THE PEOPLE - HOUSES AND HOUSING

The patterns of houses and housing have undergone considerable changes, particularly in urban areas. The old type of houses or the rich living in joint families consisted of a front and a back part separated by a small open court on each side of which was a passage and in the upper storey an open terrace connecting front and back parts of the house. Such a plan of the house was once popular because when children would grow up and sons had families of their own, they could share the same house and yet to some extent each family could live apart.

Houses belonging to the upper gentry were built round a chauk, quadrangle with stone or burnt brick wails, tiled roofs and verandahs. These houses were generally two-storeyed. The entrance door was often spacious and imposing which had a small gateway called dindi. Inside surrounding the chauk, were broad osaris or verandahs with­ a devadi, watch-room and an office room. On crossing the chauk, a few steps led to the oti or verandah, for the house was always raised on a jote (plinth) two or three feet high. In the verandah outsiders were received and children played and women spent their leisure. The ground floor had four to seven rooms, a central hall and a back verandah opening into the rear yard. There were rooms for sleeping, for keeping clothes and ornaments, a kitchen and a god­-room. The upper storeys would have more rooms and a hall. In the rear of the house, would be a cattle-shed, a bathing room and a privy located in a. distant corner, flower and plantain trees arid a tulas (holy basil) planted in a masonry pillar post and rooms for servants and retainers.       

More modest houses were generally ones with walls, constructed of dressed or unworked stone, burnt or sun dried bricks and tiled or flat roofs. They were to be seen both in towns and villages. A house of this class consisted of an osari (front verandah) which was used as an office or place of business, majghar or the central room for dining and sitting, devghar or a room for the house-gods, a kitchen and a room to spare. There was generally a small cattle-shed, a separate privy and a bath-room.   

Houses occupied by husbandmen in villages were built with unburnt brick walls, tiled or dhaba roofs with two or three rooms. They had large cattle-sheds. Poorer land-holders, labourers and Harijans often lived in single-roomed houses with mud and stone or mud-wattled reed walls with dhaba or tin or corrugated iron sheet roofs.

Old houses were built with the idea of providing shelter and safety, while modern designs and constructions are particular about the principles of convenience, economy, health and sanitation with necessary safety. The richer class of people are now having indepen­dent cottages and bungalows with accommodation generally consisting of a verandah, a drawing or sitting room, two or three extra rooms for being used as bed-rooms, a guest-room, a study, a kitchen, a parlour, pantry or store-room and an independent bath arid water closet. There is a small garden around and a garage. Rooms are so arranged as to have independent access each. The walls are of stone or brick masonry in lime or cement mortar and plastered in lime or Cement mortar. The doors are panelled or glazed and have brass fixtures. Enough windows are there to allow free passage of air and light. The floors are paved with stone or concrete and are free from dampness, drainage and sanitation being carefully looked after. The roof is either covered with manglore tiles or terraced in reinforced concrete. The rooms are generally colour-washed or distempered in different shades of light colour. The drawing hall or the sitting room is usually provided with a half dozen cane or wooden chairs or sofa and two side chairs duly upholstered, One Or two easy chairs, one big central table, two or three small tea-poys and the floor or the part round about the table covered with a carpet. The dining hall is equipped with a dining table and chairs and a side-table. The bed-room is furnished with one or two wooden or steel bedstead, a wardrobe or an almirah and a dressing table with a mirror. Built-in cupboard shelves, pegs and sanitary fittings are provided where necessary. A cottage has only a ground floor and a bungalow has generally a floor in addition.

During the last few years, flats for small families in a single building, often for ten to twelve families and two-room tenements for families of smaller means have come into vogue in urban areas. There has not been much of a change in the pattern of houses in villages. The poor continue to live in small huts as before.