Introducing Society 1 · Section 12

as the experiential aspects of city life. From the film C.I.D. Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan Zara hat ke, zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan Kahin building kahin traame, kahin motor kahin mill Milta hai yahan sab kuchh ik milta nahin dil Insaan ka nahin kahin naam-o- nishaan Kahin satta, kahin patta kahin chori kahin res Kahin daaka, kahin phaaka kahin thokar kahin thes Bekaaro ke hain kai kaam yahan Beghar ko aawara yahan kehte has has Khud kaate gale sabke kahe isko business Ik cheez ke hain kai naam yahan Geeta Bura duniya woh hai kehta aisa bhola tu na ban Jo hai karta woh hai bharta hai yahan ka yeh chalan PARAPHRASE: Dear heart, life is hard here, you must watch where you’re going if you want to save yourself, this is Bombay my dear! You’ll find buildings, you’ll find trams, you’ll find motors, you’ll find mills, you’ll find everything here except a human heart, there’s no trace of humanity here. So much of what is done here is meaningless, it’s either power, or it’s money, or it’s theft, or it’s cheating. The rich mock the homeless as vagabonds, but when they cut each other’s throats themselves, it’s called business! The same action is given various names in this place. The mass of Indian handicraftsmen ruined as a result of the influx of manufactured machine-made goods of British industries were not absorbed in any extensively developed indigenous industries. The ruined mass of these handicraftsmen, in the main, took to agriculture for subsistence (Desai : ). The factory and its mechanical division of labour were often seen as a deliberate attempt to destroy the peasant, the artisan, as well as family and local community. The factory was perceived as an archetype of an economic regimentation hitherto known only in barracks and prisons. For some like Marx the factory was oppressive. Yet potentially liberating. Here workers learnt both collective Activity Note how quickly Britain, the seat of the Industrial Revolution became an urban from a predominantly rural society. Was this process identical in India? : per cent of the population lived in towns and cities. : per cent of the population lived in towns and cities. Significantly the impact of the same process was different in India, Urban centres did grow. But with the entry of British manufactured goods, more people moved into agriculture.