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Colonial interests and ideologies played a decisive role in shaping the urban centres of India, creating new cities, altering older ones, and restructuring the very logic of urbanization. Unlike earlier periods where urban growth was largely linked with trade, craft production, or political and religious patronage, the colonial phase saw the city being reorganized to meet the economic, political, and ideological requirements of the British Empire. These influences were visible in the physical layout of cities, the functions they performed, the segregation of populations, and the emergence of new forms of urban culture. Examining these transformations helps to understand how colonialism deeply altered the trajectory of Indian urbanization. The primary colonial interest in India was economic exploitation. Urban centres were designed to serve as nodes of extraction and export rather than centres of indigenous production. The British policy of deindustrialization weakened traditional industries like textiles in cities such as Murshidabad, Dacca, and Surat, leading to their decline. These cities, once prosperous manufacturing and trading centres, became impoverished as artisans lost their livelihoods. Instead, cities such as Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras grew as port cities linking the Indian hinterland to global markets. Calcutta emerged as the capital of British India in the eighteenth century, primarily because of its strategic location along the Hooghly river, facilitating the export of raw materials like jute and opium. Similarly, Bombay developed as a hub for the export of cotton, especially during the American Civil War when British manufacturers sought alternative sources. Madras too functioned as a key node in the export of textiles and coffee. Thus, colonial economic interests created cities whose primary function was to channel resources to Britain rather than to promote indigenous prosperity. The ideological framework of colonialism also shaped the built environment of these cities. The colonial authorities were keen to assert their dominance by designing urban spaces that visually and spatially reinforced European superiority. This manifested in the construction _____ _______ ____ ________ __________ ________ __________ _________ _______ _____.
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