuguese Royalty to British Royalty. Where is Portugal? Where is Great Britain? Where is Mumbai?

City is a Symbol of Centralized Power

City, primarily, is a symbol of Centralized Power in Civilized Societies, since its inception. What V Gordon Childe, archaeologist, calls 'Urban Revolution' is the birth of Civilization some 5K years ago.

The rise and growth of Civilization also goes with Urbanization, which is City as a human habitat.

Since then city has become a parasite on its region for its sustenance. In the Modern Times, the so-called Global Cities and mega-cities have spanned their dominance over lands even beyond their immediate regions, far and wide, even across their sovereign borders, across the continents and oceans. They manage this aggression by remote control from the Board Rooms in mega-cities.

Civilized society, as is known, is based on the division of labor, social hierarchies of the ruler and the ruled, classes/castes, or the Classless society and the Underclass. Even in democracies in historical times the slavery did exist. Here Democracy is misnomer.

In recent times democracies did go for colonizing, by various means, weaker nations, now called Third World. In 5000 years indeed Democracy has not come of life.
However, in India the unarmed Buddhist monks, in 200 BC, colonized other countries by religious thought of nonviolence.

True Democracy

How could any civilized society practice democracy in true sense? It possible only when 'the People are the Means and Goals’ for the well-being of all the living beings. Only then democracy is possible. Neither the means nor the goals could be economy, technology, market, exchange rates, foreign affairs... blah, blah, blah. State is only a facilitator.

In spite of the presence of all the institutions to manage society, the chaos and strife never ended. It will never end if the mindset of a power oriented society does not end, and accept democracy in total.

To bring this change, needs introspection by the power-classes. Here the writing of constitutions, acts and laws are useless. Perhaps, a beginning of process to Decentralization of Power would help.

There is no escape from chaos until the responsibility and right to equitable distribution of resources should be rested on the shoulders of the Collective (what we customarily call Civil Society).

The End of the City

The size of The Collective, therefore, must have Human Scale. In other words, it will be the 'end of the city' as a human habitat; it is inevitable. With Information Technology this is not impossible. The obvious factor is, it should begin simultaneously at the top and the bottom rungs of the collective.

This is not a Utopia. It is being practiced by aborigine communities (cohesive collectives) for millennia: There is a lesson to learn for the present consumerist societies that splurge finite resource that belong to all living beings – the inmates on the Earth.

In the past, the feudal powers promised security to the subjects of their material life, and the religious powers promised salvation - Moksha - after death.

Now these are replaced by the governments (by design or default, the corporate powers) promise physical security, and science with machine-money-market, the new clergy class, promise happiness.

Post Script

The young people, who begin their homes, generally begin by taking loans.  We are speaking about our great urban middle class. They buy a house by taking loan. They would acquire gadgets, furniture, furnishings… etc. by taking loans. This is called 'lifestyle'.

Happy are those who receive fat inheritance from their old parents!

When the young begin their adult life, they are past their spring-time – youth – in building up their career. Where does this debt-trap end in the rat-race of life-sucking competition, in the saturated market?

They acquire training for their careers on the assembly-lines at educational institutions. However, they hardly have any life-supporting skills, either from the institutions or their families, during their youth. Hence, even for common cold they run to the experts/specialists. This is called Third Ecology, which is outside Natural Ecology.
What a mountain-high ego!
Who is supposed to think of posterity?

Remigius de Souza | Mumbai | 17-09-13

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

THE OUTHOUSE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Fifty Years of Nation Building

 

Viceroy's Residence at New Delhi

All that I saw was a huge gate whenever I visited the place

LOOKING BACK, the event – 15th August 1947 – now seems an end, and not a beginning.

Symbolically and virtually, when the President of India walked into the Outhouse of the British Empire, i.e. Viceroy's Palace (renamed ‘Rashtrapati Bhavan’), it was an insult to her people, who continued to live in 5, 57,000 villages and in the slums and even below poverty line. Their fate was sealed as second-class citizens. There erupted a trade in a new guise to take over the feudal mastership, a scramble for power and profit, and a stream of sugarcoated slogans.

The intellectual corruption, therefore, cannot be measured.

Architects and planners belong to the same stock of rulers – looking for clues, inspiration, models, collaborations, and approvals… – and aid from the West or otherwise from the bygone past.
  
Who does care for the living present and posterity!
  
It begins with formal education, which conspires to breed a hybrid monoculture, far from creativity.

The only hope for freedom is the millions who silently resist, suffer, protest, prevail, sustain without coming into the fold of the ruling minority.  In-spite of the onslaught of the environment, ecology and energy at the hands of development planning that continues to fail (to bring wellbeing to the majority).

There is hope, if millions are taken into confidence:  if there is collective creativity which is an Indian tradition and heritage and a collective introspection.

There is hope, as some signs of change appear on the horizon.

The so-called Rashtrapati Bhavan Estates deserve to be returned to the people for the fit use of public fairs, fun and frolic and its part for a museum of enslaved past, for the posterity to learn from. Then perhaps the Indian Architecture of freedom and democracy will emerge?

(This note was sent in response to: “Write about a building(s) or urban development which you feel has had a lasting impact on post-independence Indian architecture”, a request by Indian Architect Builder, and published in its special issue, “50 Years of nation Building”, August 1997, p.69)

 NB:
It took 15 years to realize part of a my wishful thinking. There is a news: Rashtrapati Bhavan Mughal Gardens set to open for public from February 16

Read More>> Urban Renewal in the Regional Context

Note: The image above is from Internet.
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Formative Age of a Person

Whose responsibility it is anyway?

"A child's feet are seen in the crib" (The feet show child's future) — How the child would lead life in future — a Marathi idiom. It indicates people's belief in fate. Isn't there any responsibility of the parents / guardians, teachers and society to help child's development? To say tradition is always best is merely a dogma.

Image-1

‘The Formative Age’ by Remigius de Souza, Mumbai, 2003

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Sapling in a Tree-pot

 In the tropics, light and moisture are enough for plants to live.

Even plants turn around in search of light for their growth. In crowded plants each finds its way; sometimes they grow straight up and higher, sometimes bend around, in the direction of light. There are no quarrels, fights, arguments! (If there are any, we do not understand their tongue.)

Image-3

Plant on a pavement in Mumbai - 1

This tree is on my usual walkway. During monsoon a beautiful creeper grew in the hollow of its trunk. One day found it vanished: Perhaps a dutiful street sweeper had removed it. At the same time new shoots grow from the trunk and roots.

Wherever there is natural thick tree cover, especially in the mountain ranges, there we get to see such a scene, also in a mass plantation. In cities, too, on the street pavements, the transplanted saplings (from nurseries) helped by watering, invariably grow in various directions.

Municipalities probably do not know the right "places and spaces" for the growth of various plants. Oh, those who don't know about the appropriate 'place and space' for the growth of humans, how could they have any concern for the plants?

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Plant on pavement in Mumbai - 2

Plants, too, wish to live despite various adversities, one of them is modern urban aesthetics (and ethics) about Life and Survival.

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Detail, Plant on pavement in Mumbai - 3

 On pavements of Mumbai/ two generations of the displaced and marginalized are born and grew up. Who knows where did they reach? How could the impotent know?

There is an idiom, 'under a great tree other plants don't grow'. However, it is applicable to plantation by humans. Actually, it refers to great persons, or humans, certainly not great trees.

In a natural forest, a great tree supports many a animal and plant species.
Cut down a great tree and see what happens. It not only destroys Life of so many species, but also, affects environmental balance, reduces ground water, causes desert to expand, droughts and famines begin...
But what is it to the egocentric, greedy power-mongers? No regrets or shame! If poor ryot starve, it is not a spicy news story!

Mother Nature, 'Srishti', provides resources (and autonomous functions) for the sustenance and protection to all the species — their body and mind — in their schema, may they be bacteria or human species. Her management is not at all like that of selfish, power-greedy civilized societies. Not even their gods (of human species) can interfere in Mother Nature's affairs.

Nature, here, isn't romantic greenery in poetry / fiction. Just as Mother Nature occupies all the known-unknown universes, so also is within us.
She does, so do we, want us to grow in body and mind, which requires appropriate 'place and space'. 

Here, 'place' is not area, i.e. sq ft/sq m area by government rule book. And 'space' is not 3D box/block in geometry.

 

 Two extreme examples

First example is of the collective, and second is of an individual. These are two far ends of recent examples from civilized society.

1st. In Vietnam a generation was born on the war field, grew up with gun and fought war with the US. The US lost the war.

2nd: Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of former Baroda State. His relations with British Raj are well known. His comprehensive development work for People is more eye-catching than his worldly wealth.
Who was Sayajirao? A boy, from a humble family, adopted in the royal family to be a king!
What is the use of mere wealth of a rich person without right formation? Truly he was 'Rajarshi', Sage-King or Sage-Statesman.

Between the two ends in the above two examples, it may be worth to examine a million cases. But the advance societies/experts stop short at sample surveys. In their tongue there is no idiom, 'as many persons that many characters'.
Otherwise they often publish reports, about Internet, TV, cell phone users etc.

There is a third example, outside civilized society. Here it is mentioned only for record though most important. Most people are not familiar about them. They are the aborigines, 'adivasi', communities in India and the world. Their communities and culture have beginning in the remote ancient times.
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Notes:
1.The poster was written while I was writing a number articles on education during past three decades.
2. This post is translated from the original post published on my Marathi blog: REMICHI MARATHI BOLI.
3.  I have written few notes about the aborigines in India. Some are published in print and on this blog.

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Man And Nature (Within And Outside)

The presentation to the paper, "Architecture and Biodiversity in India : A Context to Aesthetics in Our Times", presented to PAITHRUKAM 2004: Seminar/Workshop on Aesthetics in Indian Architecture: Past, Present and Future, at MES College of Architecture, Trissure, Kerala.
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Man And Nature (Within And Outside)

More PowerPoint presentations from Remigius de Souza

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Note: 1. All the references and quotes are not mentioned in the presentation. Also, the permissions of the authors and publishers have not been taken. The author acknowledges their copyright. These are used purely for the academic purpose.

2. The paper is also published in 3 parts: 1 Garden under a Glass Cage, 2 Built Environment and Biodiversity, 3 But who will bell the Cat - the Bureaucrats?

Remigius de Souza

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved

Slums, cities and the web of development - 4 The basis for rehabilitation

 

My address: At Mumbai, Post India 

Slums, cities and the web of development: 

4- The basis for rehabilitation

(A word of caution:  During 1950s and 1960s, it was alleged; thousands of acres of land were purchased by people in high places – politicians, business people, executives, etc. in various (bogus) names in rural areas. The recent Special Economic Zones (SEZs), if executed, could spell hell to the peasants, tribal and forest dwellers, which are treated as second class citizens. The social, economic, political, educational... disparities have pushed a large majority to the brink, which stinks of hidden agenda of annihilation.)

Rehabilitation should provide land for farming, housing, local institutions such as schools, colleges, training institutions for alternative agro-technology, banking, public transport, and health care faculties.

Squatters' water woes in Mumbai (2011)

Just as minimum shelter of 21 sq. m. is recommended / given to a slum dweller in cities, so also a landless labourer in rural areas should be rehabilitated with one acre of land.

All the land needed for rehabilitation of the displaced should be taken from reconstitution of the entire land holdings of the region. This formula demands corrective measures in the existing structure of laws and applications. But it also demands courage, integrity and transparency on the part of the society and Administration.

If such an application is brought into force, with effect from, say, 25-1-1952, there shall be massive exodus from the cities to rural areas. People who are rotting in the slums shall return to their homestead.

The culture and tradition of the country is essentially agrarian. The resources required for industrialization shall not last forever; neither the borrowed know-how, nor imported clever ideas of development that may work forever.

Customarily the compensation and rehabilitation is decided in proportion to, on the basis of degree of consumption and access and power to devour the resources in comparison with urban elite and not on the basis of sustenance. The direct benefit due to the acquisition for development must reach to the people on equitable basis. As is, it is questionable whether the benefits of direct taxes reach them.

Does science, or applied sciences, have answers to these problems? Perhaps partially. When ‘science’ loses its dimension of ‘people’ it becomes a ‘ghetto of information’ and eventually gets buried. Technology does not build the pyramids anymore in imitation of the past; its form, however, has changed but the context continues. When centralized power inflates and loses its vision of eternity, it disintegrates.

What memories of Mumbai these children will carry if they survive?

Incarnations and prophets born in different times spoke the language of people rather than the monopolized language of the elite. But now the times have changed. But peoples’ language is lost in the anonymity.

To look for the answers to the contemporary problems the real place is the people and not the polytechnics or parliaments or planning agencies, or theories and discourses by pundits that are not responsible.  Perhaps it is now time for billion incarnations.

The first task is to restore human dignity: Dignity to all living beings; Dignity to Life.

Author: Remigius de Souza
[Published in the Journal of Indian Institute of Architects, Vol. 61, No. 9,  Dec.1996, p23-25. This is edited version.]
(Revised on: 23-05-2010)

Links to previous posts: 

1. Slums are on rise in India
2. The slums increase in direct proportion to the development.  
3. Ghettos of Development

Note: Photographs illustrated are by Remigius de Souza. 
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Indian Bazaar VS Global Market: A view by an ordinary Indian

INDIAN BAZAAR, at primary level, brings a producer and consumer in direct contact; no third party is involved. With urbanization, broker comes in the picture, the price and distance between the two increases. Hence, the State department's work and rewards (!) increase, with more powers.

City is a symbol of centralized power. Larger a city larger an area its footprint covers, even across continents and oceans, and larger its powers to manipulate and control regions via Market: City is actually a proxy to the power monger/s. In earlier times it was a king, now a corporate body.

Bazaar is an ecological element in the agrarian society, then and now. Because of India's so-called 'mix economy, free market, open market, globalization..., the peasant now belongs to a new category of “Class”, or rather “Underclass”. They are the first and the worst casualty of 'Development and Progress', besides already existing oppressions of caste discrimination; gender oppressions apart.

Web of Caste and Class 

They are now caught in the “web” of "Vertical divisions of Caste and Horizontal divisions of Class". Which one of them is worst? They grew up for many thousand years with degenerated caste system. But, now they are imposed upon by the divisions of class that is already (globally) degenerated. 

The overview of the whole situation looks intriguing in the post-freedom era. The elite fascinated by industrialization, took over the reigns to run the affairs of the country. How did the peasant respond to the change, after centuries of feudal domination? What did freedom, democracy and leaders mean to them? 

"Now it is our Raj, and our leaders will take care of our wellbeing!" Hero-worship continued. What about the five years' rule of limited liability by elections? How does it change perceptions of leaders and peasants about self-rule?  

There are two distinct courses that India followed for decades: (1) the enthusiastic implementation of ‘pro-elite’ projects, and (2) failure to implement or materialize the ‘pro-poor’ Slogans / Promises / Programmes / Provisions. The fall-out of these two conditions now shows glaring or grim results.

Past sixty three years have witnessed rising numbers of riots, extremist and terror attacks; the deaths by hunger – malnutrition – starvation, and suicide by farmers; atrocities on women-children-minorities; atrocities by the security forces, to cite a few. Besides there are number of persons Bellow Poverty Line and the illiterate that don't reduce. 


Countless atrocities take place that are caused to the under privileged people by State Agencies in the name of law and order. There are scams, kickbacks, corruption, parallel economy, encounters, and shootings etc. which may be notable among many.

We take social – economic growth by the Development Projects too much for granted. Recent visit by the US President Obama to India means Market, even if by ancient system of 'barter', of trade, tech for jobs! Did India count how would the upcoming US Market and Nuke Deal affect The Third World India and The Fourth World India (of Adivasis)? Is this aspect social and economic fall-out counted in the Nuclear Safety Precautions? 

Mother Earth - Land - now a market commodity 
 
Yet there is another silent but sinister trend going on since 1950s and 1960s. Highly placed urbanites, executives, celebrities, real estate developers… have been buying large tracts of land – hills, plains, marshes – in rural areas at strategic places, by their money-power. What could poor farmers do? Yesterday they were masters; now landless labourers.

Large tracts of land are being converted to raise monoculture for industrial use, or in the name of afforestation, at the cost of biodiversity. There are many and many kinds of atrocities taking place on land and waters.

Would there be accelerated Migration from countryside, or Annihilation of the peasants – by Invisible Forces? As we Re-Search even a single aspect, Bazaar, it opens the hidden agenda of Indian Elite: how sly, hypocrite and ruthless they are! It is not merely Indian BAZAAR VS Global MARKET.

It is more sinister action by the insensitive leaders and experts, detrimental to a large and majority rural and forest dwellers. Government of India certainly strives to improve infrastructure, but only for the elite segment. It has failed to create appropriate infrastructure for 900 million peasants in 600,000 villages, some of them are rotting in the cities.

The basic and most urgent infrastructure for the rural people is RELEVANT EDUCATION: Literacy in vernacular, appropriate Education, Alternative Farming Technologies, Water Resources and Conservation, Legal Counselling for All Ages and Genders. These are not separate departments but must be treated and implemented as One Holistic Package.

The hold of the peasant and the consumer on the market, until then, remains a distant dream.

The displaced with their skills in the city 

The displaced and marginalized migrate to cities 

in search of work to sustain with dignity.

(Images by Remigius de Souza)

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 We have heard, the kibbutz have turned desert in Israel into land 

where honey and milk flows, by community participation.
 

Panoramic photo (composite) of Sunflower fields at Kibbutz Barkai, Israel; 

Author: Rickjpelleg | Source: Wikipedia 

Related Posts
1. Hawkers' Fundamental Rights and Contemporary City Planning
2. Flower Bazaar at Mumbai during Ganesh Festival
3. How bamboo is neglected in India

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Hawkers' Fundamental Rights and Contemporary City Planning

Supreme Court, on Oct 20, 2010, gave a ruling that hawking is a Fundamental Right. Delhi hawkers filed a petition challenging Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). SC pulled up the agencies on a few points. There have been several directives given to government and municipalities.

Any educated, sane person (literate or illiterate, rich or poor, layperson or professional) must be able to respond to this issue positively. But we (of The First World India) forget or ignore the millennia old Indian agrarian society and their living traditions which should be acknowledged as Unwritten Laws. Hawking is one of them.

Missing primary factor in city planning 

However, the vital and primary missing factor in this case is 'CITY' itself, therefore, 'City Planning'. City is the real cause of trouble (city being symbol of centralized power) for the people inside and outside, both.

Flower vendors during festivals, Mumbai

Judiciary, even the Supreme Court, and subsequently media-the-hawk missed this context to ‘city’ and ‘city planning’ which is at fault. City planning is not inclusive of people and their cultures in the pluralistic society of India.

When city planners write / draw map of a city, they actually write an Act of Law: That is the status of city plan. First, this map is displayed at appropriate place for the citizens to scrutinize and put on record their objections / grievances. Then it goes through hearings, redressal and then further stages of scrutiny and approval at government level. This indeed is a democratic process. 

This might seem absurd, if we consider the levels of education, literacy, illiteracy and the access to information of the citizens, and how do they use their resources This assessment may be difficult but not impossible. Media or multimedia, now, could work to spread non-formal education to all, if used effectively. 

Hawking is ancient tradition   

For millennia peasants and forest dwellers have been bringing their goods and produce for sell to weekly bazaars at villages, towns, cities and thousands of fairs annually held across the country, even in remote places. There are many cities older than thousand years, and there are 600,000 villages in India. Hawking is ancient tradition. 

Tender coconut vendor, Mumbai

Bazaar has been a characteristic feature of Indian Urban centres, small or big. If Indian intelligentsia and newfangled town planners want to ignore this fact in the name of Modernism or Westernization, and sell the land to Shopping Malls and Departmental Stores at the detriment of large majority, it is not patriotism. It is treason and intellectual slavery.

The First World India (of ruling minority) has been groomed by foreign-made education, by now a few generations. Perhaps they have lost the roots? Why architects and town planners should be an exception? If the professionals are ignorant of this loud and visible fact, and lack essential field-work, how could they ever integrate People in the Laws? How could they make People-inclusive plans? 

Each time of crisis of management of the country arises, they look for models elsewhere to imitate, or knock the doors of High Court/s and Supreme Court. But they do not look for answers from people and the ground reality; or create mass movement for divisive caused when poverty is rampant and policies oppressive.

Typically, cities 'built' in India during past ten decades have shops along roads or separate plots for shopping centres. However, in reality it seems they are planned, in the first place for cars and roads, then land-use zones, thereafter, population (numbers) that is a faceless entity. Now ‘family’ is called ‘household’ – am object. Of course, invariably the numbers prove the projections, projects, plans and planners failed.

Car takes more area than a squatter and hawker 
Cars - stationary and moving - take more area and 3D Space than slum dwellers, squatters & hawkers. It is a known fact that modern cities have lost Human Scale by domination of car. How car does consume energy, affects environment and ecology, which primarily comes from the Earth; and how it does pay back to Earth, is never questioned.

Squatters living under Mumbai Flyover

Now we pray, India's Nuke Deals don't bring further doom – by Bang Soundless and Cloud Smokeless – to the Peasants and Aborigines  by default, like that of Machine and Market so far. None speaks if the Fallout is counted in the Nuclear Safety Precautions? We ignore social – economic fallout of development. Would there be accelerated Migration from countryside or Annihilation? Already there are suicides by farmers: Annihilation by Invisible Forces?

Example of hawker inclusive Vadodara City Plan

While we (Town Planning Team) ware working on the Town Planning Schemes (TPS) for Vadodara City (formerly, Baroda), in the second half of 1960s, we integrated hawkers in the TPS. We had provided pathways for pedestrians and cyclists, besides the hierarchy of streets. At the rounded corners of the junctions of pathways and streets, small open plots were kept for the hawkers. These plots remain connected without coming in the way of pedestrians and vehicles. Corners of junctions are favourite of hawkers everywhere, not only at Vadodara. This planning action comes from ‘field-work’. 

Revamp Professional Education Disciplines  

Conclusions: There is an urgent need. The education in the disciplines of "City Planning, Urban Design, Environmental Planning, Regional Planning, Design of Indian Roads, etc. and their Foundation Courses, besides the Law”, need total overhaul, as if the Place (Land, Waters and Vegetation), People and their Cultures matter. There are no international standards for a city. A city is not a product for trade. 

Notes:
1. Images above are by Remigius de Souza
2. Links: "Flower Bazaar at Mumbai during Ganesh Festival" 
3. News Link:  Hawkers’ fundamental right can’t be left in limbo: court

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

The Idea of New Town: Navi Mumbai (POEM)

Original title of the poem 

 (Poem written on 23-02-1997: I was writings a review of a workshop, "The Idea of New Town, Looking at Navi Mumbai" (earlier New Bombay). While writings it I was stuck for many reasons. One of them was the stalwarts in architecture and planning from India and abroad attended the workshop. Sant Tukaram came to my help, and I composed the following poem. I re-publish it. )

Oh Vitthala*, while you stand steadfast
On a single brick, the foundation bestowing
Courage and joy through Gyanoba-Tukoba*;
There is no beginning – no end.

On the threshold of Third Millennium
Of "English" calendar, what are a few decades
Of life of New Delhi, Chandigarh, or New Mumbai
But specks of dust in a hay stack?
We have lived through cities thousand years old.

The sperms of Navi Mumbai were laid in an incubator
By an industrial corporate body, legitimized
By the CIDCO* of Swadeshi Raj here
Of your beloved Maharashtra and of the displaced.

Oh Vithoba1, your beloved people of India
Are blessed by Mother Earth for millennia,
Living in million villages, who nurtured and helped
To sustain cities of Gods, kings and Nawabs.

In the age of rape of Mother Earth
And ecological-cultural subjugation of the sons of soil,
Pushed them to the brink, to make a fast buck
While the sun shines, through manufacture and market;
The machine does not make maize neither milk.

Corporations know not "boundaries", – neither of values
Nor culture, – Their tentacles reach afar
Under different garbs and masks anew;
What are the new towns across the continents
In the name of urbanism – yet another mask?

Swarms of corporate locust devouring resources
In decades, what had been plentiful for millions
Of living entities for centuries, to leave behind
“Holes in the sky". City planners are by-products.

We witnessed the destruction of Hiroshima-
Nagasaki, calamities man-made with impact;
the shudder of earth that reduced Kobe to debris.

You hold aloft Kedarnath – Kashi – Kanyakumari
Through the times of turmoil, age after age.
Bhagiratha*  brought Mother Ganga to revive
His five thousand ancestors in peril.

In the age of annihilation unsurpassed
His offspring struggle to survive in numbers.
Will the sons of soil survive or perish?
Oh, Vitthala, Give your holy verdict.

In the era of contraception - condoms - abortions,
The steel-glass-concrete jungles of modern towns
Are sprouting, sprawling, swelling, multiplying
To celebrate triumph of "Post-historic-Man".
Will New Town, living a hybrid life on life saving
Drugs, shall be or not be an abortion?

Desperate planners are gripped in two-three dimensions
When Newtonian Age passed away hither thither;
In spite of revelation of Time and Eternity;
And half-truth of second law of thermodynamics.

Tied to a mill of self-cantered ego, they go in rounds
Endless, locked in cells. Will some glimpse liberate them?
Oh Vithoba*, It is time again to release Vishwakarma*
from the bondage of Indra*, we pray.

We recite the past, or speculate the future in mechanical
Actions; run into political impotency;
when confronted to the Present, take refuge
of numbers in perpetuity, dividing, sieving, grading,
degrading the humanity at the cost of creativity.

Now the "Bhasmasura"* of modern technology is let loose
Shattering the ancient limits only to defile and displace
Land and Waters, to eliminate the living entities.
New Towns offer man a life of hydroponics.

His tentacles reach deeper and wider through his weapon –
"The Cities" – to bring slow death to regions afar without impact.
Oh Vithoba, heed to our invocation to give us Insight
into the Present, the People, the Life, the Nature's Way.

At the end of second millennium, they struggle
In the narrow compartments of 2D – 3D to establish
Credibility; offer the urbanites "New Town Neurosis"
They are yet to awaken to hyperspace;
How could the planners be Visionary?

Architecture is poet's imagination to serve
The two in hundred of the world;
Planning demands vision in Universal Truth
Of a sage – of a humble farmer – who lives
In the timeless eternal NOW.
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Remigius de Souza
Mumbai
23-2-1997

Notes:
* Vitthala, Vithoba: Most venerated deity in Maharashtra (an incarnation of Vishnu).
* Gaynoba – Tukoba: Jnaneshwar and Tukaram are saint-poets of Maharashtra, India.
* Swadeshi – Self-rule.
* CIDCO: City and Industrial Development Corporation, Maharashtra State, India.
* Bhagiratha: a character from Mahabharata.
* Vishwakarma, Indra, Bhasmasura: characters from Puranas. Bhasmasura is similar to Midas in the western mythology. However end of Bhasmasura comes reducing him ashes by his own folly, which is inevitable. There is no room for repentance.

(Poem on the event, “Workshop – The Idea of New Town: Looking at Navi Mumbai" held at Coomaraswamy Hall, Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai on 21-22 February 1997.)

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

THE OTHER INDIA in THE OTHER WORLD (Review)

Image 1: Changing skyline of Mumbai 

After writing this review in a decade's time Mumbai's skyline is fast changing, the fallout is many-fold. The slum-dwellers and squatters too have increased, which now constitutes half of Mumbai's population,so also, Mumbai's water woes.

Image 2: Survival - Squatters in Mumbai

 

These are displaced people from various regions where Mumbai has left its footprints. 

And they strive to live with dignity, which the planners, policymakers, administration and legislation continue to overlook, or look for solutions from the West, in vain.

Image 3: Survival - Squatter in Mumbai

This is a place where new waterline is being installed by the municipal for a mega-realty project. The squatters being illegal settlers have no legitimate access to water in the democratic India. 

Image 4: Survival - Squatter in Mumbai

The children of the displaced families  that live under the newly erected flyovers have found 

their sources of leisure. These come from families of different languages. They don't care

what the chauvinist politicians have to say about language/s. 

 

Water, work, education, leisure, health care etc are supported by the people's skills and creativity and imagination. This is in stark contrast with impotency of planners, policy-makers

and administrators. Planners don't show the areas occupied by the  slum-dwellers and squatters, i.e., the land use painted as gray areas,on the development plans of Mumbai 

(This article / event review was published in the Journal of Indian Institute of Architects, January 1995, Vol. 60, No. 1, P. 35-36. This is an edited version added with images.)

A workshop on “Working and Living in Cities” was jointly organized by Max Muller Bhavan, Bombay, Urban Design Research Institute, Bombay and Habitat Forum, Berlin on 25-26 November 1994 at Convocation Hall of Bombay University, Bombay.

Many scholars, architects, planners etc. from Bombay (India) and abroad attended the workshop. About 100 participants were students. The workshop characteristically displayed specialization typical of modern urban elite society.

The focus of the workshop was on Bombay (read Mumbai) and New Bombay (read Navi Mumbai) with reference to the prospects of globalization of Bombay, the highly populated megalopolis, the trends of shifting population, slums, land, housing, trade, transport etc. in the end there seemed to be no conclusive outcome of the workshop. Yet there could be some conclusions and observations, thanks to the clarity offered by the resource persons and the lively discussions.

For a rural migrant such a workshop would be a revelation. The experts in the highly specialized branches of learning [education] were present. Perhaps the number of participants was less than the number of specialized branches, sub-branches, sub-sub-branches in different disciplines which seemed most identical to the complex caste system prevailing in India. He/she would have felt himself/herself to be a ‘neo-Shudra’ in the august gathering of ‘neo-Brahmins’. Education and Science have yet to become globalize (or universal?). The workshop seemed to have forgotten this fact in spite of boost to Information Technology. Here everyone was concerned about globalization of Bombay – a political entity.
 
The workshop certainly helped to understand a very small fraction of what global economy is: That the Dollar, Pound, Yen, Mark have higher exchange value than Indian Rupee. And the economic disparity and imbalance in the regions, between North and South, West and East, Urban India and Rural India, First World India and Third World India…

Where does the propagation of such disparities and imbalance begin?  The question of affordability and relevance remains hanging in the development projects in India. It is futile to compare Bombay on the basis of its size of population with cities elsewhere, particularly from the developed countries.

One, therefore, cannot think of an issue connected to a city by isolating it from the region. It is also fashionable to use phrases like ‘integrated development’, ‘holistic approach’, ‘public participation’ etc. These do not work at a global level. Neither one could ignore disparities in spite of best intentions.     

At one time during the workshop, the planners washed of their hands for the ills of planning, which were pointed by the participants for some supposed undesirable elements creeping in the plans/cities. They clarified that these elements were imposed, forced upon from outside (?), or by external (?) pressure. This indeed is a real life situation revealed in the workshop. It is reminiscent of the trial of Jesus of Nazareth some two thousand years ago, when Pilate had washed off his hands. His godfather, Caesar was then in Rome. Where are the godfathers of the planners?

At the end of twentieth century, a large number of people of India were sentenced to carry the cross of displacement, in the name of common good, in the name of development, through legitimate process of legislation under democracy, or due to riots, floods, famine, unemployment to reach a final destination of rotten environment of slums in the cities, or are moving out of the city core.

It is an accepted fact from the pre-historic times that the movement of people is primarily connected with survival. Scholars and planners were concerned about providing better housing to the slum-dwellers while the poor kept on pouring in big and small cities and town. The experts have been concerned about congestion in the city. But the question of decentralization of power remains unresolved. Could it ever be resolved when the centralized power is the very foundation of a city?

The Supreme Court has recently reminded the people that they have ‘Right to Live with Dignity’. Does this have any bearing to planning at any level in any area: physical, economic, development…? Dignity is a tall word, but who is to exercise this right; the planners or the government or the people? Who is accountable: people, planners or powers? Theoretically the three are not supposed to be separate.

During the discussion, an often-heard statement was quoted: “Look at the major part of the revenue of this country that is contributed by the city of Bombay…” It seemed the professionals present were not aware of “Energy”, or perhaps ignored it. Typically almost everyone, anyone speaks of economy, prices, speculation, inflation, revenue etc. Revenue essentially is understood as currency. What is the value of currency anyway?

But no scholar or expert has ever told us about how much of the resources of the country are daily consumed by the city of Bombay, besides other cities? No statistician has ever told us about how much of the contributed revenue to the country was ‘ploughed back’ under different garbs by the city of Bombay? Leave aside the parallel economy, if it really exist, created by, or have a share in creating it, apart from the scams, extortion etc. by/in  the city of Bombay, the financial centre of the country? Why then Bombay has to borrow from World Bank etc. for the basic needs of the city: water, shelter, and roads?
  
But the question that remains untouched is “Energy”, and the price of energy consumed by the metropolis. How much energy would it consume when Bombay turns out to be a Global City – the pride of nation, and at whose cost?  

The millions in the villages and forests had rarely seen currency. They still hardly see it. They know of the energy – man energy, bull energy, sun energy, wind energy, tree energy… They worshiped it in blind (sic) faith. They knew of this million-year-old ‘currency’ named ‘Energy’ and they worshiped it in various forms. These people are named backward, ignorant, superstitious, uneducated, illiterate, uncivilized… And here in the city the learned of the West and the East with backing of science, technology and dollars etc. endlessly talk, talk, talk of numbers, economy, revenue… under the portals of Bombay University.

It is an obsolete and outdated thought/concept to talk of city planning or any physical planning, in terms of economy by ignoring Energy and Entropy in the growing threat to environment and ecology. How long the planners will continue to ignore entropy? 

The highly specialized (or compartmentalized?) scholarly views tend to drop the news of the people, and we miss the holistic approach and finally fail to resolve any of the issues in planning, accept some piecemeal adjustments for personal gratification. Bombay therefore has to live on the externally supplied lifesaving drugs, while diagnosis fail, the curative measures fail, because these are at cross-purpose with people. The issue of slums is several times larger than the riots though its impact is not felt. The root cause is elsewhere.

In the city of Nagpur, on the eve of workshop, on 23rd November 1994, there occurred tragic death of 113 tribal persons – not merely numbers – on the threshold of the State Assembly of Government of Maharashtra, when it was in session. No one cared, or dared, to mention it at the workshop, leave aside protest, or observe two-minute-silence in respect to the dead. As if it was an alien world!

And there are host of such events. Bhopal Gas Tragedy, one and half lakh textile workers rendered jobless, 107 martyrs of Sanyukta Maharshtra Movement, Due to Thal-Vaishet Development project several farmers were shot dead… Some of these events are cases of homicide by the government.  To a specialist these events belong to a different department or compartment. But in the process of development planning these cannot be isolated; these are vital links.

The scholars may write great number of discourses in volumes. The planners may design great complexes for the corporate society. But how could such professionals ever plan a city for the People without noticing the news of the people? It was a desperate lot gathered at the most appropriate place: the Convocation Hall of Bombay University.

In conclusion I have a wishful thinking that some day some clever brain will hijack this note and another workshop on energy would materialize, and thousands, perhaps millions, of Dollars shall be spent. The people, however, may continue to live with their woes while planners and scholars shall pamper their inflated ego. But even if the paper used for this note is recycled, it will be a great achievement.

The workshop was certainly a thought-provoking event. Many more such workshops are welcome – but with wider audience and in the Context of People not the glamor of Western wealth?

Mumbai on its way to globalization reminds me of the world-famous museum piece, Fatehpur Sikri, a ghost town. built by Emperor Akbar. The reason was there was no water supply.  He abandoned his newly built capital city during his life-time. The rulers and their wise consultants continue to fail to learn the lessons of history. He had also founded a new religion - Din-i-Ilahi  (Divine Faith): Thankfully, he was its founder and the only faithful; which otherwise added to the present extremism prevailing in India. Fatehpur Sikri is declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site, by the agents of feudal powers of the past, to keep centralized powers in the contemporary times! Would anyone in future regret Mumbai is lost?

NOTE: Urban planning must be inclusive of region of the city: Larger a city larger are its foot-print on the regions far and near. (Previous post: Urban Renewal in Regional Context)

Remigius de Souza

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Urban Renewal in the Regional Context

"CORRECTIVE MEASURES" is what we need, rather than "curative measures", in urban renewal and urban planning. By curative measures we mean issuing decrees of 'Dos' and 'Don'ts' to the citizens. For example, an idea of not to allow entry of the citizens who are poor, jobless, land-less, displaced, marginalized, who seek refuge in the cities, because a city is overpopulated or cannot be managed by its rulers;
Or deny the entry of migrating citizens, for example, to the city of Chandigarh by floating an idea that it should be a "World Heritage City" because Corbu designed it. There are people around who would say, "Corbu is dead; long live Corbu";
Or call for “slum clearance – removal – up-gradation”;
Or advocate development planning by extending city limits;
Or an idea of “thinner city, compact city, re-densification of city” etc;
Or create so-called “metropolitan region development authority”.
All such measures are merely “curative measures”.  


   We look for curative measures because we ignore or refuse to identify the cause/s of disease, which situate somewhere else. If slum as a sickness is to be treated then prime necessity is to restore the right to, or access to the land and resources of the slum dwellers, either in the city or at home from where they come to the city.

New Delhi: an Axis of Power

      It began with the City of New Delhi. It was built in 1931 in two decades. It was built not for the love of people of India, not in anticipation of success of India’s freedom struggle that would result in the democracy to India; neither Sir Edwin Lutyens was a visionary to foresee that the Union Jack was to come down in a few decades on the Indian soil. It is a pompous monument to commemorate supremacy of British Empire, where the sun, once, did never set.

   E. B. Havell, a great friend of India, “took leading part in the controversy over the building of New Delhi, seeing this as an ideal opportunity to revive the traditional arts. He organized a petition with signatures ranging from George Bernard Shaw to Coomarswamy, seeking to have the work placed in the hands of Indian Master Builders and that the opportunity was lost was a deep disappointment to him. ...It is not surprising then, that even at the time of his death in 1934; Havell had not been forgiven by many.

Hevell's obituary in 'The Times' refers to his 'vehement hates and irrational exclusiveness', his ‘zeal that bordered on fanaticism', his vehement and relentless opposition to every trace of European influence, and with constant denunciations of what Havell deemed to be utter ignorance on the part of his fellow countrymen of Indian civilization” (Stephen Cross, 'E. B. Havell and the Art of India', TEMENOS, issue 11, 1989, UK pp. 226-8).

Havell's reservations about the new elite class of British educated were equally known. It is important for us to remember Havell, for he said, "Indian art was born in the village and nurtured in the pilgrim's camp". He brought meaning of Indian art and building to the notice of the people here and abroad and his interpretations were accepted in the years to come.

"Environment-Ecology-Energy" Cost

      In the terms of "Environment-Ecology-Energy cost", New Delhi is an enormous bolder (or blunder?) placed on our head. Subsequently this was to be repeated by slavishly following western model of development by the battery of zombies in all aspects of planning, including city planning. After India's independence in a couple of decades the environmental revolution took off in the West. But the Indian leaders failed to take notice.

    The world, now, is confronting a new polarization in commercialization versus ecological sustainability. Earlier it was Capitalism versus Communism. Environmental concern, however, is not an alien idea to the “Indian mind”, but it is a way of life. But where is Indian mind? We are using the term “Indian Mind” in contrast to western-educated-elitist Indian mind in this essay. The term land refers also to waters, hills and forests.

   In India 70 percent people live in the rural areas and depend upon agriculture, which still is labour-intensive with low capital input. In contrast in the Western countries 80% population lives in the urban areas and 20% people follow mechanized agriculture. The planners believe this magic (of westernization) should take place in India. They, perhaps, do not comprehend the full impact of industrialization and thereby its fall-out as environmental crisis at a global level. This is because they are thinking in a box.
 But for the present we shall limit our inquiry to urban rural dichotomy in urban renewal context in India.

      The city is living off the land, not with land, unlike the Indian mind that lives and grows in harmony with land, with nature, howsoever; the natural conditions are severe and trying. The urbanites are alienated from the land – the soil, soil that is living entity for the Indian mind, and they call it dirt, or conveniently the land is a commodity for sale and purchase and investment. 

Cities are Ghettos of Development"

   Urban development, save for the land as commodity, is motivated to exclude land and water from urban life and physical contact. Soil is imprisoned under tar and concrete pavement; water in the pipeline... and concrete dams. The cities, the towns, and the modern urban settlement in the “Ghettos of Development” in the remote backward interior rural areas are as alienated from land (and water) like a metropolitan city.

    For example, take any city, town and their expansions planned by the modern planners and the government planning agencies across the country, and we notice that there is no new reservoir, lake, waterfront, not even a pond, other than perhaps a fountain for aesthetic purpose – to look at – or for the industrial purposes or for drinking water supply, but not “water as a public open place".  On the contrary the seas, rivers, lakes, reservoirs are either neglected and polluted or bulldozed and reclaimed by the planners to have more land to build upon.

  
   Through the millennia, the Indian mind built wetlands in the villages and cities alike. They venerated, celebrated and worshiped water through traditions, cultures and religions. In this respect there is clear urban and rural dichotomy.

   We, therefore, notice for example, at the aquatic events at the Olympics and other events there are very few Indians. This is in spite of millions of fisher folks live along the thousands of kilometres of seacoast, lakes and riverbanks in India. They sustain by living with sea, lakes and rivers, bravely facing the dangers of elements and floods. Their work and leisure is entwined with water. They never get access to these events. On the contrary, the modern cities and the development have inflicted pollution and contamination on land (and waters) and elimination of communities, and thereby, marginalize the people, as well as other living beings.

    Is this alienation from land (and waters) a cause of degeneration of urban areas and leading the urbanite to “a progressive loss of feeling, emotion, creative audacity and finally the consciousness" as warned by Lewis Mumford (The City in History, 1961, p.4)? 
   
       Colin Ward, architect, ends his sleek and penetrating book, "Welcome, Thinner City: Urban Survival in 1990s" with following words, "I see very few signs of a change of heart or mind. But before we begin to count the huge cost of enabling thousands of modest, sensible ventures to get off the ground in the inner city, let us consider the enormous expenditure we have incurred over the past 40 years in pursuing grand strategies that have not worked for inner city dweller and have all too often done them harm”.  But how to bring about the change of heart, when the planner is on the wrong side of the fence — with numbers instead of people?  What Colin Ward has missed in this valuable study of European and American cities, is the fallout of the modern western development at a global level which goes beyond political boundaries of a city or the State, thousands of kilometres afar. 

City is a Symbol of Centralized Power

        City has been a symbol of power, centralized power, through the ages. In modern times it has brought displacement, dis-empowerment and impoverishment to millions of people beyond its physical limits. This monstrous octopus through its invisible tentacles consumes and devours the resources of the people, other living beings, the regions near and far and the earth. This is inflicted on people through education, legislation, development projects, mining, market, multimedia, tourism (leisure industry!) etc. The major fruits of the development go back to the city. Hence there is the massive exodus from the countryside to the city in search of means for survival - work and food, resulting in massive increase of slums in the cities.

       Planners have indeed made great efforts to study the Third Ecology. But the ecology of biotic and abiotic nature has no place in the theories or in the practice except in the museums of natural history, zoos, reservations, manicured gardens, sanctuaries, aquariums and in print, away from / excluded from daily living.
 
       Architects and planners are taught to make two-dimensional images (on paper, now on computer) of three-dimensional space as representation of a physical reality of an artefact, and the “fourth dimension of time” as a linear measure. But for the Indian mind the space is not a concept of a finished product; neither time is linear. Hence "Vastu" – an abode, palace, lake, forest or a city, and "Itihasa" – history, are both timeless, unlike western concepts: Or just as Water is not merely "H2O" in a laboratory that you can live by. The perception of Space as a Place is a concrete reality, beyond the three dimensions, which is everything from Land (and Water) that is living entity, to the distant galaxies, the biotic and abiotic nature, which is embodiment of "Vastu". Hence they live in harmony with nature.
There is no Utopia. Utopia exists for those who are individualistic, divorced from nature and community, in a fragmented society.

      You may call this a Cosmic Space, or whatever you like, which are action in continuum, and not a finished product on an assembly line on the planner's drawing board (or on computer). Restore this space-time, beginning with land and waters and all the living beings, and our perceptions start changing. Restore the degraded ecology of biotic and abiotic nature, not merely Third Ecology, within the city and its region, and our perceptions of community shall start broadening and deepening, and hence bringing the change of heart. And restore the regional balance.

         Since nineteen sixties the West is rediscovering Environment–Ecology–Energy and subsequently there was “the Declaration of Soil" by Ivan Illich and friends. There is certainly a beginning of awareness in the West about the missing nature in the urban design, though planners have yet to learn, reorient and change their mindset. And with that all the institutions and the planning strategies will start changing. The Indian mind, however, intuitively knows, understands and lives by the centuries-old unwritten Declaration of Soil?

NOTE:
This paper does not mention the pressing need for studies in anthropology for the managers of country's affairs - the planners and executives and legislators, so also judiciary. The fact so far ignored is along with the Biodiversity in the Nature, there is diversity of the social and cultural sub-groups in India. This point is considered in the paper meentioned below:

Please refer to my papers, ARCHITECTURE AND BIODIVERSITY IN INDIA, in three parts.
1. Garden under a Glass Cage...
2. Built Environment and Biodiversity
3. But who will bell the Cat - the Bureaucrat?
 
Remigius de Souza
(This paper was presented at the ARCASIA Seminar on Urban Renewal, New Delhi, February 13-14, 1998)
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.