When famine struck Bangalore

It was sometime in 1877 and India was reeling under a terrible famine. The failure of the monsoons in 1875 and 1876 had led to a prolonged drought in south India and people were finding it difficult to make ends meet.

The Mysore Kingdom and other parts of what is Karnataka today too suffered from the lack of rains. There was no food and cattle was dying everywhere. The prices of food grains and other commodities had shot up and people in Mysore State were suffering.

The severe famine in Mysore State which commenced in December 1876 was the result of the failure of  two successive monsoons in 1875 and 1876. Bangalore was a little more fortunate tan other places of Mysore State and south India as it had fairly adequate stocks of food grains and water.

Seeing Bangalore as a much better option, large number of people from Madras Presidency (as present day Tamil was known then), Hyderabad, Travancore, Bombay Presidency and almost all the districts of  north Karnataka migrated to Bangalore.

The migrants found Bangalore a much better place to live in. The Cantonment was a sprawling city, while the Pete was a prosperous native town.     

This was the period when Chief Commissioner C.B.Saunders was administering the State of Mysore and Dr. J.H.Orr was the President of both Bangalore Pete and Cantonment Municipality.

The huge influx of people led to inflation like situation in Bangalore. The prices of food grains shot up four times its usual price and rents too took an upward swing. Vegetables and fruits too became costlier.

Thargurpet, by then, had become the grain market of Bangalore. Hundreds of shops lined the lanes and bylanes of the locality dealing wholsesale and even in retail food grains.

Many people who had migrated to Bangalore from other parts zeroed in on Thargurpet to feed themselves,. While a lucky few managed to get work, others lazed about and took to begging to feed themselves and their families.

By July 1877, the Bangalore municipality recorded 25,000 famine immigrants to Bangalore.      

Though there was no dearth of food grains in Bangalore, traders and merchants made handsome profits, quoting higher prices. Bangalore also became the nodal centre for distributing food grains to other parts of the State. Every day, 400 tonnes to 500 tonnes of food grains came to Bangalore by rail from Madras.

The food grains and other relief materials were dispatched by rail and road and the Government of India nominated Richard Temple as Special Commissioner to monitor such work from Bangalore.

To tackle the situation in Bangalore, the municipality and the Government appointed specially designated people wearing white and blue caps to identify  weak and starving people and bring them to relief kitchens which were set up across Bangalore.

The Government set up three kitchens under the direct supervision of the General Famine Relief committee. These kitchens fed the migrants twice a day in return for work as they were able to perform.

The Government placed Captain Healey and Lieutenant P.E. Anderson in charge of  relief work in the Pete and cantonment respectively. They supervised the distribution of grains to the poor and also helped people to get back their jobs. These two British officials were assisted in their work by local volunteers. A majority of the volunteers were clerks in Government offices in Bangalore.

Local industrialists, philanthropists and leading citizens of Bangalore also helped out by providing food and shelter and even collecting money. Rai Bahadur Arcot Narayanaswami Mudaliar started a woolen mill where boys were provided with food, clothes and taught to work.

 Brahmo Samaaj and the leading trader of Bangalore, Ele Mallappa Shetty fed 30,000 people daily.

Unfortunately, the magnitude of the famine and drought was so severe that thousands died due to starvation and malnutrition in the State. Bangalore too was not spared such deaths. During August 1877, the average number of dead on the streets of Bangalore was 20 and it shot up to 40 in September. In Cantonment, British soldiers were aghast to find bodies of people, including children, lying exposed and partly devoured by animals.

The Government took up several public works like desilting and repair of Dharmambudi tank and the construction of an additional reservoir adjoining and forming a part of the Sampangi tank. The existing tanks dried up and the Government was forced to dig new tanks and lakes.

Hundreds of  weavers and loom workers of Bangalore who had sold their looms worked as labourers in Sampangi tank. Hundreds of craftsmen too sold off their implements and started working in relief works for their daily bread.

The relief works picked up when the Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton, visited Bangalore in September 1877. He reviewed the famine and drought relief works and appointed Sir Charles Elliot as Famine Commissioner to carry out relief operation more effectively.

Lord Lytton also sanctioned the work of laying of railway line between Bangalore and Mysore.

Thankfully, the drought came to an end when rains lashed Bangalore and other parts of  Mysore State in September and October. However, the relief works continued till November 1878. By then, the devastating famine had resulted in more than seven lakh deaths in Mysore State.

Today, this event is called “The Great Famine of 1876–78.” It is also called as the Southern India famine of 1876–78 or the Madras famine of 1877.

The famine began in 1876 and affected south and south west India first and then spread north and also to some regions of the Central and United provinces. The famine ultimately covered an area of 257,000 square miles (670,000 km2) and directly affected  58,500,000 people. The death toll from this famine is estimated between 5.5 million to 29 million.

Many say that the Great Famine may have been caused by an intense drought resulting in crop failure in the Deccan. Another reason is the foolish decision of Lord Lytton to export huge amounts of food grains to England at the cost of local consumption.

The Great Famine completely shattered the British air of superiority. They had taken over the Mysore Kingdom and in 1873-74 they were thinking a State with surplus in all fields back to the Maharaja.

Their slow response to the famine hastened the rendition or the return of power to the Maharaja apart from exposing their sham of all-round development and a State rich in coffers. The late relief measures cost the Government Rs. 140 lakhs and this was nothing compared to the losses of revenue. Moreover, the Government was forced to borrow Rs. 80 lakhs from the Government of India to tide over the financial crisis.

The famine in the Mysore Kingdom is supposed to have left more than a lakh dead and the inadequate and half-baked measures put in place by the British officials left Lord Lytton fuming. Even, Lord Lytton, the Viceroy, despaired of the lack of proper and sustained relief measures. He as moved to write, that there was “cause for anxiety in the general administration of the State” and  that the Chief Commissioner Saunders “was not in control of  the administration.”    

The Cantonment Saheba

There has always been an ongoing debate about the game of cards or rather poker, its origin and whether it is a game of  skill or a game of chance. While card players say it is a game of skill, the police and law enforcement authorities term it as a game of chance. They label it as gambling and clamp down on it.

A few days ago, the Karnataka High Court had ruled that poker is  a game of skill and, therefore, held that it does not come under gambling. The ruling was in response to petitions urging the court to set aside the police action in terming playing cards as gambling and consequently booking cases against the cars players.

Though playing cards or poker is certainly not a modern sport, it was not unknown in India. The Mysore Kingdom under the Wodeyars popularised the Ganjifa cards and one of its Kings, Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, was an expert and he himself designed several Ganjifa cards.

However, the credit for making Bangalore a card playing centre and a city that hosted Western games such as billiards, snooker, golf, football and cricket must go to the British. The Cantonment Saheba was an expert card player, apart from taking to other British customs such as dressing in a typical British fashion, puffing a cigar and eating with a fork and spoon.

All this and more  began sometime in the early 1800s when the British decide to establish a Cantonment in Bangalore. Read on…..

The British, by 1807, had decided to abandon their garrison at Srirangapatna and shift it to Bangalore. They selected an elevated piece of land abutting present day Ulsoor for their Cantonment.

The British consciously decided to allow a physical boundary of a few small tanks, lakes and a garden which later developed into Cubbon Park in the mid 1800s to separate the new establishment from the old Pete.

The old Pete had bad memories for the British and the victory they had achieved over Tipu Sultan in 1791 was bitter sweet as they had lost several British officers and men.

The stubborn resistance that the then Daroga of the fort, Bahadur Khan, had put up against Lord Cornwallis who led the British army in 1791 was still fresh in their minds. The British allowed the Wodeyars to rule over the ruined Pete, while they forced the Wodeyars to part with a large tract of  land which they named as Cantonment.    

Soon, both the Pete and Cantonment grew separately and each had its own unique and distinct identity. If the pete was full of natives, the Cantonment was the most modern British establishment boasting of well-laid out roads, parks, playgrounds, churches, military barracks, a Stately residence for the British Resident of Mysore, tanks and lakes.

The Cantonment needed people to serve the British and such people settled down in and around present day Ulsoor. While only a handful of people from the Pete could come to the Cantonment, which was out of bounds for a vast majority of Indians, the working class at Ulsoor and other localities who were mostly Tamilians, were given more access.   

The two towns-Pete and Cantonment too developed distinct cultures. The dance and ball culture of the British soon appeared on the Cantonment map. It quickly replaced the native song and dance routine, which then found itself flourishing in the Pete.

The drink-dance culture of the Cantonment gave birth to ball dances, football, cricket, cards games, billiards, tennis, boxing, musical soirees, fancy dress balls, domino dances, polo, golf and of course horse races.

BRV was initially a hall where dances were held. Raffles, the dance club, is where Deccan Herald stands today on MG Road. Just a little away from Deccan Herald on MG Road was Tom’s Billiards Parlour.

The Bangalore Palace of the Wodeyars had a highly polished wooden dance floor where Europeans danced regularly to the beat of the Wodeyar Maharaja’s royal orchestra.

The Opera cinema today at the junction of Residency Road and Brigade Road is the place where boxing bouts took place regularly. Crowds from the pete too thronged the bouts. Football matches were regularly played between European teams at the Sullivan grounds.

The first horse races were organised with the help of the Wodeyar Maharaja at Agaram. Europeans outnumbered Indians and all jockeys were British. Pubs and restaurants too began coming up in and around Cantonment.

The Cantonment was essentially Christian in character. Many churches were built and Sundays revolved on morning mass and singing. There were only handful of temples.  

On the other hand, the pete area had to be satisfied with traditional arts and traditional games. The pete area boasted of several Garadi manes where local wrestlers honed in their skills on red earth in Ranasinghpet and surrounding petes.

There were scores of temples in the Pete area and trading in commodities was the main economic activity. Kannada and Tamil apart from Telugu and a smattering of Marathi was spoken in Pete as against English in Cantonment.

If West End and Sullivan’s Inn in Whitefield signified the British eatery, it was left to small hotels to open shop in Pete areas. These hotels initially had distinct area for orthodox and non-orthodox people and they sold only dosa, idlis and vada. Of course, filter coffee was always there.

If the Mysore peta was must for a high ranking local, the Cantonment gentleman was dressed in Western dress.         

Thus the lifestyle in both the cities of Bangalore differed. This distinction led to the birth of  two new categories of fashionable people. One was called Pete Bhoopa and he was a master of the pete and the other was the dandy Cantonment Saheba.

The two entities continued with their different lifestyle and in 1947 both came to be merged as Bangalore. Yet, the merger has not been able to erase the distinction of  the old pete and the snobbery of the Cantonment.

Even today, we see tree lined avenues, broad roads, spacious bungalows, huge churches, well-maintained parks and playgrounds in Cantonment. None of them can be seen in the Pete area, which is highly congested with small and narrow roads, chok-a-block.

In the initial years, the Cantonment outstripped Pete in all aspects, including economy and population. However, the Pete hit back and slowly and surely, it pulled ahead of the Cantonment from the late 1800s.

The growth of Bangalore or rather the growth of the dual cities of Bangalore was unheard of in any other part of India. Soon, people from other states, mainly Tamilians decided to try their luck in Bangalore and they came in hordes. They were encouraged by the British and the Madras Government which wanted to desperately have a piece of the Bangalore pie.   

British officers, sick and tired of the heat of Madras and the orthodox  lifestyle, fought among themselves and used influence to get postings in Bangalore. Some even were willing to become an attendant to the British officer and all this for a posting in Bangalore.

The highly enlightened rule of the Wodeyars in making Mysore an ideal State made people decide to emigrate to Bangalore. Thus, we see that the Pete and Cantonment both gave rise to the migration of people of other religions and regions into Bangalore. No wonder, to this day, Bangalore continues to remain cosmopolitan. It is a cacophony of cultures and people and it continues to remain so. The only people who seemed to have vanished are the Pete Bhoopa and the Cantonment Saheba. In their place today we have the Cantonment educated Bangalorean sprouting a hybrid of English called Inglish and refusing to speak in Kannada. Of course, he goes to MTR but he also visits KFC and Dominoes. He rarely if ever comes to a Cinema hall but prefers the multiplex. Does he watch Kannada films. No, he prefers English and films of other languages to Kannada. Who is he? A legacy of the British Cantonment Saheba or the modern day Bhoopa. 

The bone setters of Bangalore Pete

“We shape our buildings; thereafter, our buildings shape us,”so said Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England and one of the great wartime leaders of all times.

This adage perfectly fits the City of Bangalore and more appropriately this was one of the few cities that the young Churchill lived and wooed his sweetheart at the iconic Waverly Inn in Whitefield, near Bangalore.

Legend has it that Churchill courted Rose Hamilton, the daughter of the inn keeper, James Hamilton. The young soldier that Churchill was then, frequented the inn regularly. Waverly today is one of the oldest houses in the area that still stands. It was owned in 1882 by James Hamilton who owned many properties in Whitefield.

Churchill might have been saying the adage about the building about the Inn in Whitefield. But this adage today is more appropriate to describe old and heritage buildings in Bangalore such as the Kayangadi Papanna Massage Institute in Akkipet, which is perhaps one of the oldest message and bone treatment centres of Bangalore.

The origin of  this building is shrouded in the past which goes back to more than 150 years. Bangalore was then just a small city and the Pete and Cantonment were two different areas. The Pete then comprised of old localities such as Akkipet, Cottonpet, Nagarthpet, Balepet, Chickpet, Ranasinghpet, Doddapet and all the petes had their own Garadi manes or wrestling centres.

It was sometime around 1860 and Tipu Sultan had died on May 4, 1799, leaving the British to meddle with the Mysore Kingdom. The British always had an eye on Bangalore and they coveted the city. However try as they might, they failed to get the Mysore Wodeyars to permanently hand over Bangalore to them.

The only way in which they could lay their hands on a piece of Bangalore was by setting up a Cantonment to station their garrison. When the Cantonment came about, the British began systematically destroying everything Indian and this included indigenous sports, industries, education system and even the social and religious fabric.

Wrestling or Kusti soon went into a tailspin as the British encouraged golf, polo, cricket and football. The number  of garadi manes in Bangalore began decreasing and there were only a handful of people who took to wrestling. Besides, most of the wrestlers shifted to Mysore as the Wodeyar Kings were patrons of Kusti.

Mysore, after the death of  Tipu, saw a resurgence of Garadi manes and man of them exist even today in the royal city. In those days, and I am talking of the period from 1800 to Independence, wrestlers from Bangalore and Mysore competed against each other.

One of Bangalore’s best known pehalwans or Kusti exponents was Kayangadi Papanna. This wrestler initially eked out his living in Bangalore by selling coconuts and he also had a shop in Akkipet selling coconuts.

According to a local legend, Papanna honed in his wrestling skills at the garadi manes and took part in many contests. A remarkably strong person, Pappanna soon earned renown as a foremost wrestler of Bangalore.

His fame spread far and wide and he displayed his skills before the Mysore Maharaja in Mysore where he defeated  more fancied opponents. The then Mysore Maharaja, Chamarejendra Wodeyar, the tenth, conferred the title Ustad on Pappanna in 1876.

By then, Pappanna had set up his own Garadi Mane and even a small clinic to treat injuries that wrestlers got while fighting or practicising.

Slowly, Pappanna retired from wrestling but the reputation of his clinic only began growing. Every year, saw more people flocking to the clinic to get their injuries treated. Over the years, the clinic transformed itself into what is now known as Kayangadi Papanna Massage Institute.

The institute was set up sometime in 1860 and it is today a well-known landmark of OTC Road in Akkipet. The institute is located just after another iconic building- the Tawakkal Mastan Darga.  

Papanna learnt how to make oils and tie bandages from a Muslim of the Pete. Initially, he treated his shishyas or budding wrestlers but his treatment became so popular that people began flocking to his clinic.

Even today, the descendents of Pappanan operate the institute and treat people suffering from a variety of bone ailments. There is no fixed charges but a box is kept nearby where patients are supposed to donate whatever money they can.

The institute has had celebrity patients, including two former Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs and R. Gundu Rao, a Maharaja who had backache and several other distinguished people.

Strangely, neither the buildings nor the OTC road itself which commences from BMP headquarters and goes all the way to Goods Shed Road, have changed in the last two centuries. It is on this road that the Dharmaraya Temple is situated and it is here that the famed Karaga commences.

Today, the institute has four branches and all of them are named after Kayangadi Papanna. However, the pone I am writing about is the Ustad Kayangadi Papanna’s Massage Institute in the Pete area. The address is  276/4, UKP Building, Akkipet Main Road (2287-5156). The timings are:  Monday to Saturday 8.30am-1.30pm and 4 p.m., to 8p m. Sundays 9 a. m., to 1p.m.

Churchill’s adage is an apt comment on the building that houses the institute. The institute today is much better known and more popular that the people who practice bone setting and provide a cure for other ailments. Want to check it out. Then head for the Pete and take in a slice of Indian history and culture. Mind you, the treatment is ayurvedic based and ayurveda is one of the oldest systems of medicine in the world. 

The informal economy of petes

Bangalore today is a bustling metropolis and is better known as the Silicon City. Gone are its earlier names such as Garden City or Pensioners Paradise.

The rapid urbanisation of Bangalore has seen many landmarks and heritage buildings and areas razed to the ground. What many do not know is that the establishment of the Cantonment by the British in Bangalore in 1806 signalled the beginning of the end of the Pete or Pettah area.

When the British decided to shift their troops from Srirangapatna to Bangalore, they compelled the ruling Wodeyar King of Mysore to transfer more than 9000 acres of land near Ulsoor lake to them for building a modern military establishment.

John Blackiston was entrusted with designing of the Cantonment. The British preferred to bring labourers and other people from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and ignored the old Pete or Pettah area which till 1799 was ruled by Tipu Sultan. They preferred to let the Pete area to be handled by the Mysore Government.

The moat around the fort was dried and the thorns surrounding them to a distance of 100 yards removed. The British guarded the Cantonment zealously and did not permit natives from the Pete to enter Cantonment.

Entry to Cantonment was regulated and Indians had to obtain passes to visit Cantonment, which soon became the second biggest garrison of the British in South India. The Cantonment had broad roads, avenue lined trees, lakes and tanks, parks, tastefully designed bungalows and vast open spaces, playgrounds, churches and of course military barracks.

The old pete continued to be grossly neglected. While the Pete areas were highly congested and overpopulated, the Cantonment soon overtook the pete both in terms of population and trade. The revenues of the Cantonment grew and more and more people migrated to the new City. Till 1911, the population of Cantonment continued to outstrip that of the Pete.

It was Kempe Gowda who laid out the petes in 1537 with permission from the Vijayanagar Emperor, Achuta Deva Raya. The Bangalore Pete area, which is rectangular, covers 2.5 km from east to west and 1.5 km from north to south. It was initially laid out north of the fort. Kempe Gowda had segregated each pete according to a particular trade and this continued well into the reigns of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan and even later.

Both Kempe Gowda I and his son Kempe Gowda II invited businessmen, traders and artisans to settle down in Bangalore and each class of traders got a separate pete or locality. This is how Doddapet or big market, Chickpet or small market, Balepet or locality of bangle makers, Akki pete or rice market, Uppara pet or salt sellers area, Kumbara pet or pot makers area, Ganigarapet or oil makers and Arale pet or Cottonpet (textiles) came up.

Bangalore by then had emerged as an important trading centre. The trading activity went into a sharp decline when Tipu prohibited trading with Hyderabad. Arcot and Madras. When Tipu died in 1799, trading was almost non-existent in Bangalore.

However, once the Wodeyars took over the Pete area and the British the Cantonment, Bangalore once again picked up activity in commerce. People living in Pete areas began modifying their dwelling houses into commercial and business establishments. Since the petes had limited space, commercial establishments came up on the ground floor and houses on the first and second floors. Many landmark buildings were either pulled down or converted into business houses. The old palace of Shahaji in Chickpet was demolished to make way for buildings. Several houses, built decades earlier, were either repaired or pulled down to make way for business houses.

Soon, almost all independent houses in the petes made way for commercial establishments and even today the petes such as Balepet, Chickpet, Doddapet, Cottonpet, Mamulpet, Taramandalpet, Ranasinghpet, Nagarthpet, Akkipet and others areas host a variety of  shops, business establishments and commercial outlets.   

The explosion of trade and commerce in the pete areas and the rush of people forced the Government to go in for new layouts which were purely residential in nature and character. The great plague of 1898, which affected the pete, led to the founding of  Basavanagudi and Malleswaram. Other localities soon followed.

Thus, the pete city is the only known example in south India of  transforming itself into a commercial hub. There is no other such example.

Today, the Pete is in the heart of Bangalore and it has a population of over 2 lakhs. It lends itself to diverse land use with residential comprising 37.5 per cent, commercial: 34.6 per cent and industrial: 6.1  per cent. Medarpete is home to more than 500 families of Rajput community, while Muslims predominate Kumbarpete. The pete even today has temples, mosques and even churches, jostling for space with wholsesale traders and small retailers.

The pete has the largest informal economy in Bangalore. A  special feature of the Pete is the concentration of its activities on certain streets and neighbourhoods. The best example is the textile industry of Cubbonpet. Such specialization has encouraged access to information, led to formation of shop owners associations, distilled social regulations such as live-work culture.

One of the best description of the pete is found in Maratha chronicles called Bhaker such as Shiva Bhaker which described Bangalore of the period as a prosperous trading centre, stocked with shops selling goods and merchandise. The British work, “The Military History of Madras Engineers and Pioneers from 1743 up to the Present Time”, compiled by H.M. Vibart (1881). Bangalore as a major trading centre is also described in his work by Francis  Buchanan.

Buchanan visited Bangalore in 1800, just a few months after the death of Tipu in Srirangapatna in 1799 and he gives us a vivid account of Bangalore, Mysore and Srirangapatna. He says Bangalore was known for its varied products and commodities like blankets, cotton, silk, yarn, betel nut, black pepper, sandalwood and salt. He also says Bangalore had several industrial units relating to tanning, oil pressing and gunny manufacture.

Another work on Bangalore is Picturesque India: A handbook for European travelers by W. S. Caine. The Illustrations in the book serialized by The Spectator were by John Pedder, H. Sheppard Dale, and H. H. Stanton.

The book was first published 1890 by G. Routledge & sons, limited. Here, Caine says the pete has handsome houses of prosperous merchants.

Today, the houses may have gone but the trades remain and till the middle of the 20^th century they drove the economy of Bangalore. It was only when big public sector units set shop here and Bangalore became a manufacturing hub that the pete took a back seat.

Even the Government and the agencies have now realized the importance of keeping the Pete tradition and economy alive. The Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Limited has come up with a pre-feasibility report on revitalizing the pete area and reviving its economy.   

The forgotten leaders of Bangalore

Even as our present Mayor, D. Venkatesh Murthy, is continuing in the post well past his tenure thanks to the confusion over the reservation roster, very few people remember some of the earlier first citizens of the City and those who led or headed the civic body of Bangalore.

Initially, Bangalore had two municipalities-one for the Civil and Military Station (Cantonment) and another for the Peetah or Pete area. The history of civic governance goes back to more than 150 years when nine leading citizens petitioned the Government in October 1861 for the formation of a Municipality. On March 27, 1862, the Government accepted the demand and set up the Bangalore City Municipality under the Improvement of Towns Act of 1850.

Later, the Cantonment too got its own municipality and both the civic bodies were legalised in 1881 and continued to function separately till they were merged after Indian attained freedom in 1947.

Since Mayors today are elected and as they do not enjoy a longer tenure, people find it hard to remember their names. Bangalore has had 43 mayors and several presidents and many of them have left their mark but we seem to have forgotten them.

The presidents and vice-presidents of Bangalore Municipality continued till India gained Independence. Their tenure till 1937 was three years. In January 1, 1937, the Government limited the term of the office of president and vice-president to one year.

One of the earliest presidents of the municipality was Captain Cole. In 1862, he set in motion the scheme for formation of sites near the Dharmambudhi tank.

Dr. J. H. Orr was the president of the Bangalore Town Municipality and he took charge on April 3, 1871. He was also first president of both the Cantonment and Town Municipalities between 1875 and 1876. This was when C.B.  Saunders was the Chief Commissioner of Mysore. In 1881 when Rendition took place and the British restored Mysore Kingdom to the Wodeyars, Dr. Orr handed over the charge as president of Bangalore town municipality to L. Ricketts who was the Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore district. (Ricketts was also the Inspector-General of Forests in 1886 and was instrumental in the formation of the Department of Forests. He also the first Inspector-General of Police, Mysore State).

T.T. Leonard was appointed as the president of the Bangalore Town Municipality in 1896. He was heading the civic agency when the great plague of 1898 broke out. He is still remembers for his work in eradicating the dirty practice of digging cess pits and manually cleaning them.

One of the first few names of Indians who led by example and was the president of Bangalore municipality was Arcot Srinivasachar.

An iconic figure more than a hundred years ago, Arcot was the president of the municipality in the closing years of the 19th century and in 1892 he was instrumental in bringing in regulations to protect Cubbon Park by limiting building activity around it.

He had been appointed as vice-president of the municipality in 1883 and later became its president.

He was also among the first officials of his times to go around the City and accept letters and petitions from the public and direct the Municipal staff to take immediate action.

In 1904, the Government appointed, A.S.Nagarkar, a retired superintendent engineer, as president of Bangalore town municipality. He served in the Public Works Department and the Government thought his experience in the department would help him gear up Bangalore to international standards.

K.P. Puttana Chetty (1856-1938) was a member of the Bangalore municipality from 1906 to 1912 and its president from 1913-1919

It was during his tenure that Bangalore experienced an epidemic of influenza and he worked hard with the officials to control it. 

Another leading member of the Bangalore Municipality was B.K. Garudachar. He was instrumental in renovating several temples and was the founder director of State Bank of Mysore apart from being a members of the Bangalore civic body for more than 30 years and its president on at least four occasions. 

Puttanna Chetty’s contribution to Bangalore was so immense and everlasting that people fondly designated him as the Pithamaha of Bangalore. He took keen interest in improving the finances of the municipality. He envisaged construction of  houses for the poor and needy, planned new extensions and also introduced the sewerage system.

B.K. Garudachar (not to be confused with Mr. Garudachar, the distinguished IPS officer and a cricket player by the same name who played for the then Mysore State) was a councillor for 35 years and also the president of the civic agency thrice. He was instrumental in constructing, renovating and refurbishing the Rama (earlier known as Krishna) temple at Tulasi Thotha near Dharmambudi Tank.

He too went around the City just like Arcot Srinivasachar and Puttanna Chetty and attended to the grievances of the people. His humble attitude won over scores of people. If there was a problem requiring intervention by the civic agency, he would personally approach the clerk or official, discuss the problem and get it resolved.  He was first elected president of the municipality in the election held on February 1, 1920.

Mohammad Abbas Khan of Sultanpet, who won the municipal elections, was the president when Sir Mirza Ismail was the Dewan. Khan would accompany Sri Mirza when he went on horseback on his morning rounds in Bangalore.

The first communal disturbance in Bangalore occurred when Abbas was the municipal president. The incident shook the Mysore Government and the Maharaja ordered an inquiry into it of which Sir M.Visvesvaraiah was one of the members. 

R Subbanna was the first mayor of Bangalore following the unification of the Cantonment and Pete areas on December 8, 1949. The Municipality then had 53 members. (The Subbanna Circle in Gandhinagar is named after him). He was followed by N. Keshava Iyengar, a distinguished Hebbar Iyengar. He was the second Mayor of Bangalore and he dropped the caste or sub-caste proclamation in his name and he called himself Keshav. He also persuaded many proprietors of restaurants and tiffin rooms such as “Brahmanara Coffee Clubs and Tiffin Rooms” in Bangalore to drop the Brahmanara prefix. He encouraged them to feed poor and needy students.

It was during his tenure that autorickshaws first came to Bangalore. He was later elected twice to the Lok Sabha from Bangalore North constituency (1951 and 1957).

Another indomitable man was Krishna Iyer. A veteran freedom fighter, he represented Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency during 1984-89. He was elected to the Bangalore City Corporation in 1960 and he was Mayor during 1962-63. He was a founder member of Janata Party.

K Thuppal Narasimha Iyengar Bashyam was another colossus who strode across Bangalore. An advocate, he dropped the prefix Iyengar when told it indicated his caste. He was among the first advocates who proposed that Hindu women rights to property be improved. In 1928, he favoured legislative mechanism to end sex disqualification on the question of Hindu laws of

Inheritance. The then Government bowed in to his demands and set up the Hindu Law Women's Rights Committee

Similarly, some of the eminent men who presided over the Municipal Council of the Civil and Military Station were F. L. Richards and A. R. Cox.

Richards was the President of the station Municipality from October 1908 to November 1912.  He not only started the  Veterinary hospital and Crèche but was among the first to initiate renovation and improvement of Ulsoor tank. He also set up a dairy farm.

Today, he is remembered as the man who lent his name to Richards Town. He was followed by A.R.Cox, who was designated as the collector of C and M station from 1912 to November 1917. The Cox Town locality is named after him. G.H. Cooke was a Collector and President of the Municipal Commission during the 1920s. T.B. Russell was the President of Cantonment Municipality between 1924 and 1928.  L.J. MacIver— after whom MacIver Town was named, was Collector and president of the Municipal Commission  between 1934 and 1937. He was also president of Bangalore Club in 1935-36.

Recent Mayors of Bangalore who worked for improving the City include M.V. Tiwari and J. Lingaiah. They headed Bangalore in the 1970s. Lingaiah was known for his work to improve Bangalore roads. The Sultanpet Main Road is now named Tiwari Road and a road in Gandhinagar is named after Lingaiah.

B. Indiramma was the first woman Mayor of Bangalore. Since then, there have been four other women Mayors-Padmavathi Gangadhara Gowda (1996-97), Prema Cariappa (2000-01), Mumtaz Begum (2005-06) and the first Dalit- Sharadamma (2011-12).  

Another Mayor who left his mark was G. Narayan. He was a freedom fighter and he became the Mayor in 1964. He, along with former mayor V S Krishna Iyer, were instrumental in bringing Cauvery to Bangalore. His contribution to Kannada is immeasurable.

We would be doing a great disservice if we did not mention T R.  Shamanna. Known as Karnataka Gandhi, he is better known as the father of the Bangalore City Council.  He was instrumental in getting the tax on cycles and water abolished.  This earned him the nickname Cycle Shamanna.

He also worked extensively to rid Bangalore of the severe water and power shortage that plagued Bangalore in the early 1950s.

Bangalore-The rains and a history of urban flooding

The recent floods in Uttarakand and other parts of north India, particularly Himachal Pradesh, and years ago in north Karnataka has once again turned the focus on the lack of preparedness of the Governments, both State and Centre and the agencies in dealing with such disasters.

While the defence forces acted with alacrity and dedication, the government, bureaucracy and even local people were found wanting. If the Government and bureaucracy vanished along with the floods, a handful of local people turned parasites and grave diggers, robbing the pilgrims and leaving them at the mercy of  a raging Nature.

While there is no possibility of what happened in Uttarakand taking place in Bangalore, there is little doubt that time is running pout for Bangalore as the powers that be continue to play a game of blind date with Nature.

The politicians, bureaucracy and even the Government has either turned a blind eye or covertly backed encroachment of  forests and grasslands, mine river beds for sand and block natural flow of water.

In Bangalore, there has been massive  and repeated deluge of water from the drains almost every time it rains and the reason is not far to seek, Rampant encroachment, mushrooming illegal layouts, wanton destruction of green cover, throwing filth and debris in rain water drains and blocking it in several places by building structures have led to a situation where even a small shower leads to roads being clogged with water.

However, flooding of Bangalore is not a new phenomenon. Contrary to popular perception, flooding in Bangalore is more than a century old. The first such recorded incident of what is now better known as urban flooding occurred exactly a century ago. It was during the monsoon season of 1912 and Bangalore then had been seeing a particularly wet spell.

It was September 28, and Bangalore that day saw very heavy rains. While the damage in Cantonment was not all that high, houses in Siddikatte (now City Market) and the petes of Bangalore, including Ranasinghpet and Gundopant Street were completely flooded and the waters entered houses and shops, leaving people stranded in knee deep water.

With the rains leaving a trail of  destruction, old Bangalore or the Pettah town looked like a war ravaged city. The then Municipality then swung into action almost immediately and decided to provide food and shelter first to the people.

Interestingly, one of the members of the then municipality was Puttanna Chetty, who later became its president. Sir M. Visvesvara9iah had just taken over as Dewan of Mysore State.

The Municipality realized that the entire infrastructure in the city was almost in shambles. The roads were completely inundated with water and drains were overflowing. Low lying areas were completely flooded and scores of people were marooned.

The municipality shifted the people to choultries and kalyana mantapas and organized food and medicine for the inmates. those associated with the civic administration of the city. The municipality also helped the inmates get their valuables and other necessities from the houses.

To prevent looting and robbery, the municipality took the help of police and posted guards in several areas. The rain havoc was so much that the municipality had to open four choultries to house people and feed them.

The floods receded only after October 2, that is six days after heavy rains lashed Bangalore. The Municipality, on its own, decided to help people rebuild their houses and even offered sites at elevated places. Adequate compensation was give to those who lost their houses.

Bangalore then, the Pettah area, had a population of just about 1 lakhs and it spread over an area of a little over 10 square miles. The Cantonment or the Civil and Military Station was more populated and it was also spread put over a larger area.

Some of the people then blamed the then municipality for the floods. They complained that the first act of the Bangalore Municipality was to dry the moat around the old fort area and drain it of all water and convert it along with Siddikatte lake into house sites.

The residents then felt that the civic agency had also made mistake in allowing construction of houses on plots it sold adjacent to the  Dharmambudhi Tank in Majestic.   

Centuries later, the rains continue to plunge Bangalore into misery and the Bruthut Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) keeps on parroting the same line every year-there will be no flooding this year but this refrain sounds as hollow as ever as no steps have been taken to prevent flooding.

(This is the first in a series of articles on Urban Flooding and Bangalore. The sources of these series of articles are the records, chronicles and books of and on civic agencies themselves such as Central Water Commission (CWC), BBMP BDA, BWSSB, Urban Development Department and studies by IISc, IISEC, Bangalore University and other scientific and research institutions.)   

When Madras wanted a piece of Bangalore and whole of Mysore

Many Bangaloreans, including hordes of computer geeks and software experts, aver that the City has gained recognition in the world for its booming IT and fledging BT industries.

Industry experts and even the State Government brandish statistics to show to the world Bangalore’s image as the IT hub of India and Asia and also as one of the leading software centres in the world.

However, what many conveniently forget is that Bangalore is one of those cities that were known both in India and even abroad centuries before the advent of industrialisation in India.

The story of  Bangalore’s recognition as a strategic, military, social and industrial hub begins towards the fag end of the  eighteenth century when the British killed Tipu Sultan in the fourth and final Anglo-Mysore war of 1799.

The British initially established their garrison in the island fortress of Srirangapatna. But soon, mosquitoes and epidemics did what Tipu failed to do: they dislodged the British and made them run away from Srirangapatna. The British then zeroed in on Bangalore.

Finding Bangalore more like “a spot of England”, the British decided to set up the largest Cantonment in south India in Bangalore.

The beginning of Cantonment was from 1809 and in just a few years, it soon outstripped Bangalore Pettah in both area and population and of course trade and commerce. What began as a garrison soon took on a new hue as a huge and sprawling metropolis peopled by almost all communities, including Kannadigas, Tamlians, Telugu, Maratha, Anglo-Indians, Europeans and of course Britishers.

Initially, the administration of both the Civil and Military areas remained with the Mysore Government. However, in 1811, the Madras Government (East India Company) asked Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar III to transfer the civil and criminal jurisdiction over the assigned areas to them. Thus the British compelled the Mysore Government to transfer administrative powers for the Cantonment tracts to them. The Cantonment then embraced more than 9000 acres of land.

While the area of Cantonment remained at 12½ sq miles and the Maharaja refused to assign more lands or draw a permanent boundary, that of Bangalore town grew every decade. Yet, it was only in the mid 1920s that the population of Bangalore Pettah outstripped that of Cantonment which came to be known as the Civil and Military Station.

Every dignitary who came to Mysore, be it a Maharaja or an East India Company officer or British citizen, like Thomas Macaulay, came to Bangalore and enjoyed the salubrious climate.

Very soon, the Cantonment became a model British township. It had huge bungalows, military barracks, polo grounds, business and military establishments, churches, lakes and tanks.

Many Governors-General of India who visited Mysore also came to Bangalore and were charmed by our City’s climate, which they found so refreshingly similar to that of England. The sweltering heat of Madras, then the seat of power of  East India Company, was a sharp and discordant contrast to the cool and naturally air-conditioned environs of Bangalore.

Bangalore was also strategically located and was easily accessible from Madras and Hyderabad provinces or the Baramahal areas directly administered by the British after the bifurcation of the Mysore Kingdom in 1799.

With Bangalore transforming itself  into a major garrison centre and the playfield of British and Europeans, trade and commerce too grew alongside education.         

The rapid growth of Bangalore led to the then Governor-General of India, Lord William Bentinck (1833-1836)  to write a secret letter to the Directors of East India Company on April 4, 1834, suggesting that Bangalore and surrounding areas be permanently ceded to the British Government.

The letter was kept a closely guarded secret and Bentinck wanted Bangalore to be made the capital of south India. He not only refers to the salubrious climate of Bangalore but also its vantage position in the Deccan.

Though the letter was well received, the directors choose not to press the Mysore Maharaja on the issue. The directors realized that the entire administration of the princely state of Mysore had come under the British after 1831 and they thought no purpose would be served  if  they went ahead with the full and complete bifurcation of Bangalore and surrounding areas from the Kingdom.

By then, Bangalore had become the capital of the Kingdom and Mysore continued only as the headquarters of the Wodeyars. The British then continued to nurture Bangalore and the office of the Commissioner which later became the office of the Resident of Mysore too was shifted from Mysore to Bangalore.

Bangalore Cantonment came directly under the rule of the Commissionerate whose office too was in Bangalore.

Even after Bentinck’s plan of taking over Bangalore directly under the British fold failed, The Chief Commissioners Bowring made frantic and repeated efforts to ensure that Mysore became a province of the British Empire and that the Kingdom would never be given back to the Wodeyars. In this, Bowring was aided substantially by the Madras Government which desperately wanted Mysore to come under its jurisdiction.

In 1861, the foreign office of  the British India Government fell into the trap laid by the Madras Government and handed over overall charge of Mysore State, including Bangalore to it. The Madras Government drew up plans to integrate Mysore State with it. However, protests by the Maharaja and the resignation of the then Commissioner Mark Cubbon who protested against the move, led to the Governor-General quickly withdrawing the order.

Several British officers and the Madras Government then began persuading the Maharaja to bequeath the state to the British. The Maharaja enlisted the help and support of liberals and the intelligentsia to get back his Kingdom. Their pressure on the British Government in England and the local campaign in the Mysore State forced the British not to annexe Mysore. The raging debate in England over the unfair manner in which the Maharaja had been made to hand over the reigns of administration of  the Kingdom also stalled the British and Madras Government desire for making Bangalore a part of their province.

However, all the British plans came to naught in 1881 when the British were forced to return the Kingdom they had so unfairly taken from the Wodeyars. The Madras Government too backed down and it was made to eat humble pie. Infact, the entire rendition-takeover of Mysore state by the British-was a carefully devised strategy by the Madras Government to wrest control of Mysore.

The Madras Government had deliberately misled and lied to the office of the Governor-General stating that Mysore had defaulted on payment of annual amount as part of the subsidiary alliance. The Madras Government deceived Lord Bentinck so thoroughly on the issue that he ordered the take over. It was only when the accounts were examined, it was found that Mysore had never defaulted on the payment.

When Bentinck realised the truth, it was too late. He then immediately wrote to the Directors of the East India Company and suggested that the Kingdom be returned, the Directors thought it fit to ensure that the British ruled Mysore for sometime before handing it back.

Till his death, Bentinck had only one regret. He repeatedly said that the only mistake he had ever made in India was to listen to the Madras Government and take over the administration of Mysore. Need more to be said on the issue. We rest the case here itself.       

Today’s generation have forgotten this story. They have also perhaps forgotten that before Bangalore was known as the IT capital, it was the hub of manufacturing industry and the city with the most number of public sector units. It was also well-known for its textiles and trading.          

When Cantonment refused to merge with Bangalore

The Cantonment today-it was the Civil and Military Station till 1947- is an integral part of  Bangalore and in some ways it can be called the perfect showpiece of  Bangalore’s urban planning.

Even today, the Cantonment differs with the rest of the City as it is characterised by broad roads, tree-lined avenues, large footpaths, looming spires of churches and military establishments which are an oasis of calm and green cover.

At one time, MG Road, the erstwhile South Parade, was the jewel in the crown of Cantonment. Much of South Parade’s British links have disappeared over the years  but some vestiges still exist.

Many of the roads and localities in the Cantonment bear British or European names, a testimony to the British administration of the Cantonment ever since its founding in 1806 till the Indian Independence in 1947.

It was only after August 15, 1947 that the Government passed a bill merging both the Cantonment and Bangalore Petta areas. Till then, Bangalore was a city of two municipalities and two administratively controlled areas-the Cantonment directly by the British and the Pettah by the Mysore Government of the Wodeyar Kings.

But what many are not aware is that several decades ago, residents of Cantonment, including European living in the locality, vehemently opposed the idea of  merging their area with Bangalore City.

Many residents, including several well-known personalities, opposed the move by the Mysore Government seeking merger of both the municipal bodies of Bangalore which were then to come under the jurisdiction of the Wodeyars.

The story of this rather strange episode in the history of Bangalore City starts in 1927 when the British Government appointed a commission to look into constitutional reforms in and for India. Its actual name was the Indian Statutory Commission and it had seven British members of Parliament as its members, including Clement Atlee, who decades later became Prime Minister of United Kingdom and oversaw the transfer of power to India in 1947.

Since the Commission was headed by Sir John Simon, it came to be known as Simon Commission. It published its 17-volume report in 1930, proposing among others the abolition of diarchy system of governance and the establishment of representative government in the provinces. It also recommended that separate communal electorates be retained until tensions between Hindus and Muslims had died down.

It suggested the formation of an all-India federation in which British Indian provinces and native Indian states (princely dominions) would join as members. The Wodeyars of  Mysore initially declined to enter the federation but reversed their decision only of the annual subsidy of Rs. 35 lakhs it was paying to the British was abolished. This subsidy had been a burden on the kingdom ever since the British gave back the seat of power to the Wodeyars after the fall of Srirangapatna in 1799.

Another condition that Mysore put forth to join the dominion of India was that the Civil and Military station (Cantonment) should be handed over to it.

The then Dewan of Mysore, Sir Mirza Ismail, on January 29, 1933, submitted a memorandum to the then Viceroy Willingdon (Major Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, 1931-1936) seeking merger of Cantonment with Mysore. The Dewan’s argument was simple. The Mysore State could not have another independent entity within its own kingdom and since Bangalore was being run independently by the British, it was a blot on the dignity of the Maharaja and the pride of the people.

The recommendations of the Simon Commission and the memorandum of the Dewan soon created a furore in Bangalore. While the Pettah welcomed the developments, Cantonment appeared shocked and soon began leading a movement against its merger.   

Some Muslim residents of Cantonment decided to hand over a memorandum to the Resident of Mysore Lt Col G.T.C.Plowden. They said they were opposed to the merger as the Mysore Kingdom did not have jurisdiction over them. They claimed that the Wodeyars got the Kingdom only after the death of Tipu Sultan in Srirangapatna in 1799. The Kingdom should have been rightly handed over to the sons of Tipu Sultan and not to the Wodeyars, was their refrain. A more serious claim made by them was that their language, religion, culture and tradition was distinct and that they were at stake in Mysore.

It also charged the Mysore Government of neglecting the Muslims and not caring for them and their culture and heritage. However, several other leading Muslims of  Mysore such as S.G. Mohiyuddin of the Daily Al Kalam, an Urdu newspaper from Bangalore, and Mohammad Abbas Khan denied the charges made against the Mysore Government.

However, the idea of a merger was not an easy issue to digest for even other people. Initially, even the Anglo-Indians and the Congress Party unit of  the Civil and Military station opposed it.

The Bangalore Traders Association also protested against it and submitted a memorandum. The issue gathered so much momentum that it even figured in a debate in the House of Commons in Britain on May 7, 1934. It was then that  Major-General Sir Alfred William Fortescue Knox (1870-1964), a  career British military officer and later a Conservative party politician,  suggested reconsidering of a 'policy which would place thousands of Europeans and Anglo-Indians unwillingly under the rule of an Indian state. The then Secretary of State for India, Sir Samuel Hoare (1889-1959), closed the debate when he agreed that there were negotiations about the civil station but none about the military station.

The Resident of Mysore, Lt Col G.T.C.Plowden, said only a  partial retrocession of the civil and military station had been agreed upon. He clarified that Parade grounds. South Parade, Shop area, parts of Ulsoor and all the military barracks and military establishment would not be merged into Mysore.

With both Hoare and Plowden standing firm on the issue of partial merger, demands began to be made by several communities seeking safeguards. When this was brought to the notice of the Dewan, he assured full cooperation from the Mysore Government and promised all steps and necessary safeguards to assuage the feelings of the residents of Cantonment.    

Interestingly, DVG or D.V. Gundappa was among the many people who took on the no-merger group. DVG took to task the people who were opposed to the merger and reminded them that it was Bangalore they were talking about and not some distant province. He also questioned the rationale of  a Cantonment in the 20^th century.

Even as the debate was hotting up, the second world war broke out. Soon, the issue along with several others was brushed under the carpet and it died a natural death. However, the two entities continued: the C and M station ruled by the British and the Pettah by Mysore.

On July 19, 1947, almost a month before Independence, the British Government began the process of transferring the control of  establishments in Bangalore to Mysore State. The then Resident of Mysore, Walter Cambell, oversaw the transfer. The first institution, which they transferred to Mysore was the Indian Institute of Science. On June 26, they transferred the civil area to Mysore and the C and M station on August 14, 1947. Cambell left for England on August 15.

Soon there came only one municipality and the two areas were merged to form the corporation of the city of Bangalore.   

When the twin cities became one

Generally when two cities grow near each other or in close proximity with each other, they are labeled as twin cities. In India, one of the best known twin city is Hyderabad and Secundrabad in Andhra Pradesh. Both these cities have managed to retain their distinct identity and made a name for themselves.

In Karnataka, the cities of Gadag-Betagiri is among the most known. Both Hyderabad-Secundrabad and Gadag-Betagiri have retained their entity and distinctness. However, till 1947, Karnataka had one more twin city that was separated by a beautiful park and a huge body of water. If the older part of the city was ruled by a native prince, the newer part was controlled by the British.

Both the older city and the newer part had separate administrators and each had their own municipality and rules governing them. Each developed separately and till Independence they each retained their identity.

It was only after August 1947 that both the cities were merged and today both are an integral part of the bigger conglomerate of  Bangalore. The old city, till 1947, was called the Pettah or Pete area and the new British area was called the Cantonment.

Even today, the Cantonment retains vestiges of  British style of planning and architecture and the Pettah area the Indian style. Surprisingly, till the late 1920s, it was the British built Cantonment that had more population and also collected more revenue from levy of taxes on people than its Pettah neighbourhood.

The history of old Bangalore or the Petah goes back to several centuries and the discovery of Roman coins have proved that Bangalore was an important trading centre even during the Roman times. Inscriptions of the Nolambas (they ruled over large parts of Kolar and Bangalore), Gangas, Cholas and Hoysalas prove that Bangalore was a fairly well-populated city and it was also an important military centre during the middle ages.

It was, however, Kempe Gowda or Hiriya Kempe Gowda (1510-1569), who gave a push to Bangalore and made it politically significant.  His descendent, Kempe Gowda, the third, had to surrender Bangalore to the Adil Shahis in 1637 and retire to Magadi.

Bangalore from 1637 to 1686 remained under the Adil Shahis of Bijapur. During that time, the Adil Shah granted Bangalore as a Jagir to Shahaji, the father of Shivaji. In 1687, the Mughals under Quasim Khan captured Bangalore and then sold it for Rs. 3 lakhs to Chikadevaraja Wodeyar.

The Marathas once again captured Bangalore in the mid 1700s. Their claim to Bangalore lay on the fact that Bangalore along with Kolar, Doddaballapur, Chikaballapur, Hoskote and Kanakagiri was part of  Shahaji’s jagir. Hyder wrested Bangalore from the Maratahs and his son Tipu held it till his death in Srirangapatna on May 4, 1799.

After Tipu’s death, Bangalore initially was held by the British. The British restored the Mysore throne to the Wodeyars and established their Residency in Mysore city itself. They later shifted the Residency to Bangalore in 1804. The Residency was abolished in 1843 and revived in 1881. It survived till 1947.

The British planned a Cantonment to house their troops in Bangalore and construction of this township started in 1806. The Cantonment was planned away from the Pettah area and the British compelled the Wodeyar King to hand over the vast area covering the present Ulsoor to them. It was divided from the Pettah by Cubbon Park and Sampangiramanagar tank.  

In just a few years, both the Pettah and Cantonment began developing in contrasting styles and soon they became among the first twin cities in Karnataka.

The Cantonment had broad and clean streets and footpaths and huge bungalows. The military were housed in barracks surrounded by rolling lands. The British introduced gardens to the city by surrounding their houses and offices with flowers and fruit trees. The localities came to be well laid out and beautifully designed.

In sharp contrast, the Pettah area continued to be “dingy, dark and ugly.” The roads were narrow and winding. The houses were small. Sanitation was almost absent. The drains were narrow and mostly clogged. Since the Pettah was under the control of the Wodeyars, all decisions could be taken only in Mysore. The decision making process thus was delayed unlike the Cantonment which enjoyed a free hand.

The old Bangalore had more temples and more historic structures than the Cantonment. On its part, the Cantonment had more churches and educational institutions.  If the Pettah was the epitome of a typical Indian city, the Cantonment had an European flavour.

While drinking water to Bangalore was from several lakes and  tanks like Dharmambudhi and Sampangi initially and Hesaraghatta and Thippagondanhalli reservoir in the later period, water to Bangalore Cantonment was mainly supplied from Ulsoor, Millers tank, Sankey tank and Shoolay tank.

When Bangalore was under the Wodeyar rule for 68 years from 1690 to 1758, it was governed by administrators known as Parupathegars. There were 26 such administrators who governed Bangalore.

In 1758, Immadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the second, gifted Bangalore as a Jagir to his able Commander Hyder Ali. Under Hyder and Tipu, the Kannada speaking Parupathegars were replaced by Muslim Amildars.

When Bangalore came back to the Wodeyar fold again in 1799, it came to be ruled directly by them. Thus, the history of the two cities began unfolding in distinct ways. It was on March 27, 1862 that Cantonment got its municipality. It was called Bangalore City Municipality (BCM).  This municipality was set up under the provisions of the Improvement of Towns Act of 1850. The first nine members of the municipal board comprised Indian officials, non-officials and British officials.

A few years later, the pettah too got its municipality. The two bodies were legalised in 1881, but both continued to function independent of each other. In 1882, the system of election was introduced to induct non-official members in the municipality. The same year saw the introduction for the time property tax on houses and business establishment.

The British also conferred the right on property tax payers to become eligible to elect non-official members to the board of each of the two civic bodies. It was only in 1920 that the British agreed on the idea of electing a president.

Thus the president was the same for both the municipal boards and this system was in force till 1949, after which the two boards were legally merged to form the Corporation of the City of Bangalore, Now it is the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.

Dr. J.H.Orr was the first to head both the Bangalore and Cantonment municipal bodies.

When a census was conducted in 1891, the population of Cantonment outstripped that of Bangalore, As per this census, Bangalore had a populace of  80,285. Of this, 67,388 were Hindus and Jains, 10,472 Muslims and 2,425 were Christians. In  contrast, the Cantonment’s population was 1,00,081. Here, the Hindus including Jains numbered 58,251, Muslims 23,892 and Christians numbered 17,902. Of the Christians, 4,985 were classified as Europeans, 2,649 Eurasians and the rest Indian Christians.

However, till the mid 1920s Cantonment outstripped Bangalore in both population and collection of taxes, particularly octroi. Till 1923, the area of Cantonment exceeded that of Bangalore and it was only in later years that Bangalore expanded rapidly.  

The following table shows the comparative population of both the municipal bodies.  

Year	Population of Bangalore Pete	Population of Bangalore Cantonment
1901	69,447	83,599
1911	88,651	1,00834
1921	1,18,556	1,18,940
1931	1,72,357	1,34,113
1941	2,48,331	1,58,655
1951	5,00,786	2,78,191

So we see that Bangalore Pete began developing only from the mid 1920s and since then there has been no looking back. Today, Bangalore is the fifth largest municipality in India and it was only  Independence that brought both the entities together.