The Study of a Hundred year old Gujarati Settlement in Calicut

The Study of a hundred year old Gujarati settlement in Calicut Trisha Parekh* #

Faculty of Architecture – Manipal University Manipal, India

I. INTRODUCTION Calicut is a coastal city in the Malabar region of South India. Since the 9th century, the port city has attracted several foreigners – Arabs, Portuguese, Dutch, British and Gujaratis.

They built their own settlement by the sea. The architectural style brought by the Gujaratis was implemented on readily available materials and the type of construction in Kerala, to give birth to a street with its own unique character – The Gujarati Street.

II. AIM The study aims to examine the once flourishing, prosperous and successful Gujarati Settlement and the analyses of the causes of its decay and to explore modifications to recover the lost character of Gujarati Street and preserve it for the future.

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III. OBJECTIVES To study the history of Gujarati Street – Functioning of the system a hundred years ago and its operation in the present day setting (dysfunctional port).

Study the Architectural Style of the buildings of Gujarati Street – The Temple and Residences.

To study the lifestyle of people living in Gujarati Street and their needs and requirements.

having its own form of architecture, social relations and culture.

B. Functioning of the port in relation with Gujarati Street Merchants of Gujarati Street purchased spices like pepper, cardamom, dried ginger, turmeric, coriander seeds, etc. from wholesale shops in Valiyangadi (a broad, long, straight and very crowded commercial hub of Calicut). The goods were brought from Valiyangadi to Gujarati Street via a short street in hand pulled trolleys. Goods were unloaded at various Pandikasalas along the street, tallied at the front office and stored in godowns. Step-wise processing of goods would take place – unpacking, winnowing, sieving, drying and packing.

Packed gunny bags are stored in another section of godowns.

This is how the ground floor of a typical Pandikasala worked.

Gunny bags were taken to the port warehouses. Upon the arrival of ships, goods were carried in hand pulled trolleys on the bridge with rails - the South Pier. Small vessels cranepicked nets loaded with Gunny bags and delivered it at the ships anchored a few kilometres inside the sea.

IV. STUDY OF HISTORY

A. The history of the City of Spices and the arrival of Gujaratis Calicut was a free port. The alliance of Gujarati traders with the Zamorin of Calicut originated in the 6 th – 7th century. With a posing threat from the great invader Mohammed Ghazni, and with the Zamorin’s welcoming nature, the opportunistic Gujarati traders gradually made a permanent settlement in Calicut.

The settlement grew around the already existing Arab Bazaars and Dutch markets, 50 – 100m from the sea.

With time, more and more opportunists came down and settled in Gujarati street. In 1800s, several ambitious entrepreneurs migrated to Calicut, and brought along with them labourers for assistance. A little taste of success and arrival of money, urged the now rich merchants to bring their very big families to Calicut. Over time, they built a temple and modest houses for their labourers, within the temple complex.

The Gujarati businessmen lived in Pandikasalas which are typical warehouse – cum- office – cum residential buildings,

Fig.1 A view of the North Pier showing the transport of goods to the vessels via trolleys pulled over rails.

C. Present day functioning After the closing of port, several Gujarati merchants switched to other businesses. The godown spaces that were built for a large requirement have now become obsolete spaces.

A small portion of these godowns are used by owners for their business and larger portions are rented out at cheap rates.

V. SOCIO – ECONOMIC STUDY

commercial-cum-godown floor and first- residential floor.

A. Introduction Gujarati Street has a group of houses and a temple situated alongside a central street. Various commercial activities also take place here.

The part of Gujarati Street under the study area has a total of 6 owned houses and the remaining houses either belong to the temple or are rented out by non- gujaratis.

The houses in Gujarati Street can be categorized into 6 main typologies as shown in Table.1

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25 20 15 10 5 0 3

T YPE

OWNERSHIP

SPACES

SIZE

1

Owned and used by gujarati

Residence, office, godown

Plots >10 0m²

2

Owned by temple rented to gujaratis

Residence only

Houses <100m²

3

Owned by temple rented to gujaratis

Residence only

Houses > 100m²

4

Owned by nongujarati, rented to gujarati

Residence + godown

Plots >10 0m²

Owned by gujarati, rented to gujarati

Residence only

Plots 100m²

5 6

Sold to outsider

Multi story apartment

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4

7

8

Fig.3 Graph showing the occupancy rate in Type1 houses in present day and in the early 1900s

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Plots >10 0m²

More than 60% area in all houses is unused. These unused areas deliver high maintenance costs in cleaning and minor repair works, in spite of not serving any function.

1) Migration: Younger generations have migrated to bigger cities in search of better opportunities, leaving behind the elderly members of the family. The average family size in Typology 1 houses 25 years ago was 7.8 members, whereas the present day average family size is only 3.3 members.

There has been 42.5% migration + death.

Table.1 showing typology of houses

C. Typology 2 Typology 2 houses are modest residences, rented out to economically weaker and low income group Gujaratis. They were originally constructed for the labourers, cattlemen and milkmaids brought as domestic help from Gujarat.

Over time, this group of people faded away. The Haveli now rents out small portions of this Type2 complex at rents ranging from Rs.35/month to Rs.1500/month.

1) Size: All the 17 typology 2 houses put together have a total carpet area = 840m² approximately. With 17 members occupying type2 houses, the average area per person = 14.25m²/person.

Fig.2 Zoning of Gujarati Street

Typology 1 and 2 houses are of chief concern to this study as some major issues have been observed in these houses.

B. Typology 1 1) Size: The Pandikasalas built during the late 1800s and early 1900s structurally in great shape. As mentioned earlier, these traditional buildings were designed for a larger requirement, both on the ground-

2) Design Issues: The lighting and ventilation in these houses is very poor. Some houses have just one small 1.5m x 1m opening on the facade, which ventilates a room length of 8.5m. Not only does this lead to absolute darkness in the interior kitchen and toilets and soaring current bills, which are too high for the EWS and LIG tenants to pay, but also affects one psychologically.

3) Structural Issues: Type 2 houses are in a total rundown condition. A failing roofing system, buckling columns and sagging slabs are not only unsafe for habitation, but also cause several problems like leakage, shedding of dust, termites, rodents and other pests infesting the house. The failing structure costs average monthly expenses of around Rs.2000/which are beyond the affordability of the tenants.

VI. STUDY OF ARCHITECTURE The architectural style of Gujarati street is unique blend between the Kutch style and the Mapila style.

Street looks predominantly Mapila, with its simple timber construction and a subtle touch of Gujarati elements like the gallery overlooking the street and a sheltered portico before entering the building, called aangan.

A. Architecture of Haveli Haveli is the 105 year old temple with a main sanctum, administration office, priest quarters, a cattle shed and a group of houses for labourers and men who look after the temple and cows. The Haveli also has large barren lands.

The main shrine is a typical Chaturasala, a structure with a courtyard. The first floor of the building looks into the courtyard which has now been covered. The entry side of the main shrine has a long covered veranda for the disciples to wait before opening of darshan.

Fig.4. A sketch of Gujarati Street

Fig.7. View of entrance to main shrine

Fig.5. View of a typical Pandikasala

Fig.8. Views inside the main shrine The 105 year old building has been constructed with great carpentry and aesthetic skills. A timber roofing system and a cross batten false ceiling are supported on timber columns by serpentine timber brackets.

Fig.6. Street sections

VII. CONCLUSIONS The small settlement in Calicut located by the beach side has a significant history. The story of these family and community oriented Gujaratis migrating from small coastal towns in Kutch to the southern end of the country, and blending in with the city and its ways, yet retaining the ethos of their culture is amusing. The establishment of the settlement has not been particularly recorded and neither has the community been studied. Preserving this information for the generations to come is one of the motives of this study.

Gujarati street is in the vicinity of other commercial streets like Halwa Bazaar, Valiyangadi, Gunny street, Copra Bazaar, etc. which were olden day Arab Bazaars and Dutch markets.

In the 1800s and 1900s, the port city and Zmorinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s welcoming nature provided several opportunities to agro- based merchants who readily invested in the infrastructure required to carry out their business. With the closing of the port and the monopoly of government in agro based industry, and because of the supermarket and brand culture, both wholesale and retail options have been closed for many of these small merchants.

The very large infrastructure required to carry out those activities have become obsolete spaces.

The study area is around 4acres and has 9 plots, 6 of which are Pandikasalas owned by Gujaratis, 2 plots owned by nonGujaratis and one big plot owned by the temple with several residences and a temple.

Of the various typologies of houses seen, typology1 and typology2 have been studied in detail due to various issues.

Typology1 residences which were initially built for large joint families of 14-18 people are now occupied by only 3-6 members. Large spaces have been locked up and kept unused.

Though these spaces are of no particular use, they do cost certain amount of maintenance. One anticipated issue with these houses is that the younger generation may not accept the trouble of maintenance that comes along with these houses, and yet earn something out of it. They might break these heritage structures for other purposes. To encourage them to preserve this heritage, a comparable compensation has to be offered. This could be in the form of revenue earning homes itself.

Typology2 houses are in a total rundown condition. But due to negligence, no reform has been brought about here. With buckling columns and sagging slabs, and a roofing system that is literally falling apart, the structure demands demolishment.

Thus the conclusion to this study is that something must be done to preserve and bring back the flavour of this colony.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my father, Mr. Rajesh Parekh, my mother, Mrs. Bindi Parekh, and my

grandfather, Mr. Maganlal Parekh who continually conveyed a spirit of adventure and excitement in regard to this study.

Without their guidance and persistent help, this dissertation would not have been possible.

I would like to thank my teacher, Professor Ajay. S for his guidance about how to carry out the study and all the teachers of my panel, Professor Deepika Shetty, Professor Sherigar and Professor Devleena Dutta for their help and support.

I would like to thank each and every member of Gujarati Street for co-operating with me during my study and giving a very genuine and welcoming response for the survey.

I would like to thank my friend, Anjani Sirivella for helping me through my study.

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Kozhikode EncyclopĂŚdia Britannica. 18 November 2011.

Narayanan.M.G.S. Calicut: The City of Truth (2006) Calicut University Publications

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