Indus Culture and Modern Urbanisation

Facts of the First Cities - 3

How Indus Culture was as compared to the modern day cities?

This is somewhat weird comparing the 1900 BC with the 21th Century, but we have to compare both as it is worth it. Let me tell you that in the year 2014 UPSC Mains there was one question, "To what extent has the urban planning and culture of the Indus Valley Civilization provided inputs to the present day urbanisation? Discuss. And to answer these kinds of question we will first have to compare both the times and their town planning and later we'll have to come to a conclusion that which are the features of modern day culture that has been derived from the Sindhu Culture.

But we are only going to compare the features which had helped in the modern day urbanisation.

Let's start comparing.

1. FCI and Granaries :

    It is known to all of us that large and big granaries were discovered at many sites of
    Harappan Civilization during the excavation which were used for storing grains and food
    items. This stored food could be used in the period of food crises due to flood, famine,
    drought, and any other reason. Thus the food grains which were stored to be used in future.
    In this same way governments today store food items in large cold storages which is stored
    so that it can be used in the time of famines and in the areas where the production is not
    possible. FCI i.e. Food Corporation of India is an Indian Government's Ministry of Food
    Department whose key role is to store the food grains in various food storages across India
    and to assure the proper supply of food in whole India and at the same time also storing
    food grains for future just like the Sindhu people used to store the food grain in the
    granaries. This feature which is assuring food needs of people across different nations also
    existed in Harappan Culture. 

   

2. Drainage System -

    Harappan Civilization is very famous for town planning which includes a well laid out
    drainage system which was connected to each and every house. Also drains were covered
    with plain stone slabs which could be removed in order to clean the drains. The drains
    were always on the side of the roads and the streets which moved across all the city. The
    only town which did not had this drainage was Kalibangan. It is interesting to know that
    the drainage system has not been evolved yet in the 21th century, all the key aspects has
    not yet changed and remained same over years and years which suggests that either the
    Harappan culture was far ahead of that era or we are far behind in time. The existence of
    sewage lines in every town is as same as that was during the Harappan time. Even the
    harappan people used wooden screens a some distance so that the solid could not move
    ahead with liquid waste. The efficiency of the drainage system though it was made so many

    years ago was same as it is today.

3. Rainwater Harvesting System -

    If you have read about Dholavira then you might know what I am trying to compare
    here. There was an awesome rainwater harvesting system discovered at Dholavira which
    resembled same to present day Khadins of Rajasthan. Thus, it is clear that the rainwater
    harvesting system we promote so highly nowadays also existed thousands of years ago
    during Harappan culture. Basically, at that time water was stored in large gigantic reservoirs
    in a sequence which could be used later just as Khadins which stores rain water in large
    reservoir. The concept of this rainwater harvesting system gives us an idea how great were
    those minds of Harappan people. Might this thing has continued since from then and thus
    India was capable of building water conserving structures in every period be it ancient,
    medieval or modern time.      

4. Municipal Council -

    Many famous historians had agreed that there was an Municipal Council like body which
    governed all the people of the town in Harappan Culture. Thus, if this is true then it will
    be the another important feature which we had adopted from the Sindhu Civilization. And
    it must be true that a body like todays Municipal Council existed in the Indus Civilization
    as it was not possible for a bunch of crowd to flourish so well until they were led by an
    authority. Was that governing body hold the same power as of todays municipal councils,
    was it elected by people as it is done now, how do they passed any law, etc. are not cleared
    yet. Even the fact that was that body better than todays municipal form of authority is still
    debatable, but it sure that there existed a body like that. 

5. Chandigarh and Harappa -

    In 2015, an article was published by BBC named as 'Chandigarh as one of the perfect cities of
    the world in terms of architecture, cultural growth and modernisation. And what if I tell you
    that the whole Chandigarh city was designed by Le Corbusier just alike Harappa. Is it
    shocking, isn't it? Yes, by seeing the architectural design of both the cities you would not be
    able to distinguish between them. Both the cities have same long straight roads which cut
    the city and the streets which are cut 90 degree to the roads and both the cities' important
    buildings i.e. the administrative buildings were laid in just one part of the city. The most
    important feature which was stolen from Harappan culture by the designers of Chandigarh
    was that none of the houses in both the cities does not had entrance opened on the major
    road. Thus we can conclude that the Chandigarh was designed with the blueprint of
    harappan culture. And it is claimed to be the best designed city of the world by BBC, thus
    we can conclude the architectural skills of Harappan people and how their cities help us
    even today to produce more world class cities.  

This comparison is enough to tell how harappan culture provided inputs for the modern day urbanisation. You should note that it is not the answer to that question of UPSC Mains 2014, but these facts can be used to answer that question by just changing the form of language of this article.

Read the article on Amazing facts of Harappan Civilization at Facts of Harappan Culture

These articles can be used for the preparation of UPSC CSE, various board exams and other competitive exams.

Also check our notes on Religion of Harappan Culture at Sindhu Reliion

Also you can refer to other articles for more details about Indus Valley Culture  

Want to know more about Harappan Civilization read  at The First Cities