Mysore Palace

Mysore is one of the best cities of India. Blessed with a very pleasant climate all round the year and with its many attractions, it is a major tourist destination of India. Mysore is a moderate sized city, with a population of 15 Lakhs, in the southern part of Karnataka state in India. Located almost in the middle of the Deccan plateau at an altitude of 2,700 feet above MSL, and situated close to the banks of river Cauvery on its southern side. 

Mysore Location

Mysore city became the capital of the princely state of Mysore, after the British defeated Tippu Sultan, the then ruler of the kingdom of Mysore in 1799, and shifted the capital from Srirangapatna to Mysore. At that time Mysore was a small town, next to the Chamundi hills. Now Mysore has grown in to a city of 15 Lakh residents and provides a good case study  for the following aspects:

1.   Growth of the present cities of India.

2.   The effect of the growth of cities on the rulers and the residents

3.   The good and bad effects of the administration on the growth of the city according to the quality, ability and commitment of the administrators.

4.   Lessons to be learnt on observing such city growth.

5.  How these lessons can be used to not only build better cities for tomorrow but also to avoid the ill effects and distribute the benefits to the right people, with fairness and justice.

Here is a study and analysis of the growth of Mysore city by the author of this paper who is a civil engineer by profession. The author has observed and studied the growth of Mysore since the last 40 years and has been an active participant in the growth of Mysore. He has developed a residential area of one hundred acres in which 50,000 trees are also grown and this area is now a part of the Mysore city.

Phases of Development of Mysore

Land use and land coverage change, its unwritten rules, and lessons for a better future.

Mysore is a fairly well planned city that has developed over the last 120 years, from a town inside a fort covering 2 sq kms into a busy urban agglomeration spread over 200 sq kms. Observation and study of this growth throws up enormous knowledge and many lessons through its impact on the residents, administrators and the migrants into it. A careful analysis and application of this knowledge holds the benefit of better cities tomorrow as well as justice and fairness to all.

Mysore over 120 years

Phase 1.

Towards a great city under the Maharajahs:

Mysore in 1890

By 1890 Mysore was a town mostly inside the fort, covering an area around two square km, and it was the capital of the princely state of Mysore under the British control. Then the Maharajas of Mysore expanded it into a beautiful city over the six decades by the following actions:

1. Building planned layouts all around this town, and allotting it to the residents of the fort and the surroundings. The allotment was done according to their professions as well as financial and social position.

2. Acquiring all the existing buildings inside the fort and the surroundings and demolishing them.

3. Building a majestic palace inside the fort and lush green gardens and parks all around in place of the demolished buildings.

Krishna Raja Wodeyar IV

By 1930 Mysore became one of the most beautiful cities of the world. And with its other attractions like the Brindavan gardens, the Zoo, the Dasara celebrations and many more,Mysore became a great tourist attraction.

In this period, the city and the state of Mysore were very well administered. Once in the 1930s, Mahatma Gandhi came and stayed with the Maharajas of Mysore. Having seen the perfect administration, he praised the governance and called the state of Mysore, as ‘Rama Rajya’.

In this phase, there was proper planning and its enforcement and enormous value in wealth and well being was generated to everyone, i.e. the rulers and the ruled.

Mysore in 1940

Phase 2.

A mixed picture in the next six decades:

After independence the city grew rapidly – well, mainly due to the population explosion and the village dwellers’ migration towards the cities. But there was neither the strict control nor the genuine will and effort to plan and enforce beauty and order. The demand for housing generated two kinds growth.

Type 1. The planned residential layouts like Siddhartha layout in the eastern side, the Vijayanagara 1^st to 4^th stage towards the west, the Hebbal industrial layout, and many more alike. 

Type 2. The unplanned, unauthorized and ugly developments, in the middle of as well as beyond the planned layouts, which have come up due to the huge demand for residential land and the selfish interests of individual property developers.

While the unauthorized developments completely spoilt the beauty of the city and the comfort of the dwellers, the planned layouts have contributed very little. This is because of the inefficiency and selfish greed of the administrators.

Phase 3.

Mysore Today:

Mysore in 2014

Today Mysore is a city spread over 200 sq km, and it is a mixture of three kinds of developments.

1. The well planned and strictly regulated.

2. The moderately planned and poorly regulated.

3. The unplanned and unregulated.

This blended urban agglomeration raises many questions, but a study of the process and the reason for the problems faced today also yields the answers to these questions.

Questions and the answers together form the knowledge that is put across as the unwritten rules below:

Rule 1. The process of building a city is a natural resource of wealth:

In phase 1 of the development of Mysore, the palace and the parks around it, which were built by clearing the small township inside the fort and surroundings, are eve today huge assets as lung space and objects of beauty. Further, by forming new settlements in well regulated order, each house and the land it is built upon got very high financial value. This value is severalfold more than the cost incurred in forming the layout and the cost of building.

Wealth created by the growth of a good city has no parallel. An acre of vacant land, valued at Rs. 5 lakhs in today’s prices, when it becomes part of a well planned city will be valued at Rs.10 crores in a moderate city and up to Rs.100 crores in a metropolis at today’s value itself.

Rule 2. The wealth created by building a city is proportional to the quality of the city:

When a city is built, wealth is generated because of change in land-use pattern. All over the world, the value of land in the city is almost a hundred times the value of agricultural land. Further, the value also depends on the quality of the residential area.

In the case of Mysore, we have three types of developments and the value and comfort in them is proportional to the quality of the planning and its execution. The developments in phase 1 have the highest value. In phase 2, the value of land in planned developments is moderate, but still far higher than in the unplanned unauthorized layouts.

Wealth created by the growth of a good city is unparalleled. An acre of vacant land valued at five lakhs in today’s prices; when it becomes part of a well planned city, it will be valued at 10 to 100 crore at today’s value itself!

Rule 3. City building can create crime, corruption and power struggle:

The vast wealth that is generated naturally triggers human greed. The strict enforcement that is needed to achieve a proper planned growth tends to get violated by corruption. The high value generated by urbanization also triggers every individual to try to get a share of it and then there arise land disputes, forgeries, and the land mafia.

Even in situations where there are no violations, whenever residential layouts are developed by private individuals and companies, huge bribes are demanded. This is because of the sudden change in the value of the land due to its change of usage and the administrators wanting a share out of it.

The corruption is of such a large scale that administrators fight for the some posts of their choice and a struggle for power follows.

Rule 4. City building has its victims and beneficiaries:

While agricultural lands in the surroundings of Mysore were acquired by the government, the land acquisition laws were applied. The land acquisition laws in India give high powers to the government. The government can simply notify and take into its possession the lands of the farmers for whatever purpose it wishes. The farmers then have to stand in front of the land acquisition officers for their financial compensation. This compensation has always been fixed at very low levels. This process of land acquisition has victimized many innocent farmers.

On the other hand, those who could get the allotment of the plots of land developed by the government have seen their investment appreciate by several hundred times. A site measuring 40’ x60’, which was allotted in Vijayanagar 1^st stage for Rs.35, 000/- in the 1980s, is today worth over Rs. One Crore. This appreciation of three hundred times is probably acceptable in the case of genuine users of the land who have built houses and live in them, but in the case of those who have bought and kept vacant plots of land as an investment it is an unfair, disproportionate benefit.

What is more, several people have got their lands freed from land acquisition through unfair means and have benefited by the huge value addition, without making any contribution to city building.

The other victims of urbanization are the common people who need housing. Since the appreciation of land value due to city building creates hoarding of vacant land, the people who actually need to build a house become the victims and either pay a hefty price or settle for a house outside the city.

We need to make sure that the wealth generated by the city growth reaches either the real users of the land or the government, and then through it to all the citizens and not the land grabbers and the corrupt administrators.

For a better Tomorrow:

Now, seeing these developments over the last 120 years, we should be able to not only build better cities but also make sure of a fair and just system, without giving room for corruption and crime.

We need to make sure that the wealth generated by the city growth reaches either the real users of the land or the government, and then through it all the citizens and not the land grabbers and the administrators.

The following steps, if adopted, can achieve the above objective.

1.      When a city is developed, substantial portion of the land shall be kept as reserve land by the government.

2.      Private individuals and companies shall not be allowed to own vacant land inside the cities and profit by it, without contributing to city in any form.

3.      The government shall sell/auction the reserve land after the city is fully built,and after land prices have reached the peak.

4.      The proceeds of this sale/auction shall be such a major revenue for the government that taxes on people by the government can be reduced substantially.

These steps can make a major change in achieving fairness and justice, in addition to building better cities.

© Copyright 2014 Venugopal V.R. All rights reserved.