Wednesday, September 30, 2009

James Street, Secunderabad




Photograph of a street in Secunderabad, Andrea Pradeah, taken by Deen Dayal in the 1880s, from the Curzon Collection: 'Views of HH the Nizam's Dominions, Hyderabad, Deccan, 1892'. Secunderabad, twin city of Hyderabad, was founded after an alliance between Hyderabad’s Nizam Sikander Jah and the British East India Company in 1798. Following the treaty, secured by Major James Achilles Kirkpatrick, an area north of Hussain Sagar lake was made into a cantonment. Soon after the treaty was signed 5,000 British troops arrived and camped in the new cantonment of Secunderabad, which was laid out in 1806 and named after the Nizam. Initially it encompassed an area of four square miles and had a population of 5,000 troops plus several thousand civilians. However, 60 years later it had increased to 17 square miles and had a population, including the armed forces, of 50,000.