Sowcarpet - A Migrant's Tale

“For of necessity in almost every city there must be both buyers and sellers to supply each other’s mutual wants; and this is what is most productive of the comforts of life; for the sake of which men seemed to have joined together in one community”

– Aristotle (as quoted in Madanipour, Impersonal Space of a City)

A DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE:

Sowcarpet is a locality in the North of Chennai with 1.09 kilometres from Parry’s Corner and 1 kilometre away from the Chennai Central Station. It is situated right in the heart of commercial Madras, with a profuse network of metro and bus routes connecting it to the neighbouring areas and deals with wholesale and retail goods and services.
It is reminiscent of a small North Indian town, with congested roads, familiarly dressed people, familiar languages being spoken and lots of cows straying on the roads obstructing traffic. Many bright name-boards in Hindi and Gujarati, along with Tamil,  were visible and the small snack joints sold several North Indian  delicacies.
One does not fail to notice that almost everything – from electronic goods to bangles, utensils to herbal medicines – all are bought and sold in this energetic space that is Sowcarpet. The Mint street is famous for clothes, and the Nainniappa Naicken street is famous for alternative medicine and the shops are known as “country medical shops”. The Audiappa Naicken street is where most of the electronics shops are located. 

Notice the Devanagri and Gujarati script below the Kasim Gold Covering and Tamil script above the same: A metaphor for the inter-cultural and inter-lingual locality that has emerged. 

                                               

Many such small and big snack houses can be found in the Sowcarpet area. 

A BRIEF HISTORY: LIVED EXPERIENCES OF THE THE MIGRANTS

The migrants from North Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan (with a few from others states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Andhra Pradesh) came over 300 years ago.  By the 1950s, there was a large migrant population swarming into the stable environment of Chennai to escape harmful business conditions in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, etc. The traders started with being pawn-brokers and later specialized into selling various items like ornaments, clothes, utensils, etc. In fact, it is said that there is nothing that cannot be found to be sold in this area.  This history was narrated to me by Mr. Bipin Kumar, who  came from a small town in Uttar Pradesh 17 years ago and had a wholesale shop of bangles in Sowcarpet.
The very name of the locality “Sowcarpet” is the result of the distorted pronunciation of the Hindi term Sahukar for traders and moneylenders.

An electronics shop owner, Mr. Agarwal, gave a useful insight into the how the area can be to be populated by North Indians.The Tamil-speaking residents of the locality had begun to lease out their houses to the migrant population. Gradually, as many migrants began to live in these leased houses and their numbers grew, the remaining local Tamil-speaking population sold out their houses to the North Indian migrants and moved out of the area.
The mass migration of the North Indian traders over the years has been enabled and favoured by the political conditions that prevail in the community-based settlements that have come to be. Most of the Marwari and Jain communities have their own "Dharamsalas" which provide newcomers with economic support in the form of cheap stay and food and help them to settle down a new business. Mr. Agarwal said this was very convenient for new comers in the region. Also, sharing a common village or town of origin fosters a web of networks between the newly arrived entrepreneurs and the already well-established seths or businessmen. The Social Capital shared among the members of the community is very valuable as it translates for economic value in very literal terms for them. Robert Putnam defines social capital as "norms and networks of civil society that lubricate cooperative action among both citizens and their institutions."
The new comers can borrow money, and learn from the experiences of the older settlers and also learn of their business connections.

Jacobs saw the neighbourhood  networks forged by the long-term residents of a city as irreplaceable social capital and this is seen to manifest very strongly in Sowcarpet as the migrant community shows solidarity with
each other and the manifestation of the same is seen in the various cultural markers that exist in the form of various temples such as the Svetambar temple on Mint Street which caters to the religious functions of the large Jain community.  Also, certain festivals which are celebrated mainly in the North of India, like the colourful Holi and Jain festivals are big events in this region of Chennai.

Yet, the garbage dumping on the streets and the unconcerned parking of vehicles question the very social capital that helps the migrant community flourish by establishing networks of trade and dependency in cases of emergency. Despite the various damages to social health, the sanitation on the streets is something which the communities have not come forward to deal with.

A Lodging House in Sowcarpet.  Dharamsalas of a similar sort offering cheap food and stay for migrants from the North is available. 

PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Henri Lefebvre, in the introductory chapter to his book, "The Urban Revolution" argues for the importance of  streets which manifest disorder by allowing all the static and redundant elements of urban life to be let loose and to fill the streets. He argues that without the existence of topos of streets and the interaction which takes place there, not only in terms of goods but also words, the process of urbanization can never be complete.

Lefebvre comments that the street helps the city to grow allowing it to appropriate places and by shaping its growth, and in the process brings the dominance of use and use value to dominate over the exchange and exchange value of goods. He further suggests that on street, time is merchandise time, which is used for buying and selling.  The streets on Sowcarpet bring this true with the various forms of purchasing that takes place by people standing on the street while dealing with the tiny shacks of shops where good are sold.

The streets are heavily congested and not well managed. Though, the bottle-necked in terms of physical movement does not affect in any way the monetary movement ranging to millions.

Stray cattle and piles of Garbages on the road prevent smooth flow of traffic

The peculiar look of the buildings in this region is that of a continuous pueblo like structure, only difference being that where the pueblos are horizontally spread, the buildings here appear to be vertically walled together. The houses seem to jut out of a common wall and there is barely a separation between them. It adds to the congested look of the region, with narrow lanes and unorganized parking. The ground floor, where the shops are located seem very much different from the upper floors where most of the shop-owners's  residences are located. The “sahukars” or the businessmen have set up their shops and residences in this area, with some having the shops on the ground floor, with some shops being only 10 metres square in size,  and their homes on the upper levels of the same building and some live in close proximity of their shops

The stark difference between the ground floor and the first floor of the same building –  architectural inconsistency gives an almost surreal look. 

MAIN PROBLEMS OF DISORGANIZED URBANIZATION

In my interviews with the local residents, there were two major problems that emerged:

1.  Increasing Population 

                                                                                      

A 10 square km area around Sowcarpet has an aproximate population of 43,46,389 people. The region, on a first look, seems to have grown sporadically. The planning of the region is not meant to accommodate the increasing population. The housing complexes have multi-coloured structures and appendages jutting out of them – urgently constructed to house the increasing numbers corresponding with constraints in financial resources. Mr. Agarwal had an interesting theory to share about the increase in population. He said that the increasing migrant population from the North had a family size of 6-7, whereas earlier the local Tamil speaking population had a limited family size of 2-3.This resulted in the housing of 70-100 people in a building, which otherwise was constructed to support only 40-50 persons.

2.  Lack of Transport and Civic Infrastructure

The problem of road management is very grave. The stray cattle, garbage piles and the careless parking of vehicles (maybe due to the lack of proper parking spaces) on the narrow streets make it impossible for the crowd of people and vehicles to move smoothly.

The variety of transportation mediums was amusing - from bailgadis to motorcycles and a few fancy cars. A unique mode of transport was the cycle rickshaw which operates only in a few other regions of Chennai (few operate in Mylapore too). Perhaps due to the narrowness of the alleys, cycle rickshaws are a more convenient mode over auto-rickshaws.

Mr. Bipin Kumar recounted the changes that had occurred in Sowcarpet and said that earlier the roads were wider and there was smooth flow of traffic, but as “development” occurred, there was a growth in population and the transport infrastructure was dilapidated. 

The congested look of the buildings and the street - Over population and Lack of Infrastructure

Unorganized Parking areas add to the congestion - Motorcycles, Garbage Bins and hawkers all  vie for the same space.

The roads were messy, with numerous potholes and accumulation of stagnant water, making the region a breeding ground for diseases. There have been several cases in the past where sewage water has entered the buildings during overflows. 

SYNEKISM AT PLAY

 It was highly unfortunate, that the owners of crores of rupees were doomed to operate their business in areas that look like pigeon holes.  This brings out the importance of propinquity in business. A major role is played by "Synekism" that Edward Soja defines as the stimulus of urban agglomeration - the economic and ecological inter-dependencies and the creative - as well as the occasionally destructive - synergisms that arise from the purposeful clustering and collective cohabitation of people in space, in a "home" habitat. The creative fecundity and conducive environment that arises out of this dense agglomeration and creates a loyal clientele for the traders may not exist in a posh area. The community based business areas create a good support system for the traders.Also, as Jacobs calls it, "the spark of city-life", is felt in the streets of Sowcarpet as they are bustling with transactions and dealings round the working hours. 

 Crawford market in Mumbai, where many Muslim and Parsi community based businesses exist and the area and  Chandni Chowk in Delhi exhibit similar spatial organization where millionaires operate through small dingy shops located in some congested alley.