Slums, Squatters and Urban Redevelopment Schemes in Bombay, Hong Kong, and Singapore, 1894-1960 Michael William Sugarman Magdalene College November 2017 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. SLUMS, SQUATTERS AND URBAN REDEVELOPMENT SCHEMES IN BOMBAY, HONG KONG, AND SINGAPORE, 1894-1960 MICHAEL WILLIAM SUGARMAN DISSERTATION ABSTRACT My research examines the interconnected histories of urbanism and urban development in port cities across South and Southeast Asia. Chapter one examines the effects of the third plague pandemic on the quotidian livelihoods and the built environments of the urban poor across Bombay, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Considering corporeal measures to inspect the bodies and homes of the urban poor and measures to introduce urban ‘improvement’ schemes, this chapter argues that plague sparked a sustained interest in the urban conditions of the poor across British South and Southeast Asia. Chapter two considers the works of the Bombay Improvement Trust, Rangoon Development Trust, and Singapore Improvement Trust through the early decades of the twentieth century and analyses how an imperial urbanism based on a ‘Bombay model’ translated to Singapore and other port cities across the Indian Ocean world. Chapter three considers the consequences of the second wave of ‘indirect’ attacks on urban slums on an evolving imperial urbanism in Bombay, Rangoon, and Singapore. While previous chapters examined the emergence of an imperial urbanism centred on Bombay’s example, chapter four considers the extent to which Bombay remained central to this urbanism during the late 1930s and Second World War. Analysing the divergent consequences of patterns of urban growth in Bombay, Hong Kong, and Singapore throughout the late-1930s, this chapter considers late- colonial efforts to house the urban poor as well as the extent to which the war recast the post- war housing situation. Chapter five contextualises post-war rhetoric of economic and urban development in Hong Kong and Singapore within narratives of pre-war urban ‘improvement’. In connecting pre-war and post-war approaches to accommodating the urban poor, the final chapter considers the reorientation of earlier circulations of knowledge around urban poverty in port cities and its implications for emerging post-colonial regional, national and urban identities. 1 PREFACE This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the History Degree Committee, which is 80,000 words. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures and Table ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................................ 5 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Glossary ........................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Asia’s Port Cities and Connected Urban Development from the Plague to the Post-war Period: Conceptualisations and Historiographies .......................................................................................................... 10 Sources and Methodological Approaches ......................................................................................................... 20 Terminology ........................................................................................................................................................... 22 Framework of the Dissertation ........................................................................................................................... 25 Plague, Planning, and Poverty in Bombay, Hong Kong, and Singapore, 1894-1910 ..................................... 30 Epidemiology and ‘improvement’ in Bombay, 1896-1899 ............................................................................. 35 Disease and Housing in Hong Kong, 1894-1910 ............................................................................................ 40 Life, Death, Poverty, and Sanitation in Singapore, 1900-1909 ...................................................................... 50 Competing models of ‘improvement’ across Bombay, Hong Kong, and Singapore ................................. 59 Imperial Urbanism and the Trusts in Bombay, Rangoon, and Singapore, 1898-1927 ................................... 63 Building a Bombay Model, 1898-1914 .............................................................................................................. 66 Adapting a Bombay Model in Rangoon ............................................................................................................ 81 Developing a Trust in Singapore ........................................................................................................................ 90 Interconnected ‘Improvement’ ........................................................................................................................... 98 On the Urban Edge: Housing, the Bombay Development Department, The Singapore Improvement Trust and an evolving imperial urbanism, 1909-1941 ........................................................................................ 101 Advocating alternative approaches to the BIT, 1909-1919 .......................................................................... 104 The (un)making of the Bombay Development Directorate, 1920-1935 .................................................... 111 Housing schemes, Tiong Bahru and the Singapore Improvement Trust, 1927-1941 ............................. 122 Beyond Bombay: The influence of an imperial urbanism around British Asia ........................................ 129 Urban Growth, Squatters, and the Makings of New Urbanisms: Bombay, Hong Kong, and Singapore, 1936-1947 .................................................................................................................................................................. 133 Modernity, squatters and the (un)deserving poor in Singapore .................................................................. 137 Migrations and the (un)making of hut houses in Hong Kong .................................................................... 146 More room(s) for growth in Bombay, 1936-1947 ......................................................................................... 149 Wartime destruction and new perspectives on an imperial urbanism in Hong Kong and Singapore, 1941-1946 ............................................................................................................................................................. 154 An Urban Moment, The Laying of Plans and a Divergent Bombay Model ............................................. 165 A New Model of Urban Development? Reconstructing Hong Kong and Singapore, 1946-1960 ............ 167 Contiguous Connections: ‘New’ ideas, new circulations and new institutions in post-war Singapore . 170 Slum Asia: Housing Hong Kong and ‘The Critical Phase’, 1946-1952 ...................................................... 181 Hong Kong’s ‘New’ Approach: The Housing Authority, housing societies and an emerging Asian urbanism, 1952-1960 .......................................................................................................................................... 193 Configurations of Post-war Urban Connections ........................................................................................... 205 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................ 207 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................. 212 3 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLE Figure 1. An example of a proposed plan from Simpson’s report for the housing of Singapore’s urban poor. ................................................................................................................................................ 58 Figure 2. A map showing the four schemes of the Bombay Improvement Trust from 1899. .... 69 Figure 3. A 1914 map of Bombay detailing the various schemes of the Trust. ............................. 73 Figure 4. A