Tracing India’s urban journey in 75 years

India is celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav as it completes 75 Years of its Independence this August 15. I was born around the same time. I also turned 75 this August and this fortunate coincidence enabled me to witness the evolution of our country in different spheres. I grew up seeing the experiments and transitions in our national politics, economy, science and technology, urban development, governance, and many other areas. Since my interest and work have been around local governments and cities, I share some of my observations from this journey

Cities have always been important for political and economic reasons. As India gained independence, Indian political leaders started deciding the course of development for the nation. We all know that independence also brought the partition pangs. India lost many of its cities and citizens in the partition and witnessed mass exodus that followed with brutal killings on each side.
Many of our cities including Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata were full of people coming from Pakistan. The national capital itself had a huge influx of people from Punjab, Sindh and North West Frontier Provinces of Pakistan. People were seen living on the streets or in camps. Later government allocated refugees land in different cities. West Delhi was one of the areas in the national capital where refugees were given land to settle.
During those days, India was largely a rural country. Only a little over 17 per cent of people lived in cities. The size of our cities was also not big. For example, Delhi’s population was a mere 696,000 in 1947. But because of the population shift, if we look at the growth of population in Delhi between 1941-51, it was about 7.5 per cent annually. The population of Delhi was registered at about 1.4 million in 1951. It was unusual and unprecedented. Such a sharp increase has not been recorded ever since.
The national capital was also not as sprawling as it is today. It covered a limited area of Shahjahanabad. Other places, which are posh localities of Delhi today, were scattered villages with agricultural land in between. Sohail Hashmi writes in his article for the Wire, “To the south and detached from the city of Shahjahan was New Delhi; to the west and just outside the city wall was Paharganj, Qarol Bagh (Now Karol Bagh) and Sadar Bazar and to the east was the Jamuna river across which was the old settlement of Shahdara. The rest was degraded forests, rocks jutting out of the ground, ancient villages interspersed with agricultural land and the ruins of old cities, Tughlaqabad, Purana Quila, Bijay Mandal and Siri.” Other cities were in a similar state.
Other Indian cities were emerging as economic and industrial activities were spreading in cities. The rate of urbanization was not fast in those times and was limited to a couple of cities only. Cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai were the major cities. More people started migrating to these cities. As cities grew, managing our urban spaces became tough. There were several committees made to study the requirements and based on recommendations, many state governments formed municipalities.

Local Governments in 75 Years

The history of local governments in Indian cities is quite old. The corporation of Madras is the oldest municipal corporation in India as it was established in 1688. It was renamed Chennai Municipal Corporation in 1996. Kolkata Corporation came up in 1726; followed by Bombay Municipal Corporation, now known as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, in 1889.
Other Indian cities had local governments in various forms—municipal corporations, cantonment boards, district boards, welfare boards, ward committees, etc. Later in 1949, India adopted the Constitution. Indian Constitution had specifically mentioned village panchayats in Article 40 under the Directive Principles of State Policy. It says, “the State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.” However, there was no specific reference to Municipal Corporation or any ULB except implicitly in Entry 5 of the State List, which places the subject of local self-governments as a responsibility of the states. India established local government institutions but these did not have any constitutional validity. There was no major reform in the way municipal corporations were governed and elected. There was no uniformity in India. Every state did as they found it feasible. India is indeed 75 years old but our local governments are still young as the third tier of governments. With the passage of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in 1991-92, local governments and the way they were governed changed.
The fundamental premise of amending the Constitution was to ensure timely elections of the local governments along with empowering them with financial and administrative authority. One of the major transformations that these CAAs brought was a compulsory representation of women in local governance. It mandated 33 per cent reservation for women in urban and rural local bodies. Since it is a state subject, several states increased women’s reservation in local governments up to 50 per cent.
The Government of India notified 74th CAA on June 1, 1993, from which the said Act came into force. A new part IX-A relating to the Municipalities has been incorporated in the Constitution to provide for among other things, the constitution of three types of Municipalities, i.e., Nagar Panchayats for areas in transition from a rural area to urban area, Municipal Councils for smaller urban areas and Municipal Corporation for large urban areas, fixed duration of municipalities, the appointment of state election commission, the appointment of state finance commission and constitution of metropolitan and district planning committees. Under the 12th Schedule, there are 18 functions which were to be transferred to the cities for management and administration. It was a major reform in the local government sphere.
However, local governments in India are still in need of major reform and empowerment. According to a task force report on the review of the 74th CAA, it was found that cities are run by parastatal bodies and consultants. There are some good examples too. The Mayor in Council system akin to state or union cabinet for deciding on civic matters is a good practice in West Bengal and some other states. As we always hear, cities are engines of growth. I must underline that then local governments are the ones which can provide refined fuel that could propel this engine and take our cities and nation to greater heights of success and prosperity. We must strive for the best and think of making Indian cities models for the world when we celebrate our 100 years in 2047.

In 1947, the national capital had a huge influx of people from Punjab, Sindh and North West Frontier Provinces (NWFP) of Pakistan. During those days, India was largely a rural country. Only a little over 17 per cent of people lived in cities. The size of our cities was also not big. For example, Delhi’s population was a mere 696,000 in 1947. But because of the population shift, if we look at the growth of population in Delhi between 1941-51, it was about 7.5 per cent annually. The population of Delhi was recorded at about 1.4 million in 1951. It was unusual and unprecedented. Such a sharp increase has not been recorded ever since