Pol (housing)

A pol (pronunciationⓘ, pronounced as pole, Gujarati: પોળ) in India is a housing cluster which comprises many families of a particular group, linked by caste, profession, or religion.

Pols were originally made as a protection measure when communal riots necessitated greater security probably dating from 1738 during Mughal-Maratha rule (1738–1753) in Ahmedabad.

When a house is mortgaged or sold, the people of the pol had a right to claim from one-half to two per cent of the money received.

If the pol rules are slighted, the offender is fined and, in former times, till he paid, he was not allowed to light a lamp in his house or to give a feast.

The money gathered from gifts, fines, and the percentage on house property sales, formed a common fund managed by the leaders, seths, of the pol.

Inside of the gateway the houses of the group form one or more streets, the ends either blocked by a dead wall, or, through a small door, bari, opening into another pol.

The people of these pols form, to some extent, separate communities, each with arrangements for managing its common affairs.

[2] The old city of Ahmedabad located on the Eastern banks of the Sabarmati river is made up of around 360 pols within a fortified compound.