Work, Life & Leisure Summary Class 10 Social Science Chapter 2

Introduction

• Three historical processes have shaped modern cities in decisive ways:
  • The rise of industrial capitalism,
  • The establishment of colonial rule over large parts of the world
  • The development of democratic ideals.

Characteristics of the City

• Cites were often the centres of political power, administrative network, trade and industry, religious institutions, and intellectual activity, and supported various social groups such as artisans, merchants and priests.

Industrialisation and the Rise of the Modern City in England

• Even after many decades after the beginning of the industrial revolution, most Western countries were largely rural.

London

• By 1750, one out of every nine people of England and Wales lived in London.
• Apart from the London dockyards, five major types of industries employed large numbers: 
  • Clothing and footwear
  • Wood and furniture
  • Metals and engineering
  • Printing and stationery
  • Precision products such as surgical instruments, watches, and objects of precious metal.
• During the First World War, London began manufacturing motor cars and electrical goods.

Marginal Groups
Criminals:

• As London grew, crime flourished.
• The authorities imposed high penalties for crime.

Women:

• With technological developments, women gradually lost their industrial jobs, and were forced to work within households.
• In the twentieth century, women got employed in wartime industries and offices and withdrew from domestic service.

Children

• Large number of children were pushed into low-paid work, often by their parents.
• After the Compulsory Elementary Education Act in 1870, and the factory acts beginning from 1902, the children were kept out of industrial work.

Housing:

• After the Industrial Revolution, factory or workshop owners did not provide house the migrant workers. 
• Poor people live in unhygienic condition of slums.
• After Russian Revolution happened in 1917, there was a widespread fear of social disorder.
  • Therefore, workers’ mass housing schemes were planned to prevent the London poor from turning rebellious.

Cleaning London:

• Large blocks of apartments were built, similar to those in Berlin and New York – cities which had similar housing problems.

Transport in the City:

• The London underground railway was introduced.
• Better-planned suburbs and a good railway network enabled large numbers to live outside central London and travel to work.

Social Change in the City:

• In the industrial city, ties between members of households loosened.
• As women lost their industrial jobs, women were forced to withdraw into their homes.
• The public space became increasingly a male preserve
• In the 19th century, Chartism Movement was a movement demanding the voting rights for all adult males.
• Gradually, women participated in political movements and demanded voting rights and the right to property from 1870s.
• By the twentieth century, women were employed in large numbers to meet war demands.

Leisure and Consumption

• In the late 18th century, several cultural events, such as the opera, the theatre and classical music performances were organised for an elite group.
• In the 19th century, Libraries, art galleries and museums were established.
• By the early twentieth century, Music halls were popular among the lower classes
  • Cinema became the great mass entertainment for mixed audiences.

Politics in the City

• In the severe winter of 1886, the London poor exploded in a riot, demanding relief from the terrible conditions of poverty.
• A similar riot occurred in late 1887, which was brutally suppressed by the police.

The City in Colonial India

• A large proportion of these urban dwellers were residents of the three Presidency cities, Bombay, Bengal and Madras.

Bombay: The Prime City of India?

• Bombay a group of seven islands was under Portugues control
• In 1661, control of the islands passed into British hands.
• Bombay became an important administrative and industrial centre of Western India.

Work in the City

• In 1819, Bombay became the capital of the Bombay Presidency.
• Large communities of traders and bankers, as well as artisans and shopkeepers, came to settle in Bombay.
• Between 1919 and 1926, Women formed as much as 23 percent of the mill workforce.
• By the late 1930s, women’s jobs were increasingly taken over by machines or by men.

Housing and Neighbourhoods

• Bombay did not grow according to any plan.
• Bombay fort area divided between a native town and a European or White section.
• The crisis of housing and water supply became acute.
• Richer Parsi, Muslims & upper caste traders, industrialists lived in sprawling spacious bungalows while working people lived in the thickely populated chawls.
• Chawls are largely owned by private landlords,
  • Each chawl was divided into smaller one-room tenements which had no private toilets.

City Planning

• In 1898, the City of Bombay Improvement Trust was established which focused on clearing poorer homes out of the city centre.
• In 1918, a Rent Act was passed to keep rents reasonable.

Land Reclamation in Bombay:

• In 1784, Willian Hornby approved the building of the great sea wall.
• In 1864, Back Bay Reclamation Company won the right to reclaim the western foreshore from the tip of Malabar Hill to the end of Colaba.
• Between 1914 & 1918, a successful reclamation project was undertaken and famous Marine Drive of Bombay was developed.

Bombay as the City of Dreams: The World of Cinema and Culture

• Bombay Film industry through its movies speak of the contradictory aspects of the city
• First movie in 1896, scene of a wrestling match shot by Sakharam Bhatwadekar.
• Dadasaheb Phalke made Raja Harishchandra in 1913.
• By 1925, Bombay became India’s film capital.

Cities and the Challenge of the Environment

• In industrial cities such as Leeds, Bradford and Manchester, hundreds of factory chimneys discharged black smoke into the skies.
• By 1840 Derby, Leeds & Manchester had laws to control smoke
• The Smoke Abatement Acts of 1847 and 1853, as they were called, did not always work to clear the air.

Calcutta

• The railway line introduced in 1855 introduced a new pollutant-coal from Raniganj.
• In 1863, Calcutta became the first Indian city to get smoke nuisance legislation.
• Bengal Smoke Nuisance Commission largely controlled industrial smoke.