Colonial cities and tea plantations

The great coastal cities of colonial India, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, grew because they suited British needs. They were the links between the core (Britain, the industrial centre) and the periphery (India, which supplied raw materials and bought finished goods).

• By 1900, over three-quarters of India's raw cotton was shipped out through Bombay.
• Calcutta exported raw jute to the mills of Dundee in Scotland.

Kolkata's story: in 1690, the English East India Company, under Job Charnock, leased three villages and set up a trading post. It built Fort William and cleared the open ground around it, the Maidan. The city that grew was divided:

• the European town, with wide roads, water supply, drainage and lighting;
• the native town, crowded, with poor water and sewage services.

The difference showed the inequality of colonial rule.

Tea plantations in Assam show the human cost. Planters needed workers, but few would go willingly to the distant, malarial hills. So labour was recruited by fraud (false promises of easy work and good pay) and coercion, backed by penal laws that punished workers who tried to leave. Many died of disease and harsh conditions.

The planters lived very differently: in large bungalows, with an army of servants, clubs, sport, and every comfort, from wine to pianos, brought up the river by steamer.

The contrast between planters and labourers sums up colonial society. Colonial interests decided where cities and industries grew, and who benefited.