Book Talk “History of Urban Form of India”

South Asia has had a rich history of urbanization, spanning many centuries, and the Indian sub-continent has been a site of some of the most varied and intriguing examples of urban formations. However, not much attention has been paid to the question of form and typologies of Indian cities. The Indian sub-continent makes for a compelling case for studies of urban formation as correlated with the larger conceptual ideas around the role of geography, religious and political authority, mercantile guilds, royal bureaucratic structures, and expression of colonial intent. The book “History of Urban Form,” which is published by Oxford University Press, covers 42 case studies in great depth across the Indian subcontinent, including the Himalayas.

Design and Planning of contemporary Indian cities has been a challenging task, and quite often the results of the same, appear not only chaotic but also full of contradictions. This book shifts the gaze to certain historical patterns that still seem to haunt the present. Not much attention has been given to the historical form of Indian cities, and quite often it is reduced to being perceived as some “exotic spiritual” or “organic” expression. The talk will focus on the colonial cities established by the British, Portuguese, and French in India, and emphasize the key differences in their approaches. The other aspects that will be highlighted are the late 19th-century experiments in city building and the creation of a public sphere that best exemplify the development of an indigenous form of modernity in many parts of India. The talk will emphasize the underlying theme of the book, which is the evolution of public spaces and public spheres in Indian cities over time and its correlation with urban spatial structures.

Speaker: 
Prof. Pratyush Shankar

Prof. Pratyush Shankar is the Provost of Navrachana University Vadodara (NUV), India, and serves as the Dean of the School of Environmental Design and Architecture (SEDA). In 2023, he was the Creative Director of the Humboldt Residency Program in Berlin.

He is presently the International Ambassador for the University of Bonn and was awarded the  Alexander von Humboldt Senior Fellowship in 2015–2017. Prof. Shankar is a widely published. His most recent book is titled History of Urban Form: India (Oxford University Press, 2023), He also edited the title “Potency of the Vernacular Settlements: Recent Scholarships in Vernacular Studies (2024) Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group)”. His other book, Himalayan Cities: Settlement Pattern, Public Places and Architecture (Niyogi Publishers, 2014), narrates the history of urbanization in Himalayas as an outcome of its landscape conditions.

Prof. Pratyush was also a Guest Professor at the Mundus Urbano Program at the Faculty of Architecture, TU Darmstadt. Alongside his academic work, he runs a design practice (www.pratyushshankar.com) that reflects his commitment to heritage conservation, sustainability, and context-sensitive design. His architectural work has received national recognition, including the 22nd JK Architect of the Year Award (2013) for Residential Design and ID Honors Award for conservation in 2025 . Before joining Navrachana University Vadodara, he taught at CEPT University, Ahmedabad for almost 25 years. 

Discussant: 
Sukriti Issar, Urban School (SciencesPo)

Chair: 
Christophe Jaffrelot, Sciences Po-CERI/CNRS