Work Life and Leisure

Work Life and Leisure

CONTRASTING IMAGES AND EXPERIENCES:
WEALTH AND POVERTY
SPLENDOUR AND DIRT
OPPORTUNITIES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS
 WORK ,LIFE and LEISURE:
• Ancient cities could only develop when an increase in
food supplies made it possible to support a wide
range of activities.
• Industrial Revolution has brought about many
changes.
• Most striking is the inequitable distribution of
development.
• Urbanization and industrialization have shaped the
world in three decisive ways:
• Rise of capitalism
• Establishment of colonies
• Development of democratic ideals.
 Characteristics of the City
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjqd5j_short
-film-contrast_shortfilms

Most of the ancient cities were

developed on the bank of the river
valleys (Ur, Nippur and
Mohenjodaro,etc)

Cities were often the:

• Centres of Political power,
Administrative network,
• trade and industry,
• religious institution,
• intellectual activity.
INDUSTRIALISATION AND THE RISE OF THE
MODERN CITY IN ENGLAND
Most Western countries
were largely rural even after
Many decades of revolution.
Industrial cities :
Leeds , Manchester
Attracted large number of
migrants, to their
Textile mills.

London:
In 1750 : 675,000 people
1810 : 1 million
1880 : 4 million
Gareth Stedman Jones and his opinion about London city

A great historian - he had stated that the 19th century

London city was
1. The city of clerks and shopkeepers,
2. Small masters and skilled artisans,
3. Semi skilled and sweated outworkers,
4. Soldiers and servants,
5. Casual labourers and street sellers
6. The city of Beggars
 Five Industries

Five industries developed in London

City in 19th century :
1.Clothing and Footwear
2. Wood and Furniture
3. Metals and Engineering
4. Printing and Stationary
5. Precision products like surgical
instruments, watches and objects of
precious metals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Efq-aNBkvc
 Marginal Groups in London 1. Criminals:

• As London grew, crimes flourished.

• In 1870- 20,000 criminals were living in
London
• The police were worried about the
• Law and order
• Philanthropists were worried about
• public morality, Industrialists wanted a
hard working and orderly labour force
• So population of criminals was counted,
their activities were watched and their
ways of life were investigated.
• In an attempt to discipline the
population, the authorities imposed high
penalties for crimes and offered work to
the ‘deserving poor’
 MARGINAL GROUPS
CRIMINALS:

HENRY MAYHEW WROTE SEVERAL VOLUMES

ON LONDON LABOR:
CRIMINALS WERE POOR PEOPLE WHO LIVED
BY:
STEALING LEAD FROM ROOFS,
FOOD FROM SHOPS,
LUMPS OF COAL AND
CLOTHES DRYING FROM HEDGES.
 Marginal Groups - 2. Women:

• As a result of the technological development the women

gradually lost their industrial jobs and were forced to work
within households.
• Large number of women used their homes to increase their
family income by taking in lodgers or through such activities
as tailoring, washing and matchbox making
 Marginal groups - Contd

3. Child Labor
Large number of children were pushed
into low paid work often by their
parents.

After the Compulsory Elementary Education Act in 1870 and

Factory Act in 1902, that children were kept out of industrial
work
Andrew Mearns, a clergyman wrote :
“The Bitter Cry Outcast London in 1880 showed why crime was
more profitable than low wages work”
 Housing

1. What was the reason the Industrialist

started to provide the accommodation
for the Migrants?
2. Initially the Factory or Workshop
owners did not provided the house
to the migrants.
3. The individual land owners put up
cheap, unsafe tenements for the new arrivals
In 1887, Charles Booth(Liverpool ship owner) conducted the
first social survey
• London needed 400,000 rooms
• Average life expectancy 29/55
• Workhouse/hospital/mental asylum
 Housing
Mass Housing Schemes

After a period of time the industrialists starts to provide the

accommodation because of certain reasons

1. One room houses seen as serious threat to public health

because it was overcrowded, badly ventilated and lacked
sanitation

2. Worried about fire hazards

3. Fear of social disorder, especially

after the Russian revolution in 1917.
 Cleaning

The major steps initiated

for the Cleaning of London city

• Created decongest localities,

• open green spaces,
• reduced pollution and
• landscape of the city.
• Large blocks Apartments were made.
• Rent control was introduced
• Green Belt around the London City.
 Cleaning
Ebenezer Howard an architect and planner developed
the principle of Garden City :
A pleasant space full of plants and trees, where
people would both live and work
He believed that it would help to produce
better quality citizens
Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker
designed the garden city of New
Earswick with common garden space
and beautiful views.
There were common garden spaces,
beautiful views and great attention
to detail, but only well off workers
benefitted.
 Transportation faculty in London city
The first section of the
City had extended beyond Underground in the World
range, development of suburbs opened on 10 January
made mass transport necessary. 1863 between Paddington
. and Farrington Street in
London

10000 passengers were

carried per day, with
trains running every ten
minutes.

By 1880 the expanded

train service was carrying
40 million passengers a
year.
• At first the people were
afraid to travel under ground
railway because of the fear
of suffocation.

•The under ground railway

caused the massive
displacement of the poor
people.
 • Charles Dickens wrote in his
novel Dombey and Son about
the massive displacements.

•“For the construction of two miles,

900 houses were destroyed”
• Gradually, the underground railway
became huge success and most of
the metropolis like New York, Tokyo
and Chicago
 Social Change in the City

• The family became smaller and individualism increased.

• The institution of marriage tended to break down among
the working class.
• Women of the upper middle classes in Britain faced
increasing levels of isolation.
• Many social reformers felt a need to save the family by
pushing the women back into their homes.
• Most of the political movements of this period :
Chartism, 10 hour movement.
• It took some time before women could actively
participate in political movements.(wartime activities)
• The positive aspect of these changes was that the family
became the focus of the new market
 Leisure and Consumption

• For wealthy British, there had been a

tradition of ‘London Season’
.
• For the elite families, many cultural events
were organized.(opera, theatre, classical
musical performances)

• People from the working classes met in pubs

( centre of exchanging news and views).

• The trend of spending holidays on beaches

increased among the working classes.
 Leisure and Consumption

Large Scale
Entertainment
• Libraries
• Art galleries
• British Museum
• Music Halls
• Cinema Theatres
 Politics in the City

1886 : London poor exploded in a riot demanding

relief from poverty; Shopkeepers shut down
establishments, 10000 people marched from
Deptford to London

1887: Bloody Sunday of November 1887

1889 : London’s dockworkers 12 day strike

 Politics in the City

A large city population was both a threat

and an opportunity from political
perspective.

This was a period when many mass

strikes and protests erupted in the city.

Some of them were brutally suppressed

by the police.

The State authorities worked towards

reducing the possibility of rebellion and
enhancing urban aesthetics
The City in Colonial India
 City in Colonial India

•The situation in India was somewhat

different from that in Western Europe.

•The pace of urbanization was slow during

colonial rule.

•In the early twentieth century, no more

than 11% of population was living in cities.

•A major chunk of the urban dwellers were

living in the three Presidency cities, viz.
Bombay, Madras and Calcutta.

•The Presidential cities were multi-

functional cities.
 Bombay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5vTKS5DHTM

•These cities had major ports,

warehouses, homes and offices, army
camps, educational institutions,
museums and libraries.

• Because of being the hubs of

business and political activities, these
cities grew in population.

•Bombay expanded rapidly from the

late 19th century.

•The population of Bombay grew

from 644,000 in 1872 to 1,500,000 in
1941.
 Bombay: The Prime City of India

In the seventeenth century, Bombay

was under Portuguese control.

It was a group of seven islands.

In 1661; after the marriage of

Britain’s King Charles II to the
Portuguese princess; the control of
Bombay passed into British hands.

After that, the East India Company

shifted its base from Surat to
Bombay.
 Outlet /Port /Industrial Centre

• Initially, Bombay was the major

outlet for cotton textiles from
Gujarat.

• Later, in the nineteenth century,

it became the transit hub for
large quantities of raw materials;
like cotton and opium.

• Gradually, it became an
important administrative centre.
By the end of the nineteenth
century, Bombay became a
major industrial centre.
 Work in The city

After the defeat of the Maratha in

the Anglo-Maratha War, Bombay
became the capital of Bombay
Presidency in 1819.

With the growth of trade in cotton

and opium, large communities of
traders, bankers, artisans and
shopkeepers settled in the city.

Opening of textile mills initiated a

fresh round of migration to the
city.
 Cotton mills
•The first cotton textile mill in Bombay opened in 1854.

•By 1921, there were 85 cotton mills.

•About 146,000 workers worked in these mills.

•Between 1881 and 1931, only about one-fourth of the

inhabitants of the city were born in this city.
 work in the city -contd
•Women in work force:
•Between 1919 and 1926, women formed about 23% of
the mill workforce.

•After that their number dropped steadily to less than

10% of the total workforce.

•The railways encouraged migration into the city at even

larger scale.

•Famine in the dry regions of Kutch forced a large

number of people to migrate to Bombay in 1888 – 89.

•In 1898, the district authorities were so worried during

the plague epidemic that they sent about 30,000 people
back to their places of origin by 1901.
 Housing and Neighbourhoods

•Bombay was a much crowded city; compared to London.

• In the late 1840s, each Londoner enjoyed an average
space of 155 sq yards.
•In Bombay, each person had to manage with just 9.5 sq
yards.
• About 8 persons lived per house in London, while in
Bombay this figure was 20 persons per house.
•The Bombay Fort area formed the heart of the city in
the early 1800s.
• It was divided between a ‘native’ town and a European
or ‘white’ section.
• This racial pattern was similar in all three Presidency
cities.
 Housing and Neighbourhoods

• The city developed in an unplanned way; which led to

huge crisis of water supply and housing by the mid
1850s.

• The rich people lived in sprawling bungalows, but more

than 70% of the working people lived in the thickly
populated chawls of Bombay.

• About 90% of millworkers used to live in Girgaon,15

minutes’ walk from the mills.
 Housing and Neighbourhoods

•Chawls:A chawl was a multi-

storeyed structure.

• These houses were usually owned

by private landlords.

• Each chawl was divided into

smaller one-room tenements.

•The tenements had no private

toilets.

•The rent was so high that people

were forced to share a tenement
with relatives or caste fellows.
 Neighbourhoods

Since homes were small;

• streets and neighbor hoods

became the place for various
activities;

•like cooking washing and

sleeping.

• Liquor shops and akharas came

up in any empty spot.

•Street entertainers and hawkers

also used those empty spaces.
 Housing and Neighbourhoods

• People from the lower/”depressed classes/ castes” found

it difficult to occupy houses.

• These people were kept out of many chawls.

• They often had to live in shelters made of corrugated

sheets, leaves or bamboo poles.

• The fear of epidemic set in.(in London: fear of social

revolution)
 Housing and Neighbourhoods

• The City of Bombay Improvement Trust was established in

1898. Its focus was clearing poorer homes out of the city
centre.
• In 1918, about 64,000 people were evicted from their homes
but only 14,000 were rehabilitated.
• A Rent Act was passed in 1918, in an effort to keep the rents
reasonable, but this led to a severe housing crisis because
landlords withdrew houses from the market.
 Land Reclamation in Bombay

• Bombay had largely been built on the land

which was reclaimed from the sea.
• The earliest reclamation project began in
1784.
• William Hornby; the governor of Bombay;
approved the building of the great sea
wall to prevent flooding of the
low lying areas.
• Many reclamation projects were taken up
from time to time.
• Reclamation also meant leveling of hills. The
need for commercial space made private
companies take risks.

• In 1864, the Back Bay Reclamation Company

won the right to reclaim the western
foreshore from the tip of Malabar Hill to the
end of Colaba.

• By the 1870s, city had expanded to about 22

square miles.

• Bombay Port Trust built a dry dock between

1914 and 1918 and used the excavated earth
to create the 22-acre Ballard Estate.

• Subsequently, the famous Marine Drive of

Bombay was developed.
 The City of Dreams:
Cinema and Culture

• Bombay appears to many as a ‘Mayapuri’

• -a city of dreams.
• Many Bombay films deal with the arrival of
new migrants and their problems.
• Bombay film industry-
• Harish Chandra S B shot a scene of wrestling
match in Bombay’s Hanging gardens and it
became India’s first movie in 1896.
• 1913-Raja Harish Chandra by Dadasahe
Phalke
• 1925- Bombay became India’s film capital
 Cities and the challenge of the environment

• The development of cities resulted in long

lasting damage to the environment:
• Natural features were flattened out or
transformed in response to the growing
demand for space for factories, housing
and other institutions.
• Large quantities of refuse and waste
products polluted air and water
• Excessive noise became a feature of
urban life.
• Use of coal in homes and industries in the
nineteenth century England raised serious
problems.
• In most of the cities, black smoke from the
chimneys gave a permanent gray tone to the
sky. Many people suffered from bad tempers,
smoke-related illnesses and dirty clothes
• By the 1840s, some towns such as Derby, Leeds
and Manchester made laws to control smoke in
the city. But it was difficult to implement these
laws because industrialists did not want to
invest in cleaner technologies.
• Smoke Abatement Act of 1847, 1853 did not
accomplish their purpose
Calcutta too had a long history of air pollution
Domestic smoke: wood, dung, rice husk
Railway line introduced in 1855: coal was brought from
Raniganj
In 1863, Calcutta became the first Indian City to get Smoke
Nuisance Legislation
 Questions
• Question: 1 - Give two reasons why the population of London expanded from the middle of the eighteenth century.

• Question: 2 -What were the changes in the kind of work available to women in London between the nineteenth and the twentieth
century? Explain the factors which led to this change.

• Question: 3 - How does the existence of a large urban population affect each of the following? Illustrate with historical examples.

• (a) A private landlord

• (b) A Police Superintendent in charge of law and order

• (c)A leader of a political party

• Question: 4 - Give explanations for the following:

• (a) Why well-off Londoners supported the need to build housing for the poor in the nineteenth century.

• (b) Why a number of Bombay films were about the lives of migrants.

• What led to the major expansion of Bombay’s population in the mid-nineteenth century? Write in brief

• Question: 5 - What forms of entertainment came up in nineteenth century England to provide leisure activities for the people.

• Question: 6 - Explain the social changes in London which led to the need for the Underground railway. Why was the
development of the Underground criticised?

• Question: 7 - Explain what is meant by the Haussmanisation of Paris. To what extent would you support or oppose this form of
development? Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper, to either support or oppose this, giving reasons for your view.

• Question: 8 - To what extent does government regulation and new laws solve problems of pollution? Discuss one example each
of the success and failure of legislation to change the quality of

• (a)public life

• (b) private life

 answers
• Answer 1:
• The city of London was a powerful magnet for migrant populations; although there was no large
factory in London. The London dockyard was among the major employer. Additionally, large
numbers of people were employed in clothing and footwear, wood and furniture, metals and
engineering, printing and stationary and precision products. It was because of the huge
employment opportunities that people migrated to London which resulted in growth of population.
• Answer 2:
• During the War years, many women got employment in the factories because most of the men
were busy at the battlefronts. Once the War was over, women gradually lost their jobs. Most of
them were forced to household duties. Some women began to start tailoring, washing and
matchbox making to earn some money.
• Answer 3:
• (a) A private landlord
• Answer: A private landlord can increase his earnings by renting out tenements. This was the case
during the later part of nineteenth century and early twentieth century in London. The situation was
same in Bombay during the early twentieth century.
• (b) A Police Superintendent in charge of law and order
• Answer: A large number of urban populations create many inequalities in the society. People who
may not be able to find gainful employment may resort to petty crimes. Poor housing conditions
also provide a ground for development of resentment among the people. The situation may lead to
a spurt in crime. For Police Superintendent, the situation can be very challenging as he has to keep
the crime under check.
• (c)A leader of a political party
• Answer: For a leader of a political party, a large urban population presents both threat and
opportunity. Keeping the largely disgruntled population under control can be a challenge. If a
political party finds proper solution to the problem of people, then it can create a huge support base
for itself.
• (a) Why well-off Londoners supported the need to build housing for the
poor in the nineteenth century.

•
answers
Answer: The poor sanitary conditions in one-room tenements posed a
threat of epidemics. Moreover, such houses were also potential fire
hazards. To keep the city safe from epidemics and fire, the well-off
Londoners supported the need to build housing for the poor in the
nineteenth century.

• (b) Why a number of Bombay films were about the lives of migrants.

• Answer: Most of the workers in the film industry themselves were migrants
from various parts of the country. They probably better understood the
problems of migrants. This is the reason that a number of Bombay films
were about the lives of migrants.

• What led to the major expansion of Bombay’s population in the mid-

nineteenth century? Write in brief

• Answer: Following are some of the reasons for expansion of Bombay’s

population in the mid-nineteenth century:
 answers
• Answer 5: Libraries, art galleries and museums were established in the nineteenth
century to provide people with a sense of history and pride in the British achievements.

• Answer 6: Initial public reaction towards the Underground was negative. Many people
were critical of the way many houses were demolished to make way for construction of
underground. Many people were not comfortable of the idea of travelling in smoke filled
underground railway. But ultimately, the Underground proved to be a huge success. It
enabled people to live far off from their workplace. People had no longer to live in
overcrowded places which helped in improving the quality of life.

• Answer 7 : Baron Haussman was the town planner who tried to build a perfect city of
Paris. In the process, a large number of people were displaced. Although it resulted in the
development of a beautiful city, but it ended up alienating a lot of people in the process.

• A city does not develop only because of its beautiful buildings and well planned transport
network. The city also develops because of its people. A city is always a mosaic of
varieties of people who contribute in their own way in developing the soul of the city. Rich
and poor; everyone has his own role to play in development of a city. Haussmanisation
may sound good in theory but has no place in practical life.
 answers
• Answer 8:

• (a)public life

• Answer: Court’s order to use CNG in public transport in Delhi can be a

good example. After the court made it mandatory to use CNG in public
transport in Delhi, the air quality of Delhi had improved remarkably. It has
definitely helped in improving the quality of life for the general public.

• (b) private life

• Answer: For improving the private life, the government needs to

implement a package of legislation as well as some empowerment tool for
the citizens. All of us know that LPG is a cleaner kitchen fuel than coal,
cowdung or firewood. Seamless availability of LPG across most of the
urban India has helped in minimizing the use of conventional kitchen fuels.
This has improved the quality of life of a housewife who earlier had to
suffer the constant smoke from the chulha.
 importance of unit
• Help the student to explore and understand the process of urbanisation intheancients well as the modern time period., Allow them to
investigate the factors responsible for the rise of modern trends with multi ethnic population in the modern cities.

• • Enable the students to travel back in time to the middle of the 18th century to get a complete and a holistic view of the emergence and
development of cities, which they know or live in today. Enable the students to acknowledge the fact that most of the countries at that time
were rural with only a few urban centers which were small political, military or trading settlements. Each of these townships later grew into a
city or a metropolis due to a variety of reasons;, industrialisation, growth of trade and commerce, migration, being some of the most important
causes of them.

• • Allow the students to critically analyze the demographic information in order to understand that when the cities took shape, things, situations,
condition of people and their life style at that time were totally different.,
Appreciatethefactthaturbanisationwasaresultofthecontinualhumandevelopment in different spheres of life.

• • Explain that cities emerged in contrast to the village life, with roads, bridges, buildings, new modes of transport, glittering shops and market
places being their main attraction. They provided an array of job opportunities, business possibilities and scope for industrial development. All
these factors led to massive migration and a sharp increase in the city population. Such a large population could be an asset, liability or a
problem in turn.

• • Facilitate the students to understand that city life also led to the loosening of social norms. Social distinctions that used to appear natural and
normal at one point of time now started fading away.
 Importance of Unit
• • Explain that cross cutting of cultures and intermingling of people from diverse backgrounds pertaining to different castes,
regions, religions, colour and creed started taking place and resulted in developing multicultural nature of the modern cities and
metropolises.

• • Enablethestudentstorecognizeandacknowledgetheglaringcontrastwithinthecity life itself as everyone was not fortunate enough

to get a job or work opportunity and had to face a lot of disappointment. Hence, the city had two different sides or aspects to its
existence. One was full of beauty, splendor, luxury, wealth and opportunity while the other was filled with dirt, poverty,
disappointment, misery and crime.

• • Make the students realize that not only rich, resourceful and influential contributed to the growth of the city but also the
common people like the urban poor, factory workers, labourers, artisans, servants, hawkers, street vendors played an equally
important part in its development.

• • Makestudentsandteachersunderstandthattherespectivegovernmentsofthecities or the national authorities cannot ignore,

discard or turn a blind eye towards the less fortunate or the marginal groups, as these people not only form the industrial, public
or domestic work force but their poor living conditions have enough potential to create a variety of problems, crises and
disasters like outbreak of fires, spread of diseases and epidemics, riots, rise in crime rate and even outbreak of rebellions or
civic disturbances.

• • Makethestudentsunderstandthedamageandimpactofurbanisationonthenatural environment and the laws made at that time to

protect and conserve it.
 Contents
• Emergence & growth of modern cities
◦ Describes Urbanization
Enumerates the origin and features of ancient cities
• Case Study: London (Developed Country)
◦ Describes Industrial Revolution
◦ Defines Colonialism
• Case Study: Bombay (Developing Country)
◦ Enumerates the historical background of Bombay
◦ Describes the emergence of a colonial city
• Urbanization and Environment
◦ Explains the environment and its problems