Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:18:57.980Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Review essay: Celebrating Calcutta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2009

Partho Datta
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Calcutta celebrated its tercentenary in 1990. The city rose to the occasion handsomely with floats, exhibitions, seminars, the usual flurry of publications and some soul-searching. So it has been an exciting year for Indian urban historians. A decade has elapsed since Narayani Gupta reviewed the state of current research on urban India, and after a brief examination of writings on colonial cities, attention is devoted here to a more extensive survey of works on Calcutta including those published on the occasion of the tercentenary.

Type
Review Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , April 1992 , pp. 84 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Gupta, Narayani, ‘Twelve years on: urban history in India’, Urban History Yearbook (1981), 76–9).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Banga, Indu (ed.), The City in Indian History. Urban Demography, Society and Politics (Delhi, 1991).Google Scholar

3 Grewal, J.S. (ed.), Calcutta, Foundation and Development of a Colonial Metropolis (Urban History Association of India, Chandigarh, 1991).Google Scholar

4 King, A., ‘Colonialism and the development of the modern Asian city: some theoretical considerations’, in Ballhatchet, K. and Harrison, J. (eds), The City in South Asia. Pre-Modern and Modern (London, 1980)Google Scholar and King, A., ‘Colonial cities: global pivots of change’, in Ross, R.J. and Telkamp, G.J. (eds), Colonial Cities. Essays on Urbanism in a Colonial Context (Dordrecht, 1985).Google Scholar

5 Gupta, Narayani, ‘Calcutta: form and function (1690–1990)’, in Grewal, , Calcutta, Foundation and DevelopmentGoogle Scholar, and Gupta, Narayani, ‘Urbanism in South India: eighteenth-nineteenth centuries’, in Banga, , The City in Indian History.Google Scholar

6 Tindall, G., City of Gold. The Biography of Bombay (London, 1982), 30.Google Scholar

7 Gupta, Narayani, ‘The useful and the ornamental: architecture in India in the last two centuries’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 25, 1 (1988);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Gupta, S., Architecture and the Raj: Western Deccan 1700–1900 (Delhi, 1985);Google Scholar and Gupta, S., ‘Sris Chandra Chatterjee: the quest for a national architecture’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 28, 2 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 King, A.D., Colonial Urban Development, Culture, Social Power and Environment (London, 1976).Google Scholar

9 Metcalf, T.R., An Imperial Vision. Indian Architecture and Britain's Raj (London, 1989), xi.Google Scholar

10 Oldenburg, Veena Talwar, The Making of Colonial Lucknow: 1856–1877 (Princeton, 1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Dossal, Mariam, Imperial Designs and Indian Realities. The Planning of Bombay City 1845–1875 (Bombay, 1991).Google Scholar

12 King, , Colonial Urban Development, 277.Google Scholar

13 For full reference see note 4.

14 Bayly, C.A., Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars (Cambridge, 1983).Google Scholar

15 Rowe, W.L., ‘Caste, kinship and association in urban India’, in Southall, A. (ed.), Urban Anthropology (New York, 1972);Google Scholar Masselos, J., ‘Power in a Bombay “Moholla’, 1904–1915: an initial exploration into the world of the Indian urban Muslim’, South Asia, 6 (1976);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Kumar, Nita, The Artisans of Banaras: Popular Culture and Identity, 1880–1986 (Princeton, 1988);Google Scholar Frietag, Sandra (ed.), Culture and Power in Banaras: Community, Performance and Environment, 1800–1980 (Delhi, 1989);Google Scholar Mazumdar, Shudha, Memoirs of an Indian Woman (London, 1989);Google Scholar and Karlekar, Malavika, Voices from Within. Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, 1991).Google Scholar

16 Martin, J.R., Notes on the Medical Topography of Calcutta (Calcutta, 1837);Google Scholar Wilson, C.R. (ed.), The Early Annals of the English in Bengal (London and Calcutta, 1895–1917)Google Scholar and Old Fort William in Bengal (London, 1906);Google Scholar Busteed, H.E., Echoes from Old Calcutta (1882, rpt. Shannon, 1972);Google Scholar Blechynden, K., Calcutta Past and Present (1905, rpt. Calcutta, 1978);Google Scholar Firminger, W.K., Thacker's Guide to Calcutta (Calcutta, 1906);Google Scholar Cotton, H.E.A., Calcutta Old and New (1907, rpt. Calcutta, 1990).Google Scholar

17 Ray, A.K., A Short History of Calcutta. Towns and Suburbs, Census of India, 1901, VII, Part 1 (1902, rpt. Calcutta, 1982).Google Scholar

18 Krishna Deb, Raja Binaya, The Early History and Growth of Calcutta (Calcutta, 1905);Google Scholar Bagchi, P.C., Calcutta Past and Present (Calcutta, 1939).Google Scholar

19 Moorhouse, G., Calcutta (1971, rpt. London, 1983).Google Scholar

20 Bose, Nirmal Kumar, ‘Calcutta: a premature metropolis’, Scientific American (Sept. 1965), and rpt. in Cities (Harmondsworth, 1967).Google Scholar

21 Bose, Nirmal Kumar, Calcutta: 1964. A Social Survey (Bombay, 1968).Google Scholar

22 Sinha, Surajit (ed.), Cultural Profile of Calcutta (Calcutta, 1972).Google Scholar

23 Ray, Nisith Ranjan, Calcutta: Profile of a City (Calcutta, 1986).Google Scholar

24 Sinha, Pradip (ed.), The Urban Experience: Calcutta, Essays in Honour of N.R. Ray (Calcutta, 1986).Google Scholar

25 Sinha, Pradip, Calcutta in Urban History (Calcutta, 1978).Google Scholar

26 Mukherjee, S.N., Calcutta, Myths and History (Calcutta, 1977).Google Scholar

27 Marshall, P.J., ‘Eighteenth-century Calcutta’, in Ross, and Telkamp, , Colonial Cities.Google Scholar

28 Buckland, C.E., ‘The city of Calcutta’, Journal of the Society of Arts (2 Feb. 1906).Google Scholar

29 An early evaluation of imperial design was offered by Lord Curzon. Government House, the Viceroys' residence, was based on his family seat at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. See Curzon, Marquis George, British Government in India: the Story of the Viceroy's and Government Houses (London, 1925).Google Scholar

30 Nilsson, S., European Architecture in India 1750–1850 (London, 1968);Google Scholar Davies, P., Splendours of the Raj (London, 1985).Google Scholar

31 Metcalf, , An Imperial Vision, xi.Google Scholar

32 Evenson, N., The Indian Metropolis. A View Toward the West (Delhi, 1989).Google Scholar

33 Goode, S.W., Municipal Calcutta (Edinburgh, 1916).Google Scholar

34 Nair, P. Thankappan, Calcutta Corporation at a Glance (Calcutta, 1989).Google Scholar

35 Choudhuri, Keshab, Calcutta Story of its Government (Calcutta, 1973).Google Scholar

36 Furedy, C., ‘A neglected minority: Muslims in the Calcutta municipality 1875–1900’, in Thomas, B. and Lavan, S. (eds), West Bengal and Bangladesh: Perspectives from 1972 (East Lansing, Michigan, 1973);Google Scholar ‘Contrasting models in the development of municipal administration in Calcutta’, in Rosenthal, D.B. (ed.), Essays in Indian Urban Politics (Bombay, 1971);Google Scholar ‘Lord Curzon and the reform of the Calcutta Corporation 1899: a case study in Imperial decision-making’, South Asia, N.S., 1, (1978);Google Scholar and ‘Whose responsibility? Dilemmas of Calcutta's Bustee policy in the 19th century’, South Asia, N.S., 5, 2 (1982).Google Scholar

37 Chaudhuri, Nirad C., Thy Hand Great Anarch. India 1921–1952 (London, 1987), 379.Google Scholar

38 Bompas, C.H., ‘The work of the Calcutta Improvement Trust’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 7 Jan. (1927).Google Scholar

39 Richards, E.P., Report on the Request of the Improvement Trust, on the Condition, Improvement and Town Planning of the City of Calcutta and Contiguous Areas (Hertfordshire, 1914).Google Scholar

40 Geoffrey Moorhouse has dedicated his book to E.P. Richards—‘who restored some of my national pride’.

41 Geddes, P., Barra Bazar Improvement. A Report (Calcutta, 1919).Google Scholar

42 Meller, H., Patrick Geddes. Social Evolutionist and City Planner (London, 1990), 282–4.Google Scholar

43 Geddes, , Barra Bazar Improvement, 12.Google Scholar

44 Lanchester, H.V., The Art of Town Planning (London, 1925)Google Scholar, and ‘Memorandum of evidence on “industrial employees” submitted by Mr A.E. Mirams’, Indian Industrial Commission 1916–1917 (Bombay, 1917).Google Scholar

45 Ghosh, S.C., Social Condition of the British Community in Bengal 1757–1800 (Leiden, 1970);Google Scholar Sykes, L., Calcutta through British Eyes 1690–1990 (Delhi, forthcoming).Google Scholar

46 Broomfield, J.H., Elite Conflict in a Plural Society. Twentieth Century Bengal (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968);Google Scholar Ray, Rajat, Urban Roots of Indian Nationalism (Delhi, 1979).Google Scholar

47 Stuart-Williams, S.C., ‘The port of Calcutta and its post- war development’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 20 July (1928)Google Scholar, and Mukherjee, Nilmani, Port of Calcutta: A Short History (Calcutta, 1968).Google Scholar

48 Bannerjee, Prajananda, Calcutta and Its Hinterland (Calcutta, 1975).Google Scholar

49 Gupta, Ranajit Das, ‘Poverty and protest: a study of Calcutta's working class and labouring poor 1875–1900’, in Das, A., Nilakant, V. and Dubey, P.S. (eds), The Worker and the Working Class (Delhi, 1984)Google Scholar and Chakrabarty, Dipesh, Rethinking Working Class History, Bengal 1890–1940 (Delhi, 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 Foley, B., Report on Labour in Bengal (Calcutta, 1906);Google Scholar Fremantle, S.H., Report on Labour in United Provinces and Bengal (Calcutta, 1906).Google Scholar A convenient summary is: Fremantle, S.H., ‘The problem of Indian labour supply’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 14 May (1909).Google Scholar

51 Abu-Lughod, J., ‘New York and Cairo: a view from street level’, International Social Science Journal (Aug. 1990), 309.Google Scholar

52 Ghosh, B., Kolkata Saharer Itibritta (A History of Calcutta) (Calcutta, 1975);Google Scholar and his Metropolitan Mon. Madhyabitta. Bidroho (Metropolitan Mind, Middle-Class Revolt) (Calcutta, 1973).Google Scholar

53 Mitra, R., Kolikata Darpan (The Mirror of Calcutta) (Calcutta, 1980);Google Scholar Gupta's, R.P. Kolkatar Firiwalar Dak Aar Raaster Awaaz (Sounds and Street Cries of Calcutta) (Calcutta, 1984).Google Scholar

54 Ghosh, S., Koler Sahar Kolkata (Machine-made Calcutta) (Calcutta, 1991).Google Scholar

55 Chaudhuri, Sukanta, Calcutta, The Living City, Volume I: The Past; Volume II: The Present and Future (Calcutta, 1990).Google Scholar

56 Sen, Geeti (ed.), The Calcutta Psyche (Delhi, 1991).Google Scholar

57 McPherson, K., The Muslim Microcosm: Calcutta, 1918 to 1935 (Wiesbaden, 1974).Google Scholar

58 Racine, J., Calcutta 1981, The City, Its Crisis and the Debate on Urban Planning and Development (Delhi, 1990).Google Scholar

59 Gupta, Biplab Das, Bhattacharya, Mohit, Basu, Debkumar et al. (eds), Calcutta's Urban Future (Calcutta, 1991).Google Scholar

60 Mitra, Asok, Calcutta on the Eve of her Tercentenary (Delhi, 1990).Google Scholar

61 Losty, J.P., Calcutta: City of Palaces (London, 1990).Google Scholar

62 Pal, Pratapaditya (ed.), Changing Visions, Lasting Images. Calcutta Through 300 Years (Bombay, 1990).Google Scholar

63 Kundu, Anil Kumar and Nag, Prithvish (eds), Atlas of the City of Calcutta and its Environs (Calcutta, 1990).Google Scholar

64 Bannerjee, Sumanta, The Parlour and the Streets. Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta (Calcutta, 1989).Google Scholar

65 Sarkar, Sumit, ‘The Kalki Avatar of Bikrampur’, in Guha, Ranajit (ed.), Subaltern Studies, VI (Delhi, 1989).Google Scholar

66 Nair, P. Thankappan, Job Charnock, The Founder of Calcutta (compiled 1977);Google Scholar British Social Life in Ancient Calcutta in 17th Century (1986);Google Scholar Rainey's Historical and Topographical Sketch of Calcutta (1876, ed. with intro., 1986);Google Scholar A History of Calcutta's Streets (1987);Google Scholar History of Calcutta Press (1988);Google Scholar Calcutta in the 19th Century (compiled 1989);Google Scholar The Calcutta Bevy—A Collection of Rare Poems (ed. 1989);Google Scholar Calcutta Corporation at a Glance (1989);Google Scholar Bengal Obituary (1848, ed. with intro., 1991).Google Scholar A multi-volume bibliographical survey of Calcutta is forthcoming. All books published in Calcutta.