Communities and Spatial Culture in a Communally Diverse City: Ahmedabad, India
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Communities and spatial culture in a communally diverse city: Ahmedabad, India Shibu Raman 74 Oxford Brookes University, UK Abstract Keywords Modern cities attract people from different walks of life with different cultural Space Syntax, 74.1 Community, Space backgrounds. Many design professionals are unaware of the relationship between structure, culture and space, as well as the potential of space for fostering the culture of distinct Ahmedabad, Walled city communities. It is imperative that modern cities should enable different cultures to coexist, while still helping each community to keep its cultural identity and so avoid [email protected] conflicts and tensions arising from it. It is argued that a culturally sensitive design approach could help in attaining a diverse but cohesive society, thus achieving a socially sustainable urban community. This paper outlines recent research looking at ‘spatial culture’ and the culture of cities. Previous studies of cities show distinct morphological and syntactic differences between distinct cultural settings. This study examines the differences in morphology of different areas of the walled city of Ahmedabad, where different ethnic communities live in distinct localities. This analysis was carried out by using space syntax methodology. Different localities within the walled city were studied, both as they are embedded in the city, and in isolation. This was done in order to find the differences in their organisation of spaces and their relation to their immediate neighbourhoods, as well as to find the relation of spaces to other spaces within the walled area. The investigation showed many similarities in the local areas of Ahmedabad in terms of their syntactic values and the structuring principles of spaces. But a detailed analysis showed some differences in the spatial patterns of Hindu and Muslim communities. These differences, when looked at in conjunction with the ethnic landscape of the city, revealed some interesting aspects of typical social and cultural patterns of the walled city of Ahmedabad. It appears that while there are differences in culture and in the patterns of use of spaces, the manifestation of these differences is not as contrasting as expected from previous studies, which have compared similar aspects of cities located in diverse parts of the world. A significant finding of this study is that the relation of these distinct areas is a result of these cultural differences. This might be the critical reason for the formal and sometimes tense social situation of Ahmedabad. Proceedings . 4th International Space Syntax Symposium London 2003 1. Introduction Enough syntactic studies have been done to show that although cities around the world share many spatial characteristics (Hillier, 1996), there are significant differences in the syntactic and geometric structures of their spaces. Some of these differences are likely to be the results of cultural differences between them. For example, cities in the Arab world are on average much less connected and integrated (locally and globally) than European cities (see Table 1). On average they have less intelligibility and synergy. Furthermore, geometrically, they have shorter lines of sight, and a different range of angles of incidence between the lines (Karimi, 1999). So what cultural difference has caused or might be thought to have caused this? In this context, the specific question asked in this research is, since such differences exist between cities, what do we find when different cultural groups 74.2 occupy different areas in the same city (for example in Jerusalem): do the cultural differences manifest themselves in space? Or does the culture of the city itself exercise a stronger force and make the areas occupied by different cultural groups more similar to each other than they would be in different cities? To answer these questions, a case study was done in the walled area of Ahmedabad in India, where Hindu and Muslim communities, along with some other small groups like Jains and Parsi, live in well-defined areas. Three specific questions asked are: 1. Are the areas occupied by different cultural groups in that city spatially different? 2. Are the boundaries between areas occupied by different groups stronger than boundaries within one cultural group? 3. Are the areas of the different groups differently related to the city as a whole? This study is intended to help us understand the ways by which a spatial community with strong internal bonding organises, uses and defines the spaces within its neighbourhood. This understanding could lead us to include some socio-spatial strategy in the measures we take to redevelop these unique settlements. 2. Study and methodology This study uses space syntax methodology to analyse the spatial and morphological differences between the two distinct communities mentioned above, namely the Hindu and Muslim communities within the walled city of Ahmedabad. This method was found to be very useful in similar studies, which looked at spatial and morphological differences (Hillier, 1987, Karimi, 1999, Nilufar, 1997). In Ahmedabad, streets and pols have distinct Hindu or Muslim names, which reflect the resident community. Communities and spatial culture in a communally diverse city After verifying the accuracy of this by identifying community areas through a survey, each community area was mapped by identifying well-defined blocks formed by large clusters of streets with Hindu or Muslim names. The analysis mainly used an axial map of the walled city to compare and contrast Hindu and Muslim areas. Seven Hindu and seven Muslim areas were then chosen for detailed comparative study. For this comparative analysis, the areas were looked at both in isolation (cut out model) and in the context of the whole city (embedded model) in order to examine how well embedded each area was within the city as a whole. Initially, the key syntactic variables of Ahmedabad were compared to those of cities around the world, to establish the similarities to, and differences from, them. Having done that, in the next step, the syntactic variables (global and local integration value, intelligibility, connectivity etc), morphological characteristics (line length, angle of incidence, pattern of integration etc) of the two communities in Ahmedabad were compared, to establish their similarities and differences as well as their relationship 74.3 to the city as a whole. Figure 1: Location of walled 1 2 city DELHI 1: Location of Gujrat 2: Ahmeddabad 3: Walled City and Wards GUJRAT AHMEDABAD CALCUTTA BOMBAY MADRAS INDIA 3 Shahpur Dariapur Mirzapur Kalupur Relif Road Teen Darwaza* Jumma Masjid Gandhi Road r Badra fort e i v i Raipur i R i t h t a m r a b 1. LOCATION OF GUJRAT a 2. AHMEDDABAD S 3. WALLED CITY and wards Jamalpur Proceedings . 4th International Space Syntax Symposium London 2003 SHAHPUR GATE H2 H1 DELHI GATE 114' 114' DARIAPUR GATE 1 H1 14' 40' M3 M4 M1 M2 SHAHPUR 1 PREMABHAI H DARIAPUR 2 GATE H2 CHANDAN TALAWDI R.C. HIGH SCHOOL GARDEN SANDESH DARIAPUR 1 KALUPUR GATE ST.X'AVIERS HIGH SCHOOL SWAMINARAYAN TEMPLE KHANPUR GATE GUJARAT SAMACHAR KALUPUR 3 SHAHPUR 2 KALUPUR 2 COLLECTOR'S OFFICE AD K RO TILA GENERAL POST TILAK R OFFICE OAD 31 D SIDI OA SAYED'S R MOSQUE K LA TI KALUPUR 1 TILAK ROAD SARDAR BAUG PANCH KUWA A GATE I ROAD GANDH TELEGRAPH OFFICE I ROAD GANDH THREE D. L. B OFFICE BHADRA GATES B PREMABHAI HALL JUMMA MASJID CITY CIVIL COURT SARANGPUR 118,119,120 GATE A KHADIA 3 122/A 117 4650 123 8 0 1 P.R. TRAINING + SAR 0 DA 0 R VA COLLEGE 1 LLABH S BHAI GANESHBARI ROAD 114 KHADIA 1 136 JAMA S A R VICTORIA GARDEN D 128 A R 121 RAIK HA D MUNICIPAL R OFFICE 142 114 129 116 V 141 A L L A B 74.4 H 145 146 E RAIKHAD GATE 147 KHADIA 2 131 149 171 170 171 RANI RAIPUR GATE SIPRI'S V MOSQUE 139 144 ASTODIA GATE GAIEKWAR'S HAVELI HINDU@ 149 168 MUSLIM@ I 160 167 PARSI 111/1 110/1 166 165 160 Figure 2: Community landscape R KHANJA GATE (based on survey done by author) 164 0 50 100 200 300 500 1.0Km 164 MAHUDHAGATE JAMALPUR GATE 3. Introduction to case study: Walled City of Ahmedabad, India Ahmedabad is a city in the west-central state of Gujarat in India (Figure 1). Its origin dates back to the 10th century. A significant event in the development of the city was the construction of the walled city on the eastern banks of the Sabarmati river in 1411 AD by Ahmed-Shah. Since then, many rulers have been in their seat of power. The British finally took control of the city in 1817 (Rajan, 1980). In the later part of the 19thcentury the city became known as the ‘Manchester of the east’, owing to large developments in the textile industries. This industrialisation increased the population through the migration of labourers to the city to work in the textile mills. As a result of this rapid growth, the western banks of the Sabarmati river began to be urbanised. Today, Ahmedabad’s total urban area exceeds the walled area by more than twenty times (AUDA, 1992). The original walled city is full of congested roads, pollution and a fragile social situation, shown in constant riots. These riots to some extent cripple the normal functioning of city, thus holding it back from a further major leap in its economic development. Ahmedabad has always been a city of two major religious groups, the Hindus and the Muslims. During the Mughal period (16th century), when the second wall defining today's walled city was constructed, the Muslim population (then the ruling Communities and spatial culture in a communally diverse city 74.5 Figure 3: Land use map (source: AMC & EPC, 1997) Before 10th Century 11th century 15th Century 1532 AD 4 2 3 1 1 5 2 Raipur 2 Badra 2 2 1 1.