Emerging Megacities Hyderabad and Bangalore

Module 8.3: Emerging Megacities Hyderabad and Bangalore Role Name Affiliation National Coordinator Subject Prof Sujata Patel Department of Sociology, Coordinator University of Hyderabad Paper Ashima Sood Indian School of Political Economy, Coordinator Surya Prakash Pune Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi Content Writer Ashima Sood Indian School of Political Economy, Pune Content Surya Prakash Indian Institute of Technology, Reviewer Mandi Language Ashima Sood Indian School of Political Economy, Editor Pune Technical Conversion Module Structure Sections and headings Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Bangalore Bangalore and Bengaluru: Two cities Local and corporate economies Speculative governance in Bangalore Section 3: Hyderabad The making of Cyberabad Urban Governance in Hyderabad Growth in the new millennium In Brief References Description of the Module Items Description of the Module Subject Name Sociology Paper Name Sociology of Urban Transformation Module Name/Title Emerging Megacities 1 Module Id 8.3 Pre Requisites Objectives To situate the significance of the megacities of Bangalore and Hyderabad To position the contemporary growth trajectory of Bangalore and Hyderabad against the historic context To empirically ground the major paradigms that have emerged to explain urban growth in Bangalore, such as occupancy urbanism and speculative urbanism To trace the major thematics of the literature on Hyderabad Key words Bangalore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Speculative (5-6 words/phrases) urbanism, State re-scaling, Occupancy urbanism Section 1: Introduction South Indian boomtowns -- Hyderabad and Bengaluru (erstwhile Bangalore) -- represent an important arc in contemporary Indian urbanization. Bengaluru, growing faster over the 2001-2011 interregnum than Hyderabad, housed an over 8.5 million, ie, 85 lakh population. Starting at a similar base of about 5.7 million residents in 2001, Hyderabad grew to a population of over 7.6 million, or 76 lakhs. These South Indian Information Technology (IT) hubs offer valuable comparative insight into the forces shaping megacity growth in post- liberalization India. But they share deeper historical similarities. Unlike the four biggest metropolises -- New Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras -- both Bangalore and Hyderabad were situated in princely states. Bangalore fell under Wodeyar-ruled Mysore state and Hyderabad under the Asaf Jahi Nizam’s territories. However, both Hyderabad and Bangalore also played host to a powerful colonial presence, which in both cases spatially bifurcated these cities. Indeed, in the case of Bangalore, it was the British city -- Bangalore Cantonment - - which lent its name to the post-colonial Karnataka state capital. So did Secunderabad leave an indelible impression on Hyderabad’s character. Over the course of the last century, however, the indigenous cities emerged triumphant. In Bangalore case, this resurgence was represented in 2 symbolic terms by its renaming as Bengaluru. In Hyderabad, too, the axis of growth has decisively shifted back to the west, from the eastern end of Secunderabad. Through the course of this module, we flag other similarities and contrasts in the post-Independence growth of these cities. This module approaches these two cases through the analytical lens of the existing scholarship on these metropolises. It asks: what themes and questions have preoccupied scholars who have written about these two cities? And what similarities and contrasts do these scholarly frameworks illuminate? Which aspects of the post-liberalization mega-city do they bring to light? The next section focuses on the case of Bangalore, and the following section then turns to Hyderabad. Section 2: Bangalore The scholarship on Bangalore has contributed several important theorizations to the broader literature on cities in the Global South. Most important have been the rubrics of occupancy urbanism (Module 4.3) and speculative urbanism (Module 1.5). This section lays out first the broad outlines of Bangalore’s history, focusing particularly on issues of spatial inequality discussed by Janaki Nair in her celebrated 2005 monograph Promise of the Metropolis. It then traces how these patterns of urban dualism have evolved in contemporary Bangalore by drawing on the work of Solomon Benjamin and Bhuvaneswari Raman. Finally, it examines the intensifying trends towards speculative forms of governance and their repercussions on life in the city. Bangalore and Bengaluru: Two cities In Promise of the Metropolis, a definitive history of Bangalore, Janaki Nair argues that like many Indian cities, Bangalore’s is a tale of two cities – Bengaluru, an indigenous settlement that dates back five centuries and Bangalore, a Cantonment that dates to the British era (Nair 2005). It was only in 1949 that these two halves came together for administrative purposes in Bangalore Municipal Corporation. The historic city owes its origins to the fortified settlement, marked by temples and towns, established by Telugu chieftain Kempegowda in the sixteenth 3 century. For nearly 250 years, the new settlement witnessed little growth, hamstrung partly by the lack of a readily available water supply. In response, the city’s rulers embarked on a project of tank construction, bequeathing on Bengaluru the moniker of “Kalyananagara, city of kalyanis or tanks” (Nair 2005, 31). As Module 6.6 shows, these tanks remain central to Bangalore’s unique urban ecology. Indeed, Nair (2005) argues that supply of water to the old and new towns undergirded the legitimacy of rule even after the conquest of the city by the British. The two cities diverged along many dimensions big and small: from their economic bases, to their spatial layout to the nature of inter-group relations. How did the repercussions of these differences play out in the spheres of the city’s economy, spatial form and relations between ethnic groups? The next few sub-sections explore these differences. Economy: Since the time of Tipu Sultan and before, Bengaluru was a major textile manufacturing centre, producing a range of cotton and silk cloth for export and local consumption. Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan later encouraged a thriving armaments industry. With the advent of British rule, the first half of the 19th century saw significant deindustrialization as the markets for Bangalore’s fine textiles dried out. Its manufacturing base was only partially revived during the two World Wars with state support. The city was converted into an inland entrepot by its colonial rulers. The economy of the British Cantonment “Civil and Military Station” revolved, with few exceptions, around trade and services (Nair 2005). Ethnic diversity and strife: The history of Bengaluru was inextricably tied with the history of its shrines, which were central to city building in India since medieval times. Yet, even as successive waves of temple patrons, mosque, and church builders remade the city, relatively little overt conflict marked Bangalore’s transformations till well into the 20th century (Nair 2005). The old city was home to a diversity of communities and linguistic groups. Its composite culture, albeit dominated by Kannada and a lesser extent Urdu, was woven through by immigrants from across India and elsewhere. In contrast, 4 in the Cantonment, English was the language of power. The influx of Tamil and Telugu migrants as well as Urdu speakers relegated Kannada to relative marginality in these areas. In response, a more self-conscious interest in Kannada preservation and propagation became the hallmark of linguistic identity in colonial and post-colonial Bangalore (Nair 2005). Did Bengaluru’s traditions of pluralism provide a bulwark against ethnic conflict? On the one hand, it was not until 1928 that the first Hindu Muslim riots broke out around a displaced Ganesha shrine. On the other hand, Nair (2005, 72) argues that these riots revealed the fragility of the ritual ties that bound communities together. Not long after, the Cantonment also witnessed riots between the two communities in 1931. Nair’s account makes clear the multiple layers of social segregation fostered by the advent of British city-making practices. The period between 1920 and 1940 saw steady growth in caste associations in Bangalore city(Nair 2005). New philanthropic hostels emerged to cater to the lodging needs of college-going male migrants of specified castes – whether Brahmin, Nagarth Lingayat, Vokkaliga or later Vysya and Virasaiva. It is no surprise then the public sphere that emerged showed similar segmentation. While establishments such as the Hindu Coffee Club and the Modern Hindu Hotel facilitated the rise of a public sphere where new ideas of citizenship and nation building circulated, they ultimately played host to an exclusively male and Brahmin clientele. Even avowedly liberal associations such as the Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) remained limited by their membership to a Brahminical and conservative approach to the challenges of nation building. Paradoxically, although exclusionary clubs and hotels catering to Europeans also existed in the Cantonment area, the Cantonment also allowed freer and more anonymous forms of social intercourse. Yet, the divide between the city and the cantonment remained the most durable form of segregation, and one that created other social fissures in its wake (Nair 2005). Spatial form: The Cantonment from its beginnings epitomized the aesthetics and social agendas of colonial planning. The spatial division of groups, whether European 5 or

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