Scribd
Upload
70 views2 pages

Merchants and Kingship-An Interpretation of Indian Urban History

The document discusses the role of religious institutions in the urban development of Madras (now Chennai), India during the colonial period under British rule. It argues that temples played an important economic and political role, with kings and merchants donating money not just for ritual purposes but also to gain influence. As European trade expanded in the 17th century, local brokers gained power by controlling sectors of the urban economy. In the late 18th century, the British began expanding the city northward from the original fort area. Religious institutions and rituals continued to be central to urban life and settlement patterns, and donations to temples and other institutions in the early 20th century integrated tradition with modernization under colonial administration.

Uploaded by

Tanya Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
70 views2 pages

Merchants and Kingship-An Interpretation of Indian Urban History

The document discusses the role of religious institutions in the urban development of Madras (now Chennai), India during the colonial period under British rule. It argues that temples played an important economic and political role, with kings and merchants donating money not just for ritual purposes but also to gain influence. As European trade expanded in the 17th century, local brokers gained power by controlling sectors of the urban economy. In the late 18th century, the British began expanding the city northward from the original fort area. Religious institutions and rituals continued to be central to urban life and settlement patterns, and donations to temples and other institutions in the early 20th century integrated tradition with modernization under colonial administration.

Uploaded by

Tanya Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Merchants and Kingship- an interpretation of Indian urban history

Susan Lewandowski

This article focuses on the role of Europeans in the commercial and political growth of the Third World.
There is a colonial bias in the literature on urbanization which claims Asian port cities to be contemporary
versions of the industrial city in nineteenth -century Europe. In the process of generating new cities,
Asian cultures kept on undergoing transformations from within, while keeping in pace with alien
elements introduced by the Europeans.

The author criticized historians for excluding religious institutions from the wider context of political and
economic change. For the study Madras City the fourth largest city was taken which was also the
colonial capital of British South India prior to 1947. Spatial growth of the city was examined and
it was found that large number of temples appear to have been built during this colonial period. .
The study suggest that before the coming of Europeans, Vijayanagara period had an explanation
as to why such institutions were built in huge numbers. It was evident that the Hinduism had a
classical ideology of danadharma (the law of gift). Gift giving was treated as kingly function
and leaders used to spend on these religious activities and rituals not only for ritual
considerations but also for the economic and political control.

In 1639, Nayaka the warrior-king granted British a five-mile site and an area one mile inland for
factory and fort in hope for benefitting from increased commercial profits of European capitalist
expansion. Europeans trading in Asia were particularly dependent on the broker system for
information on marketing patterns. This enhanced the brokers' power as they began to exercise
control over a number of sectors of the urban economy in the course of the 17th century.

Temples in 18th century Madras provided a central focus for settlement. They were surrounded
by ritual square that served as the major ceremonial during processions and on festivals. From
the late 18th century British began expanding outside the fort in the northward direction, in the
course of 19th century this land would house government offices, major private firms, banking
and insurance offices and import- export firms .

After 1857, the British government took direct control and Madras city was directly monitored
from London. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century money that was earned through
commerce was not just invested for modernization but was also put back into the ritual sphere. In
the early twentieth century caste provided a means by which money could be used for new
hospitals, schools, hotels, rest houses and other urban institutions.

Social process of change is not a transformation from tradition to modernity rather it integrates
the new with the old and it is this integration that provides new insights into the linkages that are
there between the urban economy, religious institutions and politics in the major urban centers of
Asia.

You might also like