Bangalore In Black And White

Bangalore'’s Twentieth Century: The Promise Of The Metropolis
By Janaki Nair
Oxford University Press
Pages: 454; Price: Rs750

Review
Bangalore In Black And White
Subroto Bagchi, Business World

Silicon Valley and Bangalore have several interesting similarities. Good weather, a fruit-growing past, proximity to seats of learning, military bases, lack of historical sig-nificance of any tangible kind and a sense that the place does not really belong to anyone.

Janaki Nair, a professor of history at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, has written a scholarly book, The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore's Twentieth Century. It tells us that the historically inconsequential region, successively dominated by the Gangas, the Cholas and the Hoysalas, was formally shaped as Bengaluru only in the 16th century by Kempegowda, a Telugu warrior chieftain.

Bangalore has retained that sense of non-belonging ever since. It is at once the reason of her present day success and the cause of her alienation. The greatest thing about the average Kannadiga is that he has not begrudged the making of Bangalore as a city that took into her fold people from everywhere, with open arms (Remember, it is not easy for a local people to allow a meta identity to emerge on their own soil). That gave Bangalore a certain diversity, without which, it would not have emerged as the Silicon Valley of Asia.

In a similar sense, the 50-mile stretch on Highway 101 between San Francisco and San Jose did not belong to people of any one identity; to be there, you just had to love technology. Nair's meticulous research and her powerful and largely unbiased narrative brings alive the spatial history of Bangalore through the ages.

She covers the British era in detail and, thereafter, the city's post-Independence journey from the days of public sector domination to its iconic rise on the international IT scene in the last two decades, dwelling at length on how the city dealt with issues of language, religion and gender over time.

But this is no dull commentary. The author also tells us about the economic history, the changing socio-political milieu and the spatial emergence of Bangalore. The effect is like watching a black and white film (incidentally, all the photographs in the book are deliberately black and white) in which the characters come and go. Each time they make their appearance, the author provides a close-up of the times they lived in with vivid tales. One such is the story of K.T. Appanna's hotel that was run by and for Brahmins. The plague, in the beginning of the last century, forced many to send their families away. For the menfolk who stayed back, food became an issue. Brahmins wouldn't eat in hotels, which were regarded as forbidden places. So, Appanna's hotel was started exclusively for them. At its entrance, patrons had to establish their identity, and to those who had a secular forehead, ash was offered to mark caste!

Speaking of forbidden places, the author takes us through the story of Judge Narahari Rao, a patron of the famous singer Nagarathnamma. The judge had permission from his wife to visit the singer, but the Dewan, Seshadri Iyer, objected to his visits to the singer's house in the official coach, complete with a mace-bearing peon. A truce was struck when the judge shifted his pleasure court to what was later called 'Mount Joy'.

The central theme of the book, however, is about space: how the use of space shifts in time and is used by people in different times in a different manner, how space often changes people and how people change their space. Nair recounts the rent strike by the Mass Awakeners Union in 1937 when rents were raised from one eighth of a rupee to one fourth, and she also tells us about the uneven relationship between Hindus and Muslims over time. She recounts the days of public sector trade unionism and, finally, the emergence of the citizen as a stakeholder through the more recent Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) initiative. She brings up interesting conflicts that emerge when a city embraces the concept of a masterplan and explains why Bangalore cannot be, or need not be, Singapore.

The book is a must read for anyone who loves Bangalore. It is also highly recommended for people who are interested in the history of cities. Increasingly, we find that countries are known for the cities they build and the institutions they create. This phenomenon is not without its attendant discord but for now, the city is the state. Nair clearly loves her work and does it well. I only wish that she would write a shorter, easier book that can engage a broader section of readers. The book lends itself well to a documentary film on the city. I do hope that someone will take up such a project some day.

Subroto Bagchi is co-founder & COO, MindTree Consulting, Bangalore