MtefS CHAPTER 3 PUNE : A Historical Perspective 3.1 Pune's brief Geographic Profile : 3.1.1 Location: Pune is the largest city in the State of Maharashtra in Western India. Nestled amidst the Sahyadri Hills (Western Ghats) on the Deccan Plateau at a height of 560 meters above sea level, Pune is located 100 km east of the west coast, at the confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers. The highest point within the city is the Vetal Hill at 800 meters. Pune metropolitan region has a population of over 50 lakh and is the 7th largest urban conglomerate in India. 3.1.2 Climate & Weather : Since Pune is located in the leeward side of the Sahyadri Hills, it enjoys a pleasant climate almost all the year round. There are three distinct seasons : Summer, Monsoon and Winter. Summer is from April to May. When temperature can sore up to nearly 40°C and can get extremely hot. The monsoon commences by June and continues till September. The city gets an annual rainfall of 70 cm characterized by relatively light showers. Winters from November to February, are mild and most enjoyable. The day temperature is around 25°C while the night temperature can dip to even 6°C. 3.1.3 People : Pune has a cosmopolitan mix of people. Although Maharashtrians are in the largest number, the city is also home to sizable religious minorities including Christians, Parsi, Jews and Muslims. Many Iranians have also settled in Pune. Pune has a significant number of foreigners present at any given time. The students' community from Africa, Middle-East, Europe, America makes up a large chunk. 40 3.1.4 Culture: Pune is Maharashtra's cultural capital. It hosts various national festivals and cultural events through-out the year. People of Pune have wide interests in various arts, literature, music and drama. The city has been the fountainhead for many prominent works in Marathi literature and theatre. Both experimental and professional theatre receives extensive patronage from the Marathi community. Pune is also renowned for its vibrant festivals like Ganesh-Utsav, Sawai Gandharv Music festival, Shaniwarwada Festival, Pune International Film festival etc. 3.1.5 Ecology: Pune is endowed with diverse bionetwork and ecosystem, not generally present in large urban centers. It boosts of wide flora and fauna in heterogeneous natural, wetlands, rivers and lakes. Forest lands in the city consist of large areas of hill tops. The prominent forest covers are Bhamburda (Vertical Hill), Warje and Parvati. Pune is the fourth greenest city in India with more than two lakh trees. The city has two Botanical Gardens and around 75 public gardens and small parks. 3.1.6 Other Information : Languages Marathi (Main), Hindi & English Borders North East: Ahmednagar West: Colaba, North West: Thane, South East: Solapur, South: Satara Municipal Corporations 1. Pune (PMC) 2. Pimpri - Chinchwad (PCMC) Cantonment Boards l.Pune 2. DehuRoad 3.Khadki Literacy 71% Population Literate Rivers & Sub-Rivers Main River Bhima Nira, Indrayani, Mula, Mutha, Vel, Ghod, Meena Kukdi, Pushpavati, Pavna The original name of the city was Punyapur (Sanskrit) which was changed to Pune (in Marathi) and the British 'Poona gaz; II: 211, III: 402, D. R. Gadgil, 1952). Officially, the name Poona was again changed to Pune in 1962. 41 Capital City of Maratha Empire : Pune has a long standing history, though it began its urban career as a garrison town of indigenous origin. It saw its epitome of development during the Maratha Period as a capital city of the Maratha Empire. But it was long before the influence of Mumbai's urban pace of life took over the traditional Puneri outlook that Pune began experiencing sudden and erratic migrations in terms of man-power after independence. This immigration speeded up after the 1960s, when the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) was setup at Pimpri - Chinchwad, after a ban on any new industrial growth was imposed at Mumbai. Looking back from Peshwai Pune to the software hub on the digital highway, Pune is now open to the world. Though earlier, the name Pune brought to mind the laid back country cousin in Mumbai's backyard, not any longer, as Pune is now a global player on its way to becoming a technopolis - a rendezvous of the specialists. Soon it is being transformed into a city of information technology and progress, a location of innovation, research and development. A journey in the lanes of Pune's past will reveal that it has always been on the forefront as an administrative centre. The foundations and beginnings of Pune started as a garrison and a small market town in the medieval period, but its real growth began only when it became the capital city of the Marathas in the Peshwa period after the 1720s. Maratha and Peshwa Period : Pune first came into prominence when the young Shivaji set foot in Pune and initiated a struggle to establish a sovereign Maratha state, though the real progress of the city was caused by the Peshwas who made it their capital city, causing impressive change in living standards, infrastructure development, urbanization and a prominent position on the national scenario of military and political upheaval. The Peshwas were the architects of today's old Pune of Peths with their ambitious civic projects, thus letting Pune enjoy a fleeting spell of power as the 42 defacto capital of the country with the Pune Peshwas coming into prominence in 18 century. The growth phase of Pune also coincided with the mass wave of urbanization in the mid & late eighteenth century India when the British Government was reinstating its strength after taking over the regions from the erstwhile rulers, the East India Company. Pune, by and large followed a similar trend of 19th century urbanization and development but, it exhibited a definite caste biased morphological development and a strict social configuration. In Pune of the Peshwa's time, despite the fact that there was no functional zoning and rules and norms were based on traditional purity - (pollution principles), yet some very conspicuous traits of development can be seen within the urban stretches of Pune, developed by the famous "peths" which constituted zones categorized according to their prominent caste based occupational status. Pune consisted of 18 "peths" with a population of nearly 1,50,000. It was first confined to "Kasba Peth", which was the core of the native city. These "peths" bore an unmistakable imprint of orthodox Brahmin dominance, which was exhibited in the frugal lifestyles of the upper and elite classes. The "Wada" as a house type reached the zenith of development during the Peshwai times and was the key factor in giving the city an outlook it bears even today in the old city. The British Rule: The advent of the British rule in Pune was the outcome of the British triumph in the Battle of Khadki in 1818. The infringement of British in the rapidly developing Pune brought in a sudden unconformity and disruption in the then continuous urban growth of the city. With the British came a long era of neglect of the native city, since the elite and British folk clustered in military cantonment in the fringe of the East Pune, forming a stark duality of urban development. The erstwhile traditional life of Pune revolved around the "Peths" which had the homely clinging of temple bells and the cluster of houses with narrow twisting lanes, whereas the British Cantonment essentially comprised of the elite Anglo-Indian style urban complexes with clubs, bungalows, neat houses and well paved roads, parade grounds, barracks and imposing 43 administrative buildings. This was the phase when the settlements started expanding towards the south of the city and some development towards north, along the west bank of the Mula River. Having two centres of social and administrative growth, Pune developed two separate cultures, one the homely native "Puneri's" and the other the elite Anglo-Indian "Punah". Deccan Gymkhana, Prabhat Road, Bund garden, Koregaon Park were the garden suburbs styled after the British styled bungalows in design and ambience. With the introduction of a railway link in 1856, Pune's importance grew further, with the expansion of military, administrative and academic activities. It gained a significantly privileged place under British rule. The British established the local civic body the municipal council in 1859 and during the same period, two military stations, Kirkee and Pune Cantonment were established. In the year 1858, the great Indian Peninsula Railway reached Pune and the city acquired a municipality. In the period of 40 years between 1880 and 1920, the growth of the city received a setback due to the spread of epidemics like plague and influenza. Electric supply was received by Pune in 1920. The expansion of the civil lines resulted in the formation of a suburban municipality in the year 1884. British Land Acquisition Act was enforced. Vertical expansion was permitted in the form of construction of small buildings up to two-three stories the establishment of Deccan Education Society's Fergusson College took place in the year 1896. Indian Law Society's Law College started in the year 1921. In 1924 New Bridge was constructed across the river Mutha, in front of Shaniwarwada. This accelerated the development of the city. Erandwane and Bhambhurda (Deccan Gymkhana / Shivajinagar) were incorporated into the city limits in the same year. 1920 to 1940 : These two decades were a period of rapid spatial extension of the city. These two decades saw a building boom in all areas. The underground drainage and sewage scheme began in 1920s, and continued over next 20 years. 44 The municipality worked on issues like (A) Waste disposal for the whole city.