Mumbai, earlier known as Bombay, has been described as the most ‘city-like city’ in India; some call it the urbs prima of India while others address it as the New York of the East. It was the ‘Gateway’ to India in colonial days and it remains so even today. In terms of population size within the municipal limits, Mumbai ranks second in the world. As an urban agglomeration, it ranks sixth among the large cities of the world. The ‘Vision Mumbai’ document prepared by McKinsey & Co. provides a blueprint for its transformation into a world city within the 2003-13 decade.

Mumbai, apart from being the capital of the state of Maharashtra, is the Indian financial capital and a dominant urban landscape of the western part of the ountry. Its nodal location in terms of land, sea and air connectivity, both national and international, adds to its magnetism as a leading industrial and commercial centre. It is the nerve centre of capital markets, financial services, and manufacturing, playing a crucial role in the growth and development of the Indian economy. It has attracted a large number of national and multinational firms since a long time. The exploitation of the offshore oilfields such as Bombay High and the city's key role in naval defence has enhanced its supremacy as a mega city of India.

Dhaka epitomises a long history of urbanisation influenced by various natural and cultural phases, at times hostile to its natural trend of evolutionary journey. Natural environment, the local culture, and the way of life of the people living there have together modified the urban landscape by adopting, adapting, and innovating in response to challenges posed and opportunities thrown open. A series of superimposed or juxtaposed layers of interventions due to these responses, sometimes beyond recognition, when unfolded, reveal an archetype deep beneath. In order to understand the contemporary urban morphology of Dhaka or to predict its future, it is essential to understand the process and context of its evolution.

GEO-ECOLOGICAL SETTING

The geography of a place has a profound effect on the settlement pattern, architecture, society, and thinking of the people living there. In the case of the People's Republic of Bangladesh this is more pronounced perhaps due to a low technological development and weak natural resources base, which have combined to force urban and traditional architectural developments along strictly modern and functional.

Calcutta's (now named Kolkata) settlement history is not that old. The origin of the settlement may be attributed to the middle of the seventeenth century. During that early period, traders of Saptagram (a port-city on the upstream of River Hooghly, located farther north to Bandel, at the confluence of River Saraswati and Jamuna, both now defunct) began to seek fresh markets as their original seat declined owing to the caprices of the rivers and, thus, a few families of Sheths and Bysaks moved southward, nearer to the sea-route to Bay of Bengal, and founded the village of Gobindapur on the east bank of River Hooghly, named after the Sheths' deity Gobindaji. Northward of this, they proceeded to set up the Sutanati Hat (or cotton and yarn market) by the side of Sutanati Ghat (boat landing platform by the riverside) which eventually attracted Job Charnok, the agent of British East India Company who landed there, in search of fresh fortune, on 24 August 1690. In between Sutanati and Gobindapur was the lesser settlement of Kalikata. These three villages became the site of the original British holdings that grew into the city of Calcutta. In fact, the right of renting these three villages was granted to British East India Company by the Sabarna Roychoudhuri family of Barisha-Behala (located at the southern suburb of the then Calcutta), who were holding the zamindari rights of the area, on 10 November 1698 for Rs. 1,300 only.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), the capital and main business hub of Nepal, is also the largest urban centre of the country. Located in the lap of the Lesser (southern) Himalayas at the junction of 27.72° N latitude and 85.37° E longitude, it is spread over an area of 5,000 ha in Kathmandu Valley at an average elevation of 1,350 m. The KMC has 701,962 inhabitants, that is nearly one-fifth (20 per cent) of the urban population of the country (2001 census). It has a built-up area of 3,844.56 ha, and an average population density of 175.7 per/ha.

Kathmandu, also called Kantipur by Newars, is a derivative of the term Kashtamandap (kastha = wood; and mandap = temple) i.e. a temple made of wood (the trunk of a single tree). Everything in and around Kathmandu appears to have the imprint of the Kasthamandapa. The name of the valley is Kathmandu, and the district in which it is located is also called Kathmandu. The tentacles of the KMC, however, reach out to the neighbouring districts of Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur too.

For centuries, Nepal had three rival royal cities: Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Patan, all located in Kathmandu Valley. With the unification of Nepal under Prithvi Narayan Shah (1769-1775), Kathmandu scored over its rivals, became the capital of the kingdom, and grew steadily both in area and population. Today, its physical infrastructure – transport, communication, power, and housing – is comparable to any South Asian metropolis.

Delhi is the third-largest metropolis of India. It is growing fast both in terms of population and area, and is poised to become a global city in the near future. Delhi's population has grown from 2.38 million in 1911 to 12.79 million in 2001. In 2001, it was spread over 792 sq km, 18.3 times increase over its spatial extent a 43.3 sq km in 1911. It has surged ahead speedily in terms of its economic status as well. It is not only the centre of politics, but also of manufacturing and services. The per capita income of Delhi in 2001-02 was over INR 43,000 – double that of India's average per capita income.

The history of Delhi is rooted in the Mahabharata times; it was then known as Indraprastha, which according to popular belief was founded by the Pandavas. Coming down to the recorded history of Delhi, the Tomar Rajputs established the capital of their kingdom in the vicinity of Qutab Minar, in ad 736. They named it Lal Kot. When the Chauhans conquered Lal Kot, they renamed it as Quila Rai Pithora. Later, five more cities, within the geographical area of what is now known as Delhi, were created and eventually destroyed. They were: Siri, built by Alauddin Khilji, Tughlaqabad built by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, Jahanpanah built by Muhammad bin Tughlaq, Kotla Feroz Shah built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, Dinpanah built by Humayun, and finally Shahjahanabad, around the Red Fort built by the Mughal emperor Shahjahan.

Kâbul, the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, is the economic and cultural hub of the country. Located on the Gateway to the ‘Fabulous East’, the tribal columns from Central and West Asia have occupied, passed through and trampled the city many a time. However, the worst times it witnessed was the Taliban Era (1978-2003), not because some foreign invaders trampled over it, but because its own people, the Afghans turned Mujahideens, turned Taliban, left nothing intact, not even minds and souls of the people. Here is an account of what I read about the city and what I saw during my visits during 2007-09.

Since 1978, Afghanis have been fighting against external forces as much as among themselves. Being the capital city, Kabul had to bear the destruction caused by marching armies and exploding bombs. The Mujahideen, the protectors of the faith, eventually succeeded in taking control of the country from Russian hands in 1992. Mohammad Nazibullah, the then pro-USSR president of the country, fearing capture and execution, took shelter in the UN Mission building. Taliban, the Millitia of Islamic Students, subdued other factions of the Mujahideen and gained control over Kabul in 1996. Najibullah was forcibly taken away from the UN Mission and executed in an open pavilion. The Taliban practiced a radical form of Sunni Islam that took strict stances on women, society, and even other sects of Muslims. They ruled over Afghanistan with an iron fist until their ouster by the American forces in 2001.

In tune with the basic civilisational ethos of the region, human

settlements of South Asia range from hamlets to great cities. The system of villages and cities evolved in the region changed with time. In the pages that follow, an attempt has been made to trace the ups and downs in the history of urbanisation in South Asia during the last 10,000 years or so. For the sake of convenience, we can divide it into seven phases:

1. Pre-Vedic Villagisation (7500-5000 bc)

2. Vedic Rurbanisation: (5000-2500 bc)

3. Indus Valley Civilisation: An Urban Interlude (2500-1500 bc)

4. Post-Vedic Rurbanisation: (2500 bc-1000 ad)

5. Medieval Transformation of Cities: (1000-1750 ad)

6. Colonial Urban Explosion: (1800-1947) and

7. Post-Independence Urban Explosion and Implosion (1947-2011).

PRE-VEDIC VILLAGISATION (7500-3500 bc)

It was around 5000 bc that the Vedas were composed by the Vedics who lived in the North-western region of the Indian sub-continent covering Persia, Afghanistan and Sind, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh in present-day India, and Pakistan. May be, the region extended further east but the changing courses of River Ganga and its tributaries have left little, if any traces of the past. The core of the region where Rig Veda, the first and oldest Veda was composed, was eastern Afghanistan and Sind, Punjab and the adjoining areas of India. The region was agriculturally prosperous. It was essentially rural.