Describe briefly the changes that came about in the Indian towns during the 18th century.
Or
Explain the changes that came in eighteenth century in towns established by Mughals.
(a) Erosion of Mughal power led to the decline of towns associated with their rule. Regional capitals like Lucknow, Poona, Nagpur and Baroda now become important.
(b) Many nobles and officials used this opportunity to create new urban settlements such as the qasbah and ganj.
(c) The European companies had set up their bases in different places during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For example, the Portuguese in Panaji in 1570 and the British in Madras in 1639. With the expansion in commercial activity, towns emerged around these trading centres.
(d) From the mid-eighteenth century a change occurred. Centres like Surat and Dhaka which had grown in the seventeenth century now declined as trade shifted to other place. When the British acquired Bengal and the East India Company’s trade hereafter expanded the colonial port cities likes Madras and Calcutta emerged as the new economic capitals.
(e) Here new buildings were builts and new occupations developed. People flocked to these cities in large numbers and by the nineteenth century they had become the biggest cities in India.
Explain briefly the difference between town and countryside in precolonial period.
Describe briefly the changes that came in towns from the mid-18th century onwards.
Describe the social changes brought in the new colonial cities.
How did the colonial cities reflect the mercantile culture of the British rulers? Explain.
