Empires of Architecture in India and Malaysia

1.0 Introduction
This report is about the presentation on the topic of “Empire of Architecture”. In this presentation, we were researching on the British Empire. The objective of this presentation is to study the similarities and differences on how British colonized India and Malaya. Researches were caring out within 1 week through reading. Most of the pictures were getting from internet due to the reason that pictures found in books are black and white pictures, which is not suitable for presentation.

1.1 British Empire

During the 19th Century, European countries started to spread their power outside Europe to get the resources such as tin, rubber and so on. British at that time was a wealthy country, and it became the leader in this trend. In the present day, there were over 50 members of Commonwealth Countries, who had been colonized by British. These commonwealth countries is including Canada, South Africa, India, Malaysia and Singapore (Malaya), Australia and New Zealand.


1.2 Empire of Architecture

British was colonized India for over 100 years. Besides, British also colonized Malaya over 50years. British, a small country compare to India, were able to control the Indian and Malayan for so many years. The answer to it is Architecture. British used good Urban Planning to control the local people. Thus, the colonization of British is been titled “The Empire of Architecture.
1.3 Urban Planning

British had a well urban planning in the India and Malaya that enable British to control the local people. Basically, British were using the 4 major points in its urban planning, which are the Cantonment, the Isolation and Segregation, the Communal Building and the Bungalow. In this presentation, we are going to discuss the similarity and differences of the urban planning applied in these two different country.

2.0 Cantonment

The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton, which means corner or district. The “cantonment” is a temporary or semi-permanent military quarters typically in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.


2.1 Cantonment in India

When British succeed conquer India, they have a problem in controlling the Indian. They have limited military forces in term of “quantity”. The British army in Indian was only a few compare to the Indian. Thus, British need to strengthen their military force. They did a well Urban Planning to strengthen their military force. British used the Cantonment concept to separate the people into many districts to weaken the Indian forces.

However, British military was not able to fully control the Indian if outburst happened. Thus, British got another brilliant idea to reinforce their military by the railway system. British used railway to link their entire military cantonment together. Whenever there is an outburst happening in a cantonment, the army from other cantonment will be able to give help in a very short time. Thus, British were able to control and conquer India for over 100 years.

2.2 Cantonment In Malaya

British went into Malay, spreading like a virus, and finally colonized the whole peninsular of Malaya including Singapore. British have fewer problems in controlling the Malayan because the forces against British were lesser. Besides, before British colonized Malaya, their already have a very strong military force in Sri Lanka and India, which is very near to Malaya. Thus, British did not really need the Cantonment system in Malaya.

However, railway system was brought into Malay as well. The purpose is different. In India, the main objective of the railway system is to reinforce the Military. In Malaya, the main objective is to reinforce the economy in Malaya. The reason is, Malaya was rich of the natural sources such as tin, rubber, and coco. The railway system accelerated the transportation and production. This profit British a lot. Thus, British could get the money armor British army.

3.0 Isolation and Segregation

The main objective of the Isolation and Segregation is to reduce the local forces against British. However, the application in India and Malaya is totally different. In which means British were designing the urban plan specific to the problem and not just copy and paste the solution to the other. In architecturally, British did a well site analysis before they start designing.
3.1 Isolation in India

In India, British isolated themselves with the India. The main purpose of it is to influence the Indian thoughts. British wanted the Indian to think that British were here to teach them what civilization is all about. British used the “White Black town” to achieve that where British will stay in the wealthy and clean White town while Indian remain in a lower class of living environment. Indian was restricted to access into the white town. The aim of the “white black town” concept is to plant a though of “God-like British” into the Indian mind.

The white town is like an exhibition hall for British lifestyle and the black town is like the audience seats. Everyday the Indian will see the British having parties in the garden. Gradually, Indian started to accept British and admire them. Thus, again British were success to reduce the Indian force against British.
3.2 Segregation in Malaya

In Malaya, there are 3 main races, Malay, Chinese, and Indian. There was no strong force against British. However, if the 3 races are united as like the Malaysia today, British will have a big problem. Thus, British applied segregation in Malaya to avoid the unity among these 3 races. In another words, British did not need to weaken the Malayan but needed prevention on the unity of Malayan which would make Malayan stronger.

The main objective of British in Malaya is for natural sources. Therefore, British need to segregate the 3 races in Malaya while on the other hand need them to help in the economic sector. British again came out with a brilliant urban design. British separate the 3 races into different sector in term of economic activities. For instance, British educated Malay work for British in Administration, vernacular educated Malay stay in “Kampung”(village) remain as fisherman and padi farmer. While the Chinese was businessman in town and tin miner in mining sector. For Indian, they work in rubber estate.

This segregation prevents interaction among these 3 races. Consequently, there are no unity happened. When there are no unity among the 3 races, British can control the Malaya without much trouble. Therefore, British keep on eating the wealth in Malay (natural sources), and continue be rich and powerful for a couples of decades.
4.0 Communal Building

Communal building is the space designed for community which we usually named it public place. Examples of communal buildings include post office, courts, town hall, government offices, churches, schools and etc. Communal building was the always the identity of a country.

The idea of communal building is to create an illusion to the local people that they are living in the British. The application of this concept is that all the communal buildings were built using British architecture. The scale of communal building is big compare to the local building which reminds the local that British are greater. Besides, British were also aim to strip off the local identities of the colonized countries by buildings with pure European architecture. As a result, British were success to make the local forget about their own national identities.

The same concept and application was applied in India and Malaya. Both applications are success to make British stay long in these 2 countries.

The same concept was continuing to today architecture in urban planning. For instance in Malaysia, Putra Jaya, the urban planed city where all the government buildings were all built with Islamic architecture. When traveling in the city, it reminds people that this is Islamic country.
5.0 Bungalow

Bungalow is the word derived from the Indian local hut called bangala. Bungalow was designed by the British in their colonized countries. The design of an early bungalow was purely British Architecture. Building materials were imported from the British. Bungalow was built without much consideration to the climate. For instance, they have a chimney on the roof which does not serve any function in India and Malaya climate. But, as the Bungalow evolved, it started to have elements such as high ceiling, pitch roof, and verandah to respond to the local climate.

The main objective of the bungalow is to show the power of British to the local people like Indian and Malayan. Bungalow is the symbol for high class wealthy people. British tended to make the local think that British are higher above them. Most of the people staying in British bungalow are the powerful people such as governor.

Bungalows in India are less integrated to the local climate while on the other hand; Malaya bungalows have the passive climate design in it. The reason is that British came into India much earlier than into Malaya.
6.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, British have a strong army to conquer India and Malaya. In terms of controlling the local people, British have another strong weapon which is Architecture. British used Architecture to control the society activities such as economic activities, educational activities, lifestyles and so on. Besides, most importantly, British used architecture to control the mindscape of the people. British create many illusions to the local people and make them thinks that British are here to teach them civilization. British were using architecture to make the local people think that British are God-like. Thus, the local was willing to be ruled by the British before they had the consciousness of the national identity. In short, 2 different countries; 1 way to conquer; ARCHITECTURE is the power.

Reference List:

Bangalore Cantonment 2006. Retrieved April 30, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/

Yew, CW 2001. Sejarah Peradaban Dunia, Sasbadi Sdn Bhd, Petaling Jaya