Amid controversy in Bihar Sharif, a short history of clock towers

Sundials & bell towers

Sundials, which tell time using shadows cast by the Sun, are perhaps the oldest human-made timekeeping devices. The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-425 BCE) credited the ancient Babylonians with their creation; however, many civilisations likely constructed their own sundials at various points in their history.

The earliest precursors to clock towers themselves were the obelisks that were first erected by the Ancient Egyptians, and later adopted by the Romans. These monumental structures, built to mark a significant occasion (such as a coronation or a military success), often doubled as sundials.

Likely constructed in the first century BCE, the Tower of the Winds in Athens is sometimes described as the world’s first clock tower. It contained a water clock inside and several sundials on its faces.

In the fifth century CE, Paulinus of Nola introduced bells to the Christian Church. These were meant to call parishioners to mass at specific times of the day. Soon, bell towers or campaniles (freestanding bell towers) began cropping up across medieval Europe; the ringing of church bells became the marker of time.

Like the Roman obelisks, bell towers symbolised a medieval town’s power or wealth. The Leaning Tower of Pisa (completed in 1372), the campanile of the medieval cathedral in Pisa, Italy, is arguably the best known medieval bell tower.

Clock towers in industrial age

The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the mid-18th century, fundamentally changed humans’ relationship with time. The emergence of the modern factory and wage labour not only necessitated keeping time, but also making the most of it.

As a result, mechanical clocks, far more accurate and reliable than older timekeepers, became increasingly ubiquitous. As historian E P Thompson noted, the clock was a technology of discipline and control which governed the lives of the working class in the service of capital. (‘Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism’, Past and Present, 1967).

But average workers could not afford personal watches or even domestic clocks.

Enter clock towers. These were similar to medieval bell towers, but with one or more clock faces. One simply had to look up to know the time, rather than wait for the bell to toll (although clock towers held on to the tradition of ringing bells at certain times of the day).

Clock towers thus became monuments of modernity, especially in Victorian England where they were often attached to the town hall (instead of the church as with the bell towers of medieval times). Over the 19th century, hundreds — possibly thousands — came up all over Britain.

Built in 1837, the clock tower at Herne Bay, Kent is likely the oldest purpose-built clock tower in the UK.

One of the most famous clock towers in the world is the Elizabeth Tower in Westminster, London, which houses the Big Ben. Completed in 1859, it is known for its then unprecedented accuracy (losing only 2 seconds a week).

In India, symbols of the Raj

According to historian Thomas R Metcalf, clock towers were erected across northern India in the years following the Revolt of 1857 to serve as reminders of the “supremacy of the Raj”.

“Delhi obtained one some 110 feet high opposite the town hall in Chandni Chowk… In Lucknow… a soaring tower some 221 feet in height [was erected]… Set down in the two centres of the 1857 revolt, these structures can hardly be regarded as other than latter-day Qutb Minars, to mark out the presence of a new conqueror in the land,” Metcalf wrote in ‘Architecture and the Representation of Empire: India, 1860-1910’ published in Representations in 1984.

Sociologist Sanjay Srivastava wrote: “Situated in an environment perceived to be characterised by excessive spirituality and other-worldliness, the clock-tower stood as a salient and articulate symbol of the ‘rational’ West, directing its progressive gaze from various vantage points far above the temporal and spatial anarchy of its surroundings.” (Constructing Post-Colonial India: National Character and the Doon School, 2005).

Ghanta Ghars today are ubiquitous in cities and towns across India. Many were built by the British before watches and clocks became accessible to the public. But new ones continued to be built after Independence, for a wide variety of symbolic purposes.

The clock tower in Dehradun inaugurated by then Union Rail Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1953 commemorated India’s freedom from British rule. The one in Lal Chowk in Srinagar was built in 1980 by Bajaj Electricals as a part of a publicity campaign.

Bihar Sharif’s clock tower, at the centre of the recent controversy, was a part of the larger National Smart Cities Mission which ended on March 31. Much like the ones built by the British, it was meant to be a symbol of progress.