Urban Governance, diversity and social action in cities of the South
N-Aerus Annual Conference, 15 – 16 September 2004, Barcelona, Spain
Public Space and its potential: small-scale city in North India
Manu Goel
Architect, Planner
Abstract
The Topic of this conference is very open ended and wide in scope. However, I would like to structure this paper along my experiences of working with the local authority in a small city of North India during the past few months.
So far,’South[1]’ has had relatively many more no. of cities, more so million plus cities. These cities in India are gaining more importance by the day, as its resident is becoming more exposed, literate and ambitious. With the saturation of the metropolitans, these cities are becoming like small megacities. They have thriving markets, local activity and social diversity, though the governance and city management are still undergoing a process of upgradation.
However there are many aspects relating to their social and physical nature, in this paper, I would especially like to highlight the need for secular and democratic institutions in them. How I define such institutions is where the city comes as a whole, identities merging. True urban environments offer such institutions in the form of public libraries, art galleries and city halls, public gardens etc. Do these small cities offer any such oppertunity, and what is the potential in them?
This paper draws references to my last project, which involves analysis of an Urban public space for Bareilly city in Uttar Pradesh. This exercise ended with providing the local authority a detailed urban design proposal to modify a market square and enhance its potential as a public space. In short the issue that this paper addresses is that of lack of physical space in the city that offers equal opportunity as a public space. Thus, it is on these lines that this paper would address the key issues being faced by southern cities of small-scale and their tremendous possibilities.
Background
The complexity of a city lies not only in its demographic but also in its physical manifestation. There has been enough research on the diversity and complexity of the city and so on. This paper will focus on the issue of nature of physical space in the city that can be called as ‘public’, and that in essence provides equal opportunity to the city resident, rich or poor, to come together. To my mind, however there are few social institutions that do so. Let us discuss one such social and democratic institution that the city entails. We will discuss the marketplace- the market square as the essential physical urban public space in the Indian city, which is undergoing tremendous transformation in character and form. However it is one entity, whose potential has remained understated and undermined. This paper advocates, alongside stating a live example, about how this tremendous potential could be chanelized.
Urban Public space in India
What is ‘urban’? The Census of India defines ‘Urban’ predominantly as a population category. In urban areas stratification is done on the basis of size class of the towns/cities. The towns/cities are grouped into five classes, viz.: - (a) towns with population below 20,000 (b) towns with population of 20,000 and more but less than 50,000 (c) towns with population of 50,000 and more but less than 100,000 (d) towns with population of 100,000 and more but less than 500,000, (e) cities with population of 500,000 and more but less than 1,000,000 and (f) each city with population 1,000,000 or more, treated as a separate entity.
The sheer sizes of each of these categories speak of the scales of ‘urban’ one is referring to. There are 384 Urban Agglomerations in India, of which 35 are million Plus. Each of these Urban Agglomerations is centered by a city, which serves as its headquarter, as well as for the nearby rural catchment area. This city is hereon being referred to as ‘small city’ through out the paper. The entity called the small city is an ad-hoc mixture of population of natives and rural migrants, giving rise to complex entity that is more ‘occurred’ then ‘designed’.
The term ‘Public’ has variety of meanings, from popular usage of designating everyone and anyone to political definition of collective people. The term ‘space’ refers to the physical dimensions of a particular location, that is connected not only to the volume but also to nature, it is wide open. Architectural historian and critic Roger Scruton(1984) said that the term public space is used to designate a location that has four characteristics. It is designed, everyone has right to access, encounter between individuals are unplanned and unexceptional, and their behaviour towards each other than those of common norms of social politeness. This concept can be combined with the features and functions of different locations ranging from privately owned but publicly used spaces such as clubs, to publicly owned and publicly used ones. From the categories above there are many places in the city that could qualify as public. Infact even Temple as a centre of religious lifestyle and interaction is one of them.
Traditionally, the built fabric in the cities in India has been compact, with occasional clearings in the built fabric to give way to squares and market places. Cities in India have thriving market places. However, with time the element of change has started to show its mark. In almost all of the Indian cities, the market place has become dual in character, with two faces, the old and the new. There is an old market street, in most cases, narrow and winding, and congested, whereas, there is a ‘new market’, which is along the wider street, has bigger shops, and a larger public square, which is also a multi-utility space. However neither of them is a controlled space.
As discussed by Scruton(1984), public spaces are designed, bearing an imprint of human intervention in the creation of boundaries, which define the space, naturally occurring spaces are beyond social definition. Being conserved by design, they are constantly subjected to changes and encroachments as a result of other space demands. The market place in this case is usually a series of shops along a demarcated street. However, what is designed is the square, the ‘chowk’. Traditionally, this square was invariable supported by a religious institution, and the associated market activity. In some cities this was accompanied by a large open space where people could be gathered and addressed, or where certain city-level activities could be organized.
With time, the older chowk has been taken over by the city development, encroachments and new developments. The needs and the roles have changed with the changing lifestyles. The urban square is now used for parking purposes, by vendors, by shops to advertise. On the other hand, its potential lies in the fact that this square is still an activity hub. It caters to the rich and the poor, the old and the new equally.
The public square today, essentially comes across as a series of encroachments, the key issue being that of structuring the same. The character of this urban space is rooted in the new lifestyles. The new city’s new look comes with an attached lifestyle, of eating out, of shopping for branded items flanking this marketplace, of hoardings and advertising elements conquering the visual space.
It is to be understood, that here the image of a market square is very different than its counterpart in European countries. Here the traffic is characterized by mixed modes of transport bearing different speeds. The roads are not streamlined to differentiate between parking space, right of way and pedestrian space. Also the usage of spaces changes tremendously from morning to night.
Case Study: Introduction to Bareilly city
Bareilly is an important industrial, commercial as well as education centre of western Uttar Pradesh in North India. It is located on National Highway NH-24 connecting Delhi and Lucknow. The city is situated about 252 kms east of the Indian capital city of Delhi and about 255 km northwest of the state capital Lucknow. It is also well connected by railway line. The city of Bareilly is known for its traditional Zari-Zardozi crafts industry and cane furniture industry. The city has remained an important cultural and trading center for centuries.
Bareilly city with a population of over 7.3 lakh is one of the larger urban agglomerations in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the seventh largest city in the state.. There are number of important institutions and administrative agencies are located in Bareilly. Bareilly houses the divisional headquarters of police zone, headquarters of UB area of army, headquarters of NER division, national level institutions like IVRI (Indian Veterinary Research Institute) and CARI (Central Avian Research Institute). Bareilly is also an important educational center with prominent universities and schools. Lately, the city is becoming a medical facilities center with several public and private sector medical facilities in the form of specialty hospitals and nursing homes being established.
Table 1: Population Trends in Bareilly Urban Agglomeration
No. / Year / Bareilly Municipal corporation / Bareilly Urban AgglomerationsPopulation / Decadal growth rate (%) / CAGR (%) / Population / Decadal growth rate (%) / CAGR (%)
1 / 1901 / 133,167 / - / 133,167 / -
2 / 1911 / 129,462 / -2.78 / -0.28 / 129,462 / -2.78 / -0.28
3 / 1921 / 129,459 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 129,459 / 0.00 / 0.00
4 / 1931 / 144,031 / 11.26 / 1.07 / 153,883 / 18.87 / 1.74
5 / 1941 / 192,688 / 33.78 / 2.95 / 204,850 / 33.12 / 2.90
6 / 1951 / 208,083 / 7.99 / 0.77 / 221,487 / 8.12 / 0.78
7 / 1961 / 272,828 / 31.11 / 2.75 / 286,033 / 29.14 / 2.59
8 / 1971 / 326,106 / 19.53 / 1.80 / 344,376 / 20.40 / 1.87
9 / 1981 / 449,425 / 37.82 / 3.26 / 475,382 / 38.04 / 3.28
10 / 1991 / 590,661 / 31.43 / 2.77 / 617,350 / 29.86 / 2.65
11 / 2001 / 720,035 / 21.90 / 2.00 / 729,800 / 18.21 / 1.69
Source: Bareilly Nagar Nigam (Revised Population) and Primary Census Abstracts, Census of India, 1991
Bareilly is one of the five identified counter magnet cities identified as part of the NCR[2] policy to decongest and regulate the growth of the national capital region. The other counter magnet cities are Kota in Rajasthan, Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, Hissar in Hariyana and Patiyala in Punjab. This plan intends to divert Populations migrating to Delhi to these conter magnets, by equiping them with better infrastructure and oppertunities.
The centre of activity in Bareilly is it marketplace. The trends of urban economy of Bareilly reflect its dependence on the tertiary sector. The City is popularly know as a ‘trader’s city’ as the impetus of its early growth was based on providing services to the colonial establishments – the cantonment area. It later on became an important trading hub for the Tarai region and also for the surrounding hinterland. Industrialization in 70s and 80s resulted into large scale urbanization and rural migration to the city. After the closure of large-scale industries in 1990s, the growth of the city is mainly depending upon trade and commerce, transport and other sectors.
Table 2 : Occupational Pattern in Bareilly City
Category / Percentage of Workers1971 / 1981 / 1991
Primary Sector / 4.57 / 2.90 / 9.05
Manufacturing / 26.01 / 26.47 / 17.08
Construction / 3.60 / 4.48 / 4.77
Trade & Commerce / 17.22 / 18.65 / 21.36
Transport, Storage & Communication / 17.40 / 15.52 / 9.61
Other Services / 31.20 / 31.98 / 38.14
TOTAL / 100.00 / 100.00 / 100.00
Source: District Census Handbook, 1991
Note: Census 2001 data for occupation pattern in Bareilly city is not available yet.
Case study: Urban Public space and its potential
Having established the importance of the marketplace in Bareilly as an urban public space, let us look into the character of this space. I have chosen the most important market stretch‚ Motilal Nehru Marg for this purpose. This traffic stretch lies between two large traffic junctions. Both sides of the road ae bound by shops of diverse order, largely garments, shoes, furniture, utensils, and cosmetics. It is a retail market. The most significant part of this stretch are the important institutions that are located here. The road is divided into three sections due to a Hindu temple, a Cinema Hall and a Mosque. All three institutions are visited by several city residents everyday. Both sides of the street are used for parking, in a haphazard manner. Through the day the street is overcome by vendors, fruitsellers, and parked vehicles. At night the space is transformed, as the roadsides are taken over by food and snack stalls.
This stretch of road is one of the few links between the old and the new city. As a result, more than half the traffic on this street is thorough traffic, which is fast moving. There are several accidents between them and those vehicles which are being parked. The Hindu temple on the street is part of the encroachment and stands in the middle of the road (refer drawing), blocking one side of vehicular flow, whereas the mosque also juts out onto the road. The cinema hall also demands its own share of parking space.
Figure 3. Plan illustrating the designed street layout.
Besides this physical configuration of spaces, the parking on two sides of the road also expands onto the road limit when there is need (refer existing road sections). As a result, a public space, which has the potential of being the city’s most happening place results into a congested traffic bottleneck. A lack of street furniture, and adequate footpaths and hawker space surface as the key problems.
As part of the design exercise, several meetings were held with the mayor of the city, to discuss and list out the needs of the place and how this stretch could be developed into an effective urban plaza. The result of this exercise was a complete design proposal of reorganising the physicl making of this road stretch by giving a servise lane and parking provision on one or two sides of the roads, and to pave and develop the spaces adjoining the religious and recreational institutions. Adequate hawker space was earmarked, which would allow the hawkers to legally occupy the area for a limited time of the day, without having the fear of being removed. A clear seggregation with the thorough traffic has been made, where there is a no stopping zone. Street furniture and pavements were designated.