The biologist-planner Patrick Geddes toured India from 1914 and produced some fifty town-planning reports for cities including Madras, Indore, Lucknow and Lahore. He attacked the wholesale clearance and road-driving of the improvement trusts, advocating instead conservative surgery: minimal demolition, retention of existing fabric, and improvement of lanes, wells and gardens through careful diagnostic survey. His method placed survey-analysis-plan and respect for local life and climate at the centre of practice. He also helped shape the new town of Indore and the teaching of planning in India.
Geddes introduced an influential survey-led, conservation-minded alternative to demolition-driven colonial improvement, shaping Indian planning thought.
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