Class 10 History Chapter 3 – Work, Life and Leisure: Cities in Contemporary World Note

Reflection of Durgacharan’s Novel

The novel ‘Debganer Martye Aagaman’ written by Durgacharan Ray concludes the following aspects of city life by symbolic story of “The Gods Visit Earth”.

The positive aspects

The simple city is changed in to modern metro city.
The city has the features of big markets having big shops with variety of commodities.
Bullock cart is replaced by variety of means of transport such as water ways on river. Ganges, trains buses etc.
There was a High court and a remarkable museum.
Flourished trade and commerce, schools and collages for education and variety of job opportunities. Besides these features Calcutta city changed a lot.

The Negative Aspects

Anti social activities like theft and cheating were also growing.
The extreme gap between poor and rich.
Big industries spoiled the environment. Problems of sanitation and poor housing were also there.
Distinction on the basis of caste, creed and gender – the predominant features of Hindu society were in a changed position.
The city was in transitional state having contradictory experience such as extreme wealth and poverty, opportunities and frustration, glamour and dirt. God Brahma was cheated while buying the glasses.

The creator of world, Brahma was astonished by the splendid form of city as cited in the novel of Durga Charan Ray.

Characteristics of City

Ancient towns and cities were larger in scale than other human settlements. They could develop only when an increase in food supplies made it possible to support a wide range of non-food producers.
Cities were often the centers of political power, administrative network, trade and industry, religious institutions, and intellectual activities. They sported various social groups such as artisans, merchants and priests.
Cities themselves varied greatly in size and complexity. They were either densely settled like modern day metropolises which combine political and economic functions for an entire region and support very large populations, or they were smaller urban centres with limited functions.

Industrialization and Rise of Modern City in England

The early industrial cities of Britain such as Leeds and Manchester attracted large numbers of migrants to the textile milis set up in the late eighteenth century.
By 1750, one out of every nine people of England and Wales lived in London. It was a colossal city with a population of about 675,000. Over the nineteenth century, London continued to expand. Its population multiplied fourfold in the 70 years between 1810 and 1880, increasing from 1 million to about 4 million.
The city of London was a powerful magnet for migrant populations, even though it did not have large factories. Apart from the London dockyards, five major types of industries employed large numbers : clothing and footwear, wood and furniture, metals and engineering, printing and stationary, and precision products such as surgical instruments, watches, and objects of precious metal.
During the first World War (1914-18) the number of large factories increased until they accounted for nearly one-third of all jobs in the city.

Marginal Groups

With the growth of London, new marginal groups came up –

Criminals – Crime flourished, about 20, 000 criminals were living in London in the 1870s. Crime became an object of widespread concern. The police were worried about law and order, so the population of criminals was counted, their activities were watched, and their ways of life were investigated. Many of the ‘Criminals’ were in fact poor people who lived by stealing lead from roofs, food from shops, lumps of coal, and clothes drying on hedges. There were others who were more skilled at their trade, expert at their jobs. They were the cheats and tricksters, pickpockets and petty thieves crowding the streets of London.

Unemployed women – With technological developments, women gradually lost their industrial jobs, and were forced to work within households. A large number of women used their homes to increase family income by taking in lodgers or through such activities as tailoring, washing or matchbox making. However, in the twentieth century women get employment in wartime industries and offices, they withdrew from domestic service.

Child labour – Large number of children were pushed into low-paid work, often by their parents. It was only after the passing of the compulsory Elementary Education Act in 1870, and the factory acts beginning from 1902, that children were kept out of industrial work.

Housing

When people began pouring in London after the industrial Revolution, Individual landowners put up cheap, and usually unsafe, tenements for the new arrivals.
Poverty was concentrated and starkly visible in the city. In 1887. Charles Booth a Liverpool Ship-owner found that as many as 1 million Londoners were very poor and were expected to live only up to an average age of 29. They were more likely to die in a ‘workhouse, hospital or lunatic asylum London, he concluded ‘needed the rebuilding of at least 400, 000 rooms to house its poorest citizens.
A large number of people recognize the need for housing for the poor as the vast masses of one room houses occupied by the poor were seen as a threat to public health, they were overcrowded, badly ventilated, and lacked sanitation, there were worries about fire hazards created by poor housing, there was a widespread fear of social disorder, especially after the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Cleaning London

Attempts were made to decongest localities, green the open spaces, reduce pollution and landscape the city. Large blocks of apartments were built. Rent control was introduced to ease the impact of a severe housing shortage.
Some attempts were made to bridge the difference between the city and countryside through ideas as the Green Belt around London.
Architect and planner Ebenzer Howard developed the principle of the Garden City, a pleasant space full of plants and trees, where people would both live and work. Ramond Unwin and Barry Parker designed the garden city of New Easwick. There were common garden spaces, beautiful views, and great attention to detail.
Between the two World Wars (1919-39) the responsibility for housing the working classes was accepted by the British state, and a million houses, most of them single-family cottages, were built by local authorities.

Transport in the City

The London underground railway partially solved the housing crisis by carrying large masses of people to and from the city. The very first section of the Underground railway in the world opened on 10 January 1863 between Paddington and Farrington Street in London. On that day 10,000 passengers were carried, with trains running every ten minutes. By 1880 the expanded train service was carrying 40 million passengers a year.
At first people were afraid to travel underground. Many felt that the ‘iron monsters’ added to the mess and unhealthiness of the city. It led to the massive destruction in the process of construction. To make approximately two miles of railway, 900 houses had to be destroyed. It led to a massive displacement of the London poor, especially between the two World Wars.
Yet the Underground eventually became a huge success. As a result, the population in the city became more dispersed. Better planned suburbs and good railway network enabled large number to live outside central London and travel to work. The new conveniences wore down social distinctions and also created new ones.

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Social Change in The City

The shape of the family were completely transformed by life in the industrial city. Ties between members of households loosened, the institution of marriage tended to break down. Women of the upper and middle classes in Britain faced increasingly higher levels of isolation, Women who worked for wages had some control over their lives, particularly among the lower social classes. Family as an institution had broken down.

Men, Women and Family in the City

The city encouraged a new spirit of individualism. Men and women did not have equal access to this new urban space. Women were forced to withdraw into their homes. The public space became increasingly a male preserve. Most political movements of the nineteenth century, such as Chartism (a movement demanding the vote for all adult males) and the 10-hour movement (limiting hours of work in factories), mobilised large numbers of men.
By the twentieth century, the urban family had been transformed yet again, by women, who were employed in large numbers to meet war demands. The family now consisted of much smaller units.
The family became the heart of a new market – of goods and services and of ideas.

Leisure and Consumption

For wealthy Britishers, there had long been an annual ‘London Season’. Several cultural events, such as the opera, the theatre and classical music performances were organised
Working classes met in pubs to have a drink, exchange news and sometimes also to organise for political action.
For the common people, Libraries, art galleries and museums were established in the nineteenth century. Music halls were popular among the lower classes, and, by the early twentieth century, cinema became the great mass entertainment for mixed audiences.
British industrial workers were increasingly encouraged to spend their holidays by the sea, do as to derive the benefits of the sun and bracing winds.

Political Activities in The City

In the history of London many a time mass movements broke out

In the severe winter of 1886, the London poor exploded in a riot. There demand was to fulfill the basic needs. They were in terrible conditions of poverty. 10,000 people marched from Deptford to London demanding for relief from poverty.
In 1887 – similar riot occurred but police suppressed it brutally. It is known as Bloody Sunday of November 1887.
Strike of Dock workers – The silent march by dock workers without any violence or picking of pocket was carried on. This was continued for 12 day by Dock Workers’ Union.
This type of mass movements proved that large masses of people could be drawn into political causes in the city. A large city population was thus both a threat and an opportunity .

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The City in Colonial India

India cities did not mushroom in the nineteenth century. The pace of urbanisation in India was slow under colonial rule. A large proportion of these urban dwellers were resident of the three Presidency cities. These were multi-functional cities, they had major ports, warehouses, homes and offices, army camps, as well as educational institutions, museums and libraries. Bombay was the premier city of India.

Bombay : The Prime City of India

Bombay was a group of seven islands under Portuguese control. In 1661, control of the islands passed into British hands after the marriage of Britain’s King Charles II to the Portuguese princess. The East India Company quickly shifted its base from Surat, its principal western port, to Bombay. At first, Bombay was the major outlet for cotton textiles from Gujarat. Later, in the nineteenth century, the city functioned a port through which large quantities of raw materials such as cotton and opium would pass. Gradually, it also became an important administrative centre in western India, and then, by the end of the nineteenth century, a major industrial centre.

Work in the City

Bombay became the capital of the Bombay Presidency in 1819. The city quickly expanded. With the growth of trade in cotton and opium, large communities of traders and bankers as well as artisans and shopkeepers came to settle in Bombay’s. Inhabitants between 1881 and 1931 were born in Bombay : The establishment of textile mills led to a fresh surge in migration. About one-fourth of Bombay: the rest came from outside. Large numbers flowed in from the nearby district of Ratnagiri to work in the Bombay mills.
Between 1919-1926 women formed 23% of the workforce but by the 1930s, women’s jobs were increasingly taken over by machines or by men.
Bombay dominated the maritime trade till well into the twentieth century. It was also at the junction head of two major railways. The railways encouraged an even higher scale of migration into the city.

Housing and Neighbourhoods

Bombay was a crowded city. From it earliest days, Bombay did not grow according to any plan, and houses especially in the Fort area, were interspersed with gardens.
With the rapid and unplanned expansion of the city, the crisis of housing and water supply became acute by the mid-1850s.
The richer Parsi, Muslim and upper-casts traders and industrialists of Bombay lived in sprawling, spacious bungalows. More than 70 per cent of the working people lived in the thickly chawls of Bombay.
Chawls were multistoried structures largely owned by private landlords, looking for quick ways of earning money from anxious migrants. Each chawl wad divided into smaller one-room tenements which had no private toilets.
Many families could reside at a time in a tenement. High rents forced workers to share homes, either with relatives or caste follows who were streaming into the city. Though water was scarce, and people often quarreled every morning for a turn at the tap, observers found that houses were kept quite clean.
The homes being small, streets and neighbourhoods were used for a variety of activities such as cooking, washing and sleeping. Streets were also used for different types of leisure activities.
Caste and family groups in the mill neighbourhood were headed by someone who was similar to a village headman. He settled disputes, organised food supplies, or arranged informal credit. He also brought important information on political developments.
People who belonged to the ‘depressed classes’ were kept out of many chawls and often had to live in shelters made of corrugated sheets, leaves, or bamboos poles.
Planning in Bombay came about as a result of fears about the plague epidemic. The City of Bombay Improvement Trust was established in 1898; it focused on clearing poorer homes out of the city centre. In 1918, a Rent Act was passed to keep rents reasonable.

Land Reclamation in Bombay

The earliest project to join seven islands of Bombay began in 1784. The Bombay governor William Hornby approved the building of the great sea wall which prevented the flooding of the low-lying areas of Bombay.
The need for additional commercial space in the mid-nineteenth century led to the formulation of several plans, both by government and private companies, for the reclamation of more land from the sea.
In 1864, the Back Bay Reclamation Company won the right to reclaim the western foreshore from the tip of Malabar Hill to the end of Colaba. By the 1870s, the city had expanded to about 22 square miles.
A successful reclamation project was undertaken by the Bombay Port Trust, which built a dry dock between 1914 and 1918 and used the excavated earth to create the 22-acre Ballard Estate. Subsequently, the famous Marine Drive of Bombay was developed.

Bombay as the City of Drams : The world of Cinema and Culture

Bombay appears to many as a ‘mayapuri’ – a city of dreams.
Many Bombay films deal with the arrival in the city of new migrants, and their encounters with the real pressures of daily life.
Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatwadekar shot a scene of a wrestling match in Bombay’s Hanging Gardens and it became India’s first movie in 1896. Soon after, Dadasaheb Phalke made Raja Harischandra (1913). By 1925, Bombay had become India’s film capital, producing films for a national audience.
Most of the people in the film industry were themselves migrants who came from cities like Lahore, Calcutta, Madras and contributed to the national character of the industry.
Bombay films have contributed in a big way to produce an image of the city as a blend of dream and reality, of slums and star bungalows.

Cities and the Challenge of the Environment

It is a natural process when a rural hamlet is transformed into an urban area, the natural resources are disturbed.
The demolition of hills, reclamation of sea land, clearing of the forest created the ecological imbalance.
Large quantities of industrial refuse and waste polluted the air and water. These are the important post requisites of the urban life which should be managed.
In nineteenth century coal was the only source of energy to be used at homes and industries. The fumes of coal definitely resulted in grey skies, black fog and black vegetation. This type of pollution caused not only natural imbalance but also diseases like T.B., Asthma and so on.
In United Kingdom cities like Leeds, Manchester and Bradford and in India, Calcutta was facing the problem related to smoke and air pollution. In England Smoke Abetment Act was passed in 1847 and 1853. However these acts could not work to clean the air.
In 1863, Calcutta became the first Indian city to get smoke nuisance legislation.
In India in 1920 rice mills of Tollygunj started to burn rice husk instead of coal. But this was not a workable solution. The black soot of rice husk continuously rained and created the problems for common man.

Conclusion

From the above discussion it is clear that urban life if unplanned creates starting problems, but inspite of serious problem people are attracted because of the freedom and opportunity.
The brief of Durgacharans novel envisaged the earth full of opportunities and materialistic achievements of which even heaven was imperfect. the only point to worry for Gods who visited Calcutta was the social and economic mobility which was unfit in the traditional hereditary caste system. of India.

Important Terms

Many decades after the beginning of the industrial revolution, most western countries were largely rural till 1850.
More than three quarters of the adults living in Manchester were migrants from rural areas till 1851.
One out of every nine people of England and Wales lived in London by 1750.
The population of London multiplied four fold between 1810-80.
The compulsory Elementary Education Act was passed in 1870.
The Factory Acts beginning from 1902.
The responsibility for housing the working class was accepted by the British state in 1919-39.
‘Charles Dickens wrote about the massive destruction in the process of construction in 1848.
The London poor exploded in riot demanding relief in 1886.
A similar riot occurred in late 1887.
One fifth of the streets of Paris were Haussmann’s creation by 1870.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote short sketches on urban life in Calcutta in 1962.
After the marriage of Britain’s King Charles II to the Portuguese princess the control of Bombay was transferred to Britishers in 1661.
Bombay became the capital of Bombay Presidency in 1819.
About 1/4 of Bombay’s inhabitants were born in Bombay, the rest came from outside between 1881 and 1931.
Bombay was built a dry dock between 1914-18.
The film industry employed 520,000 people by 1987.
Calcutta became the first city to get smoke nuisance legislation in 1863.
The Smoke Abatement Act of 1847 and 1853.

Glossary

Metropolis : Chief city of a region or the country with the large population.
Urbanisation : The process of development of towns & cities.
Brahma : The God of creation in Hindu mythology.
Museum : Building used for exhibition and storage of object of the past or related heritage or any interesting unique objects.
Tenement : Dwelling place, e.g., a set of rooms separated from each usually in the poorer district of the city.
Philanthropist : A person who is concerned about the welfare of the mankind.
Suburb : Outlying area of the city, region adjacent to the city.
Greenbelt : Area of open lands with plants and trees for preservation around the city, maintaining natural habitation.
Asphyxiation : Suffocation due to lack of oxygen supply in the blood.
Presidency cities : During the British rule the capital of Bombay, Bengal and Madras Presidencies (Provinces) were known as the Presidencies cities.
Depressed class : The So-called ‘dalits’ or untouchables are referred to as the depressed class.
Reclamation : Bring wasteland under cultivation. Recover marshy land from seas water and make it livable and cultivable.
Chawls : An Indian world refers to multistoried structure which is divided into a number of smaller one room tenements or apartments.
Individualism : Social theory favouring freedom of individual – encouraging free action by individuals.
Temperance Movement : A largely middle-class-led social reform movement which emerged in Britain and America from the nineteenth century onwards. It identified alcoholism as the cause of the ruin of families and society, and aimed at reducing the consumption of alcoholic drinks, particularly amongst the working classes.
Presidency Cities : The capitals of the Bombay, Bengal and Madras Presidencies in British India.
Akharas : Traditional wrestling schools, generally located in every neighbourhood, where young people were trained to ensure both physical and moral fitness.

Exercise

Very Short Answer Type Question

What is metropolis? Give an example of metropolis in India.
Name two industrial cities in England in 19th century.
Mention two steps taken by the London authorities to discipline its population.
Why were the slums considered to be threat to public health ?
Name two Acts passed in England to keep the children out of industrial world.
When and by whom was the first movie made in Bombay ? What did the movie depict ?
Name the first proper Hindi movie. By whom & when was this movie made ?
Mention the problems raised in England in 19th century due to widespread use of coal in industrial cities.
Which two stations of London were connected by the first underground railways ?
When was the Rent Act passed in Bombay ? What was its out come ?
Under what circumstances were the ancient cities developed ?
Name four industries which employed largest member of people is London in early 20th century ?
What is meant by temperance movement ? What was its main aim ?
When was the Bombay Improvement Trust established ? What was its immediate achievement ?
What factors helped in the development of ancient cities?
Name any three ancient cities.
Who conducted the First social survey of low skilled London workers?
Mention any four factors responsible for the increase in criminal activities in London in the 1870s.
Under whose control was Bombay in the 17th century?
Why the control of island passed into the British hands ?
How did the development or expansion of Bombay differ from London ?
The Rent Act led to the housing crisis in Bombay (Mumbai).
Expansion of the city has always posed a problem in Bombay (Mumbai).
(Q. No. 24 to 25) Houses were knocked down, streets broken, deep pits and trenches dug in the ground; enormous heaps of earth and clay thrown up; ………. there were hundred thousand shapes and substances of incompleteness, widely mingled out their places, upside down, burrowing in the earth.
What is being described by the author ?
Who is the author? Also mention the name of the novel.

Short Answer Type Question

Examine the historical processes involved in the development of cities.
Mention the steps taken to clean up London.
Explain the evolution of Bombay as one of the major cities of India.
Describe the Bombay fort area.
What is referred to as Chawls in Bombay ? With which kind of London housing can these be compared ? How are these similar ?
Examine the effects of air pollution on Calcutta.
By whom was the concept of a Garden city first developed ? What were the main features of the proposed Garden city ?
Examine the difficulties faced by people due to construction of underground railways.
How was the family life transformed in an industrial city of London ?
What were the mode of entertainment in the 18th century England ?
Examine the new types of large scale entertainment for the common people introduced in 19th century.
Why was the expansion of the city of Bombay difficult ? Mention any one way adopted to develop the city.
How does urbanisation pose a threat to environment ?
When did Bombay film industry make its first appearance ?
Why police was worried for the law and order of London ?
Three historical processes have shaped modern cities in decisive ways. What were these processes?
How did the underground railway help in solving the housing problem ?
What were chawls ?
Who designed the garden city of New Earswick? Mention its two features.
Mention any four features of houses of the Bombay city which developed during the colonial period.

Long Answer Type Question

“London was powerful magnet for largest population”. Explain.
How were women employed in London beyond 19th century ? How did the situation change after 20th century.
What were the reasons for concern behind providing housing for poor in London ?
What were Chartist Movement and Ten Hour Movement ?
How do we distinguish between cities on the one hand and towns and villages on the other?
Explain the rise of London as a modern city.
Explain the lifestyle of workers of mid-nineteenth century is Britain.
When and where was the very first section of the underground railway in the world opened? Describe in brief the difficulties of travelling in that underground railway?
‘A large city population was thus both a threat and an opportunity’. Explain.
Explain the major features of the cities of colonial India.
Explain the expansion of Bombay (Mumbai).
Explain the various land reclamation projects launched in Bombay (Mumbai) which helped in its expansion.
Why is Bombay (Mumbai) known as the city of hardship ?
“Bombay films have contributed in a big way to produce an image of the city as a blend of dream and reality, of slums and star bungalows”. Explain.
What were the impacts of the industrial cities on the social life? Explain by giving examples.

Multiple Choice Question

1. What was not a reason for providing mass housing schemes for the workers ?

(A) Concern for the poor

(B) Fear of Social disorder

(D) All the above

2. Which movie did Dada Sahab Phalke make ?

(A) CID (B) Guest house

3. Bombay was first under whose control ?

(A) Portuguese (B) English

4. Which of the following is not a Presidency city ?

(A) Madras (B) Bombay

5. Which of the following cities has developed in a planned manner ?

(A) Delhi (B) Madras

6. When was the first movie made in India ?

(A) 1886 (B) 1887

7. When was the Rent Act passed in Bombay ?

(A) 1910 (B) 1918

8. Who developed the concept of a Garden city?

(A) Ebenezer Howard (B) Clive

9. Name the Industrial city of England in 19th century –

(A) London (B) Leeds

10. The Compulsory Elementary Education Act was passed in –

(A) 1860 (B) 1870

11. ……………. became the first city to get smoke nuisance legislation in 1863.

(A) Delhi (B) Bombay

12. Bombay was built a ………… between 1914-18

(A) Harbour (B) Capital

13. The film industry employed ………….. people by 1987.

(A) 500000 (B) 520,000

14. Bombay became the capital of Bombay Presidency in –

(A) 1817 (B) 1818

15. Who wrote the novel ‘Debganer Martye Aagaman’?

(A) Durgacharan Ray

(B) Munshi Premchand

(D) Charles Dickens

16. Which of the following is true with reference to the city of London in 1870s ?

(i) The city was a powerful magnet for migrant population

(ii) It was a crime free city

(iii) The city was full of cheats, pick pockets, petty thieves, etc.

(iv) The police was worried about law and order

(A) Only (i) and (ii)

(B) Only (ii)

(D) All of the above

17. Who wrote, ‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London’ ?

(A) Durgacharan Ray

(B) Charles Dickens

(D) Thomas Hardy

18. Through which Acts the children of the city of London kept out of industrial work ?

(A) Right to Educational Act and Industrial Act

(B) Compulsory Elementary Education Act and the Factories Acts

(D) None of the above

19. “A variety of steps were taken to clean up London.” which of the following was not part of that policy ?

(A) Large blocks of apartments were built

(B) Many single family cottages were built by local authorities

(D) Chawls were built

20. The first underground railway was built in ………………

(A) New York (B) Calcutta (Kolkata)

21. 0What was Chartism movement for ?

(A) Equal pay for equal work

(B) For adult male franchise

(D) For women franchise

22. When and where was the London underground railway started ?

(A) 10^th January, 1863 between Paddington and Farrington street in London

(B) 15^th January, 1864 between Paddington and Farrington street in London

(D) 13^th January, 1866 between Paddington and Farrington street in London

23. Name the novelist who had written about the destruction caused during the construction of London underground railway –

(A) Munshi Premchand

(B) Leo Tolstoy

(D) Thomas Hardy

24. Who wrote ‘Dombey and Son’ ?

(A) Munshi Premchand (B) Leo Tolstoy

25. Who developed the principle of Garden City?

(A) Ebenezer Howerd (B) Charles Dickens

26. In the 17th century, Bombay was a group of seven islands under ………..

(A) British (B) Maharaja Pratap

27. In ……………… Bombay passed into British and after the marriage of Britain’s King ………… to the Portuguese Princess

(A) 1661, Charles-Ist

(B) 1661, Charles-IInd

(D) 1661, Charles-IIIrd

28. In the 1800s Bombay was divided between …………. and ………….

(A) Native town and European or White town

(B) Lower town and upper town

(D) New Bombay and Old Bombay

29. When was the Bombay Improvement Trust established ?

(A) 1861 (B) 1898

Answers

Q.No	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Ans.	A	C	A	D	C	A	B	A	B	B

Q.No	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Ans.	D	D	B	C	A	B	C	B	D	C

Q.No	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29
Ans.	B	A	C	C	A	D	B	A	B

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