protective contexts of guild, village, and family. Both the radical and conservative thinkers were appalled at the decline of the status of the common labourer, not to mention the skilled craftsman. Urban centres expanded and grew. It was not that there were no cities earlier.
But their character prior to industrialisation was different. The industrial cities gave birth to a completely new kind of urban world. It was marked by the soot and grime of factories, by overcrowded slums of the new industrial working class, bad sanitation and general squalor. It was also marked by new kinds of social interactions.
The Hindi film song on the next page captures both the material as well From working class neighbourhoods to slum localitites 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