The Cantonment - The end of the beginning -1

1809

The Pete and The Cantonment historic colonial division of Bangalore.

Bangalore city map, circa 1924 from "Murray's 1924 Handbook",
with the Pete and Cantonment areas clearly visible.

Bangalore’s ‘Pete’ has a longer history than that of the Cantonment. During the British period, Bangalore was divided into the ‘Old town’ or the ‘native town, and the ‘Cantonment’. The ‘native town’, which is now thickly populated, was originally called Pete, which refers to an urban or commercial settlement.

It soon developed an economic vibrancy for the Mysore plateau along with Srirangapatna and Mysore, absorbing the manufactures of towns such as Channapatna, Doddaballapur, and Kanakapura. Over time, to the east of the Pete, the British Cantonment developed a special identity with wide tree-lined avenues, telegraph, telephone connections, and railway lines.

It seems the gruesome fourth Anglo Mysore war in the late 1700s led to the unfortunate defeat of the Tiger of Mysore, Tipu Sultan and his troops and the capture of Srirangapatna, by the British army. Marching their way victoriously, they declared the town to be their cantonment and established a large military establishment there. However, even after winning a war, they were defeated by the raging plight of mosquitoes in the region and fled to Bangalore to establish their cantonment. Cantonment was actually named ‘Civil and Military (C&M) Station’. The Station covering an area of twelve and a half square miles established by the British Military Garrison

The British morphed the city slowly and it emerged to be culturally and socio - economically demarcated; a traditional Indian city of the time on one side of the map and a city with a colonial attitude on the other. The Pete and Cantonment laid hold on the western and eastern zone of the city, respectively. The toll was charged for people from the city to enter Cantt, and vice versa.

Bangalore Hunt

Photographs from the archive of Stephen Simon Simmons,

Posted to Bangalore Cantonment, 1934

 

Artist: Ayisha Abraham
Bangalore Hunt
Photographs from the archive of Stephen Simon Simmons,
Posted to Bangalore Cantonment, 1934

These postcards are based on real-life events and characters, 
from fragments of memories from my past and from found 

media that have now become a part of our collective history.
- Ayisha Abraham, June, 2021

This work is derived from a small private archive of photographs and newspaper cuttings, annotations, letters and postcards that document the Bangalore Hunt from the early 1930’s. Stephen Simmons was posted with the British Army to Bangalore in 1934. He was stationed in the Cantonment area and in charge of the Hunt, which was meticulously planned and executed as a leisure time sport. The photographs are mostly of the dogs, horses and other small animals that were hunted. Picnic outings for families accompanied these hunts. These unusual photographs reveal the landscape and it’s expanse of fields and lakes as though it were a backdrop for an action-packed drama.

Shifting the ground to the sky in these postcards emphasis this surreal enactment of the Colonial sport.

The Paper Journeys of my Grandfather

I.S. Andrews (1890-1965)

2, Lloyd Road, Cooke Town, Bangalore 560005

Artist: Ayisha Abraham

The Paper Journeys of my Grandfather
I.S. Andrews (1890-1965)
2, Lloyd Road, Cooke Town, Bangalore 560005

These postcards are based on real-life events and characters, 

from fragments of memories from my past and from found 

media that have now become a part of our collective history. 

- Ayisha Abraham, June, 2021

My grandparents bought a Colonial Bungalow in Cooke Town in the 1950’s and retired from bustling Bombay to the then quiet Bangalore. My grandfather loved his solitude, read books and wrote articles. My grandmother in contrast enjoyed being social, making friends and nurturing relationships. My grandfather was born in 1889 and by the time he had retired he had traversed half a century as witness to British Rule in the subcontinent, industrialization, urbanization and India’s struggle for Independence. He had worked for the Madurai police, served in Mesopotamia during World War 1 and become a journalist with the Bombay Chronicle, a daily newspaper. By the end of his life he had left behind a trail of paper documents that chronicled this ‘Modern’ life. This detritus, scrap paper, paraphernalia, and trivia, were preserved by him and then safely locked away in a trunk by my grandmother in their Cooke Town house. This collection includes a pink paper pass from 1914 to enter a British war camp in Amara, Mesopotamia, an earlier police report of a brutal murder, an updated CV for further employment, numerous application forms of bureaucracies, certificates validating his skills and a detailed typewritten account of his early life with his father in the 19th century when bullock carts were the means of transport before the railways were built.

“In 1885 when my father took charge of the BI agency in Calingaptnam there was no railway between Calcutta and Madras. Construction of the East coast railway as it was then called, commenced later and although more or less half of it was completed and in operation around 1895, these 2 ports were not entirely connected up until about 1900. Those who lived in this coastal area, devoid of railways were naturally subjected to much inconvenience and hard ship and had to go without many commodities necessary for their comfort and welfare. Fortunately for them, long before the advent of the railway, the company had brought about a great improvement in living conditions, by establishing regular coastal steamer service, which enabled merchants to export and import much needed goods at the same time provide a very essential passenger service. The only other mode of travel was by bullock cart. My father once had an occasion to proceed to an inland town about 60 miles away and took my brother and myself with him. We travelled three nights by bullock cart, camping under trees by day.”

The Nighty Revolution

Artist: Surekha

In the 18th century, the nightgown made an appearance in India. “It travelled back with the Fishing Fleet, those ambitious young women from England who came out in droves to India to find husbands,” said Bidapa. It seems the dress came back as a fashion in India by Indian women who returned after working in the Middle East.

The Nightie made a grand appearance amongst the Indian Women in the 1970s. This free-flowing nightwear allowed for unconfined movement and became an epitome of functionality for women of all classes. Block-printed, dyed, collaged nighties made their way through household work, assisted women while shopping, in farms, at temples, and posed with confidence on bikes while dropping children off to school. The nightie adjusted and adapted itself to any occasion. It is a woman's best friend.

The humble nightie is now the great leveler of classes. Worn by women in India, it eliminates all kinds of hierarchy existing until now with women’s clothes. Nighties refute the difference between indoor and outdoor, night and day, market and temple, rich and the poor, even when all these social structures have by and large been very uneasy with a casual, spontaneous, and down-to-earth nightie.

However, this became a dress that refuted its initial definitions and parameters and became the unifying element capturing the diversity of India. In India, the nightie has a new post-colonial reincarnation: it is actually a triumph of Indian ingenuity. The Indian woman has repurposed a piece of clothing to make it fit her own needs and comfort. A shapeless garment, it is a women’s liberation – in a bag. It’s completely self-made and has evolved as a new Indian national dress. No other clothing, not even the sari, enjoys such pan-Indian appeal.

Artist: Archana Hande

As the Indian women assert their freedom to wear the Nightie, patriarchy raises its ugly head with rules and regulations. We see notices that curb this ubiquitous garment."Don't wear the Nightie during the day.No more dropping off the kids in your nightie to school, or when going to pray in the temple, shopping, or even their friends in the women's self-help groups. But the nighty is a revolution. “It is our national dress”.