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Urban Government under the Raj A Case Study of Municipal Administration in Nineteenth–Century South India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

John G. Leonard
John G. Leonard
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Extract

Until very recently, scholars of nineteenth-century India have tended to dismiss the role of urban government and politics as trivial or inconsequential. Most have reached their conclusions by studying the formation of policy in London or Delhi, using the private papers of high officials or reports prepared by the Government of India. A standard authority on British policy of this period states that local self-government ‘proved to be a tree which never took firm root. Local self-government never gained major significance in the political history of modern India.’ Local self-government failed, according to another scholar, because ‘… a rigid system of supervision was created, which ran from the smallest municipality up to the Secretary of State for India.’ In his opinion, this control and shortage of funds can be held responsible for the lack of development in ‘… the scope of public services, which were confined to the bare essentials.’ A dreary picture of petty quarreling in municipal government and stagnation in urban services prevails, alleviated only by the appearance of Lord Curzon as Viceroy in 1899 and his efforts to instill some ‘dynamic influence’ into local government. Although the policy of local self-government satisfied neither official aims nor nationalist aspirations, its importance for local politics and administration is now undergoing a major reassessment.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , March 1973 , pp. 227 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

1 Gopal, S., British Policy in India, 1858–1905 (Cambridge, 1965), p. 147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Tinker, Hugh, The Foundations of Local Self-Government in India, Pakistan, and Burma (New York, 1968), p. 59.Google Scholar

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5 Geertz, Clifford has described this process, and its implications for social structure, in The Social History of an Indonesian Town (Cambridge, Mass., 1965).Google Scholar

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11 Dobbin, Christine, ‘Competing Elites in Bombay City Politics in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (1825–83)’, in, Edmund, Leach and Mukherjee, S. N. (eds) Elites in South Asia (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 90–4;Google ScholarIrschick, Eugene F., Politics and Social Conflict in South India; the Non-Brahman Movement and Tamil Separatism, 1916–1929 (Berkeley, 1969), p. 181.Google Scholar Kenneth Gillion has written extensively on municipal administration, with scarcely any reference to politics; see Ahmedabad; A Study in Indian Urban History (Berkeley, 1968), pp. 105–52.Google Scholar

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13 A separate study will deal with the development of political organizations, voting behavior, and social change in Rajamundry from 1880 to 1920.

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27 Government of Madras [GOM], Financial Department, G.O. 1407, 7 July 1883.

28 For a discussion of Education Department officials' activities in the Council, see the author's ‘Kandukuri Viresalingam, 1848–1919; A Biography of an Indian Social Reformer’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1970), pp. 146–98.Google Scholar

29 GOM, Financial Department, G.O. 2034, 20 October 1881.

30 RMB, 3 February 1883, RMRO.

31 GOM, Financial Department, G.O. 2137, 10 September 1884. The term for the Municipal Council before 1884 was Municipal Commission, but for the sake of simplicity I have used Council throughout.

32 See the discussion of the municipal budget on page 246.

33 This is based on the Minute Books for the years 1871–79.

34 RMB, 24 May 1881, 22 December 1883, RMRO.

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36 See footnote 28, loc. cit.

37 See Table 5.

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40 RMB, 1 August 1882, 3 March 1883, RMRO.

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43 The school inspector's political allies were, of course, the college teachers whose private schools he approved and which the municipality funded.

44 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1489 M, 16 September 1891.

45 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1290 M, 20 September 1894.

46 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1471 M, 2 November 1889.

47 Ibid.

48 Madras Civil Lists, 1888–1900.

49 Rajahmundry Municipality Administrative Reports, 1892–93 to 1899–1900, RMRO.

50 GOM, L & M, G.O. 5 M, 7 January 1896.

51 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1290 M, 20 September 1896.

52 GOM, L & M, G.O. 5 M, 7 January 1896.

53 RMB, 12 December 1886, RMRO; GOM, L & M, G.O. 5 M, 7 January 1896.

54 GOM, L & M, G.O. 5 M, 7 January 1896.

55 GOM, L & M, G.O. 2023 M, 8 December 1919.

56 Cf. , Pillay, op. cit., pp. 89–91, 103–5;Google Scholar and Rao, Venkat, op. cit., pp. 56, 336.Google Scholar

57 The municipal administrative reports for every year indicate which streets were paved. The importance of the Telagas as a key voting bloc in Rajahmundry politics is described by Prakasam, T., Na Jivita Yatra (Rajahmundry, 1957), p. 106, passim.Google Scholar

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59 GOM, Financial Department, G.O. 2034, 20 October 1881.

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61 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1489 M, 16 September 1891.

62 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1488 M, 5 October 1900.

63 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1182 M, 11 August 1890; GOM, L & M, G.O. 1743 M, 24 October 1895.

64 See Table 5.

65 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1290 M, 20 September 1894.

66 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1755 M, 14 October 1896.

67 Rajahmundry Municipality Administrative Reports, 1877–78 to 1899–1900, RMRO. Expenditure under any one category fluctuated a great deal from year to year. Due to this fluctuation, I have averaged the expenditure for a five-year period, in the various tables, in order to show the trends over two decades.

68 The average number annually vaccinated at the end of the nineteenth century only represented 6 per cent of Rajahmundry's population, and probably fewer still took advantage of it. The three most popular vaccinations were for cholera, small pox, and diarrhea.

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72 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1339 M, 26 September 1894.

73 GOM, Financial Department, G.O. 2034, 20 October 1881; GOM, Financial Department, G.O. 1120, 6 June 1883; GOM, L & M, G.O. 1339 M, 26 September 1894.

74 Rajahmundry Municipality Administrative Reports, 1877–78 to 1899–1900, RMRO.

75 See Vidich, Arthur and Bensman, Joseph, Small Town in Mass Society (Garden City, New York, 1960), for the importance of road repairs in community politics.Google Scholar

76 Rajahmundry Municipality Administrative Reports, 1881–82, 1885–86, 1891–1892, 1895–96, 1899–1900, RMRO.

77 GOM, Financial Department, G.O. 2034, 20 October 1881; GOM, L & M, 1488 M, 5 October 1900.

78 Rajahmundry Municipality Administrative Reports, 1877–78 to 1899–1900, RMRO.

79 GOM, Financial Department, G.O. 2034, 20 October 1881; GOM, L & M, G.O. 1488 M, 5 October 1900.

80 Venkat Rao, op. cit., p. 247.Google Scholar

81 Increased tax revenue came mainly from the house and property tax, which had risen 150 per cent from 1880 to 1900. Other sources, like endowments or licenses, had declined.

82 GOM, Financial Department, G.O. 975 M, 28 September 1886.

83 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1755 M, 14 October 1896.

84 GOM, Financial Department. G.O. 58, 10 January 1884.

85 GOM, L & M, G.O. 1379 M, 14 August 1908.

86 During my last visit, in January 1971, the main road and adjacent side streets had been dug up in anticipation of installing large drains.

87 The growth of patronage networks and the centralization of political power in Madras during the early twentieth century are described in the studies by David Washbrook and Christopher Baker.

88 Irschick, op. cit., pp. 12–19.Google Scholar For an analysis of nationalist politics using these categories see Krishna, Gopal, ‘The Development of the Indian National Congress as a Mass Organization, 1918–1923,’ Journal of Asian Studies (May 1966), p. 424.Google Scholar The rise of professional men in urban politics is analyzed by Bayly, C. A., ‘Local Control in Indian Towns—the case of Allahabad, 1880–1920,’ Modern Asian Studies (1971), pp. 303–11.Google Scholar

89 Several scholars have studied recently the administrative roles of urban politicians in contemporary India. See especially Rosenthal, Donald B., The Limited Elite (Chicago, 1970);Google Scholar and the papers by Philip Oldenburg on Delhi, Roderick Church on Lucknow, and Rodney Jones on Indore, presented at the American Political Science Association, September 1971.

90 Officials' criticism of these men can be found in GOM, L & M, G.O. 1290 M, 20 September 1894.

91 In 1870, the city of Leeds had purchased its gasworks for £763,225. See Briggs, Asa, Victorian Cities (London, 1964), p. 220.Google Scholar

92 Quoted in Gopal, op. cit., p. 147.Google Scholar