Originally brought to India by Chinese immigrants, rickshaws were a major technological advance over the sedan chair, or palanquin, found in 19th century Europe and Asia. Invented in Japan in the 1860s, the jin riki sha required only one puller, compared with the two to four footmen required to carry a single person on a palanquin. Rickshaws became the favored form of transport for the middle and upper classes, not just in India, but across Europe as well. The most controversial cinema ‘City of Joy’ was based on the traumatized life of a rickshaw puller (cast by Om Puri) and his wife (cast by Shabana Azmi).
Like tea, tram, cricket and Gothic architecture, the hand-pulled rickshaw is a British heritage in Kolkata’s colonial treasure. The long parallel bars and colorful seats with the ‘tung tang’ rhythm of the bells, make Rickshaw an emblem of Kolkata.
--Debojit Bose
Like tea, tram, cricket and Gothic architecture, the hand-pulled rickshaw is a British heritage in Kolkata’s colonial treasure. The long parallel bars and colorful seats with the ‘tung tang’ rhythm of the bells, make Rickshaw an emblem of Kolkata.
--Debojit Bose
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