clock tower of cawnpore woolen mills. one of the landmark of kanpur, india
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Conversations with my Mother
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| Maa |
It was hot and humid. Must be around 8:15 in the morning. I was having my cup of coffee; my mother (I still call her “Maa”) was busy with newspapers and her cup of tea. I don’t know why, but I just asked her what does she thinks of the film I am planning to make. We started talking. I just kept my cup on the floor and rushed to get my handy-cam. Here is the first part of transcript of that conversation we had. Interestingly it brought out her experiences, issues and her opinion about the city, family and Mills.
Apart from being my mother she is…
1. Resident of the city.
2. Daughter of a freedom fighter
3. Wife of a businessman
4. A businesswoman
5. And mother of my brother as well.
Before the transcript of the interview, a little background about my mother. Born “Usha Shukla in 1954, in a middle class Brahmin “Shukla” family, she was the youngest in the family with two elder brothers and an elder sister. She is still very proud of her father being a freedom fighter. All brother and sisters had their mothers influence (as I think all of us have). As children they all were persuaded to study hard as it would help them in making a decent living. The family owned a sweet shop in the traditional “Khoya Bazaar” (old area of the city majorly filled with wholesale shops). They lived in a joint family, with their “Chacha’s” family (Paternal Uncle). Even after splitting they all are really close today.
Maa: Wait let me get ready, what everyone will say, your mother knows nothing.
Me: It’s ok!
Maa: One day your kids will see this, what will they say:”was our grandmother an idiot”. I don’t want to make a fool out of myself.
Me: Maa why are you reading my questionnaire, that’s for me.
Maa: why not? I can read it. I am 1954 born and I am still there, I understand.
After some hiccups we started…
Me: How was it like growing up in the city, your growing years?
Maa: What do you mean growing years?
Me: What was city like when you were growing up, what was the Ethos at that time?
Maa: It was different then, like, trees on the both sides of guarded streets you see. Parrots and birds chirped all day. My mother woke me up by saying birds are up its time you also get up from bed. Now people don’t talk much, now even neighbors don’t talk. Earlier people were happy, you could see people talking to each other in the morning. You could see children playing and sleeping in the mornings. Now you see children in uniform and parents running to leave them. Earlier children were lazy and playful.
Me: So what do you remember of mills.
Maa: ya! We use to go to schools walking and we saw hundreds of mill workers on their cycle. It always was like this, simultaneous children on foot, workers on cycle. City was lively. Live was lively …”raunak thi”. Not like today, where all you find is dead faces, fearful faces, and ‘yellow’ faces. Workers Tiffin’s had food in it. They ate together, they talked together…they lived together. Now I get news from T.V channels, earlier there was exchange of thoughts. Shops in neighborhood had everything of need, there weren’t big malls. Not even many schools, children from all classes studied together. (Upper class/Middle Class/ Lower Class). As I remember there was not much discrimination. Nowadays the gap is bigger than ever before, gap between people, even in families.
She continues:
Maa: I started my education in a municipal school (Gyan Bharti inter college) it was ok In 9th I took science and started with English medium, that was a big achievement for me because I studied “A, B, C” in 6 standard for the first time. I got good marks in class 12th so I got admitted to Christ Church College, it was considered to be one of the best at that time. I had good circle of friends. They belonged to every class (economic & social), but I never felt complexed, as children of today.
Me: What was your family status?
Maa: You could call us middle class. We ate good food. We dint spend much on clothing. Even as kids we were not very concerned about our clothing. We just studied. My Mother was very concerned for our studies. As my father was a freedom fighter, so he was not very involved in the family, but my mother was also very committed for nationalist vision. She wore khadi throughout her life. Both my parents were not money minded. My father died when I was in class X.
Me: As your father was freedom fighter do you remember any political happening at that point?
Maa: No! No! By the time I was born we were an independent nation
Me: Even then city would have been politically active.
Maa: at that time ‘politicians were politicians’ we did not had any problems. Me: City’s politics had a big role of mill workers. it all started after independence, “mill baji” started. Power was misused after independence, unions were a big problem, and even then ethos was not polluted.
Maa: Marriage: After knowing each other for several years your father and I got married in 1979.
Me: So it was Love Marriage
Maa: ya you could call it so, but both our families agreed.Maa: Your grandfather had died 2 years before our marriage, so Papa (my father) had to join the family business.Me: So he joined family business because of crisisMaa: Yes it was not something he wanted to do, one of the reasons for joining the business was because his academic qualification was not that great, and so under the circumstances he was bound to do that.
Me: What do you know about family business, this cloth shop?
Maa: I knew your father’s family even before marriage. They were rich bunch. Cloth trade was at its boom and Papa’s family made most of it. Your grandfather was very academic but he was not very involved in social causes like my father but he was religious. Otherwise most of Papa’s family was loyal to British, they were awarded with titles like Rai Bahadur etc.
Me: Ya! I know my grandfather was rich, I have heard those stories about his horses and bungalow.
Maa: yes he was definitely rich. He earned a lot of money and he lived a lavish life. At that point he was very successful and he moved with the Top people of the city. But had sincerely earned that status and money. Your grandfather was only 14 when his father died. They lost a lot of money in business due to your great grandfather’s death.
Me: This means my great grandfather was also very rich!
Maa: Actually they came to the city from “Unnao” (an outskirting village of Kanpur) due to some rivalry with the local people. They bought a lot of money along with them. They started trading cloth. At that point very few people were involved in the cloth trade. With time they established a good name in the market. But due to consistent early deaths in the family, each generation had to start from ground zero. With every death in the family things went back to square one. Your grandfather lost everything when his father died, similarly Papa had to start all over again after his father’s death. He changed the trend, started dealing with Private Mills. Mills here had already collapsed, so he had to change.
Me: Was this the reason Papa switched to Private Mills?
Maa: Look; earlier buyers/ purchasers came to us —-to Cawnpore—because of the mills, (Manufacturing sectors are assumed to be cheaper) they traded with mills & the local market. Now when the mills collapsed they turned to big cities and private mills. Slowly trend changed, more and more people started trading with private mills, we also had to do it. When Papa took agencies of Private Mills, now he and others like him had to go to buyers to sell his product. When they started going out they, their changed lifestyle City started losing its flavor, comparison from bigger cities started bothering. “Bahar ye hai…. Bahar who hai”…suddenly city started looking small. The number of unemployed workers kept rising in the city. This helped the small-scale industries to grow. But with this development city had to pay its price, all sorts of problems started…electricity, pollution, exploitation of labor and resources, corruption and red tapism flourished. Today’s politicians don’t work, the political scene changed so rapidly that, and no eyebrows were raised when government switched from committed to selfish. Now a day’s patriotism is a joke, nobody cares anymore. Places like ‘phoolbagh’ (old meeting ground for politicians) where people use to meet for debates and there was a very rich library. Suddenly things changed… students use to go there May be it’s because of the computer age, but the computer change was also not that swift in Uttar Pradesh. We left what we had but we failed to adapt to the new system.
Me: When papa started this Private dealership, was it intentional that he wanted to expand his business, did he ever had any plans?
Maa: when mills collapsed people from outside came to us and said “Ab ye kapda bechiye” (now sell this cloth), and it was obvious and practical thing to do. But due to that we now had to go to door to door and sell our products. Buyers just stopped coming to the city. A major factor that changed the way business was conducted was change in payment pattern. Earlier when buyers came to us they brought money (cash), now we were going to their door to sell, so we had to offer them discounts, schemes and worse we had to give them credit. Trade, which was prestigious, was now short of credibility. Earlier when they came they said you are doing a great favor to us by selling goods to us, now they said if I buy from u what will I get. The newly established credit system worsens the working conditions.
Me: When did papa started dealing with Private Mills?
Maa: around 1980 just after our marriageMe: Before marriage did he had plans to switch the trend.Maa: No! No! When his father was handling the business, he purchased cloth from local mills and sold it. Production had stopped when I was in class 12th but there was stock. At one point there was ‘Rationing of cloth’, cloth came from outside. Then mills started manufacturing cloth in the city and Cawnpore became a big business center. At a point I think there were 36 big mills so during that period your grandfather made a lot of money. Your father had never thought of career, so after his father’s death he had no option, and once he joined he changed the trend.
End of Part I.
*this conversion has been filmed in 2007
Maitrey Bajpai
They don’t come anymore...
Image by d ha rm e sh via Flickr"I came with my father when I was a small kid. He got a job in the mill." is all you will hear when you go around asking people as to when they came to the city? Even my family is also one of them. They came way back 1907 due to some business options. Families from Rajasthan, Gujarat, surrounding villages of Cawnpore came to the city in search of better economic opportunity. Peasants and workers from nearing villages came to the city due to uncertain harvest that still depends on the rains.
After the establishment of Textile Mills in the city in 1864, there has been enormous rise in the population of the city. Cawnpore was one of the largest employment generator in the state due to opportunities provided by the mills & other allied industries. This population primarily comprised of business families and working peasants, who came to the city in search of better economic avenues & to lift themselves from the circle of poverty. Getting a job in the mills was easy or there were other options like traders, wholesalers and retailers who use to employ them for work.
Closure of textile mills in the state has left a section of population nowhere to go. Now they have no choice but to return to their native place where income levels are not sufficient or try their luck in bigger cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Lack of growth in other economic sectors has also added to the problem. No new Business establishment can be expected in the near future due to lack of infrastructure in the city, which has almost wiped off if there was a chance for revival.
With the poor economic situation of the U.P and worst agriculture scenario in villages People from near by villages still come to the city in search of work though the number has dropped considerably over the years. Now they come to the city either to work in unorganized sector, or suffer from problems like job insecurity, low wage structure & denied all the other benefits which they would have enjoyed in organized sector. Due to low wage structure they are trapped in vicious circle of poverty.
Studies of Jan Breman in Ahemadabad have shown that people there move from one line of the poverty to the other line. They also suffer from working in unorganized sector where low level of social security, minimum wages levels, health and medical benefits all are not available. They form a large chunk of urban poor. City also gets affected, as due to their low income line they reside in diplitated colonies or by the side of railway tracks and slums. The number of slums and these colonies are huge in the city. Besides being unauthorized they suffer from lack of basic civic amenities like toilets, pure water and electricity. This has led to city's administration on double responsibilities of these people, in case of demolishing illegal buildings and slums.
Either they can go of to far places like Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta etc. to work, which makes it difficult for them to be in touch with their families and loved ones. Cost of living is also higher in these cities, which hampers their savings.
Conversation with a Mill Worker (Pramod Mishra)
When met him on a sunny afternoon he was sitting in his tobacco shop, dirty grayish blue trouser, almost same colored vest which had holes allover it, he seemed just like any other worker, who had lost his job.
Born in the city where his father came to in his early days and learned the art of tailoring, soon he picked grew up to be a brat in the colony. He completed his graduation from DAV College, and did his diploma in footwear technology. Soon he joined TEFCO. during his TEFCO days he says were very good times, “we had a famous saying that give your foot size at the gate and you wont be able to complete a round of the mill and your shoe will be ready”.
Also there were good canteen systems allover, we use to get enough food at very reasonable price, ” every canteen ELGIN, RESERVE BANK etc had food that even officers ate food there. “Elgin mill canteen served puris and bhaji at 20 paisa. We at sales department often visited canteen. Plays and other events were also organized in the mills campuses. Elgin Mill even had our own library and schools. Post Office and Banks are still part of mill campus.
Almost soaked in nostalgia he says “you can’t even imagine how beautiful the environment was when the mills were run.” After leaving TEFCO he remained unemployed for a year, and from reference of his ‘Nana ji’ (who was labor director at that time), he got a job in Elgin Mill No.1. He joined the mill on 4th may 1987 as a “Management Trainee” and kept working till 1989 until he was suspended from the mill along with many. All those who were suspended, collectively wrote a letter to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Some trainees were called for interviews and only a few resumed their post after a year. Pramod was amongst the lucky ones.
“Working in the mill were very good times”, he says, “problems were there but we were at least able to survive and had some kind of job security”. I had a good post, my rank and carder were ok, I had the opportunity of going to places like Delhi, Bombay, Jaipur and other towns of UP because I was working in the Sales Department. Our job was to supply and collect payments. I can remember when we had this bad phase we visited for advance payments from parties just for paying wages to our labor. We did not have adequate cash. We had a large no. of working staff around 15000 people, when the mill was running at its full capacity, 5000 people were working in every shift.
One more thing that has happened in the city is that films don’t run anymore. Earlier we had money so we could go out and watch a lot of films, now films are just of our reach. Small kids use to sell anything out of cinema halls and use to make a handsome amount at the end of the day, it was a good source of earning for a lot of people. People use to watch films regularly and cinema halls remained houseful through out. Amitabh is his favorite “HERO” he says.
When the shifts ended workers in thousands bicycled towards their colony, the rush was so huge that mills had to change timings of shifts with a half an hour difference, there was no other solution to traffic jams. At a time 30000 people use to travel on their bicycle. Elgin, TEFCO, Victoria, Muir, Powerhouse and all other small n big enterprise employees all had bicycles.
He remembers one night we were working till around 2 in the night and we felt hungry so we just went to the canteen and the person there was sleeping we woke him up and asked him to give us some food, he very kindly made tea and served us pakora’s and other stuff. Very proudly he expresses “this was the level of commitment of the people working in the mills, we were not entitled to get overtime, but not only me, we all use to work for extra hours if it was required by the mill.
“We should not have continued to strike after independence, we did it to the British but we should have not continued that after independence, the better option would have been, we should have worked extra and asked for our desired benefits, it happens in the foreign countries but here it did not happen like this. This policy of strike by the unions hurt the mill worst. When government had decided that it will pay sitting wages, workers should have protested. They thought that we will receive payments without any work and lost their jobs instead”
“Now I do not have enough money. Whatever little I had, I purchased land of it, because that’s the safest investment. I also tried my hand at a “chappal” workshop with two other partner but failed, big fishes don’t allow us to work.” He expresses his concern over his daughter’s education, “both my daughter’s are good at studies but I do not have finances to fund their higher education. My elder daughter wants to pursue MBA as a career but I have to look for bread and butter first I also wanted to get them into BNSD “sikhsha niketan” (good school) but the fees is just out of my reach, they are studying in ordinary Govt. school. I have asked them to study well and do the required hard work, hopefully it will pay. Sometimes I am really frustrated, I cannot even meet their small demands like good clothes and shoes. I have keen interest in painting and writing. But a painting cost over Rs.300, even if I have such spare money someday I will love to buy something for my children.
At 46 he is still running the tobacco shop that caters to the local people but he feels he will soon shift to rural area like Unnao as there is a little less competition. Now he earns 1200-1300 a month as compared to around 3000 in the mill.
Maitrey Bajpai
Conversation with “Lallu Uncle” ( Sudhir Kumar Jain)
Dark brown pants and light yellowish striped shirt, which had many orange stains especially near the collar which were result of pan masala. Weird smell of Pan Masala always surrounded him, his mouth was always stuffed with it, so much so that when he spoke his chin was facing the ceiling to avoid more stains on the shirt. Sitting at the center of the shop Chidda Guru & Co. in General Ganj Market his eyes always strained through the ‘bahis and khatas’ (Indian Books of Accounts generally RED in color). Well this pretty much sums up “Lallu” Uncle for me.
He was my father’s partner in business and his father was my grand father’s partners. Our relations were two generations old, but the legacy could not be continued. Partnership between his two sons Sameer and Saurabh and my brother Karan and me was not even expected. “Sudhir Kumar Jain” is a reserved man of very few words and little skills. He was elder to my father, I could never figure out the actual difference but surely it wasn’t much. I don’t remember anyone calling him by his real name…generally people referred him as “Lallu” Bhaiya.
We had a bitter phase of relationship as my mother still believes and everybody around her confirms that he was the one who manipulated all accounts while my father was ill.
Its true that he maintained accounts and my father looked after the practical business activities, what I get of the situation is that while my father was ill, the practical business was not happening and firm started suffering losses, he started withdrawing his capital, and all the losses were paid off from our share of capital. It’s complicated; I know but can assure you it’s even more complicated than it might sound.
My mother was not comfortable with the fact that I am suppose to meet him for my film. I had a stiffing feeling as I have not met him for the past 5 year’s. I went to his place one day in afternoon, sun was blazing full cylinders. He was not at the place I waited for him for 30 minutes, his wife started giving me all sorts of things to eat, he came and he was as surprised by my presence as his wife was …“What are you making? A film about Kanpur! What inspired you to do that?” These were his first reactions when I approached him. After a few hiccups he gets going.
“After dealership of private mills in the 90’s, business grew leaps and bound, our turn over was just shy of a crore. But soon the load was too much. As business was carried on credit basis and we had limited amount of capital, our huge turnover led to burdening of interest due to which level of income started falling. We did not cut down on our expenses as a result we started biting into our capital , once that started happening the end was near.” He continues with a pause “by 1994 your father got ill as he was the man who looking after dealings and the practical side of the business, our money got stuck in the market and recovery was just not possible.”
After his demise we some how unwrapped our firm and a lot of money got stuck in the market. We had to pay the mills and the remaining sum was consumed in the process. One thing we could have done in the new marketing strategy, that is two people meet in a deal through me, both can negotiate a deal on your own and just assure me my share of commission. Our firm was just too prestigious to do that, but that’s where the business standards are today. People with no virtually no working capital carry on this kind of business deals and hurt the overall business scenario in the process.
My involvement with the shop started at the age of 14/15, in the year 1962. Your Grandfather lost a lot of money in the business in early 1950’s, later he and my father started a new business firm in May 1953 as “Nirmal Kr. Komal Kr.”. The capital was put in by my father and shop was of your grand father. Not much later I took control of the shop. Your father was never interested in the business and I was the one who convinced him to join the business. He picked up tricks of trade very fast, soon we took over the business established by our fathers.
The way business was done has also undergone tremendous change, now there is no place for ethics and morals. Earlier times when use to ask for payments, if the person is not having it he would have taken a loan and then send the money. Now for your own payments you keep begging but he will not even shake his eyelid. Earlier producer was more important but now consumer is, that’s why retailer has a stronger say in the deals, as for before we were the ones who were commanding the authority. Now things have changed, it’s more difficult to run mid-level establishments.
“After your father’s death I never ever thought of getting into cloth trade again.” exclaims ‘Lallu’ Uncle. “It takes a lot out of you, you guys should also look for other better avenues, better get out of this city” he suggests.
* This document is based on random conversations.
Maitrey Bajpai
The Bajpai Story (my family)
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| The Bajpai Family |
My family is originally from “PURVA” a village in Unnao (a nearing town of Kanpur), Mr. Kampta Prasad Bajpai was land lord there. But due to some kind of a dispute with the local people the family suffered death threats and my Great great grand father Mr. Hiralal Bajpai came to Kanpur in 1905. First when Mr. Hiralal came he stayed in “Sabzi Mandi” with someone. Then he started trading in cloth on a small level in 1907. After making some money he bought a land from Rastogi’s in “Panchkucha (5 lanes of cloth market)” in ‘General Ganj’, later on which he build a house. “Ajjo Bua” (grand father’s sister) say’s the house is of her age, 80 years old. This is the place where all the later generations established the cloth trade. Each of them had his own style of functioning and the Trade kept changing according to market situations.
It’s difficult to know about the trade of my great grand father Mr. Dwarika Prasad Bajpai but one can say all he dealt with was cotton cloth manufactured by the local mills of Cawnpore. After his demise in 1944 my Grand Father Mr. Bhagwati Prasad Bajpai took charge of the family and shop. He mainly dealt in mill cloth but as it was mainly rough cotton so he also visited Bombay for the fine cotton cloth. In 1949 Rationing scheme was implemented and he was a licensed mill Cloth Seller. This meant only a limited count of cloth could to be sold to an individual; this system was popularly known as “RATIONING OR LICENCING OF CLOTH”. During this period he made a lot of money as there was no requirement of any publicity and consumer was already in need of the product he sold. Bhagwati Prasad Bajpai my grand father was learned man with double MA in English & economics which he did from Christ Church College (the college from which my father, mother and I have graduated), he was a wrestler, read a lot, I have over 500 books on varied topics belonging to him. At that point of time he was so successful that he owned a bungalow with swimming pool in Jajmau & he rode an “ikka” (an open horse cart). His horse was famous for drinking tea at mall road & he spent a lot of money on it, details of which can be found in his bank passbooks.
My father often use to tell me that when my grand father was a kid he had this fascination of throwing silver coins in the well, which still exists in our shop at general Ganj. He liked the ‘sound’ of metal displacing water. Ashutosh Bajpai tells he often use to come to our home with his father & once my Bua demanded a T.V from my grandfather turned to him, and asked “should I bring the TV? I thoughtfully at the age of 5 said yes. Two day’s later when I visited the house it was filled with children allover, who had flocked around the new TV set.”
In the year 1974 when my father “Brajesh Chandra Bajpai” was pursuing his MA (History & Economics) from Christ Church College, my grandfather suffered heart attack and died. This was a shock that pushed my father to take reigns of the Family Business.
At that time our shop was a trader shop (aarath) and we had a percentage of profit in every sale. Everyone was skeptical whether he will be able to care of the business, but he adapted to the situations very well. Reading the new market phenomena, soon after his marriage in 1979, he started collaborating with the private mills. Later he took dealership of Brands like Mayur, Grasim & Bhilwara. Brands like Century, Arvind etc were also sold in our shop.
On the other hand my Grand father’s younger brother Bhagwati Sewak Bajpai (Bade Baba) took his share from the shop and started dealing in cotton waste and supplying to police and government departments etc. He was a successful entrepreneur of the modern times. His elder son, my ‘Chacha’ “Rajesh Chandra Bajpai” put a lot of stakes in the stock exchange, and lost a lot of money. Unwilling to face the failure he committed to suicide. His two daughters are doing well to support the family. Elder daughter “Neha Bajpai (Chipsy didi) has completed her CA and is working with a big CA firm in Delhi.
Baba’s younger son ‘Kapil chachu’ got him involved in a lot of things and suffered, now he is a married man, father of two sons. After the demise of ‘Bade Baba’ in 2001 he is trying to figure out what are the opportunities left for him. On my last visit he said he was willing to shift to Delhi for better business propositions.
The other side of the story is that things were not as smooth within the family as they appear. The very place that was once the pivot for social and financial needs of the family is now in the line of fire. Our shop in General Ganj is a three storey building; ground floor has always been used for the shop and other floors for residential purposes. The mutual division was that my father who is running the shop so he keeps the ground floor and others share the two floors.
Immediately after my father’s death my mother was served a notice for division of the building. Old property disputes are very common in Uttar Pradesh and often they bring out the worst in everyone. Maa suggested that we sell the complete plot and equally distribute the sale. This was agreed to my grand father’s youngest brother “Chote Baba” who still lives in the top floor of the building.
Bade Baba’s family was also not in favor of my mother for unknown reasons. But at that time it seemed like a workable solution as all the three families were in big financial mess. We dint communicate for 5 years till I broke the ice. It might sound a bit mean but I for my film started visiting Bade Baba’s family. Now are relations are quiet good.
As of now the shop remains closed and my mother has opened a PCO there which is run by an operator, she very rarely visits the shop.
*this document is based on conversations with various members of my family.
Maitrey Bajpai
The Purpose
In a city where machines roared day in and day out, chimneys never went cold, cycles filled the roads like anything, today there is calm. There is something uneasy about this calm. Nobody talks about the mills anymore. On the foot hold of changing times, probably, it’s time to talk about the mills.
Families like mine along with mill workers failed the test of time, it was our lack of ability to switch gears when it was required the most. On the path of development, when an Economy shifts gears like ‘Production oriented to Service sector’ there is a large chunk of population that is unable to change itself. I wish to study the effect of such change on the city of ‘Kanpur’.
The economic and infrastructural growth of cities like Mumbai and Ahemdabad, force a need for deeper study into the topic. They were more or less functioning as Kanpur, but they survived the test of time and maintained their economic growth in the changing economic scenario. On the other hand closure of textile mills led Kanpur to a state of stagnation. Comparative study of these cities will enable us to understand the reasons for failure of Kanpur and other cities like it.
It is also my interest to try and link the events of Kanpur city with the national textile scene. I want to figure out what are the implications of a city’s economy in the national context and how has textile as an industry evolved over the years.
The current dilapidated condition of the city and no hope for future has forced the youngsters, like my brothers and sisters, to opt for better avenues, like Metro’s Delhi and Mumbai. One of them is me myself as I now reside in Mumbai, trying to make a career in films which will forcibly want me to reside in Mumbai.
I will try to document personal narratives and individual history of Mill workers, Business Families (Mine in particular) and other sections of affected population. I plan to use photographs, transcripts of interviews, recordings, printed matter and visual material to substantiate my research.
Brief History: Population
The city of Cawnpore came into existence from merging of several villages, each village had a small population and limited commercial movement. But since the time it came under British influence (1773), commercial activities in the area increased, rise in population was evident. East India Co. established an agency here in 1776, and British businessman started coming to the area. Later in 1778 forces from Bilgram were shifted here to protect their lives and business, and after that people from all classes started pouring in, Businessman came because it was safe and the city guaranteed easy connections to other business places, artisans, traders and labor started coming to sell their products to the army (eatables, shoes, clothing etc…) and in search of employment.
The trade & population kept growing, a city started being born out of village and in 1803 Cawnpore was declared a district. No formal account of population exists till 1846, but first data regarding population of Cawnpore is found in Robert Montgomery’s “Statical Report of Cawnpore” in 1847. According to the report population of Civilian area was 58821 and Cantonment was 49975 (excluding Europeans and soilders). As per UN Demographical year book Cawnpore was amongst the 300 hundred cities of the world having population more than 1 Lakh.
An interesting point is that such a massive increase in population was not supported by the high “Birth rate”. Infact as per a Government report dated 31st March 1944 number of children born was ‘11691’ and number of people died was ‘14379’, which shows Death rate was more than Birth rate, so Growth rate of the city was negative. But the population kept exploding an alarming rate.
This was major due to coming of large number of workers and peasants from nearby places and neboring states, after the beginning of industrial development in 1860, American civil war and the two World Wars, opened new doors for development and city saw opening of one mill after another. Incoming Laborers were cheap and proved to be a boon to the industry.
An estimate made in 1912, (done for water, power and other municipal reasons), shows that after 50 years (till 1962) Kanpur’s population will be 2.5 lakh. But till 1947 it was 8, 79,419.
Average rise in percentage increase of population in 1931-41 was almost 100% in the city. When compared to other cities of UP, this was huge, in Lucknow it was 41%, Agra 23.6%, Allahabad 41.4%, Banaras 28%. The data in the table shows that population doubled in 10 years (1931-41) and it took just five more years to double itself again (1941-47).
Population density per sq mile in 1931 was 24754 i.e. 39 person/ acre and in 1958 it was 71360 i.e. 111.5 person/acre.
Population: 1991 Census-24.18 Lakh’s and as per 2001 Census: 27.72 Lakh’s (Male: 14.83 Lakh’s, Female: 12.89 Lakh’s)
Brief History: The Mills
Image via Wikipedia1861 Kanpur cotton committee was formed
1862 Elgin Mill 1874 Muir mill
1876 Cawnpore woolen mills
1882 Cawnpore cotton mills (Cooperganj)
1886 New Victoria.
1911 Swadeshi cotton mills Juhi
1912 Kanpur Cotton Mills co. KAKOMI (Juhi)
1921 Atherton west n co. ltd (GT road)
1933 JK cotton manufacturing ltd (Kalpi road)
1934 Laxmiratan cotton mills co. ltd (Kalpi road)
Kanpur textile ltd (Cooperganj)
Brief History: The Freedom Struggle
Image via WikipediaIn 1942 Quit India Movement started, Government policies were exploitive and political leaders of all ideologies were being sent to jail, except the Communist who was against the movement. As a result Unions and workers were taken over by Communist. This move hampered the unity amongst the workers as they got divided. Soon fragmentations on the basis of cast, creed, and region started forming and number of Unions started rising. Workers also participated in the freedom struggle.
Congress’s Swadeshi aandolan also gave boost to the cotton industry and local consumer started depending on the mills for cotton “Dhoti’s and Saris”.
The events of Second World War also gave the much required thrust to cotton industry of Cawnpore. During the war period demand for a lot of war products had increased, and entrepreneurs of the city cashed in on the opportunity. They earned huge profits by supplying the demands of war, and Mills were never more profitable. In 1943 city had 17 mills, 534500 spindles & 10000 looms with 44480 permanent workers working daily. These mills consumed 176982 ‘kandi’s’ of cotton everyday.
1947: 4TH ALL INDIA COTTON SUMMIT was held in Kanpur, all 3 previous events were hosted by Bombay. Many aspects related to the growth of textile industry were discussed & delegates from all over the nation came here. The mills kept working but by now mainly Indians owned the industries built by British. With getting Independence on 15th august 1947 the mill developed further.
The people coming in the city (refugees) played a vital role, the original concept of Quality was changed and business like transport was taken up by them. Practices like Black marketing, fraud, duplication of products, and exploitation for maximum benefits, all started in this period. On one hand it led to creation of an environment against commercialization & British in particular on the other it boosted thoughts like Socialism and Communism.
1948 Within a period of 7 months (September 1 to march 31) cotton Mills in Cawnpore consumed 131651 bales of cotton, which was only after Bombay and Ahemdabad, and no city in north India even came closer. In the whole country 1978995 bales were consumed (weight of each bale was 400 Pd). Total 585179 pound of foreign cotton was consumed in the country out of which 37806 was consumed by Kanpur.
According to a book “kanpur kaa itihaas” written by Narain prasad Arora & Laxmikant Tripathi in 1958: city has 17 mills out of which 15 were in the main city, and Kanpur was a major center of cotton production in India. They wrote “The city has grown at a tremendous pace in the last 10 years; consumption of cotton has increased by 62% since 1935 and 50% workers have increased by then. Most of the workers of cotton mills mainly come from the farming belt of nearer places, with permanent residents only accounting for 20% of total working population. 98.74% of these workers were males as females were mainly engaged in picking up “goodar”. Out of the total population 70-80% of workers were Hindu. Labor colonies like macrobertganj colony made by Cawnpore woolen mills & Allen ganj another colony hold most of these workers. Government was also planning to construct more colonies by 1954.”
Writers of the book predicted a healthy future for the Textile Industry of the city, whose backbone were its Mills. They wrote “the future of textile industry looks good & so dose the future of the city”. According to the book India at that moment was one of the largest Cotton manufacturers of the world. It was ranked 5th in number of cotton spindles and 3rd in consumption and labor. Out of the total cloth produced in the country, 16% was made in Kanpur.
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