Model Town’s uniqueness and innovation is not limited to its urban planning and administration. There are several important temporal, locational and social factors which broaden its appreciation from various dimensions.
(1) In the early twentieth century, numerous celebrated garden cities were developed throughout the world. These included private sector developments at ‘home’ like Letchworth and Hampstead and under Government patronage in the ‘empire’ like the new capital cities of Delhi, Canberra and Jerusalem. Model Town, in this context, becomes a unique urban development; a private sector garden city in a colonial city, procured, financed and inhabited by the indigenous population.
(2) Being an idea that was conceived by the ‘colonized’ native population with moral support from the ‘colonial’ Government, its development challenges the traditional relationship between the colonized and the colonizers, as well as the strengths and capabilities of the indigenous population in the context. It also demonstrates a native population (or at least a certain segment or ‘class’ among them) that was not weak and regressed as per the common perceptions94. Instead they were capable of progressive thinking, well-
informed about latest developments in the world and able to modernise and adapt their own lifestyle. In the same way, it also portrays a Colonial Government which was not completely controlling. There was scope for local innovation, business and radical ideas that could be perceived as upsetting a dominating political occupation. The ‘natives’ were of course politically repressed – but not to the extent that they could not form their own ideas and develop new initiatives.
93 Discussed in detail later in Chapter 3. 94 Discussed in detail in Chapter 2.
H
A
P
TE
R
1
:
Introd
uc
tio
n
(3) ‘Native inhabitants form majority of the population in colonial cities, yet most urban histories ignore their experience of the city and their contribution to making of its form’95. The role of native communities in the physical
development of a city under the influence of modernization, cultural and social influences thus becomes an interesting area for understanding their position, aspirations and limitations under the colonial rule.
(4) The Town was planned to be ‘self-sufficient and self-contained’ with ‘complete swaraj [freedom] within its own limits’96. Thus it had its own bye-laws
and services like powerhouse for generating electricity, bus service, water supply and sanitation and gardens. The administration of the town was able to implement its own tariffs for services independent from the ones prevailing in the city of Lahore. This is a unique example in itself.
(5) Being the first complete co-operative housing society in the subcontinent, the development and administrative strategies used in the formation of this Town provided a ground-breaking solution for embarking upon the problem of housing shortage. Mr. Gandhi emphasised the importance of this development to be used as a benchmark for future developments in the following words:
….. all of them (refugees), professionals and non-professionals, rich and poor, should hold together and establish model town-ships as moneyed men of Lahore had built the model town of Lahore, which the Hindus and Sikhs had felt compelled to evacuate. These townships would remove the pressure from crowded cities like Delhi and they would promote the health and well-being of the inmates97.
Even today, the idea of co-operative housing is being used and implemented by Government and private departments to cater for the housing problems in the Subcontinent98.
95 Chopra, P. (2003). The City and its Fragments: Colonial Bombay 1854-1918. PhD Dissertation University of California Berkeley. p. xix.
96 Varma, K.C. (1936). The Model Town. Indian Co-operative Review. Vol.2. p.624.
97 Gandhi, M.K. (1948). Delhi Diary, Prayer Speeches from 10-9-47 to 30-1-48. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publication House. p.195.
98 Nenova, T. (2010). Expanding Housing Finance to the Underserved in South Asia: Market
H
A
P
TE
R
1
:
Introd
uc
tio
n
(6) Model Town was developed by the native ‘educated’ middle classes. Historically the middle class has been associated with being “strategic” and “rapidly progressive”99, and hence the British prided themselves in belonging
to the middle class100. Accordingly the sentiment prevailed that ‘India has from
first to last been a middleclass possession, won by middleclass ambition and sagacity’, ‘governed at home by middleclass agency’ and ‘administered by middleclass instrumentality’.101 Consequently with the rise of a parallel local
middle class; i.e. ‘The class of people which arose as a result of changes in the British social policy and with the introduction of the new education, economic system and industry and with the subsequent growth of new professions’102 the social structure of both these classes was moulded by the
cross cultural encounters. As a result, boundaries between the various specialized segments of the city districts started to diminish. Hence,
As the raj grew older the divisions between the cultures became more blurred, on the ground if not in the mind. Some of the indigenous muddle infected the Civil lines and the Cantonment, some of the imperial hauteur marched through the city gates into the old town, and as Indians began to enter the higher ranks of administration the clear-cut barriers between the races began to weaken. The best example of a city of this sort in its half-reconciled maturity was Lahore the capital of Punjab….103
(7) The fact that the idea was implemented in the capital of Punjab is also very important. Punjab, the ‘granary of India’ was the last province to be occupied by the British in 1849 and hence it remained under the colonial rule for under a century. Being an agrarian province the basic social structure of the province was based on two rigid classes. The dominant class included the rich landed
99 Wahrman, D. (1995).Imagining the Middle Class: The Political Representation of Class in
Britain, c. 1780-1840. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 59.
100 Daechsel, M. (2012). Being Middle Class in Late Colonial Punjab. Punjab Reconsidered:
History, Culture, and Practice. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 321.
101 The Daily News, London 03 Oct 1857 as cited in Daechsel, M. (2012). Being Middle Class in Late Colonial Punjab. Punjab Reconsidered: History, Culture, and Practice. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. p.321.
102 Chanana, K. (1964). The Middle Class in India. Economic Weekly. Vol. 16, Issue No.15, 11 April. p.683.
H
A
P
TE
R
1
:
Introd
uc
tio
n
elites and Sufi pirs [religious saints]. The lower class included poor kammi, [dependants of the landed elite who worked on land to earn their basic needs] and mureed [the peasant followers of the pir]. Even in politics, the Punjab was ruled by the Unionist Party which comprised of members from the dominant landed elites and pirs. This system resisted modern interventions and deviation from social structure because that would result in disturbing the social balance which was working in harmony because of the poor class being dependent on the rich class.104
(8)The Town also serves as an example of how urban dynamics of a planned area change as a result of independence by partition. The ethnic cleansing which followed across the borders of Punjab as a result of its division amongst India and Pakistan in 1947 resulted in migration of 1089 ( out of a total of 1366) residents of the Town. Due to availability of empty residential buildings, refugees from across the other side of the border settled in many parts of the area. As a result the uniformity, harmony and symmetry of the town was altered in several places resulting in new configurations in land use.
(9) In a country with complicated social segregations based on religious stratification the Town aspired to bring people from all the religions and ethnicities together. In this context it provides a ground for an interesting social study where the desire to live a happier, healthier and better lives preceded any preconceived social ideals prevailing in the contemporary Indian societies. (10) Historically, especially with reference to city of Lahore, the suburban development was associated with nobles, royal families and the rulers. It was the first time the middle class opted for suburban living. In this context this becomes an interesting study to examine the changes that were occurring in the middle class life styles that urged them to live away from the congested city centres in quiet suburbs and consequently, how the concept of suburban living was being transformed by these middle classes.
(11) Model Town Lahore is an excellent example to illustrate the stories of its bygone residents (discussed earlier). Many of them had thought that they
104 Daechsel, M. (2012). Being Middle Class in Late Colonial Punjab. Punjab Reconsidered:
H
A
P
TE
R
1
:
Introd
uc
tio
n
would be able to return once the political conditions were stable but their dream never materialized. Last seven decades have transformed many aspects of the Town, yet the remnants of its original residents still adorn the area majestically. Howver, they will not endure for long as deterioration, neglect, adaptive reuse and reconstructions are changing the face of the Town. In the light of these aspects, this thesis is an attempt to document its history, urban and social character and architecture visualize the idea of this utopian suburban town in its initial years (1919-1947) and interpret its influences on urban planning in colonial and post-colonial Lahore.