Colonizing, Decolonizing, and Globalizing Kolkata From a Colonial to a Post-Marxist City 9789462981119, 9789048530687

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Colonizing, Decolonizing, and Globalizing Kolkata

Publications The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a research and exchange platform based in Leiden, the Netherlands. Its objective is to encourage the interdisciplinary and comparative study of Asia and to promote (inter)national cooperation. IIAS focuses on the humanities and social sciences and on their interaction with other sciences. It stimulates scholarship on Asia and is instrumental in forging research networks among Asia Scholars. Its main research interests are reflected in the three book series published with Amsterdam University Press: Global Asia, Asian Heritages and Asian Cities. IIAS acts as an international mediator, bringing together various parties in Asia and other parts of the world. The Institute works as a clearinghouse of knowledge and information. This entails activities such as providing information services, the construction and support of international networks and cooperative projects, and the organization of seminars and conferences. In this way, IIAS functions as a window on Europe for non-European scholars and contributes to the cultural rapprochement between Europe and Asia. IIAS Publications Officer: Paul van der Velde IIAS Assistant Publications Officer: Mary Lynn van Dijk

Asian Cities The Asian Cities Series explores urban cultures, societies and developments from the ancient to the contemporary city, from West Asia and the Near East to East Asia and the Pacific. The series focuses on three avenues of inquiry: evolving and competing ideas of the city across time and space; urban residents and their interactions in the production, shaping and contestation of the city; and urban challenges of the future as they relate to human well-being, the environment, heritage and public life. Series Editor Paul Rabé, International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden Editorial Board Henco Bekkering, Delft University of Technology Charles Goldblum, University of Paris 8 Stephen Lau, University of Hong Kong Rita Padawangi, National University of Singapore Parthasarathy Rengarajan, CEPT University, Ahmedabad Neha Sami, Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bangalore Hui Xiaoxi, Beijing University of Technology

Colonizing, Decolonizing, and Globalizing Kolkata From a Colonial to a Post-Marxist City

Siddhartha Sen

Amsterdam University Press

Publications

Asian Cities 5

Cover illustration: Metro movie theatre. The architect for the building, which opened in 1934, was Thomas W. Lamb. Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2015 Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press. isbn 978 94 6298 111 9 e-isbn 978 90 4853 068 7 (pdf) doi 10.5117/9789462981119 nur 630 © Siddhartha Sen / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2017 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.

To my late father, Subhendu Bikas Sen, and my late mother, Anjana Sen, who made my journey from the ‘coolie town’ of Haora to the United States possible.



Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 15 A Note to Readers

17

1 Overture

19

Introduction

Scope of the Book Analytical Framework The Concept of the State in India Socialism, Communism, and Marxism Data Sources Organization of the Book 2 Colonizing Kolkata

From a City of Huts to a City of Palaces

Founding of Kolkata Kolkata’s Early Urbanism Spatial Restructuring of Kolkata and the Emergence of Social and Political Control as the Dominant Planning Paradigm Kolkata’s Transformation to a City of Palaces Emergence of Architecture as a Symbol of Power Creating a Healthier and Beautiful City for the British: Emergence of a New Paradigm for Planning Early Municipal Administration in Kolkata The Rise of the British and the Demise of Other European Settlements around Kolkata Haora’s Urbanism 3 Building a Neo-Classical, Beautiful, and Clean City The Rise and Decline of British Imperial Urbanism

21 24 31 32 35 36 37 37 40 50 54 59 67 71 72 76 77

Consolidation of British Power: Making Kolkata a Neo-Classical City 77 The Neo-Classical Architectural Influence on the Bengali Elite 84 Orientalist Discourse on Architecture and Kolkata 90 The Absence of the Indo-Saracenic Style in Kolkata 91 Victoria Memorial Hall: Neo-Classical Revival in Kolkata 98 The Modern Indian Architecture Movement 102

Limited Modernism in Kolkata 104 Transforming Kolkata into a Cleaner and Healthier City for the British 105 Shifting the Discourse to Bustees as a Source of Disease 114 The Calcutta Improvement Trust and E.P. Richards’s Plan for Kolkata 116 Sir Patrick Geddes’s Plan for the Burra Bazaar 120 Racial Segregation 121 Municipal Administration in Kolkata and the Expansion of Its Boundaries 123 Haora’s Transformation to a Coolie Town 127 4 Decolonizing Kolkata

From an American Planning Paradigm to a Marxist City

133

Chandigarh: A Def ining Moment in India’s Search for PostColonial Urbanism 133 Revivalist Architecture and the Search for Post-Colonial Architectural Identity 136 Lack of a Search for Post-Colonial Architecture in Kolkata 139 In Search of Post-Colonial Planning: An Overview 154 The Initial Acts of Decolonization in Kolkata 156 Material Legacies of Colonial Planning and Kolkata’s PostColonial Urban Problems 158 Political Economy of Post-Colonial Kolkata and Its Urban Problems 159 Administrative Structure and the Continuation of the Colonial Legacy in the Immediate Post-Colonial Period 164 Western Discourse on Kolkata and the Advent of Western Planning 166 The Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation and the Export of the American Planning Paradigm to Kolkata 166 The Fear of Communism and the Formation of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 169 Political Climate and Municipal Reform 174 The Infiltration of the Grassroots Space by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Its Allies 177 New Towns around Kolkata 181 Haora’s Post-Colonial Urbanism 182

5 Globalizing Kolkata A Late Bloomer

191

Emergence of New Market-Driven Architectural Forms in India 191 Why Kolkata Was a Late Bloomer 193 Making Kolkata Attractive to Capital: Operation Sunshine and the Proposal to Remove Rickshaw Pullers 195 Singur and Nandigram: The Changing Priorities of the Left Front 197 Kolkata’s Population Growth, Territorial Changes, and Administrative Structure 198 Liberalization and the Changing Role of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation 201 Kolkata’s Private Townships and Gated Communities: Emergence of Real Estate-Driven Development 204 Kolkata’s Office Buildings for the Service and Financial Sectors, SEZs, and IT Parks and Complexes 209 Shopping Malls 215 Emergence of New Planning Paradigms: State-Regulated Townships and Private Townships 220 Rajarhat 222 Haora’s Global Urbanism 226 Kolkata West International City 228 6 Concluding Remarks

233

Glossary 245 List of Abbreviations

247

Bibliography 249 Index 263

List of Figures Figure 1 Figure 2

View of Fort William, Done after the Painting in the Court Room of the Company’s House in Leaden Hall Street after George Lambert, by Elisha Kirkall, 1735 42 A conceptual map of Kolkata in the early eighteenth century 45

Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8

Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11

Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14 Figure 15 Figure 16 Figure 17

Calcutta in 1756, by John Call and J. Cheevers 47 Navaratna Kai Temple. Detail from Govinda Ram Mittee’s Pagoda, Calcutta, by Thomas Daniell. Coloured aquatint, 1798 48 A pictorial map of Old Goa. From Goa Indiae Orientalis Metropolis, by Pieter Boudewyn van der Aa. Engraving, 1719 49 Plan of the Dutch Factory at Hooghly-Chinsura in 1721, by an anonymous artist. Engraving, 1721 50 Esplanade Row (north of the Maidan). From Esplanade Row and the Council House, by Thomas Daniell. Coloured aquatint with etching, 1788 55 A garden house in Garden Reach. From View on the Banks of the Hooghly near Calcutta. The Country Residence of William Farquharson Esq., by James Moffat after Frans Balthazar Solvyns. Aquatint, 1800 57 Writers Building, Calcutta, by Thomas Daniell. Coloured aquatint, 1798. The building was designed by Thomas Lyon and was constructed in 1780 61 Old Government House, by Thomas Daniell. Coloured aquatint with etching, 1788. The building was built in 1767 62 South East View of the New Government House in Calcutta, by J. Clarke and H. Merke. Coloured aquatint, published by Edward Orme in 1805. The building was designed by Lieutenant Charles Wyatt and was built between 1798 and 1803 64 Government House & Banqueting Hall, Madras, by the Nicholas Brothers. Photographic print, 1860. The building was renovated by John Goldingham, circa 1800-1802 67 Major settlements around Kolkata in the eighteenth century 73 Old Danish Gate, Serampore, by Frederick Fiebig. Photographic print, 1851 74 Chandernagore, by James Moffat. Aquatint with etching, published in Calcutta, 1800 75 The Town Hall in Kolkata. The architect who designed the building was John Garstin. It was completed in 1813 78 A view of English houses in Chowringhi from a lithograph. Plate 18: Views of Calcutta. Chowringhee Road by William Wood, 1833 79

Figure 18 Surrounded by an entourage of servants: From The Establishment of an English Gentleman, Calcutta. Photographic print by Frederick Fiebig, 1851 81 Figure 19 A view of the Writers Building, or Mahakaran, as it is called today 83 Figure 20 An early example of classical influence on the Bengali elite: From View on the Chitpore Road, Calcutta. Coloured aquatint by Thomas Daniell, 1797 85 Figure 21 The Mullick Palace (also known as Marble Palace), built between 1835 and 1840 85 Figure 22 A view of Qaisarbagh. Photographic print by an unknown photographer, 1880 88 Figure 23 Laxmi Vilas Palace Baroda (now known as Vadodora). Photographic print by an unknown photographer, 1890. The building was designed by Major Charles Mant, architect, and was completed by Robert Fellowes Chisholm in 1890 93 Figure 24 The General Post Office. Walter L.B. Granville was the architect who designed the building, which was built between 1864 and 1868 94 Figure 25 The High Court. Walter L.B. Granville was the architect who designed the building, which was built between 1864 and 1872 95 Figure 26 St. John’s Church. The building was designed by Lieutenant James Agg and was built in 1787. Photographic print by Samuel Bourne, 1865 95 Figure 27 St. Paul’s Cathedral. The building was designed by Major W. Nairn Forbes and was built in 1839 96 Figure 28 Chartered Bank Building. The building was designed and built by Martin and Company in 1906 96 Figure 29 Esplanade Mansions. The building was designed and built by Martin and Company in 1910 97 Figure 30 Metro movie theatre. The architect for the building, which opened in 1934, was Thomas W. Lamb 97 Figure 31 Public Works Office, Mumbai. The building was designed by Colonel Henry St. Clair Wilkins and was completed in 1872. Photographic print by Bourne and Shepherd, 1870 98 Figure 32 Victoria Memorial Hall. The architect for the building, which was completed in 1921, was William H. Emerson 99 Figure 33 Secretariat, New Delhi. The architect of the building, which was completed in 1931, was Sir Herbert Baker 102

Figure 34 Viceroy’s House (now known as Rashtrapati Bhavan), New Delhi. The architect for the building, which was completed in 1931, was Sir Edwin Lutyens 103 Figure 35 The Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Library at Banaras Hindu University, built between 1927 and 1941 104 Figure 36 The Lighthouse Cinema. The architect of the building, which was built around 1936-1938, was Willem Marinus Dudok 105 Figure 37 Kolkata in 1839: Calcutta, a French map credited to Dufour and Benard, published by Rouard in 1839. Photograph by Bourne and Shepherd, 1870 108 Figure 38 Map of Kolkata showing cholera deaths from 1876 to 1880 112 Figure 39 Map of Kolkata showing cholera deaths from 1881 to 1885 113 Figure 40 Values Map of the City with One of the Road Schemes, by E.P. Richards 118 Figure 41 An artist’s depiction of the Black Town: The Chitpore Road, Calcutta. Coloured chromolithograph by William Simpson, 1867 122 Figure 42 Kolkata in 1945: City Plan from a guidebook to the city created by the US Army in India 126 Figure 43 Madhusudhan Bhabhan (Bishop’s College), completed in the mid-1820s 129 Figure 44 Haora Railway Terminus. The architect of the building was Halsey Ricardo. It was rebuilt between 1900 and 1908 129 Figure 45 Telegraph Office, Haora 130 Figure 46 Andul Rajbari, built in 1835 131 Figure 47 The Assembly in Chandigarh Capitol Complex. Architect: Le Corbusier. Final design completed in 1957. Building opened in 1962 135 Figure 48 Market Building, Bhubaneswar. Architect: Julius L. Vaz 137 Figure 49 Vidhan Soudha. Designer: B.R. Manikam. Constructed: 1952-1957 138 Figure 50 Ashoka Hotel. Architects: J.K. Choudhury and Gulzar Singh, 1955 139 Figure 51 New Secretariat Building. Architect: Habib Rahman. Constructed: 1944-1954 141 Figure 52 Reserve Bank of India. Architect: John A. Ritchie 142 Figure 53 Tata Centre. Designer: Holabird and Root of Chicago 143 Figure 54 Akashvani Bhaban. Designer: B. Kerr. Completed: 1958 144 Figure 55 Birla Planetarium. Designer: G.K. Gora. Completed: 1963 145

Figure 56 Kolkata skyline around Chowringhi: A view from the Maidan 146 Figure 57 The Eiffel Tower as the gate to the Boimela in 1997 147 Figure 58 Jalasampad Bhaban, the Office of Irrigation and Waterways Department, Government of West Bengal in Bidhannagar. An example of the ‘utilitarian modern’ style 148 Figure 59 The main office of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority in Unnayan Bhaban, Bidhannagar. Another example of the ‘utilitarian modern’ style 149 Figure 60 A single-family residence in Bidhannagar. An example of modern Indian vernacular architecture 150 Figure 61 Flats in Bidhannagar. An example of modern Indian vernacular architecture 150 Figure 62 Flats in South Kolkata. An example of modern Indian vernacular architecture 151 Figure 63 Flats in South Kolkata. Architecture of the contractor builder 152 Figure 64 Mistiri-built housing in South Kolkata 153 Figure 65 Statue of Lenin overlooking Lenin Sarani 157 Figure 66 The Calcutta Metropolitan District in 1966 160 Figure 67 The Calcutta Metropolitan Area in 1991 161 Figure 68 Bustee in Kolkata 162 Figure 69 Squatters along railroad tracks in Kolkata 163 Figure 70 Squatters along a canal in Kolkata 163 Figure 71 Cooperative housing for moderate income groups in Bidhannagar 182 Figure 72 Sarat Sadhan Auditorium. Haora’s version of the ‘utilitarian modern’ style 183 Figure 73 Mistiri-built housing in Haora with waterlogged lanes 184 Figure 74 Rag pickers among garbage in Haora 185 Figure 75 Congestion along a main thoroughfare in Haora 185 Figure 76 A bustee in Haora 186 Figure 77 Squatters along a highway under construction in Haora 187 Figure 78 Flats in Haora juxtaposed with garbage. Architecture of the contractor builder 188 Figure 79 A variety of Euro-American forms of housing: DLF City 192 Figure 80 MGF Mall in DLF City Centre 193 Figure 81 Traffic jam in Kolkata after the advent of globalization 196 Figure 82 KMA in 2001 199

Figure 83 Figure 84 Figure 85 Figure 86 Figure 87 Figure 88 Figure 89 Figure 90 Figure 91 Figure 92 Figure 93 Figure 94 Figure 95 Figure 96 Figure 97 Figure 98 Figure 99 Figure 100 Figure 101 Figure 102 Figure 103 Figure 104 Figure 105 Figure 106 Figure 107 Figure 108 Figure 109

KMA in 2011 200 Wards and boroughs of KMC in 2011 202 Eden City 205 Upohar 206 Guards at the entry of Eden City 207 Hiland Park 208 The West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation in Nabadiganta 210 SDF building in Nabadiganta 211 TCS building in Nabadiganta 212 Srei building in Nabadiganta 212 The INFINITY building in Nabadiganta 213 Manikachan, a SEZ in Bidhannagar 214 Apartments within South City complex 216 Imposing entrance to South City Mall 217 Site plan for South City Mall Complex. Principal: Dulal Mukherjee and Associates. Design consultants: Stewart and Associates. Landscape architects: Peridian Asia PTE 217 The City Centre mall in Bidhannagar. Architect: Charles Correa 219 Housing in the City Centre mall in Bidhannagar 220 Inside the City Centre mall 221 Rajarhat plot layout, Action Area I 223 Rajarhat plot layout, Action Area II 224 City centre, Rajarhat 225 A view of a contractor-built multi-storey building in Haora 227 Vivek Vihar Apartments in Haora 228 Avani Riverside Mall in Hoara 229 Kolkata West site plan showing various land uses 229 The entry gate to Kolkata West 230 Incomplete construction in Kolkata West 231

Acknowledgements The idea for this book emerged from an article, ‘Between Dominance, Dependence, Negotiation, and Compromise: European Architecture and Urban Planning Practices in Colonial India’, that I published in the Journal of Planning History in 2010. However, this book is very different and much richer than that article. As the title of the book suggests, not only did I focus on one city, but I extended the period of coverage to post-colonial and global epochs of urbanization. Some of the primary data for this book go back to the fieldwork for my dissertation in 1988. That fieldwork was supported by a Graduate College Dissertation Grant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Human Settlement Management Institute, New Delhi; and International Development Research Centre, New Delhi. My fieldtrips to India in 1992 and 1994 were supported by the Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University. I am grateful to L.M. Salamon, who is still with the University, and Helmut K. Anheier, who is now the president of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany, for granting me permission to squeeze in time for my own research while I was a field associate for the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project. The fieldtrips in 1996, 1999, and 2003 were self-financed, for which I thank my immediate and extended family. I have to especially thank architect Anjan Gupta of Anjan Gupta Architects, Kolkata; architect Sunando Dasgupta of Sunando Dasgupta and Associates, New Delhi; Ashish Basu, architect and planner, Espace, Kolkata; Sudeshna Ghosh, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Regional Planning, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Sanjit Roy, assistant professor in the Program in Architecture at University of Maine at Augusta; Suzanne Frasier, associate professor in the Undergraduate Program in Architecture and Environmental Design at Morgan State University; Purnendu Bikas Sengupta, advocate, Kolkata; and Abhay Upadhyay, president of the Kolkata West International City Buyers Welfare Association, for photographs for the global period. Professor Avijit Sen of Banaras Hindu University is to be thanked for the photograph of the library at that institution. Subhadip Basu, advocate, high court, Kolkata is thanked for the photograph of Lenin’s statue. I want to thank the staff of the British Library for providing access to images and maps from Kolkata’s colonial period and permission to reproduce some of them in this book. I also want to thank Frances W. Pritchett, professor emerita at Columbia University, and the University

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COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

of Texas Libraries for some of the historical maps reproduced here. The University of Minnesota Press is thanked for one photograph. I am grateful to government officials, planners, scholars, nongovernmental organization and community-based organization officials, and bustee dwellers in Kolkata and Haora for granting me interviews, engaging in discussions, and allowing access to data. I benefited from several conversations with Sudeshna Ghosh on the physical manifestation of globalization in Kolkata. She also verified some of the data on Kolkata and Haora for the global period. I want to thank my graduate assistants Shilpi Bharti and Blake Fisher and my son, Arco, for their invaluable assistance with maps and illustrations and Lauren Jackson for her help with indexing. Nancy Menefee Jackson of the National Transportation Center at Morgan State University provided valuable editorial assistance. My dean, Professor Mary Anne Alabanza Akers, is to be thanked for the time she gave me from my administrative duties to write this book and for financial support used to obtain copyrights for some of the photographs and maps. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers and Paul Rabé, the series editor, for their constructive criticisms on earlier drafts. I want to thank P.G.E.I.J. van der Velde of the International Institute for Asian Studies, Netherlands, for his encouragement and numerous extensions for the manuscript. I am grateful to Mary Lynn van Dijk and Martina van den Haak of the International Institute for Asian Studies Netherlands for answering numerous questions and facilitating the submission. When I embarked on this project, I never imagined that it would take four years to write this book. This is four years that the family tolerated me being completely occupied with the project for long periods of time. So a special word of thanks for my wife, Aditi, who gave up our dining table for me to work on, my son, Arco, and my daughter, Aranya. Thanks to my late father, Subhendu Bikas Sen, and my late mother, Anjana Sen, who made my journey from the ‘coolie town’ of Haora to the United States possible.



A Note to Readers

For place names and other proper nouns the book uses the British name in the first instance followed by the current Indian or Bengali name, and thereafter refers to them by the current Indian or Bengali name.

1 Overture Introduction Over some three centuries, various actors – including Europeans, Americans, Indians, and East Asians – have tried to shape the urban fabric of Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, using architecture, urban design measures, infrastructure improvements, and city planning schemes. British efforts to intervene in Kolkata’s urban fabric through architecture and urban planning encountered resistance, resulting in compromises and negotiations that yielded a colonial Kolkata neither ‘British’ nor ‘Bengali’.1 Despite the British desire to build a neo-classical imperial city, ultimately, the natives of Kolkata resisted. These struggles created not one urban colonial Kolkata, but two, the White Town and the Black Town, each hybrid in its own way. At that same time, domination and control through architecture and planning, imposition of planning concepts from Britain, racial segregation, discrimination in the provision of services, and discourses that justified it all significantly shaped colonial urban patterns in Kolkata. The material and discursive legacies of British colonial planning made Kolkata the epitome of urban disaster in the Global South in the late 1950s and affected planning endeavours in the city. The fear of communism led to an unprecedented transfer of an American planning paradigm in the 1960s in the hope that providing better urban infrastructure would curb communism’s growth. Paradoxically, these efforts failed to stop the rise of the Left Front government that dominated the political landscape from 1977 until 2011. The government neglected Kolkata’s development until the early 1990s, resorting to Marxist rhetoric for re-inscribing and representing Kolkata’s post-colonial urban identity. Ironically, this same communist regime could not remain isolated from the forces of globalization and had to reinvent itself at the periphery of global change. Today, we see the emergence of new urban forms such as Euro-American housing models, shopping malls, gated communities, private townships, information technology (IT) parks, intelligent buildings, and special economic zones (SEZs). This book narrates the amazing story of Kolkata’s urban transformation from the late seventeenth

1 Bengalis are natives of Bengal, which includes the State of West Bengal, India, and Bangladesh. The term state is defined later in the chapter.

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COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

century to the turn of the twenty-first century. Kolkata’s story is told in the context of Indian colonial, post-colonial, and global urbanism. In the eyes of Westerners, Kolkata has long been associated with teeming millions, poverty, squalor, and filth. Such an image has often influenced planning endeavours in the city. In general, the British deemed it an unhealthy place to live. Within a few weeks after the founding of Kolkata in 1690, the city acquired a fearsome reputation for its unhealthy environment that persisted for the next three centuries (Murphey 1964). The first British governor of Bengal, Lord Robert Clive, called Kolkata ‘the most wicked place in the universe’ (Robert Clive as cited in Thomas 1997: 3) as early as the 1770s. Because of such concerns, early planning efforts in the city were restricted to improving the quality of life of the British colonizers. By the end of the nineteenth century, the English Nobel laureate poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling called Kolkata ‘The City of Dreadful Night’ (Kipling [1899] 1907: 185) – a label that remained with the city for a long time in Western minds. Describing the smell of Kolkata, he wrote that ‘Calcutta is above pretense’ in hiding its stench. According to him, the air ‘is faint, it is sickly, and it is indescribable […] and there is no escape from it (Kipling [1899]1907: 187). He continued: ‘Calcutta is a fearsome place for a man not educated up to it’ (Kipling [1899]1907: 190). As we shall see, such discourse justified the British obsession with controlling the native parts of the city and making it healthy for themselves. The stereotypical image of Kolkata as a filthy, poverty-stricken city with millions of beggars, slums, and urban decay continued in the nineteenth and twentieth century in Western imagination and affected planning interventions. Well-known French anthropologist Lévi-Strauss furthered this image in his book, Tristes Tropiques, by characterizing the city as one of ‘[f]ilth, chaos, promiscuity, congestion, ruins, huts, mud, dirt, dung, urine, pus, humours, secretions and running sores’ (Lévi-Struass [1973] 1955 : 135). Even the Nobel laureate novelist V.S. Naipaul, a Trinidadian of Indian origin, declared ‘Calcutta, even to Indians, was a word of terror, conveying crowds, cholera, and corruption’ (Naipaul [1964] 1966): 264). For Geoffrey Moorhouse, an English journalist and author who visited Kolkata in the 1969 and 1970, ‘nowhere is there beggary in the scale of Calcutta’s’ (1971: 79). For him, Kolkata’s bitter taste had to be washed out ‘with a gin and tonic or a Pepsi’ and he recalled it ‘thereafter only as an emblem of experience to show’ that one knows ‘the worst that Life has to offer’ (Moorhouse 1971: 6). The same is true for Western films made about Kolkata. The acclaimed French filmmaker Louis Malle’s 1968 documentary film Calcutta showed

Overture

21

repulsive images of the city such as pigs playing alongside bustee2 children, dying destitutes at Mother Teresa’s Nirmal Hriday, public transport packed with people like sardines in a tin, and destitute cripples and lepers in the streets. Such representations of Kolkata spurred Western planning interests in the city in the late 1950s as it became the epitome of urban disaster in the Global South. But the Western image of Kolkata did not improve. Günter Grass, the German Nobel laureate poet, author, sculptor, and artist, who visited the city in 1975 and 1986-1987, was equally condescending about the city in his book Show Your Tongue. For Grass, ‘after three months Calcutta begins to gnaw’ and his ‘eyes have grown tired and dry from all the openly spread-out misery’ ([1988]1989: 47). Western films on Kolkata continued to portray squalor and poverty. Roland Joffé’s 1992 film City of Joy is a classic example in which we see tuberculosis-affected rickshaw pullers, lepers, ruthless slumlords, and abject poverty. Dominique Lapierre originally based the novel (Lapierre 1985) on the Pilkhana bustee in Howrah, or Haora as it known in Bengali. The film adaptation changed the scene to a Kolkata bustee and made the city an icon of slum to the Western world. As aptly summarized by Hutnyk in his book The Rumour of Calcutta (1996), Western representation of Kolkata is that of ‘an overcrowded place of poverty and despair, of desperation and decline’ (Hutnyk 1996: vii) and the rumour of Calcutta travels all over the world. Yet popular Western notions of this incredible city are scant, wrong, contemptuous, ideological, vicious, and shitty. There is little good said about the place, and what is said is often extreme: Calcutta, crowded and stinking, brutal and dark, black hole and slum. (Hutnyk 1996: vii) Even in the new millennium, Mike Davis’s 2006 book Planet of Slums identifies Kolkata as a metonym for underdevelopment. As this book illustrates, such an image and discourse deterred Kolkata’s effort to integrate into the global economy.

Scope of the Book The role of discourse and the Western conception of the city in influencing urban planning is only one aspect of this book, which is more ambitious 2 The word bustee is a distortion of the Bengali word basati, which means a habitation, residence, or colony. Bustees are the predominant type of housing for the urban poor in Kolkata. These are legal ‘slums’ and should be differentiated from illegal squatter settlements along canals and railroad tracks, under bridges, or on pavements. Unlike squatters, bustee dwellers have housing rights and cannot be evicted.

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in scope. Included is the history of architecture, urban design, and urban planning in Kolkata. Following King (1990a), ‘urbanism’ is broadly defined as the symbiotic relationship between the material aspects of the cities, their built environment, architectural form, and the social, economic, and cultural systems in which they exist. Clearly, such a definition positions architecture, urban design, and urban planning in the city’s political economy and social milieu. As the title suggests, the book analyses Kolkata’s urbanism from colonial times to the beginning of the twenty-first century. It presents an interpretive history of the transformation of a colonial city into a Marxist one and its attempt to become a global city. The book provides a new interpretation of Kolkata’s spatial and architectural history by positioning it in its political economy and social milieu. It attempts to unravel the complexities of the political struggles of the post-colonial period, including globalization and the impact on the planning of space and built environment. This book compares and contrasts Kolkata’s urbanism with the rest of India to illustrate why Kolkata was unique and illustrates several distinctive features of the city. Kolkata was a testing ground for British colonial urbanism and as such was home to a number of firsts. By the turn of the nineteenth century, Kolkata became the first British possession where architecture was employed as a symbol of power. From Kolkata this practice spread throughout India. Kolkata also was the first city in which the British altered the physical form of a city to impose social and political control. The dominant colonial planning paradigm of imposing social and political control on the native population to create a healthier city for the British was rooted in Kolkata. Discourse surrounding such planning first appeared here. It was the first city where European ideas of townscaping were imposed by the British on a large scale as they attempted to transform the city into a symbol of power and a stage for propagation of their empire in India. At the zenith of colonialism, from the mid-1850s to the early 1900s, Kolkata became the first city in which the British built a unified and coherent centre of power and knowledge employing architectural symbolism and townscaping. The city was also unique because it adhered to neo-classical architecture, while other styles that were deemed appropriate for representing the empire had been tried elsewhere since the 1860s. The book explores why the discourse on the inferiority of indigenous architecture that emerged in the 1870s was not as pronounced in Kolkata. As we shall see, Kolkata’s post-colonial urbanism was even more unique than its colonial saga. Unlike the rest of India, which had adopted the

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Chandigarh style of modernism,3 the comprehensive planning that was transferred by Americans became the dominant paradigm for Kolkata’s post-colonial urbanism. In no other Indian city was planning more influenced by political economy than it was in Kolkata. Consequently, very little of the post-colonial architecture that appeared in newly independent India can be found in Kolkata. It had few skyscrapers to represent it as a symbol of independence. New towns planned and constructed around Kolkata in the early post-independence period were mundane compared to Chandigarh’s grandeur. Even lesser new towns such as Bhubaneswar and Gandhinagar that were planned later in the mid-1960s were more elegant. Nowhere else in India do we see the desire to curb communism dictate planning as it did in Kolkata. Yet, Kolkata became a Marxist city – the first and perhaps the last of its kind in India. The leading party in the Left Front government, Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), penetrated Kolkata’s urban fabric in an unprecedented manner. The infiltration was so deep that the local state4 and the party became synonymous, leaving no political space for the grassroots planning seen in other parts of urban India. Not surprisingly, politics influenced efforts to introduce municipal reforms in the city. The local state’s leftist agenda during the first twenty years of its regime led to a contained culture of domestic architectural design that surpassed any other Indian city. Kolkata’s attempt to globalize took a different trajectory. Market-driven built forms representing images of globalization and the emergence of new planning paradigms associated with globalization appeared later in Kolkata. This course can be attributed to the Left Front’s initial resistance to liberalization and globalization, tendency to protect labour, and scepticism about capital. The regime resorted to leftist rhetoric, michils (processions), meetings, gheraos,5 and trade unionism to carve out an unparalleled city in India, one in which labour came before capital. Politics continued to play a key role in the city’s development as the CPI(M)’s political agenda of rural land reform resulted in the neglect of Kolkata. Kolkata is unique in that its venture into the global economy is primarily taking place through real estate investments. After its dismal failure to attract capital through other types of investments, the Left Front turned its energy to develop the city 3 The style is discussed in detail in Chapter 4. 4 The term is defined later in the chapter. 5 The word gherao means encirclement. This is a technique that trade unions used to meet their demands by encircling a political leader, industrialist, or senior manager. Subodh Banerjee, the Labour Minister of the United Front Government, introduced the technique in 1969.

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through real estate. It acted as an interventionist local state through various measures to promote the real estate industry. The Trinamool Congress that came to power in 2011 has continued the same policy, with minor variations. Despite all the attempts made by the Left Front and subsequently the Trinamool Congress, Kolkata will never become a global or world city, as delineated in the literature (Friedmann 1986; Sassen [1991]2013; Knox and Taylor 1995).6 Kolkata’s globalization is more easily understood from Ong’s (2011) treatise on the styles or ‘art’ of being global.7

Analytical Framework To understand the central argument of the book, a discussion on the propositions of the treatises and theories employed in the analytical framework is necessary. To explain the imposition of architecture and urban planning as instruments of domination, subjugation, and control, and the discourses that accompanied such practices in the colonial period, the book draws on material from post-structuralism and theories of dependent urbanism. In particular, the author relied upon Foucault’s treatise on the nature and dynamics of discourse, power, knowledge, and architecture; Edward Said’s Orientalism; and theories and studies of dependent urbanism (see Wallerstein 1974,1979; Amin 1976; Foucault [1969] 1972; [1975] 1979; Frank 1979; King 1976, 1980a, 1980b, 1989, 1990a, 1990b, 1992; Castells 1977; Said 1978; Racevskis 1983; Mitchell 1988; Rabinow 1989; Wright 1991; AlSayyad 1992; Celik 1997). Foucault’s proposition that architecture has always been used to exercise domination, control, power, and authority can be employed to understand British architecture in Kolkata. For Foucault, ‘Antiquity had been a civilization of spectacle. To render accessible to a multitude of men the inspection of a small number of objects: this was the problem to which the architecture of temples, theatres, and circuses responded’ (Foucault [1969] 1972: 216). The spectacle of such architecture was aimed at inspiring multitudes of people by controlling them through spectacular events. In the confines of such architecture, the citizenry observed and experienced the power of the authoritarian state. Drawing from this proposition, the book argues that the logic of most British architecture since the late eighteenth century was that of spectacle; the British resorted to monumental architecture in Kolkata 6 The definition of such cities is discussed in Chapter 6. 7 The concept is explained in Chapter 6.

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to impress upon Indians the nature of British power. Foucault’s treatise on modern architecture is also employed for an analytical inspiration. According to him, this is architecture of surveillance, which enables a few to observe and control a multitude of individuals. Following Foucault’s treatise, the book argues surveillance played an important role in guiding British city planning in Kolkata. Foucault has also argued that it is in discourse that power and knowledge are joined together. Discourse can be defined as ‘the abstraction of any written or oral process of communication through which meaning is transmitted’ (Racevskis 1983: 16). Discourse, on particular subjects, establishes knowledge and imposes truth in intricate and deceitful ways. Therefore, this functioning of discourse is inevitably political. Hence, the constitution of knowledge is inseparable from the exercise of power. Drawing from Foucault’s notion of discourse, Edward Said developed the notion of Orientalism in his seminal book Orientalism (1978).The thesis presented in the book is also regarded as the emergence of post-colonial theory (MooreGilbert 1997). In Said’s original thesis, the wide body of knowledge developed by various colonial powers about the Orient can be called ‘Orientalism’ (1978). According to Said, ‘Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient, dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, by teaching it, settling it, and ruling over it’ (Said 1978: 3). Accordingly, institutionalized discourse established knowledge and imposed truth in intricate and often deceitful ways for ‘dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient’ (Said 1978: 3). Drawing from these propositions, we see how the discourse legitimized the imposition of certain types of architecture. Post-colonial theory refers to the set of analytical approaches or theories that criticize the material and discursive legacies of colonialism still apparent in the world today (McEwan 2009). As pointed out by Blunt and McEwan, ‘postcolonial approaches are committed to critique, expose, deconstruct, counter and (in some claims) to transcend the cultural and broader ideological legacies and presences of imperialism’ (2002: 13). Post-colonial studies were developed to address the cultural production of those societies affected by colonialism (Ashcroft 2001). It was not conceived as a grand theory but as a methodology for analysing strategies by which colonial societies have engaged in imperial discourse. It is also used to study the ways in which many of those strategies are shared by colonized societies and are re-emerging under different political and cultural circumstances (Ashcroft 2001). Postcolonial theory is helpful in examining the discourses and institutions as well as the resistance and negotiations that shaped colonial urbanism.

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The notion of constructing ‘otherness’ and ‘racial inferiority’ (see Bhabha 1994; Chatterjee 1993, 2012) in post-colonial theory helps us understand how colonial discourse used this concept to vilify Indian architecture, impose surveillance over the indigenous population, and justify the lack of planning in the indigenous parts of Kolkata. For Bhabha (1994), an important feature of colonial discourse is its ideological construction of the ‘otherness’ (i.e., the colonized) that was entirely knowable and visible. As he points out, [t]he objective of colonial discourse is to construe the colonized as a population of degenerate types on the basis of racial origin, in order to justify conquest and to establish systems of administration and instruction. […] [C]olonial discourse produces the colonized as a social reality which is at once an ‘other’ and yet entirely knowable and visible (Bhabha 1994: 70-71).

This notion of constructing the otherness is also emphasized by other postcolonial theorists. For example, Chatterjee points out that the premise of the colonial state’s power was ‘a rule of colonial difference, namely, the preservation of the alienness of the ruling group’ (1993: 10). He maintains that this rule of colonial differences also constituted the representation of the ‘other’ (i.e., the colonized) as incorrigibly inferior and radically different (Chatterjee 1993). The civilizing mission of the British helps us understand why they prescribed certain types of architecture and planning for Indians. As pointed out by Chatterjee, ‘[t]he imperial power must then take on the responsibility of educating, disciplining, and training the colony in order to bring it up to the norm. […] The colony must either be disciplined by force or educated (“civilized”) by culture’ (Chatterjee 2011: 251). Said himself revised his treatise on Orientalism in Culture and Imperialism, in which he recognizes the response to Western domination that eventually culminated in the great movement of decolonization in former colonies (1993). The book builds on this notion of resistance and particularly the works of post-colonial theorists such as Ranajit Guha, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha, and Partha Chatterjee to provide these alternate explanations about the resistance and negotiations in architecture and planning during the colonial period (see Guha 1981; Chatterjee 1982, 1986, 1988, 1993, 1995, 2010, 2012; Spivak 1985a, 1985b, 1985c, 1988; Guha and Spivak 1988; Bhabha 1994). Post-colonial scholars such as Spivak and Bhabha enhanced the notion of resistance by arguing that the colonial experience was far from unidirectional and had a transformative effect on both the colonized and colonizer (Bhabha 1994; Moore-Gilbert 1997). Drawing from these treatises and theories, the book shows instances where the colonizers were unable to impose their own models

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of planning due to resistance from the indigenous population in Kolkata. These studies also provide the analytical inspiration to shed light on why the Bengali elite in Kolkata were able to negotiate a hybrid form of architecture, or why the British adopted this form, despite their desire to impose English models. Pioneers such as Manuel Castells (1977) and Anthony King (1976) initiated the first steps on theories of dependent urbanism. Castells’s (1977) work was an empirical and theoretical exploration of dependent urban patterns. It argued that city growth and patterns, while differing in form and content in various parts of the developing world, must be understood as an expression of imperialist/neo-imperialist social dynamic at this level. King (1976) added a new dimension by introducing the role of culture and power into dependent urbanization. The relationship between dominance and dependence was used as a major explanatory variable in illustrating how colonizers imposed certain types of planning. His work also examines imperialism and colonialism in the development of the world economy and the role of cities within this economy (King 1989, 1990b). King also introduced another important treatise, motivation for colonization and its effect on colonial urban patterns (King 1990b). Spanish and Portuguese colonization included cultural and religious motives such as Hispanicization and Christianization, which led to the construction of large numbers of churches and monasteries. In contrast, the Dutch, British, and French rationales were economic and militaristic, as evidenced by the construction of large numbers of administrative buildings. Whether the settlement was seen as temporary or permanent also had an effect on urban patterns. Whenever it was seen as permanent, a premeditated planned city was the result. Hence, the city was the major instrument of colonization. In some cases, the indigenous city was eliminated; in others it was incorporated in the plan. However, both of these instances represented a total and symbolic domination by the colonizers. In contrast, if trade was the primary motive a variety of physical forms may have resulted, depending on the activities of other powers in the region, which could range from a mere landing stage and warehouse to a ‘factory’8 or a ‘port and fort.’ Drawing from the above treatises, the book argues that types of European settlements and their patterns around Kolkata primarily depended on the changing nature of the international political economy and internal political climate. The subsequent wealth and power of Europeans in and around Kolkata, because of these changes, contributed to the rise and decline of European enclaves. Motives for colonization significantly shaped urban patterns: In Kolkata, the colonial economic and political landscape 8

This type of settlement is described in Chapter 2.

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dictated the building activities of Europeans, as well as wealthy Indians. These theories also shed light on how domination and control, imposition of planning concepts from the core, racial segregation, and discrimination in the provision of services all shaped Kolkata’s colonial urban patterns. The overall analytical inspiration for the post-colonial period is also drawn from post-colonial theory and post-colonial studies of urbanism. The propositions of post-colonial theory (McEwan 2009; Ong 2011) are useful in examining how the material and discursive legacies of British colonial planning made Kolkata the epitome of urban disaster in the Global South in the late 1950s, thereby affecting planning endeavours in the city. Such approaches or theories criticize the material and discursive legacies of colonialism that are still apparent in the world today and shape the geopolitical relations between the North and South. These approaches examine the representations of the South through a critical analysis of knowledge and power. They scrutinize relationships of power that determine who creates knowledge about the ‘other places’ (i.e., the South) and the consequences of this knowledge in the form of developmentalism (McEwan 2009). They also seek to demonstrate how the language of colonialism still shapes Western ideas about other parts of the world. These theories also help us understand how Western planning and architecture were exported to Kolkata after Independence. Anthony King’s (1976) concept of cultural colonization is also useful in examining such planning and architecture. King argued that cultural independence lagged behind the political and economic autonomy that comes with independence. The new elites continued to be influenced by colonial values, having been linked to colonial social, political, and cultural models for the entire period of colonization. The information flow continued, as did the exchange of people. Post-colonial studies address issues such as the challenges of developing post-colonial nationalist identities and strategies in the transformation of colonial power (Ashcroft 2001; McEwan 2009). They also examine the assertion made by post-colonial societies to redress the impact of European imperialism and resistance and transformation taking place in such societies to re-inscribe and represent post-colonial cultural identity (Ashcroft 2001). According to Loomba, it is useful to think of post-colonialism as ‘the contestation of colonial domination and the legacies of colonialism’ (1998: 12). To Jane Jacobs, post-colonialism can be ‘conceptualized as an historically dispersed set of formations which negotiate the ideological, social, and material structures established under colonialism’ (1996: 25)..As pointed out by Ashcroft, ‘the striking thing about colonial experience is that after colonization post-colonial societies did very often develop in ways which sometimes

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revealed a remarkable capacity for change and adaptation’ (2001: 2). We must, however, remember that post-coloniality ‘is articulated alongside other economic, social, cultural and historical factors, and therefore, in practice works quite differently in various parts of the world’ (Loomba 1998: 19). Hence, each post-colonial occasion needs to be located and analysed for its specificity (Blunt and McEwan 2002). Such propositions are most instructive in examining the decolonization of Kolkata’s colonial spaces and lack of emergence of grandiose architectural and spatial formations in the immediate post-colonial period, compared to the rest of India. Chatterjee’s (2004, 2010, 2011) concept of ‘political society’ is also useful in shedding light on Kolkata’s post-colonial and global urbanism and is expanded upon in chapters 4 and 5. Originally developed to provide an account of the alternative history of suppressed groups (see, for example, Guha 1981; Guha and Spivak 1988), one approach to study globalization from a post-colonial perspective is to focus on subaltern groups (see, for example, Chatterjee 2004; Appadurai 2000, 2001; Ong 2011). Following this path, the story of Kolkata would have been limited to bustees. To avoid this theoretical orthodoxy, the book draws from a variety of urban theories to understand globalization in Kolkata. In particular, the Marxist political economy of Lefebvre’s ([1970] 2003) and Harvey’s (1981) ‘secondary circuit of capital’ provides an explanation of the importance of real estate in Kolkata’s effort to globalize. Lefebvre ([1970] 2003), the pioneer in analysis of built environment from this perspective, asserts that when principal circuits of capital consisting of industrial production slow down, capital is invested in a second circuit consisting of real estate. Real estate speculation can become almost the exclusive source of capital formation and surplus value generated in these cases. In such a scenario, overall surplus realized in the primary circuit decreases, while surplus value from construction and speculation increases. Building upon Lefebvre’s work, Harvey (1981) developed a three-circuit model for capital accumulation over time. For him, the primary circuit consists of the productive process involving wage and labour to produce profit. The secondary circuit consists of investments in the built environment for producing fixed assets and consumption goods. The tertiary circuit consists of investments in science and technology and other social expenditures for the reproduction of labour power. Harvey emphasizes the importance of an interventionist state to entice capital investment in the secondary circuit. Others such as Gottdiener ([1985]1994)) also emphasize the role of an interventionist state and a freely functional capitalist money market for the flow of capital to the secondary circuit. For Smith (2002), gentrification has now become a global strategy for attracting

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capital. Such an urban strategy involves city and local governments weaving together a nexus of global financial markets – with large and medium-sized real estate developers, local merchants, property agents, and brand-name retailers – in which real estate development becomes the centrepiece of the city’s productive economy. In explaining Kolkata’s changing spatial structure and the emergence of new spatial and architectural forms, the book draws from Graham and Marvin’s (2001) concept of ‘splintering urbanism’. They define splintering urbanism as the dialectical set of processes that surround the parallel unbundling of infrastructure networks and fragmentation of urban space. In the case of cities of the Global South, such splintering occurs because of the proliferation of ‘glocally’ oriented enclaves that are self-contained but surrounded by spaces that are socially and economically disconnected with them. The divisions between such communities and the surrounding ones are enforced through walls, ramparts, fences, and security forces that maintain the sanctity and security of such enclaves. These communities splinter themselves from the poor local infrastructure by developing their own private infrastructure at a higher cost. Another treatise relevant to our understanding of the proliferation of Kolkata’s global spaces is what Falzon (2004) terms the ‘politics of exclusion’. Such politics tends to purge encroachment of public spaces by the urban poor including the homeless, slum dwellers, beggars, urchins, and hawkers, as this is offensive to the elite’s sense of a safe and healthy environment. The elite’s aspiration to a global middle-class lifestyle calls for a well-regulated healthy environment, which is under a constant threat because of these encroachments. Gated communities are a private means for the wealthy to fulfil their dreams of ideal lifestyles (Falzon 2004). In a similar vein, Fernandes’s (2004) analysis of the emergence of new global spaces as a product of socio-spatial boundaries that resist the encroachment of the poor and aspire to create a new urban aesthetics of class purity is useful in understanding the logic of global space in Kolkata. Voyce’s (2007) proposition that Indian shopping malls are social fortresses that divide middle-class consumers from the poor who cannot participate in this purified quasi-public space is also employed to understand Kolkata’s shopping malls. The book also examines malls from the post-colonial theoretical perspective which sees them as hybrid sites where the consumers from the Global South, especially young people, attempt to transform their identities through a Western spectacle (Varman and Belk 2012). Drawing from Fanon (1952, 1967) and Bhabha’s (1994) notion of post-colonial identities, Varman and Belk (2012) argue that the use of these spaces represents the

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consumer’s quest for being Western, modern, and developed. They postulate that exposure to the ex-colonial powers of the West through a global culture creates a desire to mask their identities and copy the West. Malls are spaces where the youth from the Global South masquerade in order to transcend their realities by imitating and competing with the West, overcoming the stigma of a colonial past and an impoverished present. These are also hybrid spaces where the new middle classes and elite compete with the West and offer resistance and at the same time are transformed (Varman and Belk 2012). Chatterjee’s (2004) proposition of how a post-industrial city became globally available in the 1990s is useful in explaining the proliferation of spaces of global culture and new urban planning paradigms in Kolkata. According to Chatterjee, the post-industrial city is driven by finance and producer services and characterized by a central business district, forming the node for an inter-metropolitan and global network of information processing. Advanced transportation, telecommunication facilities, and office space are an integral part of the central business district of such cities. The rest of the city is characterized by segregated and exclusive spaces for the technical and managerial elites. Another important feature of the post-industrial city is the transformation of the city in such ways that the elite are comfortable and secure in their new quarters. Orderliness, cleanliness, and safety are important factors that must be addressed. Additionally, the reconstitution of space befitting the model of a post-industrial city must occur through the eviction of undesirable elements and elimination of slums coupled with the proliferation of exclusive shopping malls and segregated housing complexes. As the book illustrates, all these treatises apply to Kolkata’s global spatial aspirations.

The Concept of the State in India It is important to distinguish the various uses of the term ‘state’ employed in the book. Prior to the 1970s the Marxist literature viewed the capitalist state as a monolithic entity (among others, see Miliband 1969; Poulantzas 1973), ignoring the variations in the actions and policies of local authorities and institutions. The capitalist state was seen as a central institution which acted in the long-term interests of capitalism or the dominant classes. The industrial, economic, and social restructuring that took place in the advanced capitalist nations in the 1970s developed the distinction between the central state and the local state (Cockburn 1977; Duncan and Goodwin 1982; Krätke and Schmoll 1991; Kirby 1993). Two distinct concepts of the

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local state can be gleaned from this literature. In the first, the local state is viewed as an executive body of the central state or as a local branch of an inflexible bureaucracy of the central state. In the second usage, the local state is seen as a counterforce to the central state. In this concept, the actions and policies of the local authorities may be autonomous from those taking place at the national level or other local levels. Local politics and political agendas are important in bringing about progressive or regressive social changes at the local level. Regime theorists further contributed to development of the concept of local state. Developed in the context of the United States, the theory posits that urban regimes consist of private and public interests that join forces to initiate development or address issues to arrest disinvestment in cities. Such a theory allows for autonomous action of the local regime or local state (Hackworth 2007). The theory also develops a typology of regimes that, based on policy agendas, can vary from regressive to progressive (Reese and Rosenfeld 2002). Another variation of the theory links local action to national policy and demonstrates how alliances at the local level are constrained by the capitalist urban system in the United States by drawing from Marxist theory (Lauria 1997). For the purpose of this book, we need to make a distinction between the local and the central state. Indian local states can range from a city’s administrative, municipal, and urban development institutions to the administrative apparatus of political and territorial units in independent India known as States and Union Territories. British India had Princely States that were nominally sovereign. Local rulers governed them, but they were in subsidiary alliance with the British Raj and were indirectly governed by it. The Indian central state is the set of central institutions in New Delhi that deal with the country’s overall social and developmental policies. There was also a colonial state that consisted of the entire administrative apparatus of the British Empire. Whenever capitalized, the term ‘state’ refers to the political and territorial units of independent India or the Princely States of British India. Otherwise it refers to the concept of the state discussed above.

Socialism, Communism, and Marxism Since the book critiques a Marxist regime by drawing from leftist-oriented theories of culture and politics, including post-colonial theory and Marxist urban theory, it is important to explain that this is not a paradox. As pointed out by Jameson (1996), there is a need to distinguish between Marxism as a

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mode of thought and analysis and socialism/communism as representing a political and societal aim and vision. Modern socialism arose mainly from Marxist thought of the nineteenth century and in ideal form consisted of creating a society where the means of production were socialized through expropriation of private owners of the means of production (Hoppe [1989]2007). Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels believed that socialism would emerge as a historical necessity due to inherent contradictions that would make the capitalist system obsolete and unsustainable. Although Marx himself never made a clear distinction between ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’, the first was a lower stage of the second in Marxist-Leninist ideology. Socialism would precede communism. Such a concept came into existence after the Russian revolution (Nove 1986). Communism consisted of a utopian society of the future in which everyone shared the means of production according to their needs (Kornai 1992). A Marxist analysis can be applied to socialist societies. For example, even in the heydays of the Soviet experiment in socialism, many Marxists of Trotskyist persuasion believed that the revolution was betrayed as the Soviet society had deviated from the true principles of socialism. A similar type of analysis was also applied to other countries that claimed to be socialist. The origins of the debate go back to the early 1920s and 1930s when Leon Trotsky, one of the leaders of the Russian revolution, critiqued Soviet socialism using Marxist analysis (Nove 1986). In recent times David Harvey’s (Harvey [2005] 2006) analysis of China’s entry into the world market is a classic example of using leftist theory in analysing policies of socialist governments. Castells’s (1983) analysis of the relationship between the squatters and the state during the elected socialist regime of Salvador Allende in Chile in the 1970s is another example. Roy (2003, 2004, 2011a) has also analysed the Left Front in West Bengal using leftist urban theories. The modern socialist movement and thought received the maximum impetus from the late 1840s, with Marx and Engels’s influential writings that came to be known as Marxism. Marxism was enhanced by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917 that established the first socialist system through armed revolution (Lindemann 1983; Brown 2009). Subsequently, Vladimir Lenin founded the Communist International (Comintern) – an organization to advocate world communism – in the second Congress of Socialists held in Moscow in 1919 (Pons [2012] 2014). Not everyone who attended the Congress adhered to the Russian path to socialism. In fact, the rift between those who believed in a revolutionary path to socialism and evolutionary or democratic socialism grew after the congress (Brown 2009). Subsequently, democratic socialist parties rose in Western Europe, especially in Austria, Germany, Sweden, and England. Such parties even

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participated in coalition governments in these countries (Lindemann 1983). ‘International communism’ referred to a political movement made up of parties with a central organization spread strategically all over the world with a base in the Soviet Union until the Second World War. These parties were closely linked to Moscow even after the war. The notion of international communism also included the formation of states created after the Second World War in Europe and Asia that followed the Soviet political, social, and economic model. The international communist movement declined with the schism between the Soviet Union and China in the early 1960s when China split from the ‘socialist camp’, claiming the Soviet brand of socialism had deviated from Marxism (Pons [2012] 2014). Even with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, countries such as China, North Korea, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Vietnam, and Cuba still have their own brand of socialism. The father of communism in India was Manabendra Nath Roy. He attended the second World Congress of Comintern in 1920 in Moscow and founded the Communist Party of India (CPI) in Tashkent in 1921. The party did not develop a significant base in India until the 1930s. In the early years of its existence, CPI was involved with the labour movement in India. The party’s participation in the Indian Independence movement was limited mainly because Roy believed that the party should oppose the reformist stance of the Indian National Congress (Haithcox 1971; Mallick 1993). The party was involved in mass organization of the unorganized labour and landless peasants in various parts of India between mid-1940 and the early 1950s. This included leading armed rebellions in Telangana in the State of Andhra Pradesh from 1946 to 1951 and the Tebhaga movement in Bengal from 1946 to 1947. The CPI(M) was created in 1964 as a result of a split in the left and centrist factions in the CPI. The left faction consisted of the Maoists and other radicals. The Maoists followed Mao Zedong’s writings and thoughts and believed that India should follow the Chinese path to communism of agrarian reform through armed struggle. They eventually established the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in 1967 (Mallick 1993). The CPI(ML) led a peasant revolt in the Naxalbari area in the State of West Bengal that was suppressed by police force (Shah 1988; Mallick 1993). Those involved in the movement came to be known as Naxalites, and the Naxalite movement not only spread to Kolkata, but all over West Bengal in the late 1960s and early1970s. The CPI(M) that led two United Front coalition governments from 1967 to the 1970s used police force to crush the Naxalite movement. The central government also deployed paramilitary forces against the movement. The two parties were involved in mutual mass

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killings in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which created a reign of terror in Kolkata. The Naxalites were virtually eliminated as a political force by the time the CPI(M)-led Left Front government came to power in 1977. Unlike the earlier coalition governments, which consisted of anti-Congress parties and the left, the Left Front consisted only of leftist parties. By this time CPI(M)’s policymaking was dominated by centrists. The party had been transformed from a revolutionary to a reformist one (Mallick 1993).

Data Sources Data sources for the colonial period are drawn from the literature on European architecture and urban planning in India and archival sources such as travelogues, literature, paintings, and photographs from the colonial period. Data sources for the post-colonial period for cities other than Kolkata are also drawn from the literature and photographs. The literature is critically synthesized to develop an original and alternative interpretation of the evidence. My association with post-colonial Kolkata began with my birth in the city and my childhood and youth in the ‘coolie town’9 of Haora. Since I came to the United States for my graduate education in 1981, I have returned to Kolkata and Haora many times and observed the physical, social, and cultural changes in Kolkata and its immediate environs. Parts of this book draw from these observations. Thus, ethnographical methods are an integral part of the methodology. The primary data for the book were collected from several field trips, beginning with the data collection for my dissertation in 1988. Since then, I have conducted fieldwork in Kolkata in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2003, studying urbanism in the city. The methodology for the fieldwork is drawn from critical ethnography and studies of practice in planning and public policy (among others, see, for example, Van Maanen 1988; Hummel 1991; Flyvbjerg 2001; Forester 1997, 1999, 2009). Such a methodology relies on qualitative interpretative inquiry and seeks to understand the unique and contextual, rather than make generalized propositions. Multiple methods were employed for studying the post-colonial period. These included qualitative interviews with government officials, planners, scholars, official of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs), and bustee dwellers of Kolkata and Haora. Since the study did 9 The British referred to the native labourers in India as coolies. The transformation of Haora into a ‘coolie town’ is discussed in Chapter 3.

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not follow the logical positivist method of inquiry, a random sample was not employed for the interviews. Instead, people from a variety of organizations and affiliations were selected. Although the interviews were open-ended, a formal questionnaire was developed for each organization. Additional questions arose during the interviews because of their open-ended nature. The interviews were supplemented with literature collected from the NGOs and CBOs, annual reports of NGOs and CBOs, and government policy documents provided by various organizations in Kolkata and Haora. I also conducted a visual documentation of Kolkata and Haora during my fieldwork. Subsequently, I have supplemented the data gathered during the fieldwork with an extensive literature search that included popular sources such as newspapers as well as materials found on websites of various organizations and real estate developers that are building the gated communities and private townships in Kolkata and its surroundings. A host of willing students of architecture, architects, contractors, academic colleagues, and amateur photographers provided me with the photographs that were essential for the study. Most of these are physical manifestations of globalization that have appeared since my last field trip in 2003. I benefited from informal conversations conducted in 2013 with two practicing architects – one in Delhi and the other in Kolkata – to gain a better view of the profession in the face of globalization. An email correspondence with another architect/planner in Kolkata increased my understating of the Nabadiganta township. A telephone interview in April 2015 with the president of the Kolkata West International City Buyers Welfare Association enhanced my understanding of that private township.

Organization of the Book The first half of the book focuses on the colonial urbanism in Kolkata and the second on post-colonial urbanism and globalization. The chapters are organized according to major themes in Kolkata’s urbanism. Chapter 2 presents the major junctures in Kolkata’s early imperial urbanism. Chapter 3 denotes a major theme in the planning and architectural history of Kolkata, namely the consolidation and decline of British power and the subsequent planning and architectural efforts that accompanied it. Chapter 4 marks a major epoch in Kolkata’s architectural and planning history, namely, its total deviance from urban India. Chapter 5 defines the final epoch in Kolkata’s spatial and architectural history – its effort to globalize. Chapter 6 provides concluding remarks for the study.

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Colonizing Kolkata From a City of Huts to a City of Palaces

Founding of Kolkata Like other early European settlements, Kolkata was rudimentary in character when it was founded. Trade remained its primary function, still regulated by local politics and regimes. However, Kolkata was not the first settlement founded by Europeans in Bengal or in India; Portuguese trading outposts were the first European settlements there. The trading outposts were all that was needed to maintain the Portuguese seaborne empire (Disney 1981). The Portuguese transplanted three main institutions and their institutional building types to these outposts – the factory, the fort, and the church (Perera 1998). The main components of the factories were a warehouse, an office, living quarters, a chapel, and a common dining hall (Nilsson ([1968] 1969). Although Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut in 1498, the Portuguese set up the first factory and fort in Cochin in the early sixteenth century (Nilsson ([1968] 1969; Murphey 1964). Other Europeans such as the Dutch, Danes, French, and English also began building factories. Goa became the first major European territorial possession in India when the Portuguese captured it in 1510 (Disney 1981). For the Portuguese, the possession of Goa was the final step from mere command of the sea to territorial empire in India (Jayne [1910] 1970). Europeans were rather late in directing their attention to Bengal. Even two centuries after the arrival of the Portuguese, Gujarat and Malabar on the west coast remained the centres of European trade. The Portuguese had been trading only sporadically in the Bengali region from about 1530 (Firminger 1906; Murphey 1964). This was attributable to the European perception of the remoteness of Bengal and more readily available opportunities on the west coast. Soon the Portuguese established two trade centres in Bengal – Porto Grande or Great Haven at Chittagong and Porto Piqueno or Little Haven in Satgaon (Firminger 1906; Cotton 1907). By 1580 the Portuguese had gained a trading monopoly in Bengal. They established the town of Hooghly (Hugli in Bengali), about 25 miles upstream from where Kolkata was eventually established (Blechynden 1905; Murphey 1964). By 1599, they had built a church and a fortress. The town flourished as Portuguese trade boomed under the tolerant Mughal emperors Akbar and Jahangir (Blechynden 1905; Firminger 1906). Hugli was ransacked by

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the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s troops in 1632, precipitating the demise of the Portuguese as a major commercial power in Bengal. As Hugli fell into the possession of the Mughals, it was established as the royal Mughal port in Bengal (Blechynden 1905; Firminger 1906; Murphey 1964). The British East India Company had long been aware of the wealth and trading potential of Bengal and was eager to step into the void left by the Portuguese (Blechynden 1905; Murphey 1964; Sinha 1991). The British arrived in the Bay of Bengal in 1633 (Wilson 1895). After much reluctance, the Mughals eventually gave the British permission to set up a factory in Hugli in 1640. This generosity came as a reward for a Company surgeon’s effort in administering relief to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s severely burned daughter. Soon other English factories were founded in Patna in Bihar and Kasimbazzar in Bengal (Cotton 1907; Murphey 1964). The English, however, desired nothing more than trade in Bengal under the protection of Indian rulers between 1633 and 1660 (Wilson 1895). Initially, the Dutch and the Portuguese transported goods by small boats from the larger ocean-going vessels anchored in Pipli or Balasor in Orissa to the interior of Bengal. After 1650, the Dutch and later the British tried to sail their ocean-going ships into Bengal via the river Hugli – a distributary of the river Ganges (Ganga in Bengali). The British used a relatively deep area for anchorage at a place on the river that later became Kolkata. However, exactions and confiscations by the Mughal officials worsened. Job Charnock (also known as Jobe or Jobus in Latin), the founder of Kolkata and the East India Company’s agent in Patna, was publicly whipped in 1686. Subsequently, shipping from this site was stopped and the British withdrew to Hugli (Murphey 1964). By 1685 the British intended to establish themselves by force in Bengal and waged a brief war with the Mughals from 1688-1689. They soon withdrew to the anchorage site that they had previously used (Wilson 1895; Murphey 1964; Sinha 1991). By then the site was known as Sutanati1 – a village of weavers and cotton traders. The village was originally established in the 1550s by four families of Bashaks and Seths (trading castes) as a hat (mart) for the sale of cotton bales (Wilson 1895). Job Charnock’s effort to negotiate with the Mughals from this site failed, as did his second attempt to establish a factory in Sutanati. As a result, the East India company asked Charnock to abandon the site, and trade in Bengal, and fall back on Chennai (formerly known as Madras) in 1689 (Firminger 1906; Murphey 1964).

1

The word suatanati means a loop of yarn.

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By 1690 a change in the political economy and internal situation led to the eventual establishment of British Calcutta. The new Nawab of Bengal,2 eager for revenues from trade and fearful of British naval superiority, encouraged the British to return to Bengal by promising them compensation and freedom of trade (Murphey 1964). The eagerness of the Mughals to bring the British back to Bengal is reflected in Alexander Hamilton’s words. Hamilton, a trader and the commander of several ships, sailed to almost every port from the Red Sea to China between 1688 and 1723 (Love [1913]1968). In his 1727 book A New Account of the East Indies, drawn from his memoirs (Love [1913]1968), Hamilton states, ‘The English settled there about the Year 1690 after the Mogul had pardoned all the Robberies and Murders committed on his subjects’ (Hamilton 1727: 7). Two factors influenced the British decision to return to Bengal. The first was rumours that the Dutch wanted to fortify an island in the Hugli estuary and exclude all other Europeans from Bengal. Second was the realization that an adequate port accessible from the ocean as well as Bengal’s hinterland was an imminent necessity for successful trade (Murphey 1964). Charnock had been urging the Company since 1686 to make Sutanati its major base in Bengal, independent of existing Mughal authority. He returned to the village in August 1690 with a small company and founded Kolkata permanently by setting up a factory (Blechynden 1905; Firminger 1906). Political economy played a key role in the settlement’s foundation. The colonial political economy was a natural consequence of the shifting of the centre of gravity of European trade in India from the western to southern and eastern regions. In fact, Charnock established Kolkata to set up a fortified centre that in conjunction with Mumbai and Chennai would create a triangle of British power in India (Murphey 1964). The adjacent villages of Govindapur and Kalikata became part of the settlement. The aforementioned Seths and Bashaks had established Govindapur around 1550 on the east bank of the river Hugli (Wilson 1895; Cotton 1907). In 1698, the British obtained a sanad3 to purchase the zamindari (landlord rights) to the three villages of Sutanati, Govindapur, and Kalikata from the Nawab of Bengal. This transaction further strengthened their position in Bengal (Blechynden 1905). The area granted 2 The Nawabs of Bengal were hereditary provincial governors of the province of Bengal during the Mughal rule (1526-1857) and became the rulers of the province after 1717. They ruled Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa from 1740 to 1793, although the British reduced them to puppet status from 1765. Three dynasties ruled as the Nawabs of Bengal until the title was abolished in 1880. 3 The term sanad means deed or legal right granted for a territory.

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by the sanad encompassed about 6.85 square kilometres and stretched from the river to the salt lakes between Govindapur and Sutanati (Goode 1916). In the eyes of Englishwoman Kathleen Blechynden, ‘This was a great advance for the English Company, as it raised them at once from the position of mere adventuring traders, dependent on the caprice of the reigning nawab to an assured status as landlords’ (Blechynden 1905: 14-15). Kalikata was situated back from the river to the south of Sutanati (Blechynden 1905). There are various legends and opinions regarding the origins of the name Calcutta. The city may have derived its name from the name of the shrine or abode of the Goddess Kali at Kalighat – Kali Kota (Deb 1905). According to another legend, the word kalikata originated from a location on the bank of a khal (Bengali for a stream or creek) and khal kutta (a ravine or a spillway in Bengali) in the village of Kalikata. A small tidal stream had, indeed, cut through the natural levee in the river Hugli in the village of Kalikata, either created by a great flood or dug by the villagers to drain their low-lying fields (Blechynden 1905). Yet another legend states that the name was derived from the word Golgotha (‘the land of skulls’) so named by a Dutch traveller because a disease that appeared in the rainy season killed one-fourth of the Europeans there (Deb 1905). This particular legend suggests that the city’s image had been associated with death and disease since the early days of its existence. Although several other legends and opinions exist about the origins of the name (Deb 1905), those discussed above are the most popular. The name, of course, was a British distortion of the Bengali name Kolkata. As part of the de-colonization process, the city was officially named Kolkata in 2001.

Kolkata’s Early Urbanism Kolkata’s reputation as an unhealthy city can be found in early British discourse. Hamilton, for example, condemned the choice of site and wrote, Mr. Job Channock4 being then the Company’s agent in Bengal, he had Liberty to settle an Emporium in any Part on the River’s side below Hughly, and for the sake of a large shaddy Tree chose that Place, tho’ he could not have chosen a more unhealthful Place on all the River; for three miles to the North-eastward, is a Salt-water Lake that overflows in September 4

Hamilton spells Charnock as Channok.

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and October, and then prodigious Numbers of Fish resort thither, but in November and December when the floods are dissipated, those fishes are left dry, and with their Putrification affect the Air with thick stinking Vapours, which the North-east Winds bring with them to fort William, that cause a yearly Mortality. (Hamilton 1727: 7)

No doubt the high incidence of malaria and the excessive mortality rate among the English in the early days of the settlement influenced Hamilton’s discourse. Initially, Kolkata, rudimentary in character, was no different from other early European settlements in India. In fact, the factory consisted of mud-walled, thatched houses. When Charnock returned to Sutanati in 1690, he found that all the rudimentary buildings he had left behind in his last attempt to establish the factory had been destroyed (Blechynden 1905; Firminger 1906). As noted in the minutes of the first meeting of the Bengal Council, in consideration that all the former buildings here are destroyed, it is resolved that such places be built as necessacity [sic] requires, and as cheap as possible […] these to be done with mudd [sic] walls and thatched till we get ground whereon to build a factory. (Minutes of the First Meeting of the Bengal Council, as cited in Cotton 1907: 9)

The proposed buildings included a warehouse, dining room, cook room, a room to sort clothes, an apartment for the company’s servants, a guard house, and a house for an official. Repairing the partially damaged structures that would house Charnock, one other official and the secretary’s office were included in the building agenda (Blechynden 1905). Clearly, the settlement was modest and underdeveloped – literally a city of huts. In 1696, a rebellion by the feudal landlord Sobha Singh posed a security threat to the British, affording them the opportunity to ask permission from the Nawab of Bengal to build fortifications. A bastion and a walled enclosure were completed in January 1697. The British started erecting Fort William in 1699 (Blechynden 1905; Firminger 1906; Cotton 1907). As was the norm with early European settlements, Fort William became the nucleus of the settlement (see figure 1 for a view of the fort). Its sturdiness is evident from Hamilton’s description. He observed that, ‘Fort William was built an irregular Tetragon, of Brick and Mortar, called Puckah, which is a composition of Brick-dust, Lime, Malasses, and cut Hemp, and when it comes to be dry, is as hard and tougher than firm Stone or Brick’ (Hamilton 1727: 9).

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Figure 1 View of Fort William, Done after the Painting in the Court Room of the Company’s House in Leaden Hall Street after George Lambert, by Elisha Kirkall, 1735

Source: © The British Library Board, P1445

The fort was situated on the bank of the river. Its main gate faced ‘the Avenue’, a raised road that ran eastwards connecting it to the salt water lakes. Here, boats laden with firewood and jungle produce landed their cargos for the settlement (Blechynden 1905). Lal Bazaar or Bow Bazaar Street as it was later to be known was one of the major thoroughfares of early Kolkata. Well-off natives and Company merchants built their garden houses along this road as the settlement grew and prospered. The street was crossed by a pilgrimage path leading to the Kalighat temple. It later intersected with other important thoroughfares such as Chitpore Road, Cossaitolla Gulley (or Bentinck Street), and Chowringhee Road. Another road ran past the Company’s warehouses and provided access to a hospital and burial ground (Cotton 1907). In the early eighteenth century, Kolkata did not have proper drains or a good water supply. Its other shortcomings included very few solid buildings or open roads (Wilson 1895).

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By the early eighteenth century, most of those living in the small, English settlement were in the immediate area north of the fort and ‘the Park’. Later, it was known as Tank Square or Dalhousie Square. Lord Dalhousie had served as Governor-General from 1848 to 1856 and the square was so named in his honour (Blechynden 1905; Cotton 1907). It was renamed Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh in the 1960s as a part of the de-colonization process for the city. ‘The Park’ was an open space landscaped with gravelled paths, ornamental shrubs, orange trees, and railings surrounding the ‘Great Tank’ or Lal Dighi.5 This appeared to be some attempt to impose notions of English landscaping. The tank, which had existed before Charnock’s arrival, was the main source of drinking water for the English settlers. Initially a pond full of weeds and noxious material, it was deepened and lengthened in 1709 and reclaimed as a source of drinking water (Blechynden 1905; Cotton 1907). That was one of the first acts of sanitary planning by the British in Kolkata. The Great Tank still exists today at the centre of Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh. The English settlement was surrounded by the native population in what was then known as ‘Dhee Calcutta’.6 A native bazaar7 settlement or ‘Great Bazaar’ was located half a mile north of the fort and was also known as the Burra Bazaar. A road led from the English settlement to this bazaar and was later renamed Clive Street. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Govindapur was a residential village covered with thick jungle. Sutanati was still a riverine mart specializing in cloth trade. Peripheral agricultural and fishing hamlets, trading halts, and jungle surrounded these two villages (Blechynden 1905; Cotton 1907; Sinha 1978). After eight years, only about 1.36 square kilometres of the land granted by the sanad had been used for building purposes (Goode 1916). Within a quarter of a century of obtaining the zamindari rights to the three villages, the English settlers had transformed their mud huts to brick, terraced houses surrounded by gardens, reflecting their changing fortunes in the colonial political economy. They obtained a firman8 for free trade and the permission to purchase 37 villages adjacent to the three they had settled in 1698. Kolkata became a thriving town of 1,000 to 1,200 Europeans and 100,000 natives within a quarter of a century (Blechynden 1905; Cotton 5 ‘Lal Dighi’ means red tank in Bengali. 6 The word ‘Dhee’ is a British distortion of the Bengali word dihi, meaning a village or a group of villages. 7 The word originated in Persia and means a marketplace. 8 A royal mandate or a decree issued by the Mughal emperors.

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1907). The town was unplanned at the beginning. This fact is evident from Hamilton’s description: [T]he town was built without Order, as the Builders thought most convenient for their own Affairs, everyone taking in what Ground best pleased them for Gardening, so that in most houses you must pass through a garden into the House. (Hamilton 1727: 9)

However, as early as 1707, the chief agents of the East India Company issued an order forbidding the erection of irregular buildings in the zamindari. In retaliation to the houses, tanks, and walls that many natives had erected without their permission (Deb 1905), this order can be seen as one of the first acts of planning. There must have been some racial segregation as Hamilton describes the ‘English being near the River’s Side, and the Natives within Land’ (Hamilton 1727: 9). This obvious separation was despite the fact that the early settlers, including Charnock, married Indian women or had them as their mistresses (Hamilton 1727; Cotton 1907). Such an attempt at segregation was a common feature of British settlements. For example, the existence of a ‘White’ town and a ‘Black’ town in Chennai is made clear in Thomas Salmon’s description in Modern History, or the Present State of All Nations (Salmon, as cited in Love [1913]1968: 71).9 Salmon, an ensign with the Madras garrison, depicts Chennai around 1699-1700 with some material possibly supplemented by information up to 1739 (Love [1913]1968). The governor’s house was the most significant work of architecture in early Kolkata. According to Hamilton, ‘The Governor’s House, in the Fort, is the best and most regular piece of Architecture that I ever saw in India’ (Hamilton 1727: 1). Hamilton’s account of other significant structures in the settlement included, ‘many convenient Lodgings for Factors and Writers, within the Fort, and some Store-houses for the Company’s Goods, and the Magazines for their Ammunition’ (Hamilton 1727: 11). Hamilton also mentions a productive Company garden somewhere in the neighbourhood that furnished ‘the Governors Table with Herbage and Fruits; and some Fish-ponds to serve his Kitchin’ (Hamilton 1727: 11). There was also a church ‘about fifty Yards from Fort William’ and ‘a pretty good Hospital’ according to Hamilton’s account (Hamilton 1727: 11). Known as St. Anne’s Church, the significant structure in the emerging town was completed in 1709 (Cotton 1907) (see figure 2 for a conceptual map of Kolkata in the early eighteenth century). 9 According to Love ([1913]1968), the book was first published in 1724 and was reissued in 1739 with maps by Herman Moll.

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Figure 2 A conceptual map of Kolkata in the early eighteenth century

Source: Redrawn and adapted from Losty (1990); © The British Library, ORW.1990.a.1450

With the exception of the church and hospital, all official buildings stood within the fort walls in the early phase of the settlement. The buildings were closely packed inside the fort, as it was only about 216 metres in length, 104 metres wide in the northern end, and 148 meters at the southern end. The governor also maintained a private residence outside the walls of the fort

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(Blechynden 1905). No doubt the small quarters and the settlers’ tendency to stay close to the fort were for defensive reasons. The British had not yet established a strong foothold in Bengal and were vulnerable to the whims of the Nawab of Bengal. Such defensive tendencies can be seen elsewhere in India. In Chennai, walls were constructed in 1640 to enclose the factory and officially create Fort St. George. The fort and factory continued to be the nucleus of military, commercial, and government activities in Chennai until the early nineteenth century. Obviously, this fortified structure dominated the physical development of the city (Lewandowski 1977). Initially, Kolkata was not much different from the early fortified towns of the British and other Europeans. A cyclone hit Kolkata in 1737. About ten English houses, the steeple of St. Anne’s Church, and many native houses were damaged (Cotton 1907). But the internal political situation, not natural calamities, determined colonial urban patterns, as is illustrated by the defensive planning activities of the 1740s. The British dug an entrenchment around their territory known as the ‘Maratha Ditch’ to protect themselves from the Marathas, who invaded Bengal in 1742. The ditch was intended to be seven miles long, but only three miles were completed. Permission to dig the ditch was obtained from the Nawab of Bengal, Ali Vardi Khan, as the British still did not have political control over Bengal. The indigenous population, who had approached the British for protection against the Marathas, dug the ditch. The work was abandoned midway through the excavation as the Marathas never invaded Kolkata. Seven batteries were also placed in various parts of the town. The ditch, which became a local landmark, was filled and reclaimed under Lord Wellesley’s order. In its new state, near the end of the eighteenth century the former ditch became a major artery known as Circular Road (Deb 1905; Cotton 1907; Goode 1916). A 1742 plan of the city indicates that the area that was inhabited by the Christian population – English, Armenian, and Portuguese were surrounded by a complete ring fence of palisades. A gate guarded every road leaving the town and the ghats at the foot of the main streets leading to the riverside (Cotton 1907). A ghat consisted of a series of steps leading down to the Ganga. Clearly, defence played an important role in the planning activities of the settlement as the British remained politically insecure (see figure 3 for a map of Kolkata in 1756 showing the defensive arrangements). By the 1750s, the town had grown outside the fort, now extending about a five and a half kilometres along the river with a breadth of two and a half kilometres. However the English settlement remained clustered around the fort. The commercial, administrative, residential, and military complex it had become had grown out of the needs for hygiene, defence, and exclusiveness (Sihna 1978). Lieutenant William Wills of the Artillery

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Figure 3 Calcutta in 1756, by John Call and J. Cheevers

Source: Courtesy of Frances W. Pritchett, Professor Emerita, Columbia University

Company in Bengal prepared a plan involving Fort William and part of the city. It indicates that separate quarters were set apart for the Portuguese, Armenians, and the English. This was known as Christian Calcutta (Cotton 1907). As pointed out by Sinha (1978), they were brought into the defensive arrangement of the area known as ‘White Town’. The Portuguese and Armenians were relegated to the neighbourhoods of their churches. Conversely, the English settlement was compact and exclusive. It had about 230 brickand-mortar houses ticketed with their owner’s names and surrounded by spacious compounds. Many of these homes were equipped with water tanks. A native town or ‘Black Town’ had sprung up northeast of Christian Calcutta (Cotton 1907). Among the significant buildings in Black Town was what the British called the ‘Black Pagoda’, a temple built around 1731 in the indigenous style by Gobinadram Mitra, a native Zamindar (see figure 4 for a view of the temple). It was known as the Navaratna Kali temple among the natives. The temple was partially destroyed in the cyclone of 1737, while the main tower collapsed in 1813 (Cotton 1907; Losty 1900). It has undergone several renovations and still exists today. An attempt to enforce segregation was made in 1745 as indicated by ‘Extracts from Bengal Public Consultations. Fort William, June 24, 1745’, reported in C.R. Wilson’s book. The extract stated that, Several Black people having intermixed themselves among the English Houses, and by that means occasion Nuisances and disturbances to several

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Figure 4 Navaratna Kai Temple. Detail from Govinda Ram Mittee’s Pagoda, Calcutta, by Thomas Daniell. Coloured aquatint, 1798

Source: © The British Library Board, P940, pl. 5

of the English Inhabitants ORDERD That the Jemindar do make enquiry there and lay before us an Account of such Houses as are Inhabited by them in order for them to quit, and remove to proper Places in the Town. (‘Extracts from Bengal Public Consultations, 1745’, as cited in Wilson 1906: 183)

Instructions from London in 1748 stated that, ‘Houses belonging to our Servants or any English must not be sold to any Moors or any Black Merchants whatsoever’ (‘Extract from General Letter from the Court to Bengal, London, June 17, 1748’, as cited in Wilson 1906: 205). Cleary, as elsewhere in India, the intrusion of natives in the White Town blurred the boundaries. Boundaries were also clouded because some of the Indian merchants owned property in the White Town that they rented to Europeans (Chatterjee 2012). There was also a ‘Gray Town’ where the Portuguese, Greeks, and Armenians lived and acted as a buffer between Black and White Towns (Sinha 1978). Kolkata was not the most pristine European settlement during the early era of European colonization. The Portuguese town of Old Goa was a far more impressive city than Kolkata until the late seventeenth century. In the

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Figure 5 A pictorial map of Old Goa. From Goa Indiae Orientalis Metropolis, by Pieter Boudewyn van der Aa. Engraving, 1719

Source: © The British Library Board, P2417.

sixteenth century, ‘Golden Goa’, as it was known, came to be regarded as the ‘Rome of the Orient’. Goa, mixed with the Indian tradition of elaborate ornamentation, acquired the prominence and grandeur of a Renaissance town. The viceroy’s palace was an impressive building and most streets were quadrants or segments of circles (see figure 5 for a pictorial map of Goa in the early eighteenth century). The main street, Stada Diretta, was a linear street and the finest in Old Goa. Squares, churches, monasteries, and magnificent buildings filled the city (Carita [1997] 1999; Richards 1982; Nilsson ([1968]1969). Even the Dutch Chinsura (Chuchura in Bengali) that was established sometime in the mid-seventeenth century in the vicinity of Kolkata may have been comparable to early Kolkata (Hamilton 1727) (see figure 6 for the plan of the factory in the 1720s). French Chandernagore (Chandannagar in Bengali), established in 1690, was transformed by Marquis Dupleix into the most prosperous European settlement in Bengal between 1731 and 1741. The settlement also was comparable to Kolkata (Cotton 1907). French Pondicherry (now known as Puducherry) founded in 1674 also reached its golden age under Marquis Dupleix in the mid-eighteenth century and acquired a grand appearance that may have outstripped Kolkata (Sen 1947; Chopra 1992).

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Figure 6 Plan of the Dutch Factory at Hooghly-Chinsura in 1721, by an anonymous artist. Engraving, 1721

Source: © The British Library Board, P2989

Spatial Restructuring of Kolkata and the Emergence of Social and Political Control as the Dominant Planning Paradigm The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, ransacked Kolkata from 16 to 18 June 1756 in response to the British refusal to surrender one of his adversaries, whom they had sheltered, resulting in the partial destruction of the fortifications at Kolkata. The British had also provoked the Nawab by affording general protection to his corrupt employees and their failure to abide by the Company’s dastaks (imperial Mughal license).10 The British had fortified Kolkata throughout the first half of the eighteenth century, sometimes with permission of the current Nawabs but often without it. The Company’s Directors were always concerned with defending their settlements in Bengal to protect their trade (Chatterjee 2012). Although no record exists 10 The Mughal emperor Farokh Siyar granted a permit allowing duty-free trade in Bengal to the British in 1717.

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of the condition of the different buildings after the ransacking, according to Blechynden (1905: 53), ‘the town was in a deplorable state, owing to the wholesale and wanton destruction of property’. St. Anne’s Church was completely destroyed, while the fort and factory were partially destroyed. Most of the English houses, including those around ‘the Park’, were entirely destroyed and the Burra Bazaar was burned down. A large segment of the native town was in ruins. The Nawab’s troops had also looted the town (Blechynden 1905; Cotton 1907). Despite their retreat from Kolkata, the British regained control of the city within six months on 2 January 1757. Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah attempted to recapture Kolkata. However, he was forced to withdraw his troops by 4 February 1757 and was drawn into a treaty five days later. The treaty never came into effect as war broke out between England and France. At this time the Nawab declared his intention to assist the French in Chandannagar, which had come under British control on 22 March 1757. The English inflicted a resounding defeat on the Nawab in the Battle of Palashi in June 1757, a defeat primarily attributable to the conspiracy and betrayal by his generals and ministers (Chatterjee 2012). This was a turning point in the development of Kolkata. Lord Clive installed his new ally, Mir Jaffar, as ruler. Mir Jaffar was instrumental in the Nawab’s betrayal. Siraj ud-Daulah was put to death soon after the battle (Cotton 1907). As aptly stated by Blechynden, ‘With the death of Suraj-ud-Dowlah, the troubles of the English were at an end’. The new Nawab lost no time in sending to Calcutta the indemnity promised to the inhabitants for their losses and sufferings. From the depths of poverty and humiliation they were raised at once to wealth and power (Blechynden 1905: 67). Mir Jaffar was obliged to sign a treaty in 1757, granting additional land within Maratha Ditch and zamindari rights to the British extending to the south of Kolkata (Deb 1905; Cotton 1907). Under the treaty, the Company obtained possession of all lands within the ditch. However, acquisition of land continued for many years as jungles were gradually cleared and occupied. The town also expanded to occupy suburban areas inside the ditch. The Company also annexed considerable amounts of land from 24 parganas11 adjacent to Kolkata. The expansion of the town required land from the 24 parganas and other mauzas12 outside the ditch. This area, known as Panchannagram,13 comprised land from 55 mauzas (Goode 1916). 11 A pargana is a revenue and administrative unit consisting of several mouzas initiated by the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526). 12 A mouza refers to a locality with one or more settlements. It was the smallest revenue unit. 13 Panchanna means 55 in Bengali.

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A sum of ten million rupees was paid for the ransacking of Kolkata and nearly another eight million promised for losses sustained by the English, Armenian, and native populations of the city. According to the treaty, the English inhabitants received five million rupees (£500,000), the native population, two million rupees (£200,000), and the Armenians, 700,000 rupees (£70,000) of the restitution money. A year after the ransacking of Kolkata, nearly seven million rupees were sent from the Nawab’s capital in Murshidabad to Kolkata and another four million was sent within six weeks to meet the losses sustained by the East India Company. The treaty also permitted the Company to establish a mint. Immediately after the receipt of the restitution money, a committee was set up to redistribute it. Commerce was revived and houses were rebuilt (Deb 1905; Cotton 1907). This was a new beginning for Kolkata. As pointed out by Blechynden, ‘with the triumphant reversal of fortune which followed Plassey, the necessity for keeping the English factory at Calcutta within the Fort was at an end. The town at once began to expand, and the European quarter to spread’ (Blechynden 1905: 68). The clearing of an inland jungle to create a vast expanse of open space near the vicinity of the new fort that came to be known as the Maidan, and filling in a creek that had cut off the settlement on the south also led to the movement of the Europeans beyond the narrow limits of the palisades and the fort towards the Chowringhi area and its vicinity (Deb 1905; Cotton 1907). By 1799, the original course of the Hugli River (or Adi Ganga in Bengali), which had dried up in the fifteenth to seventeenth century, bounded Kolkata in the south. It was also known as the Govidadapur Creek, the Kidderpore Nulla, or Surman’s Nulla after Edward Surman, who had excavated it in the early eighteenth century. There was the Hugli River in the northwest, and Maratha Ditch in the northeast, east, and southeast. These boundaries remained almost the same for the next sixty years (Carey 1907; Goode 1916). Such a pattern of outward migration of the British from the narrow confines of the fort and its vicinity can also be observed in cities such as Chennai. After the defeat of the French in 1750 and the subsequent fortification of the outlying areas, Chennai became a politically secure city, enabling the British to move to the outskirts (Lewandowski 1975). The first planning act of social and political control in the post-Palashi period was the building of the new Fort William, which was started in 1758 and partially in use by 1773. The last of the fortifications were competed in 1781 and the estimated construction cost was two million pounds. Given the humiliation suffered in the ransacking of Kolkata, the British planned to build a much larger and more impregnable fort. Lord Clive dismissed the plan to build a new structure close to the ruins of the old fort. Accordingly,

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he selected a site south of the original fort that was close to the flourishing and populous village of Govindapur (Blechynden 1905; Firminger 1906; Cotton 1907; Chatterjee 2012). The new fort in Kolkata was strategically located so that it could be defended from attacks from the river by other European powers, now more of a concern to the British than the local regimes, and was naturally protected by forests to the east and south. Contrary to the norm, the fort did not present an imposing appearance of military dominance. Instead, the British tried to hide the considerable strategic power of the fort in a subtle and calculated posture of invisibility by locating it in a bowl created by a natural depression (Chatterjee 2012). A portion of the restitution money was spent to compensate the inhabitants, who were given land in other parts of the town. While the elite and those under their patronage were compensated, the extent to which the other inhabitants benefitted is not known (Blechynden 1905; Firminger 1906; Cotton 1907; Chatterjee 2012). The Maidan was created in the vicinity of the fort so that its defenders would have a free view and firing space (Nilsson [1968] 1969). The Foucauldian notion of surveillance seems to be the rationale for this type of planning. By clearing the space around the fort, the British could observe the approaching enemy and use the level field to repulse them. This spatial restructuring of Kolkata after the British victory at Palashi in 1757 was a critical turning point in Kolkata’s imperial urbanism as it ushered in the beginning of social and political control through planning endeavours. The spatial restructuring of Kolkata represented one of the first instances of attempting to alter the physical form of a city to impose social and political control. It was tried at this scale a century later in Delhi in the aftermath of the First Indian War of Independence in 1857.14 This war, commonly known as the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’, began in May of 1857 when the sepoys (Indian soldiers) rose in revolt. The sepoys seized Delhi within weeks. Indians joined them from all levels of society – landlords, peasants, princes, and merchants – irrespective of their religion, in an effort to free India from British rule. In certain parts of India, the resistance continued until the end of 1858. Ultimately, the British emerged victorious and established direct Crown Rule in 1858, gaining total control of India. In the walled city of Old Delhi (also known as Shahjahanabad),15 the British altered the spatial structure 14 The first philosopher to refer to the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ as the ‘First Indian War of Independence’ was Karl Marx ([1857]1959). 15 Since the tenth century BC, the location of Delhi has been the site of nine cities (the last of which was called Shahjahanabad) and served as the capital of many dynasties. The fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, who decided to shift his capital from Agra to Delhi 1638, built it as the capital of the Mughal Empire in the seventeenth century. See Blake (1991) for a detailed discussion.

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as they felt that the urban form was, in part, attributable to their difficulty in suppressing the war. Immediately after the conflict, one-third of the developed area was levelled and the entire population of the walled city was forcibly evicted. In 1859, buildings within a 500-yard radius of the Red Fort were cleared to create a military security zone (King 1976; Gupta [1981]1998; Hosagrahar 2005). Such a predisposition to raze densely populated Indian settlements for defensive purposes can also be observed elsewhere in India before the First Indian War of Independence. For example, around 1783 the British not only strengthened the defences of the fort in Chennai, but also razed the Black Town for defensive purposes. They considered the densely populated Black Town a threat to their security as it could provide shelter for the enemy and rebuilt it to the north, leaving a zone of unbuilt land to protect the fort (Evenson 1989). However, the alterations were not done on the scale of Kolkata and Delhi.

Kolkata’s Transformation to a City of Palaces The Maidan provided an enormous vista, offering an aesthetically pleasing perspective for the impressive buildings erected in Chowringhi and along the Esplanade (Nilsson [1968]) 1969 (see figure 7). The old fort was abandoned and its site repurposed for the Customs House and other public buildings (Blechynden 1905; Firminger 1906; Cotton 1907). The distinction between Black and White Town continued in the postPalashi period, although the boundaries may have been blurred because of encroaching indigenous huts or views of indigenous settlements. For example, Mrs. Kindersley, who visited the city in 1768, observed the following about the White Town: [T]he appearance of the best houses is spoiled by the little straw huts, and such sort of encumbrances, which are built up by the servants for themselves to sleep in: so that all the English part of the town […] is a confusion of very superb and very shoddy houses, dead walls, straw huts. (Kindersley 1777, as cited in Cotton 1907: 87).

She even lamented the absence of a distinct Black Town: Here is not, as at Madras, a black town near for the servants to reside in; therefore Calcutta is partly environed by their habitations, which makes the roads rather unpleasant; for the huts they live in, which are

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Figure 7 Esplanade Row (north of the Maidan). From Esplanade Row and the Council House, by Thomas Daniell. Coloured aquatint with etching, 1788

Source: © The British Library Board, P97

built of mud and straw, are so low that they can scarcely stand upright in them; and, having no chimnies, the smoke of the fires with which they dress their victuals comes all out at the doors, and is perhaps more disagreeable to the passenger than to themselves. (Kindersley 1777, as cited in Cotton 1907: 88)

In the eyes of Europeans schooled in eighteenth-century aesthetics that prioritized regularity and order, Kolkata remained an unplanned city in the immediate post-Palashi period (Evenson 1989). For example, Kindersley stated that, after Madras, it does not appear much worthy describing; for although it is large, with a great many good houses in it, it is as awkward a place as can be conceived; and so irregular that it looks as if all the houses have been thrown up in the air, and fallen down again by accident as they now stand. People keep constantly building; and everyone who can procure a piece of ground to build a house upon, consults his own taste

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and convenience without any regard to the beauty or regularity of the town. (Kindersley 1777, as cited in Cotton 1907: 86-87)

The British were also concerned about the unhealthy climate of Kolkata in the mid-1770s and early 1780s as reflected in Henry Elmsley Busteed’s book Echoes from Old Calcutta: Being Chiefly the Reminiscences of the Days of Warren Hastings, Francis and Impey, first published in 1882. Busteed, who served as medical officer in the Indian Medical Service and was stationed in Kolkata Mint from 1870, wrote: Calcutta at this time stood in what was little better than an undrained swamp, in the immediate vicinity of a malarious jungle, that the ditch 16 surrounding it was, as it had been for thirty years previously, an open cloaca, and that its river banks were strewn with dead bodies of men and animals. (Busteed 1888: 157)

Alluding to newspaper reports and observations of travellers from the period, he elaborates that [f]rom 1780 and onwards correspondents in the newspapers make frequent complaints about the indescribably filthy condition of the streets and roads, which is fully confirmed by the account of Grandpré in 1790, who tells of the canals and cesspools reeking with putrefying animal matter – the awful stench – the myriads of flies, and the crowds and flocks of animals and birds acting as scavengers. (Busteed 1888: 157)

Such a depiction of the city is consistent with the British discursive practice of portraying Kolkata as an unhealthy and uninhabitable place for Europeans since its inception. In fact, the British were so concerned about the city’s health issues that everyone who could afford to do so opted to live in garden houses outside the city boundaries (Cotton 1907). This was one reason for the proliferation of garden houses among the British in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Garden houses also became popular among the wealthy English merchants in Kolkata and Chennai as symbols of newly acquired wealth (Lewandowski 1975; Chattopadhyay 2007) (see figure 8 for a view of a garden house in Kolkata). In Kolkata, these garden houses were physical manifestations of conspicuous consumption and expropriation (Chattopadhyay 16 This is a reference to the Maratha Ditch.

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Figure 8 A garden house in Garden Reach. From View on the Banks of the Hooghly near Calcutta. The Country Residence of William Farquharson Esq., by James Moffat after Frans Balthazar Solvyns. Aquatint, 1800

Source: © The British Library Board, P2976

2007). Such residences were either located in discrete residential enclaves or isolated retreats outside the city (Archer 1997, 2000). Other Europeans and Indians whose fortunes rose with an upturn in the colonial political economy also built beautiful homes. The wealthy Bengalis emulated the British by constructing their own garden houses (bagan baris in Bengali). They were often associated with debauchery, pleasure, and conspicuous consumption, especially those owned by the zamindars (landlords).17 This architectural category includes a large number of building types ranging from moderate suburban residences to lavish estates (Chattopadhyay 2007). Such housing was considered to be a symbol of colonial success. As is reflected by Eliza Fay, an Englishwoman who visited Kolkata in the late 1700s, The banks of the river are, as one may say, absolutely studded with elegant mansions, called here as at Madras, garden houses. These houses are 17 Note that the British institutionalized the extraction of revenue from land through the appointment of hereditary revenue officers, known as zamindars, to collect taxes.

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surrounded by groves and lawns, which descend to waters edge, and present a constant succession of whatever can delight the eye, or bespeak wealth and elegance in the owners. (Fay [1817] 1908: 131)

These houses equally impressed William Hodges, the English landscape artist who visited the city in 1780s and wrote, ‘Garden Reach presents a view of handsome buildings on a slat surrounded by gardens: these are villas belonging to the opulent inhabitants of Calcutta’ (Hodges 1793: 14). Reginald Heber, who served as the Anglican bishop of Kolkata from 1823 to 1826, described them as the ‘large and handsome edifices of Garden Reach, each standing by itself in a little woody lawn […] and consisting of one or more stories, with a Grecian verandah along their whole length of front’ (Heber 1828: 52-53). Despite its overall unhealthiness, the European section of the city was adorned with impressive buildings and broad streets by the 1780s. William Hodges wrote: The glacis and esplanade are […] bounded by a range of beautiful and regular buildings. […] The streets are broad; the line of buildings, surrounding two sides of the esplanade of the fort, is magnificent; and it adds greatly to the superb appearance, that the houses are detached from each other, and insulated in a great space. (Hodges 1793: 14-15)

In Fay’s description, also from the 1780s, we find that [t]he town of Calcutta reaches along the eastern bank of the Hoogly; as you come up past Fort William and the Esplanade Row it has a beautiful appearance. Esplanade [R]ow as it is called, which fronts the Fort, seems to be composed of palaces. (Fay [1817] 1908: 132)

The appearance of the exclusive English enclave around the Lal Dighi also impressed the French traveller Louis de Grandpré, who visited India in 1789-1790: As we enter the town, a very extensive square opens before us, with a large piece of water in the middle, for the public use. The pond has a grass plot around it, and the whole is enclosed by a wall breasthigh, with a railing on the top. The sides of this inclosure [sic] are each nearly five hundred yards in length. The square itself is composed of magnificent houses, which render Calcutta not only the handsomest town in Asia, but one of the finest in the world. (Grandpré 1803: 428)

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George Annesley – a British aristocrat who had taken an extensive tour of Asia and Africa from 1802 to 1806 and later published a three-volume account of his travels (under the name of Viscount Valentia, as he was known in younger years) – wrote, ‘Chouringee, an entire village of palaces, runs for a considerable length at right angles with it, and, altogether, forms the finest view I ever beheld in any city’ (Annesley 1811: 192). Clearly, despite the overall deplorable sanitary conditions of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Kolkata, the exclusive European enclave was pristine – at least in appearance. This was a result of the consolidation of British power in Bengal and the subsequent wealth that they accumulated. As a result, by the late nineteenth century British Calcutta came to be known as the ‘City of Palaces’.

Emergence of Architecture as a Symbol of Power Since the early traders did not yet employ architecture as a symbol of power, they were content if a locally available military engineer, clergyman, or carpenter could erect a structure that was functional (Nilsson [1968]1969; Tillotson 1989). Despite their resounding victories at Palashi and Buxar,18 the British gave little thought to architecture during the first two decades of their rule. After these triumphs, they were busy consolidating their control over India. Another reason for not investing in extravagant architecture was the reality that many of them saw their stay in India to be a temporary one. Furthermore, the East India Company was not too keen on spending its profits on extravagant buildings (Metcalf 1984). A paper read by T. Roger Smith, who had practiced architecture in Mumbai, at a conference of the Society of Arts on 28 February 1873 and published in the Journal of the Society of Arts aptly presents the logic and style of early European architecture. Dissatisfied with the lack of an imperial stamp on the early European buildings, Smith stated that ‘they are motley, they are modern, they – many of the them – make no pretention to architectural character, and when they do make such pretensions, they more often than not fall short of the apparent aim of their designers’ (Smith 1873: 279).

18 The Battle of Buxar was fought in 1764 between the East India Company and the combined forces of Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Oudh, and Shah Alam II, the Mughal emperor. The British enjoyed a resounding victory in the battle, further strengthening their control over India.

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Despite Smith’s characterization as mundane and without architectural character, the neo-classical style was always the hallmark of early European architecture. Except for a few buildings discussed in the next chapter, the neo-classical style became the predominant style of colonial buildings constructed in Kolkata. The neo-classical style came in vogue because of its connection with the architectural vocabulary of the imperial Roman Empire. This association with Roman imperial power prompted the British East India Company to use the style as representative of the British Empire in India. Though delivered after the British had instituted this style of architecture, Smith’s lecture reinforced the Roman allegory. According to him, We ought, like the Romans […] to take our national style with us. […] In the stubbornness with which we retain our nationality we resemble the Romans. They unquestionably not only cut their roads and pitched their camps in Roman fashion, but put up the Roman buildings wherever they had occasion to build; and the remaining fragments of those buildings testify that the Roman governor […] continued to be as intensely Roman in exile as the English collector remains British to the backbone in the heart of India. (Smith 1873: 280-281)

The Writers Building, constructed in 1780 to house the junior staff of civil servants of the British East India Company, is a typical example of early classically influenced architecture in Kolkata (see f igure 9). The building contained nineteen sets of apartments with some classrooms in the centre. From the early nineteenth century the newly instituted College of Fort William used these classrooms for instruction. Young clerks who arrived in India received their initial training here. It was true to the early European tradition of being content with whatever local labour was available. Carpenter Thomas Lyon, who came to Kolkata in the 1760s to assist in the construction of the new fort, was most likely the architect. It is doubtful whether he had any influence in the actual design. Most likely, he just supervised the construction as the plans may have been obtained from elsewhere. But there is no doubt regarding the building’s classical inspiration and mediocrity. It was a very long, plain building resembling military barracks of the period. It was constructed with repetitive windows relieved by a projecting central section with Ionic pillars and a balustraded parapet. As elsewhere in India, the imposition of Western architectural styles was not intentional in this early phase. Unhappy with the lack of an imperial stamp on the building, Maria

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Figure 9 Writers Building, Calcutta, by Thomas Daniell. Coloured aquatint, 1798. The building was designed by Thomas Lyon and was constructed in 1780

Source: © The British Library Board, P939

Graham, a Scottish woman who lived in India from 1808 to 1811, wrote, ‘The writers buildings […] look like a shabby hospital, or poor-house’ (Graham [1812] 1812: 138). The employment of architecture as a symbol of political and imperial power emerged towards the end of the eighteenth century. The government house in Kolkata is, in fact, a quintessential example of such architecture and the discourses surrounding them. In May of 1798 Lord Wellesley arrived in India to assume the title of Governor-General. He found the existing buildings unsuitable and too insignificant to serve as the governor’s residence (Cotton 1907; Nilsson [1968] 1969). Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah’s plunder of the city in 1756 had destroyed the governor’s residence within the fort as well as the one outside it. Several houses, including the one outside the fort as well as the Fort House in new Fort William, were used for the purpose (Davies [1985] 1987; Blechynden 1905; Cotton 1907). None of these, however, exuded the grandeur of a palace that would, in the eyes of Europeans, exemplify the power of the emerging British Empire. For example, the French traveller Louis de Grandpré was unimpressed with the Old Government

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Figure 10 Old Government House, by Thomas Daniell. Coloured aquatint with etching, 1788. The building was built in 1767

Source: © The British Library Board, P98/1

House on the Esplanade most frequently used as the governor’s residence (see figure 10). He observed: As there is no palace yet built for him, he lives in a house on the esplanade opposite the citadel. The house is handsome, but by no means equal to what it ought to be for a personage of so much importance. Many private individuals in the town have houses as good; and if the governor were disposed to any extraordinary luxury, he must curb his inclination for want of the necessary accommodation of room. The house of the Government of Pondicherry is much more magnificent. (Grandpré 1803: 428)

At the turn of the twentieth century, Blechynden was even more scathing in her critique of the government house, stating ‘it could only have been by a stretch of courtesy that the gallant visitor 19 described it as “handsome”’ (Blechynden 1905: 73). According to her, 19 Here she is referring to Louis de Grandpré.

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it was an ordinary house of two storeys, with a closed verandah on the upper floor and an arched one below. […] The house was so small that all public entertainments given by the Governor were held at the Court House […] and so pinched was the accommodation for the household, that Lord Cornwallis,20 in 1793, rented a house […] for the use of his staff. (Blechynden 1905: 73-74)

In June 1798 Lord Wellesley decided upon a new residence. The plan prepared by Lieutenant Charles Wyatt of the Bengal Engineers was based on James Paine’s design of Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, England. Kedleston Hall was built in the middle of the eighteenth century for the first Lord Scarsdale (Nilsson [1968] 1969). The government house was built between 1798 and 1803 and was consistent with the practice of Europeans imposing their models of architecture (see figure 11 for a view of the new government house). Because of the East India Company’s reluctance to spend its profits on buildings, however, the directors of the Company were furious about this colossal expense of £167,359. Lord Wellesley’s recall in July 1805 was in part attributable to this largess (Davies [1985] 1987). In Foucault’s terms, the palace was an object of inspection that allowed the citizenry to observe the power of the state. Other Indian historians, broadly falling within the post-colonial genre, also offer an analytical inspiration for explaining such colonial architecture. For example, for Shuhash Chakravarty, the ideology of British rule was ‘to create a permanent gulf of contempt and fear between the ruler and the ruled’ (1989: 52). He notes that the ‘physical separation of the master and the bonded men was to be conspicuous and visible’ (Chakravarty 1989: 52). If one were to employ Chakravarty’s terms, the government house was in tune with the ideology of the British Raj to create a permanent gulf of contempt and fear between ruler and ruled. And all present observed the conspicuous and visible physical separation between the master and his bonded men. Following Ashcroft, one can argue that this was an example of English colonialism relying on architectural symbolism ‘to provide the visual confirmation of imperial solidity, stability, and even majesty’ (2001: 124). Admiration and acceptance of the palace was prevalent in British discourse throughout its occupation, justifying its extravagant cost and design. For example, Lord Valentia found the palace to be ‘a noble structure […] and upon the whole, not unworthy of its destination’ (Annesley [1809] 20 Lord Cornwallis had served as the Governor-General of India from 1786-1794. He was again appointed Governor-General of India in 1805, but he died that year in India.

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Figure 11 South East View of the New Government House in Calcutta, by J. Clarke and H. Merke. Coloured aquatint, published by Edward Orme in 1805. The building was designed by Lieutenant Charles Wyatt and was built between 1798 and 1803

Source: © The British Library Board, Ktop CXV

1811: 191). His thoughts lend further credibility to the role of discourse in the legitimization of the palace as architecture of spectacle. He wrote: The sums expended upon it have been considered as extravagant by those who carry European ideas and European economy into Asia; but they ought to remember, that India is a country of splendour, of extravagance, and of outward appearances: that the Head of the mighty empire ought to confirm himself to the prejudices of the country over which he rules; and the British, in particular, ought to emulate the splendid works of the Princes of the House of Timour, lest it should be supposed that we merit the reproach which our great rivals, the French, have ever cast upon us, of being altogether influenced by a sordid, mercantile spirit. In short, I wish India to be governed from a palace, not from a counting-house; with the ideas of a Prince, not with those of a retail dealer in muslins and indigo. (Annesley [1809] 1811: 191-192)

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The last sentence has often been attributed to Lord Wellesley himself (Curzon 1925), further illustrating the role of discourse in justifying his palace. The British had to make compromises in spatial arrangement even in stately buildings such as Wellesley’s palace. The government house in Kolkata was very different from Kedleston Hall because of the social life the British had to accommodate. Despite the separate servant quarters, the openness and interconnectedness of the spaces were, perhaps, a reflection of the need for a large entourage of servants, even if the large numbers made them uncomfortable (Chattopadhyay 2000, 2005). The discomfort of the British in Wellesley’s palace is well reflected in the words of Englishwoman Emma Roberts. Roberts lived in India from 1828 to 1832, moving to Kolkata in 1830. In a three-volume work compiled from articles she had written for the Asiatic Journal, she wrote, Upon the floor, the spectator, who has imbibed the apprehension that he has been entrapped into some pandemonium of horror, may see the dead bodies of the victims to a tyrannical government thickly strewed around – human forms apparently wrapped in winding-sheets, and stretched out without sense or motion upon the bare pavement, add to the ghastly effect of the scene. These are the palanquin-bearers,21 who, wrapped up from head to foot in long coarse cloths, are enjoying the sweets of repose, little dreaming of the appalling spectacle they present to unaccustomed eyes. Many dusky figures move about with noiseless tread; and […] the whole panorama would be calculated to inspire horror and alarm. (Roberts [1835]1837: 140-141)

As noted in W.H. Carey’s book The Good Old Days of Honourable John Company, compromises were also made due to the climate. Originally published in 1882, it was compiled from newspaper articles, advertisements, minutes from council meetings, and government documents. According to Carey: The plan of the whole house is curious, and is exactly suited to an Indian climate. From four corners of a central block of buildings, in which are the reception rooms […] and others of lesser magnitude, long corridors radiate, communicating at a very considerable distance with four wings, each of which virtually constitutes a separate and detached house. Each 21 A palanquin or palkhi in Bengali is a covered sedan chair with four poles used as a means of transportation. The palanquin bearers are natives who carried the palkhi.

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of these wings is so built that from whatever side the wind comes – north, south, east, or west – a thorough draught can be obtained through every room. (Carey [1882] 1907: 145)

The urge to project an image of magnificence and splendour also resulted in modifications to the palace’s original design (Metcalf 1984). The emphasis on opulence and grandeur was intentional because the building symbolized political expansion and imperial power. Beginning with Lord Wellesley’s palace, the British attempt to use architecture as a symbol of power spread to the rest of India. Such architecture is especially noticeable in the construction of governors’ residences. Lord Edward Clive, son of the illustrious Lord Robert Clive, came to India in 1798 as the governor of Chennai. Upon his arrival he appointed John Goldingham to alter an existing mansion into a permanent residence for the governor. The government house in Chennai was set in an Englishstyle park and distinguished by a two-storied, colonnaded veranda (see figure 12). The most striking feature was a separate banquet hall set on a podium with Tuscan-Doric columns. These huge pediments were decorated with trophies of two recent conquests, marking the foundations of the Raj (Nilsson ([1968]1969; Metcalf 1989). One of these trophies was a tribute to the conquest of Seringapatam (now known as Srirangapatna) in 1779. The other was the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Not only had the conquest of Srirangapatna ended the wars between the province of Mysore and the British, it also established British supremacy in the South.22 The interior of the building was ornately decorated. The walls were lined with portraits of British officials who had helped the Company obtain Indian territory. It served the function of a heroum – a neo-classical temple for hero worship (Nilsson ([1968]1969). The construction of the government house was a seminal event in the development of Kolkata. Broad vistas were created around the prominent buildings and monuments along the Esplanade in an intentional effort to display wealth and power (Nilsson 1969 [1968]). Impressive buildings were erected in an area around the government house. All structures in its vicinity, ranging from official buildings to private houses, complemented the design of the government house. By 1810 the European sections of Kolkata had taken on the appearance of a classical and imperial city. This transformation was an unprecedented instance of imposing European ideas of planning, townscaping, and layout (Davies 1987; Metcalf 1989). 22 For a detailed discussion of this conquest, see Spear (1965).

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Figure 12 Government House & Banqueting Hall, Madras, by the Nicholas Brothers. Photographic print, 1860. The building was renovated by John Goldingham, circa 1800-1802

Source: © The British Library Board, Photo 394/ (79)

Such an imposition of European planning concepts and townscaping was tried elsewhere in India much later. For example, Mumbai was re-planned from the 1860s onwards to make it a modern city worthy of a central place within the British Empire (Chopra 2007, 2011; Dossal 1991). While the governor’s house was one of the f irst symbols of imperial power, other grandiose administrative buildings began to appear outside the fort in Chennai from the 1860s onwards (Lewandowski 1977). In Delhi, the colonial government widened streets, created broad vistas, and introduced railroads during the 1860s and 1870s (King 1976; Gupta [1981] 1998; Hosagrahar 2001, 2005).

Creating a Healthier and Beautiful City for the British: Emergence of a New Paradigm for Planning By the beginning of the nineteenth century, efforts were made to change the fabric of the city to increase political authority, legitimize the British presence

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as an imperial power, and maintain surveillance over the indigenous population through planning endeavours. Lord Wellesley initiated the effort to set up the city as a symbol of power and a stage for the propagation of the empire. In his minute on the Improvement of Calcutta of 16 June 1803, he noted: The increasing extent and population of Calcutta, the capital of the British empire in India, and the seat of the supreme authority, require the serious attention of Government. It has now become necessary to provide permanent means of promoting the health, the comfort, and the convenience of the numerous inhabitants of this great town. (Wellesley 1803, as cited in Martin 1837: 672)

As pointed out by Beattie (2003), Wellesley meant the health, comfort, and convenience of only the European inhabitants of Kolkata. To him this was ‘a primary duty of Government’ (Wellesley 1803, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 48). He further observed that, The construction of the public drains and water-courses of the town is extremely defective. The drains and water-courses in their present state, neither answer the purpose of cleansing the town, nor of discharging the annual inundations occasioned by the rise of the river, or by the excessive fall of rain during the South West monsoon. […] No general regulations at present exist with respect to the situation of the public markets, or of the places appropriated to the slaughter of the cattle, the exposure of the meat, or the burial of the dead […] places of burial have been established in situations wherein they must prove both injurious and offensive; and Bazars, Slaughter houses, and Markets of meat, now exist in the most frequented parts of the Town. (Wellesley 1803, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 47-48)

His dissatisfaction with the absence of regularity and orderliness, and the presence of health hazards in the native town is reflected in the abovementioned minute which stated: In those quarters of the town, occupied principally by the native inhabitants, the houses have been built without order or regularity, and the streets and lanes have been formed without attention to the health, convenience, or safety of the inhabitants. (Wellesley 1803, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 48)

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His recommendations for the improvement of Kolkata included ‘establishing a comprehensive system for the improvement of the Roads, Streets, Public Drains, and Water-courses’ (Wellesley 1803, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 48). His desire to impose symmetry and order, improve aesthetics, and increase control over the city is evident from the same minute, which called for ‘fixing permanent rules for the construction and distribution of the Houses and Public edifices, and for the regulation of nuisances of every description’ (Wellesley 1803, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 48). It further stated that, The appearance and beauty of the Town are inseparably connected with the health, safety, and convenience of the inhabitants; and every improvement, which shall introduce a greater degree of order symmetry, and magnificence in the Streets, Roads, Ghauts, and Warfs, Public edifices and private habitations, will tend to ameliorate the climate, and to secure and promote every object of a just and salutary system of Police. (Wellesley 1803, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 48)

Subsequently, Wellesley appointed a Town Improvement Committee in 1803 consisting of 30 leading citizens of Kolkata to execute his plans. Wellesley’s committee tried to bring about symmetry and control in the city by proposing regulations on native-owned buildings, the carving of rectilinear broad avenues through the native parts of the town, improved sanitation, and beautification of the city (Blechynden 1905; Cotton 1907; Archer 2000; Chattopadhyay 2005). On 4 July 1804 the committee submitted a brief report that clearly showed its intent to impose symmetry and improve sanitation in the town as it stated: That houses be constructed in straight lines, or nearly as straight as may be practicable, leading from East to West, with streets or passages running North and South, at the distance of 150 or 200 feet from each other. That tanks or wells, as shall appear most convenient on local examination, be dug in the different wards of the Town. […] Immediately connected with the improvements […] is a measure which appears to be highly desirable. […] We mean that of opening new streets with a view of facilitating the communication between the different parts of the Town, of affording a more free circulation of air in the populous quarters – and, f inally of improving draining of Calcutta. (Town Improvement Committee 1804, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 52-53)

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The desire to regulate native buildings is reflected in the report as it stated: In consequence of the present singular and ill-judged construction of most of the houses and buildings of the Natives, they are extremely difficult of access at any time, and on the occasion of fires the narrow passages become destroyed either by the fall of some of the buildings, or by the populace themselves. […] The question […] of digging tanks and wells at convenient places in or near different wards, is obviously calculated to facilitate and expedite the extinction of flames. […] The earth which may be excavated from the tanks would likewise be of essential use in filling up the inequalities of the ground. The Natives would also, by these means, be furnished with pure and wholesome water. […] In the progress of our enquiry, it has been suggested to us that it would be expedient to encourage the erection of houses with tiled instead of straw roofs. […] We were sensible of the advantages which tiled roof possesses over straw choppers, and should be happy to suggest any means […] to promote the most general use of the former, consistent with the pecuniary circumstances of the lower order of Natives. (Town Improvement Committee 1804, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 52)

The committee’s recommendations represent the typical British colonial planning practice of attempting to segregate themselves and impose control on native areas they perceived to be health hazards. The planning paradigm of transforming Indian cities into cleaner, healthier, and more aesthetically pleasing ones for the British emerged with Wellesley’s Town Improvement Committee of 1803. While the British feared the native town as a source of disease and consequently needed to control it throughout India, Kolkata was the first city where it became a dominant planning paradigm. From here the paradigm spread to the rest of India. In Chennai, for example, the British occupied the outskirts of the city in the mid-eighteenth century because they believed this area afforded them more protection against disease. They especially felt safer on higher ground because of the better drainage. The rising death rates and epidemics in Chennai were also sources of fear and concern (Lewandowski 1975, 1977). However, no plans to remedy these problems on the scale of Wellesley’s Town Improvement Committee or its immediate successors were proposed in Chennai in the early period. To cite another example, in Mumbai the British were concerned with the encroachment of natives within the walls of their fortified settlement in the late eighteenth century. A special committee was appointed in 1787 to examine to what extent the private native buildings were a health hazard

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to the inhabitants of the town. In the absence of regulations the Indian population erected buildings that concerned the British because of their excessive height. Besides other suggestions for improvement such as the widening of streets, removing shop projections (which mainly belonged to the Indians), and requiring every householder to clean the part of the street opposite their dwellings on a daily basis, the committee recommended that no native house should exceed about 9 meters in height (Edwardes 1902). However, the scale of improvement was nowhere near what was suggested by Wellesley’s committee. In Delhi it was not until after the First Indian War of Independence that the area where the indigenous population lived was seen as unhealthy and a threat to public health. Concerns for health and sanitation were used to justify the demolition of native homes and other structures in the aftermath of the war (King 1976; Gupta [1981]1998; Hosagrahar 2005). Nonetheless, many of the improvements sanctioned by the Town Improvement Committee remained unexecuted after seventeen years because of the magnitude of the scale in which they were designed (Cotton 1907). As admitted by Cotton, ‘when Wellesley quitted India in August 1805, his dream of an Empire City was still very far from realization’ (Cotton 1907: 163).

Early Municipal Administration in Kolkata The early municipal administration of Kolkata was entrusted to one of the East India Company’s civil servants initially known as Zamindar and later as the Collector of Calcutta. In 1727 a royal charter of King George I established a corporation consisting of a mayor and nine aldermen. A mayor’s court had criminal, civil, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction over English settlers. The corporation did little to improve the administration of Kolkata and surrendered its charter in 1753. A new charter was granted and a new mayor’s court was established. An attempt was made to raise revenues from house taxes, ground rent, and tolls. The collector was relieved of his municipal duties in 1794 and the governor was empowered for appointing justices of the peace for the municipal administration of Kolkata. The administrative machinery was divided into three departments: assessment, executive, and judicial. The first department was entrusted with the assessment of rates. The second was responsible for execution of conservancy works, collection of the assessments, and general watch and ward of the city. The third department’s responsibility was to approve assessments and hear and adjudicate complaints about assessors and collectors (Goode 1916). Changes

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in municipal administration that took place from the early nineteenth century are discussed in the next chapter.

The Rise of the British and the Demise of Other European Settlements around Kolkata In contrast to Kolkata’s transformation to a ‘City of Palaces’, other European enclaves around Kolkata began to decline because of the ascendency of the British as an imperial power in India (see figure 13 for major settlements around Kolkata in the eighteenth century). The decline of Dutch power in Bengal began with their defeat by the British in the Battle of Chuchura on 25 November 1759. The Dutch vessels employed to deliver the troops from Batavia were defeated in a separate naval battle on 24 November. These crushing defeats ended Dutch imperial intentions in Bengal (Toynbee 1888). Nonetheless, Chuchura survived and Dutch trade reached its most prosperous state in Bengal between 1770 and 1780 (Toynbee 1888). The English eventually took possession of the settlement in 28 July 1795, marking the beginning of the demise of the elegant settlement. It was returned to the Dutch on 20 September 1817. However, by that time the Dutch power in Bengal and India was in decline. Finding their Indian settlements to be a burden on their finances, their colonization began to shift to sites in East Asia. Through a treaty dated 17 March 1824 Chuchura was ceded to the British in exchange for British possessions in Sumatra, effective 1 March 1825. Five years after the cessation the British demolished all significant buildings such as the fort and government house to make room for barracks (Blechynden 1905; Toynbee 1888). Even the church was altered to suit the Anglican liturgy (Nilsson [1968] 1969). Eventually, Chuchura became a suburb of Kolkata and has remained so in the post-independence period. The Danish settlement of Serampore (Srirampur in Bengali) endured a similar fate. A Danish factory was established in Srirampur in 1755. Initially Frederiksnagore, it soon came to be known as Srirampur (Elberling [1845]1874; Toynbee 1888). The condition of Srirampur changed dramatically in the late 1770s due to changes in the internal and international political economy. The British East India Company instituted a new law by which the company servants could make remittances to home only through foreign factories. Such a policy brought prosperity to Srirampur as employees of the British East India Company made remittances through the Danish factory (Toynbee 1888). The neutrality of the Danes in European politics between 1777 and 1807 increased their profits from trade in India (Nilsson [1968]

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Figure 13 Major settlements around Kolkata in the eighteenth century

Source: Adapted and redrawn from Losty (1990), © The British Library Board, ORW.1990.a.1450

1969]). The British were involved in hostilities with France, Holland, and the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783. As a result, English vessels were vulnerable to attacks by privateers, and English trade was subject to heavy insurance. The Danes in Srirampur profited from this situation and the Danish East India Company and its employees made a fortune (Toynbee 1888). The physical manifestation of this trade boom can be seen in changes in the town from 1777 onwards. Ole Bie, the

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Figure 14 Old Danish Gate, Serampore, by Frederick Fiebig. Photographic print, 1851

Source: © The British Library Board, Photo 247/2(48)

official in charge of Srirampur, transformed it into a magnificent town by the 1780s (Nilsson [1968]1969). The manager’s house, reconstructed in 1771 after the original had collapsed in 1770, was one of the most magnificent buildings constructed in neo-classical style. A gate with Ionic pillars that supported a triangular pediment with the monogram of King Frederick VI marked the entry to the manager’s house. The character of the portal was baroque in spirit ([1968] Nilsson 1969) (see figure 14). Srirampur was occupied by the British in 1801 because of hostilities between England and Denmark. It was returned almost immediately to the Danes, flourishing for some time because of its neutral position. However, this situation was temporary and the demise of Srirampur began with its occupation by the British again from 1808 to 1814. With these events trade ceased in the town, and when it was returned to Denmark in 1815, only a few Danes remained. The Danish East India Company never recovered from the blow (Toynbee 1888; Blechynden 1905). Eventually, Srirampur and the Danish settlement of Tranquebar (now known as Tharangambadi) on the Coromandel Coast were sold to the British for twelve lakhs of rupees

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Figure 15  Chandernagore, by James Moffat. Aquatint with etching, published in Calcutta, 1800

Source: © The British Library Board, P2964

(£120,000) in 1845 with the realization that their Indian possessions had become useless to them (Toynbee 1888; Blechynden 1905). As a result, Srirampur became a sleepy suburb of British Calcutta. The French factory in Chandannagar had a military weight and arcades with Tuscan columns in the front (Nilsson [1968] 1969). One of the most significant pieces of architecture was a country residence built for the French governor just outside their settlement in Chandannagar. However, as was the case with other European settlements around Kolkata, Chandannagar declined with the rise of the British power in Bengal. The capture of the city in 1757 by the British marked the beginning of its decline. The fortifications and public works were demolished within a few months. The town never recaptured its previous glory even after it was returned to the French in 1763. The British again occupied the town in 1778 but returned it to the French five years later. The English once again regained possession of the town from 1793 to 1816 (Cotton 1907). However, by that time the British had established their supremacy in India, and French settlements in India were retained for minimal commercial interests as French colonization began to shift to Indochina and North Africa (for a view of the town in the early nineteenth century, see figure 15).

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Haora’s Urbanism The town of Haora never fell within the broader scheme of imperial urbanism of the British. The port of Bator in Haora had existed prior to the arrival of Europeans and was well known for its overseas trade. It flourished as a subsidiary of Bengal’s royal port of Satgaon as large sea-going vessels could sail up to this point. The Portuguese used it for anchoring their vessels in the sixteenth century, making it an important centre of European trade. Bator’s importance as a port declined after the founding of Kolkata, which soon became the new centre of European trade, on the opposite side of the river. From the late eighteenth until the middle of the nineteenth century Hoara was primarily used for repairing ships, manufacturing rope, and storing salt in warehouses (Banerji 1972). Hamilton observed that, ‘On the other Side of the River are Docks made for repairing and fitting their Ships Bottoms’ (Hamilton 1727: 12). The number of Europeans who lived in the city were fewer compared to Kolkata. During this period, Haora constructed none of the grandiose buildings so common in Kolkata.

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Building a Neo-Classical, Beautiful, and Clean City The Rise and Decline of British Imperial Urbanism

Consolidation of British Power: Making Kolkata a Neo-Classical City The neo-classical style dominated colonial buildings constructed in Kolkata from the early nineteenth century to the pre-independence period in the 1940s. Kolkata’s architectural tradition was so deeply rooted in classicism that the Indo-Saracenic style1 promoted by the British since the 1860s never gained the political patronage that it enjoyed elsewhere. As stated in the last chapter, the British adopted neo-classicism in Kolkata because of its connection with the architectural vocabulary of the imperial Roman Empire. They continued to view the style as a symbol of imperial power as they consolidated their control on India from Kolkata. For the British, it was impossible to associate the imperial capital of India with any other style. Soon after the erection of Wellesley’s government house, the Town Hall – another imposing piece of architecture that complemented the government house – was completed in 1813. True to Kolkata’s colonial architectural tradition, classical architecture inspired the Town Hall. The building was two stories high and shaped like a solid block with protruding porticos and an elegant facade. High pilasters graced the corners of both stories, and a Palladian portico topped the centre section. The order of columns was Tuscan-Doric. John Garstin, an architect in Kolkata, designed the building (Nilsson [1968] 1969). The admiration for the building’s elegance is reflected in Carey’s book, as he wrote, ‘It is a fine building in the Doric style of architecture, with a magnificent flight of steps leading to grand portico on the south’ (Carey [1882]1907: 146). The Town Hall remains one of the historic buildings of Kolkata (see figure 16). The houses in Chowringhi close to the government house and BinoyBadal-Dinesh Bagh were also constructed as solid blocks with porticos, staircase towers, and verandas. Civil servants of the East India Company who had accumulated quick fortunes built these upstart villas (Nilsson 1

The style is discussed later in the chapter.

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Figure 16 The Town Hall in Kolkata. The architect who designed the building was John Garstin. It was completed in 1813

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

[1968] 1969) (see figure 17). The facades displayed the same characteristics as public buildings with tall colonnades rising on a plinth and pediments and mouldings of windows standing out against the smooth walls. The orders of the columns were either undecorated Tuscan or richly designed Ionic. Larger than townhouses in England, these houses were comparable to English country seats. The elegance of these houses and their visual symbolism of wealth and power are reflected in the words of Emma Roberts: The houses for the most part are either entirely detached from each other, or connected only by long ranges of terraces, surmounted, like the flat roofs of the houses, with balustrades. The greater number of these mansions have pillared verandas extending the whole way up, sometimes to the height of three stories, besides a large portico in front; and these clusters of columns, long colonnades, and lofty gateways, have a very imposing effect, especially when intermingled with forest trees and flowing shrubs […] and even those residences intended for families of very

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Figure 17 A view of English houses in Chowringhi from a lithograph. Plate 18: Views of Calcutta. Chowringhee Road by William Wood, 1833

Source: © The British Library Board, X630(18)

moderate income cover a large extent of ground, and afford architectural displays which would be vainly sought amid habitations belonging to the same class in England. (Roberts 1835: 2)

These houses also quite impressed James Kerr, whose observations date from the 1840s; he was principal of the Hindu College in Kolkata from 1842 to 1848. Kerr authored two books from observations made during his stay in India. He wrote: After looking at Government House, with its handsome gateway facing the river, you see to the right a range of large palatial buildings, tall white houses of many stories, with pillars in front, the residences of European gentry. (Kerr 1873: 93)

Such housing can be seen as an attempt to introduce functional zoning by clustering a single class of wealthy Europeans together in detached housing on large lots. Such zoning also prescribed the separation of residential and commercial areas (Evenson 1989). Located beyond the business and administrative centre around Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh, these houses and the administrative buildings around them continued the portrayal of Kolkata as a city of palaces. For example, Bishop Reginald compared

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Kolkata to Connaught Place and St. Petersburg (Heber 1828). According to James Kerr, ‘On landing, just when you arrive […] you obtain as good a view as well can be of the European part of the town, the “city of palaces,” as it is proudly called’ (1873: 93). Despite their appearance, the English houses of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Kolkata were far from neo-classical Palladian villas. As pointed out by Chattopadhyay (2000), the flavour of neo-classicism, introduced to inspire grandeur in the houses in the White Town, disappeared once inside the residences. As she demonstrates, natives performing household chores necessitated the proximity of the served and service spaces. However, the British were uncomfortable with this spatial arrangement. Their discomfort is reflected by Emma Roberts, who wrote, Every side of every apartment is pierced with doors, and the whole of the surrounding antichambers appear to be peopled with ghosts. Servants clad in flowing white garments glide about with noiseless feet in all directions; and it is very long before people accustomed to solitude and privacy in their own apartments, can become reconciled to the multitude of domestics who think themselves privileged to roam all over the house. (Roberts 1835: 8-9)

Nonetheless, the British had to adjust to this social and spatial arrangement, and, as pointed out by James Kerr, One of the striking features of Ango-Indian life is the great number of domestic servants we are obliged to keep. […] At least, it is expected of you, and if you do not comply with the general custom, you run the risk, to use an odious Indian phrase, of loosing caste, of sinking in the scale of being – no, not exactly that, but of sinking in the estimation of foolish natives, and of our own not less foolish countrymen. […] What so many servants do in one small house is a mystery. (Kerr 1873: 96-98; see figure 18 for a view of the entourage of servants in an English gentleman’s house)

Political economy also seems to have played a role in shaping the spatial arrangement of these houses. Since speculation by both the Indians and British often motivated the construction of early colonial houses, servants’ quarters were an afterthought. The transformative effect on the colonizer is seen in adjustments made by the British in the spatial and social arrangement of their houses. These adjustments accommodated the Indian servants who were needed for the way of life not only in Kolkata but throughout

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Figure 18 Surrounded by an entourage of servants: From The Establishment of an English Gentleman, Calcutta. Photographic print by Frederick Fiebig, 1851

Source: © The British Library Board, 247/4(46)

India. The transformative effect is also evident in the fact that these houses were actually adaptations of the traditional Indian courtyard residence. Like the courtyard of the Indian house, the central hall served as the focal point of gathering and providing access to rooms (Chattopadhyay 2000). As elsewhere in India, the British had to make compromises in design due to the hot and humid climate. For example, Kerr observed, ‘our houses in their external appearance, are distinguished from houses at home chiefly by the open veranda and showy pillars in front, to which may be added flat roofs and absence of chimneys’ (Kerr 1873: 99). While the showy pillars symbolized wealth and power, the deep verandas or porticos were practical features to protect the inner rooms from sun. Flat roofs and the absence of chimneys were also modifications made due to climate conditions. Wooden rib screens, bamboo tatties, or plaited grasses that were kept moist to allow the passage of cool air and provide shade to verandas. These embellishments became an ornamental element in British architecture in India (Davies [1985] 1987). Other adaptations, such as wooden venetians in front of windows and pillars inside the houses,

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improved circulation to keep the interior cool. The spacious and lofty nature of the buildings also allowed for better circulation (Kerr 1873). The British even had to make compromises with the interior furnishings because of the climate. Roberts laments, but comfort and convenience being more studied than appearance, there are few of those elegant little trifles in the way of furniture. […] It is thought that the bijouterie, so much in esteem in Europe, would foster insects, and also tend to impede the free circulation of air; and perhaps this notion is carried rather too far, for to unaccustomed eyes, at least, the interior of the handsomest houses of Calcutta have rather a desolate aspect. (Roberts 1835: 7-8)

Kerr’s observation is similar and he points out, It is not here […] the fashion to have much furniture, which would only harbour insects and prevent a free circulation of air. […] The most striking piece of furniture is the punka […] and which is kept going all day in our sitting-rooms. We have it here even in our bed-rooms, within the mosquito curtains, and it waves over us while we are asleep. (Kerr 1873: 100).

As is evident from Kerr’s observation, the punkah or hand-pulled fan became an important piece of furniture due to the climatic conditions, further illustrating the transformation of the colonizers. Introduced in Kolkata in the 1780s, the punkah spread to other colonial cities. It was studied extensively in the 1870s by British military engineers to improve its efficiency (Evenson 1989). With the emergence of architecture as a symbol of power, attempts were made to improve the appearance of the Writers Building in the midnineteenth century. The building was completely renovated in 1880 to give it an imperial stamp necessary for its conversion to the Bengal Secretariat (Nilsson [1968] 1969; Davies [1985] 1987.) Now known as Mahakaran (see figure 19), it has since dominated the northern side of Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh, the centre of the administrative district of Kolkata. Its drastic change from a mundane building into a structure worthy of the empire is reflected in the words of Montaque Massey at the turn of the twentieth century. According to Massey, Occupying as it does the whole of the north side of Dalhousie Square has been changed and altered out of all knowledge and recognition. It

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Figure 19 A view of the Writers Building, or Mahakaran, as it is called today

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

was formerly, before Government took it over, a plain white stuccoed building utterly devoid of any pretentions to architectural beauty, and depending mainly for any chance claim to recognition on its immense length. Its blank, straight up and down appearance was barely relieved by several white pillars standing out rather prominently in the centre of the building. (Massey 1918: 51-52)

As Chatterjee pointed out (1995), the consolidation of the principal offices of the imperial government around Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh in the 1870s added to the symbolism of the area as the centre of power and knowledge. The Government House to the south and the Writers Building to the north further solidified the district’s importance. New buildings such as the High Court, the Imperial Secretariat Building, the General Post Office, the Central Telegraph Office, and the Customs House were erected as the Writers Building and Treasury Building were being renovated. Diagonally across the Maidan from the Government House, the Indian Museum was built in 1875 to house a collection of Indian archaeology and several branches of natural history. The museum became a centre for the pursuit of colonial knowledge.

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The building also housed the offices of the Geological Survey of India and the new School of Art and the Government Art Gallery. South of the museum was the Asiatic Society, another source of colonial knowledge. A short distance away, a new building for the offices of the Surveyor General of India was erected. North of these citadels of power, a massive red brick building was constructed for the Municipal Corporation where the improvement of the city was supervised. Further north was Lalbazar, the headquarters of the Kolkata Police Department. To the north of Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh was the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, the premier institution of British commerce. Commerce, it should be noted, was the symbol of the original cause of the expanding empire in India. Native dwellings were removed from the area to enhance its Victorian appearance (Chatterjee 1995). By the 1830s, smaller lots on the northern border of the Maidan fronting Esplanade Row were consolidated to accommodate the larger administrative buildings (Chattopadhyay 2005). The attempt to create a centre of power and knowledge through architectural symbolism and townscaping started in Kolkata. Efforts to impose European ideas of townscaping in Chennai and Mumbai in the 1860s did not result in such a unified centre of power and knowledge.2 Similar attempts to accomplish this goal in Delhi during the 1860s and 1870s were also not as successful as in Kolkata.3

The Neo-Classical Architectural Influence on the Bengali Elite The homes of the Bengali elite reflected the European influence on architecture during this period. By the mid-1820s most of the houses of the wealthy in Kolkata incorporated some classical elements (see figure 20 for an early example of the classical influence on the Bengali elite). Between 1835 and 1840 Raja Rajendra Mullick built one of the most outstanding classically inspired mansions (Evenson 1989) (see figure 21). However, it should be noted that the traditional plan of courtyard dwelling was retained in all these mansions. For example, James Kerr observed, ‘these houses have generally an open court in the middle, surrounded on three or four sides by apartments’ (Kerr 1873: 91). The Bengali elite modified and reinterpreted the neo-classical 2 For a detailed discussion of efforts to impose European ideas of townscaping in Chennai and Mumbai, see Lewandowski 1977; Chopra 2007, 2011. 3 For a detailed discussion, see King 1976; Gupta [1981]1998; Hosagrahar 2005.

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Figure 20 An early example of classical influence on the Bengali elite: From View on the Chitpore Road, Calcutta. Coloured aquatint by Thomas Daniell, 1797

Source: © The British Library Board, P 937, pl. 2

Figure 21 The Mullick Palace (also known as Marble Palace), built between 1835 and 1840

Source: Photograph courtesy of Jessica Molina, 2014

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elements to suit their needs. Maintaining the traditional spatial environment of dwellings with infused neo-classical elements can be seen as defiance to colonial domination. While a neo-classical facade appealed to the English visitors by suggesting the adaptation of Western standards, such a facade and even parlours furnished with European furniture did not change the traditional organization of the overall household around courtyards and other specialized spaces in the Bengali household (Archer 2000). As the Scottish missionary Norman Macleod observed, I may say something of these houses in passing. One was that of a rich Zemindar. […] The rooms, or cells, of its verandahs appeared unfurnished, because native. One room, it is true, looked most comfortable, being furnished in European style; but it was never used except as a showroom to foreigners. […] In the house of another native gentleman I saw but one room comfortably and nicely furnished, and it, too, was for the reception of European guests. (Macleod 1871: 207-208)

His observation of an even more elegant house confirms that the Westernized Bengali elite usually had a room to entertain European guests. However, they maintained a traditional courtyard pattern and traditional living habits. Of this house, he wrote, Another of the native houses […] was still on a grander scale, and the most aristocratic I saw in India. It was a large, square-looking palace, surrounded by a considerable space of ground, high railings separating it from the street, which was in the native town. […] It was built in the form of a square, with an inner court. We were ushered into a splendid drawing-room, furnished in European fashion, and in the most costly manner. […] It was touching to see the keen desire this native gentleman displayed to do all honour to European tastes by thus expensively furnishing those fine apartments, which neither himself nor his family, ever occupied. (Macleod 1871: 208-209)

Clearly the Bengali elite were able to choose some European elements and resist others. This decision was made despite the British discourse expressing the view that the better class of Indians should try to conform to the ‘superior’ way of British lifestyles (Evenson 1989). As suggested by Chattopadhyay (2005), by adopting the architectural vocabulary of the British Empire, the Bengali elite were making symbolic claims on the development of the British Empire in India.

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Some of the Bengali elite were even reluctant to use European furnishings to appease their British masters, further illustrating their defiance to colonial domination. Observing such defiance, Kerr wrote, Even the wealthier classes indulge but sparingly their taste for furniture. On entering the house of a wealthy baboo4 of Calcutta, you f ind the apartments bare and almost empty. There may be a chair or two for European visitors, and one or two cushions to recline upon, and a white cloth spread over the floor; but there is little more. (Kerr 1865: 166)

As pointed out by Kerr, ‘These are the dwelling-houses of men of the old school, Hindoo conservatives, who love the old ways’ (1873: 91). In fact, the Bengali elite who furnished their houses in European style were an exception to the norm. As Kerr states, ‘A striking exception to this rule may occasionally be met with, particularly among the more Anglicized baboos: some of whom have their houses gorgeously furnished in the European style’ (1865: 166-167). The Indian elite elsewhere in the country also attempted to employ neo-classical elements in their buildings and furnish them with Western interiors. The architecture of the Nawabs of Oudh in Lucknow from the 1770s until their demise in 1856 offers some of the best examples. Palace compounds such as Asaf ud-Daulah’s Macchi Bhavan, Saadat Ali Khan’s Farhad Baksh, and Wajid Ali Shah’s Qaisarbagh (see figure 22) exemplify such architecture (Metcalf 1989). The British, of course, disapproved of the use of neo-classical architecture by the Indian elite. In particular, the architecture of the Nawabs of Oudh came under severe criticism by the British. Dr. A. Führer, who was the curator of the Lucknow Provincial Museum, wrote: [N]owhere can we see more markedly the influence of a depraved oriental court and its politics upon art and architecture than in Lakhnâû. […] [T] he more modern buildings of Nasir-ad-dîn-Haidar, and Wajid Alî Shâh are the most debased examples of architecture to be found in India. (Führer 1891: 266)

The discourse in vilifying the hybrid mansions of the Bengalis was not as pronounced as it was in the case of the architecture of the Nawabs of Oudh 4 The word literally means a Bengali clerk who was literate in English. It also included the Bengali elite. The word is also employed as a courtesy title for a Bengali gentleman and is equivalent to ‘Mr.’

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Figure 22 A view of Qaisarbagh. Photographic print by an unknown photographer, 1880

Source: © The British Library Board, Photo 50/2(120)

in Lucknow. There, it was an attempt to portray them as degenerate types, perhaps leading them to their inevitable downfall when the British captured the state in 1856 (Führer 1891; Metcalf 1984). Nonetheless, the British were disdainful with the lifestyles of the wealthy Bengalis who lived in such mansions. For example, Macleod wrote, In spite, however, of all this grandeur and show, I believe the highest natives live in […] a ‘hugger-mugger’ state. Such is their ‘custom’. Their private life is very simple, all their magnificence being reserved for public display only. It would astonish many a European to see the apartments where an Eastern family of rank live, eat, and sleep, as contrasted with what the outside world is permitted on great occasions to see in their palace-home! (Macleod 1871: 210)

By denigrating the lifestyles of the Bengali elite, the British tried to portray the entire ethnic group as racially inferior and radically different from themselves. Nor were the British impressed with the location of the mansions built by the Bengali elite in areas of the native town viewed as filthy and crowded.

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For example, Mary Carpenter, an English social reformer who visited India in 1866, wrote, Yet in the midst of such a district we find the residence of a millionaire; turning up a narrow lane with an open sewer on each side, […] it would appear that the native gentry who reside in this locality, must have their sense of smell blunted by long habitude, and are thus not aware of the extreme unhealthiness of such a condition. (Carpenter 1868: 181-82)

The outward appearance of one such house particularly disagreed with Macleod, who wrote, ‘It was large, but gave me the impression of confusion, neglect, and squalor. It entered from a nasty street, and seemed built amidst rubbish, with no attempt at ornament, order or beauty. There were not even good drains’ (Macleod 1871: 207). The British failed to perceive that the Bengali elite were indifferent to functional zoning. They had no desire to live in a neighbourhood dominated by a single class. A mixture of manufacturing, commercial, and housing land uses characterized native towns. Housing areas included elegant mansions, lesser dwellings, and even slums within the same neighbourhood. This was a physical reflection of the bazaar economy which warranted artisans, labourers, peddlers, wealthy merchants, and bankers living in the same neighbourhood (Evenson 1989). The Bengali elite built such mansions in these locations as an act of defiance against the concept of functional zoning. Even the attempt to furnish one room or even the entire house with European furnishings was treated with contempt by the British. For example, Kerr wrote, Those, on the other hand, who copy English manners, are apt to overshoot the mark. […] They do not know where to stop, and imagine that they cannot have too much furniture. The apartments are literally crammed full of chairs, tables, and sofas; while the walls are covered with wallshades, and mirrors: and magnificent chandeliers hang from the ceilings. (Kerr 1865: 91, 167)

Macleod’s impression of a room decorated with European furnishings also reflects such a view. Macleod wrote, It was evident, however, from the unnecessary quantity of furniture of every kind – great crystal candelabra, bronzes, busts, time pieces, and such-like – which crowd the rooms […] the rich native gentleman’s […]

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want of knowledge. An English Lady or Gentleman of taste could have produced infinitely better results with immensely less outlay. (Macleod 1871: 209-210)

Clearly, the British believed the Bengali elite were incapable of matching their superior taste and refinement in interior design because they were racially inferior.

Orientalist Discourse on Architecture and Kolkata Although the British discourse vilifying Indian architecture was not on Kolkata itself, the city was a citadel of Orientalist discourse since the pioneering figure in the development of Orientalism, Sir William Jones, founded the Asiatic Society in the city in 1784 (Mukherjee 1968; Cairns 2007). Jones’s thesis is generally associated with language and culture. However, architecture was an integral part of his work. Jones attributed the best aspects of the Indian civilization to Aryan or Indo-European roots (Jones 1806; Cairns 2007). In fact, early Orientalists such as Jones and William Chambers, also an architect, often resorted to architecture to make authoritative and informative statements on Indian civilization and culture (Jones 1806; Cairns 2007). The early Orientalists, products of the Enlightenment movement, claimed that India had once possessed a golden age but that civilization had declined and stagnated or even remained at a ‘standstill’ because of the influence of medieval Hinduism (Metcalf 1984). While the Orientalists at least acknowledged a golden period, Anglicists, products of early nineteenth-century liberal and evangelical movements, found absolutely no substance in Indian civilization (Metcalf 1984). Together, Orientalists and Anglicists shaped Victorian discourse regarding Indian civilization, architecture, and sculpture (Metcalf 1984). The most influential protagonist of the era was James Fergusson, an Indigo farmer whose knowledge of Indian architecture stemmed from his travels as an amateur observer and artist while serving his family business in the 1830s (Scriver 2007). He published several substantive works on Indian architecture, and his two-volume History of Indian and Eastern Architecture (1876) remained the authority on Indian architecture long after his death in 1886 (Fergusson [1876]1967). His disdain for Indian architecture and civilization is reflected throughout the text. In his introduction to the first volume, Fergusson states that ‘[i]

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t cannot, of course, be for one moment contended that India ever reached the intellectual supremacy of Greece or the moral greatness of Rome’ ([1876]1967: I, 4). To Fergusson, Indian architecture was ‘on a lower step of the ladder’ and ‘may contain nothing so sublime as the hall at Karnak, nothing so intellectual as the Parthenon, nor so constructively grand as the medieval cathedral’ ([1876]1967: I, 4 and 6). He strongly believed in the theory of declining civilization (Fergusson [1876] 1967). The objective of Fergusson’s discourse was to construe Indians as degenerate types based on their racial origin. He did so by linking the architectural and sculptural expression in India to an expression of inferior art forms of an inferior race of ‘Turanian’ people. Fergusson believed the Turanians were descendants of people from the Stone Age (Fergusson 1874). In India, they consisted mainly of pre-Aryan races such as the Dravidians. However, as is evident from the above discussion, the discourse on the inferiority of indigenous architecture in Kolkata was less pronounced. There was no grandiose indigenous architecture, such as the Mahabalipuram (now known as Mamallapuram) temple complex, the Taj Mahal, or the sculptures of Bharut and Amaravati that the British could disparage.5 Kolkata was a product of British colonialism; most of its significant architecture was influenced by British design. Hence, there was no need to consider its architecture as inferior. Yet mansions built by the Indian elite in the city and their interiors continued to be denigrated by British discourse.

The Absence of the Indo-Saracenic Style in Kolkata Although the Indo-Saracenic style became the official stamp of colonial architecture from the last decades of the nineteenth century until the early decades of the twentieth century, Kolkata could not rid itself of neo-classical influences. Despite their ingrained critique of Indian architecture, the British began promoting the Indo-Saracenic style, which incorporated Hindu and Muslim elements, during the last decades of the nineteenth century. The desire to include such features dated back to the mid-1860s (among others, see Davies [1985] 1987; Tillotson 1989; Metcalf 1984; Scriver 2007). Scriver (2007) observed that technocrats, architects, and allied professionals sought to replace the earlier neo-classical and Gothic revival styles with one that would represent the British Raj. Indo-Saracenic was the 5 For British discourse on such architecture see, for example, Chambers 1806 and Fergusson ([1876].

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product of a desire to legitimize the Raj by linking it to India’s past, after the First Indian War of Independence. As pointed out by Metcalf (1984), from this point forward the British conceived of themselves not merely as foreign conquerors, but as legitimate and almost indigenous rulers, likened directly to the Mughals and, hence, to India’s own past. Metcalf (1984) suggests that by mixing styles and manipulating design elements that were distinctly labelled as ‘Hindu’ and ‘Saracenic’ the British saw themselves as self-proclaimed masters of Indian culture. The British thought of themselves as the cohesive force that the Indians themselves could not achieve, given their indigenous communal divisions. The free use of elements, irrespective of historical significance, was rooted in the Victorian discourse of the static or declining culture of India. Since India’s society was unchanging, its architectural styles and elements were also seen as interchangeable, static elements that could be exploited according to the needs of the colonial builder (Metcalf 1984). The British preferred that the Indian princes utilize Indo-Saracenic forms during the last decades of the nineteenth century (see figure 23 for an example of such architecture). By the blending of traditional and modern elements, the style fitted their conception of the role of the native princes within the empire. Akin to this architectural style, the princes were supposed to represent India’s past and future simultaneously (Metcalf 1984). The Indian princes were encouraged to abandon their medieval fortress-like palaces because surveillance posed a problem. The new type of palace, with a European interior and an Oriental facade, made surveillance easier. There was no need to promote such architecture in Kolkata as all threats from local princes had eroded with the demise of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah in 1757. Walter L.B. Granville, Kolkata’s leading architect in the Victorian era, strengthened the city’s adherence to classical architecture by designing several buildings in this style. A government consultant from 1863 to 1868, he designed Kolkata’s public buildings and left his personal stamp on the city. One of his most influential buildings was the General Post Office, built between 1864 and 1868 on the western side of Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh (see figure 24). Other significant, classically influenced buildings designed by Granville included a complex of buildings built for the University of Kolkata between 1866 and 1872 and the Indian Museum in Chowringhi. Other buildings of the era also adhered to the neo-classical style, such as the Telegraph Office, completed in 1873, and the Court of Small Causes, designed in 1878. At the turn of the century, public architecture such as the Oriental Assurance Building (1914) and the Royal Exchange (1916), designed by T.S.

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Figure 23 Laxmi Vilas Palace Baroda (now known as Vadodora). Photographic print by an unknown photographer, 1890. The building was designed by Major Charles Mant, architect, and was completed by Robert Fellowes Chisholm in 1890

Source: © The British Library Board, Photo 2/7(9)

Gregson, was also inspired by classical architecture (Davies [1985] 1987; Evenson 1989; Lang et al. 1997). As the search for a new architectural style to represent the British Raj in New Delhi gained ground, Indo-Saracenic declined in popularity. However, in Kolkata, even as late as the 1920s and early 1930s, public buildings such as the Kolkata Fire Brigade Building (1921) and the West Bengal Legislative Building (1927-1931) were classically inspired. Private buildings such as the Statesman House (1931) exhibited signs of classical influence (Lang et al. 1997). Paradoxically, the only significant secular building that was inspired by Gothic architecture in Kolkata, the High Court, was designed by Granville (Davies [1985]1987; Evenson 1989) (see figure 25). Classical architecture also influenced most of the churches such as St. Andrews Church and St. John’s Church (see figure 26) (Firminger 1906; Davies [1985] 1987). The major exceptions were St. Peter’s Church, built in the fort in 1835, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, completed in 1847 (Davies [1985 ]1987; Tillotson 1989). The latter is an imposing structure inspired by English perpendicular Gothic style and adjusted to suit climatic conditions to make the building suitable

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to the architectural language of Christianity (Cotton 1907; Davies [1985]1987) (see figure 27). Some private buildings were also notable exceptions. The only significant Indo-Saracenic architecture is the Chartered Bank Building (see figure 28), built and designed by Martin and Company in 1906, and the art nouveau style characterizes the Esplanade Mansions, built in 1910 by the same firm (see figure 29). Even the few art deco-style buildings that began to appear in the late 1920s were private structures (Lang et al. 1997). One such building is the Metro movie theatre. Built by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to promote its movies, it opened to the public in 1934. Designed by New York-based, Scottish-born architect Thomas W. Lamb, the Metro is being renovated as a multiplex (Mitra 2014) (see figure 30). Another city where Indo-Saracenic style was not adopted was Mumbai. A commercial and trading city, Mumbai was predominantly Gothic revival style because the British administrators strived to define it as a European city in their discursive practices (Metcalf 1984; Davies 1987; Chopra 2007) (see figure 31 for an example of Gothic architecture in Bombay). As the link between Europe and Asia, it was more forward thinking than other Indian cities. Therefore, European architectural styles such as Gothic revival were most appropriate for Mumbai (Baucom 1999; Chopra 2007, 2011). Figure 24 The General Post Office. Walter L.B. Granville was the architect who designed the building, which was built between 1864 and 1868

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

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Figure 25 The High Court. Walter L.B. Granville was the architect who designed the building, which was built between 1864 and 1872

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

Figure 26 St. John’s Church. The building was designed by Lieutenant James Agg and was built in 1787. Photographic print by Samuel Bourne, 1865

Source: © The British Library Board, Photo 29/(32)

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Figure 27 St. Paul’s Cathedral. The building was designed by Major W. Nairn Forbes and was built in 1839

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

Figure 28 Chartered Bank Building. The building was designed and built by Martin and Company in 1906

Source: Photograph courtesy of Sudeshna Ghosh, 2016

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Figure 29 Esplanade Mansions. The building was designed and built by Martin and Company in 1910

Source: Photograph by Prerna Chatterjee. Courtesy of Sanjit Roy, 2013

Figure 30 Metro movie theatre. The architect for the building, which opened in 1934, was Thomas W. Lamb

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2015

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Figure 31 Public Works Office, Mumbai. The building was designed by Colonel Henry St. Clair Wilkins and was completed in 1872. Photographic print by Bourne and Shepherd, 1870

Source: © The British Library Board, Photo 937/ (30)

Victoria Memorial Hall: Neo-Classical Revival in Kolkata In Kolkata, however, Lord Curzon reinforced the adherence to neo-classical architecture when he conceived of the neo-classical Victoria Memorial Hall as an everlasting symbol of the British Empire (see figure 32). The memorial was conceived of immediately after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and completed in 1921. Curzon felt that Kolkata was a city of European origin with no indigenous architectural tradition of its own, so only a neo-classical style was appropriate for a memorial that would leave the stamp of the empire. This is evident in his reflection on the architecture that he chose for the Victoria Memorial Hall: As to one point I had no doubt. In Calcutta – a city of European origin and construction – where all the main buildings had been erected in a quasi-classical or Palladian style and which possessed no indigenous architectural type of its own – it was impossible to erect a building in any native style. A Moghul building, however appropriate for the mosques and

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Figure 32 Victoria Memorial Hall. The architect for the building, which was completed in 1921, was William H. Emerson

Source: Photograph by the author, 1999

tombs of the Moslem Kings, or even for the Modern Palace of an Indian Prince in his own State, would have been ridiculous in the commercial and official capital of India and quite unsuited for the Memorial of a British Sovereign. A Hindu fabric would have been profoundly ill adapted for the purposes of an exhibition. It was self-evident that a structure in some variety of the classical, or Renaissance style was essential, and that a European architect must be employed. (Curzon 1925: 189)

Although he appointed William H. Emerson, an architect well versed in Indo-Saracenic design, Lord Curzon ensured that any proposals to include such features were suppressed (Metcalf 1989). The fact that he conceived of the Victoria Memorial as an everlasting symbol of the empire is evident from his speech in a public meeting convened by the sheriff of Kolkata in the Town Hall on 6 February 1901 to express sorrow for the death of Queen Victoria. In this speech he stated, Let us, therefore, have a building, stately, spacious, monumental, and grand, to which every newcomer, in Calcutta will turn, to which all the resident population, European and Native, will flock, where all classes

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will learn the lessons of history, and see revived before their eyes the marvels of the past. […] [I]f we raise such a building as has been sketched […] we shall most truly […] proclaim to later generations the glory of an unequalled epoch. (Curzon 1906: 521)

This is also confirmed in his later writings where he reminisced about the exhibits that he had been instrumental in placing inside the monument. He wrote, perhaps in time to come, when the concrete triumphs of Western civilization in India are forgotten or submerged, a breath of remembrance may be reserved for those who held that man does not live by bread alone, and who laboured hard and long to convince India that under British rule her history had been glorious, and that splendour reached its zenith during the reign […] of the great Queen-Empress Victoria. (Curzon 1925: 200)

According to Curzon, the exhibits were supposed to depict ‘[t]he history of Calcutta […] in a unique collection of paintings, engravings, models and maps’ and ‘[p]ersonal relics’ that ‘recall the great men who have trod the Indian stage’ (Curzon 1925: 200). In his speech to the Asiatic Society of Bengal on 26 February 1901, he specified the individuals that the memorial should honour. Although his list contained Indian historical figures, including ‘those who have fought against the British, provided that their memories are not sullied with dishonour or crime’, the larger number of displays consisted of ‘the long line of distinguished men who have made the British Empire in India’ (Curzon 1906: 534). Clearly, the exhibits were intended to reconstruct a British history of Kolkata and India and memorialize the contribution of the eminent colonizers in establishing the British Empire. For Curzon, Kolkata was the perfect choice for the monument because it was the capital of the empire. This is evident in his aforementioned speech at Kolkata Town Hall on 6 February 1901, where he stated: Now, may I just say one word about the selection of Calcutta as a site? It is quite true that Calcutta is not the gate of India. But neither is Washington the gate of America, nor Ottawa the gate of Canada, nor Rome the gate of Italy; and yet no one would dream, or has dreamed of erecting a great […] national memorial, except at those capitals. […] Calcutta, in the same way, quite apart from being the most populous, is also the capital city of India. […] I merely make these remarks in order to argue that, if a National Monument is a desirable thing, I think Calcutta is the inevitable site. […]

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[S]ooner or later, just because this is the seat of Government, everybody finds his way here, whether he be an Indian Prince, or a European traveller, or an English merchant. (Curzon 1906: 522-523)

His argument for having the monument in Kolkata was that the city was created by the British and steeped in colonial history. As he proudly stated in the above-mentioned speech, ‘It was from the banks of the Hugli that the orders of the Governor-General in Council were issued that bore the names of Warren Hastings and Dalhousie; and the same process will, I suppose go in the future’ (Curzon 1906: 523). He vehemently opposed locating the memorial in Delhi despite ‘its imperial memories’ (Curzon 1906: 523) because it did not have a European presence and was not the seat of the empire. Neither was he disposed to place it in ‘Bombay with its splendid appearance’ or ‘Madras with its historic renown’ as these cities would ‘probably have their own memorials’. For him, ‘Agra with its majestic monuments’ was unsuitable because it was ‘consecrated to a vanished dynasty and régime’ (Curzon 1906: 523). Architecture ceased to be a symbol of power in Kolkata after the completion of Victoria Memorial Hall in 1921. In fact, Kolkata had become uncomfortable for the British as protests – including violent ones – had intensified in the city after Lord Curzon’s decision to divide the Province of Bengal in 1905 (Irving 1981; Metcalf 1989). Such a political atmosphere made the use of architecture as a symbol of power futile. Classicism was revived in 1911 on a much larger scale with the construction of the state buildings in the new imperial capital of Delhi that were inaugurated in 1931. The proponents of the Indo-Saracenic as well as pure classical style lost ground in the prolonged discourse on the choice of architectural styles for imperial Delhi (Irving 1981; Metcalf 1989; Tillotson 1989). Despite their intense dislike for Indian architecture and affinity to classical architecture, Sir Herbert Baker and Sir Edwin Lutyens – the well-known and influential British architects who designed and planned Delhi – orientalized classical architecture by incorporating Indian motifs and architectural elements. Given the political climate of intense nationalism and antagonism towards the British, the architecture of the new capital needed to appeal to both Orientals and Europeans (Irving 1981; Metcalf 1989). As pointed out by Metcalf (1989), Baker’s design intentionally set Indian and classical elements side by side to accomplish political objectives. The classical elements such as the columns, porticos, and domes announced Britain’s sovereignty while Indian elements such as the chattris (free-standing canopied turrets), jaalis (pierced lattice screens), and chajjaas (wide projecting cornices) proclaimed

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Figure 33 Secretariat, New Delhi. The architect of the building, which was completed in 1931, was Sir Herbert Baker

Source: Photograph courtesy of Suzanne Frasier, 2012

the Raj was British as well as Indian (see figure 33). Lutyens, on the other hand, assimilated Indian forms, but controlled and subordinated them within the classical idiom. Although the Indian forms and motifs were visible, he transformed them according to his reinterpretation. The domes and colonnades of the viceroy’s house proclaimed the British suzerainty (Irving 1981; Metcalf 1989) (see figure 34).

The Modern Indian Architecture Movement As a resistance to colonialism, there was a search for Indianness in architecture during the 1920s and 1930s. Known as the Modern Indian Architecture Movement, this effort should be interpreted as retaliation against the proliferation of art deco architecture in India during this time and the rise of modernism in Europe. The search was also attributable to the effort to find an appropriate architecture for institutions that were being founded by Indians at that time. The early buildings of Banaras Hindu

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Figure 34 Viceroy’s House (now known as Rashtrapati Bhavan), New Delhi. The architect for the building, which was completed in 1931, was Sir Edwin Lutyens

Source: Photograph courtesy of Suzanne Frasier, 2012

University and the buildings of Osmania University in the 1930s represent such institutional architecture (see figure 35 for an example). Although his buildings were limited in Kolkata, the principal proponent of the movement was Bengali architect Sris Chandra Chatterjee. He staunchly supported the Congress Party that was leading the independence movement. A member of the National Planning Committee led by Jawaharlal Nehru, Chatterjee was motivated by Gandhi’s Swadeshi movement. He turned to India’s glorious architecture such as that of Magahda; Ajanta

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Figure 35 The Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Library at Banaras Hindu University, built between 1927 and 1941

Source: Photograph by Bipram Chaurasia, courtesy of Avijit Sen, 2013

and Ellora; Mamallapuram and Conjeevaraum; Dilwara; and Vijaynagar for architectural inspiration. For urban design he looked to canonical texts such as Shilpa Shastras (Lang et al. 1997; Lang 2002). His work in Kolkata includes the Ashok Singh Palace, built around 1942 for a nobleman (Lang 2002). In the 1920s, Shantiniketan, a university established by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore near Kolkata, also displayed defiance to colonial norms of architecture. Built forms at Shantiniketan searched for a national identity, and traditional forms and materials were employed for the buildings. Monumentalism was purposely avoided in these buildings (Mehrotra 2011).

Limited Modernism in Kolkata Like the rest of India, modernist work in Kolkata during the 1930s and 1940s was limited and done mainly by foreign architects. The most wellknown work was the Garden Theatre and the Lighthouse Cinema (around 1936-1938) by the Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok. Modernism, however, did not take root in Kolkata at that time. The only other significant modernist-inspired building was the Lady Dufferin Memorial Hospital built

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Figure 36 The Lighthouse Cinema. The architect of the building, which was built around 1936-1938, was Willem Marinus Dudok

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2015

in 1937 by the architectural firm of Ballardie, Thomson, and Matthews (Lang 2002). The Lighthouse is beyond recognition today as it has been converted to a shopping complex (see figure 36).

Transforming Kolkata into a Cleaner and Healthier City for the British The planning paradigm of transforming Kolkata into a cleaner, healthier, and more aesthetically pleasing city for the British that emerged with Wellesley’s Town Improvement Committee of 1803 continued in this period. The general aim of sanitation and improving health, or urban hygiene, in cities is not specific to the British endeavours in India. It was a strong force in European urban governance and redevelopment as well. The paradigm was transferred to Kolkata. The basic difference is that in the context of Kolkata the efforts to make the city hygienic were primarily limited to the White Town. Another planning paradigm that was transferred was the Haussmannian tendency of clearing slums and constructing broad avenues to beautify the town. In the case of Kolkata, the Black Town was synonymous with slums. In Kolkata, the colonial government gave official approval to the Lottery Commissioners to raise money from lotteries for municipal improvements

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in 1805. Nonetheless, the Town Improvement Committee existed until 1814. Up to that point the Lottery Commissioners placed its funds at the disposal of the Town Improvement Committee. When the committee ceased to exist, its funds and records were transferred to the Lottery Commissioners with the mandate to carry out municipal improvements. The responsibility for town planning was handed over to the Lottery Committee appointed in 1817 after the cholera epidemic in Kolkata. The committee was responsible for town planning until 1836 (Cotton 1907; Goode 1916; Gupta 1993). The Lottery Committee’s recommendations were similar to that of its predecessor; they included improved drainage and sanitation, stringent control in the manner of living of the indigenous population, promotion of ventilation, and the building of roads, especially through the native parts of town. A resolution passed by the committee on 18 December 1817 stated: That the health of the inhabitants be considered as the first object to which the attention of the committee ought to be directed, and that with this view their funds ought to be applied in the first place to the filling up of altogether or deepening and cleansing of miry Tanks and Jheels, several of which exist at present in the most populous parts of the Town. In the second place, to preventing the accumulation of filth, by means of new Drains, common Sewers, and Kennels. And in the third place, to promote ventilation, as far as can be effected, by cutting down high and spreading trees, and by increasing as much as possible the number and size of the Streets or Roads running in a straight line from South to North. (Lottery Committee 1817, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 56)

The resolution also included proposals for widening of ‘narrow parts of the most frequented Streets, where more commodious Roads in a parallel direction can not be opened’ for ‘personal safety of passengers’, and addition of ‘[f]oot paths’ for ‘[t]he safety of foot passengers […] wherever the width of the Old Streets will admit of this and in all the new Roads that may be opened by the Committee’ (Lottery Committee 1817, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 56). The resolution was also concerned with aesthetics and stated that, ‘ornament be also considered desirable’ (Lottery Committee 1817, as cited in Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a: 56). The ‘miry Tanks and Jheels’6 that the resolution referred to existed in the native parts of the town in the north, and the reference clearly indicates the committee’s desire to control the natives’ lifestyles. The proposal for 6 A jheel is a pool or lake.

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running straight streets from north to south can also be viewed as an attempt to increase surveillance over the native population through better access to the interior parts of the city. The desire is further illustrated in a minute of the Committee of 13 January 1820 in which construction of roads was recommended in the densest parts of the native town (Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906a). Such roads, it was believed, would create wide air channels through the whole city. The Lottery Committee reconsidered an earlier proposal of the Town Improvement Committee that suggested constructing nine parallel roads at equal distances. The roads would be about 21 meters wide with cross streets of similar width beginning at the fringe of the White Town from Bou Bazaar Street, a major commercial area, and continuing northwards into the native town. The committee took it a step further and suggested having small avenues within this grid at distances of about 46 to 61 meters with tanks between the roads (Gupta 1993). Although the project was never carried out, it illustrates the desire of the committee to bring a symmetry and control to the native town. The committee deliberately acquired bustee lands, the cheapest urban properties available, to construct roads. Many of the displaced bustee dwellers could not afford to return to the upgraded urban land because of its increased value, forcing them back to living in other bustees. Not surprisingly the landlords of the bustees7 rather than the tenants were compensated. No roads were ever constructed through European neighbourhoods or west of the native Chitpur Road, where the more valuable buildings were located. The colonial government did not accept any moral responsibility for the hardship of the bustee dwellers caused by its improvement schemes (Gupta 1993). The committee’s recommendation resulted in carving out a major thoroughfare parallel to the native Chitpore road from the Chowringhee to the native section of the town. By 1836 streets bearing the names of colonial dignitaries – such as Elliot Road, Strand Road, Wood Street, Wellesley Street, and Wellington Street – were designed and developed. This construction also included College Street, Cornwallis Street, Hastings Street, Moira Street, Loudon Street, Amherst Street, and Hare Street. Other roads like Free School Street, Kyd Street, Mangoe Lane, and Bentick Street were merely widened and straightened (Goode 1916) (see figure 37 for a map of Kolkata in 1839). The naming of streets after colonial dignitaries was consistent with British 7 Prior to the passing of the Thika Tenancy (Acquisition and Regulation Act) of 1981, land in Kolkata’s bustees was owned by landlords. In turn, they leased the land to intermediary developers known as thika who constructed the huts and rented them to the bustee dwellers. This is discussed in detail in chapter 4.

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Figure 37 Kolkata in 1839: Calcutta, a French map credited to Dufour and Benard, published by Rouard in 1839. Photograph by Bourne and Shepherd, 1870

Source: Courtesy of Frances W. Pritchett, Professor Emerita, Columbia University

practice and can be seen as symbolic of memorializing the colonizers who played a role in the establishment of the empire. Many of these streets were built along the above-mentioned corridor. Clearly, the bustee removal and road-construction schemes of the committee primarily benefitted the British and to a certain extent a group of wealthy Indians. Much of the committee’s recommendations were based on the ‘miasmatic’ theory about the spread of disease prevalent at that time. Existing medical thought connected stagnant air, water, and humidity with the breeding of disease (King 1976, 1990a). As pointed out by Archer (2000), malaria, cholera, and other diseases were thought to have been caused by environmental conditions. For example, malaria was thought to have been spread by emanations or ‘miasmata’ from decomposing animal and vegetable matter or from low marshy grounds and stagnant pools. Disease was believed to have spread either through

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exposure to degenerative vapours at the site of its production or through air transmission. Given such medical theories, it is not surprising that the committee recommended improved drainage and stringent control of the natives’ living conditions. The British f irmly believed that the natives’ homes and neighbourhoods were the breeding grounds for disease. Increased ventilation throughout the city and constructing roads to reduce excessive vegetation were also recommended to control the spread of disease. Only two of the major street corridors recommended by the committee were completed because the indigenous merchants, who had much stake in the city, successfully stalled or scaled back the operations of the committee. In many cases, they would hold out for compensation. Consequently, since the committee did not have the power of eminent domain the resistance from the native population offset many of the planned developments (Archer 2000). A large portion of the committee’s funds was spent on cosmetic changes in the European part of Kolkata, illustrating the discrimination in the provision of urban services. These included the improvement of the Maidan by adding paths, tanks, and balustrades, as well as the watering of the Chowringhi Road and construction of Respondentia Walk, an avenue along the river to Fort William for recreational purposes (Archer 2000). Such discriminatory actions were a common feature of British colonial practices in Kolkata and elsewhere in India. The discrimination in providing urban services in Kolkata is further illustrated by the fact that from 1821 Indians were prohibited from using Respondentia Walk from 5 to 8 in the morning and evening so as not to inconvenience the European residents of the city. A notice from the Governor of Fort William dated 7 July 1821 stated: It having been represented to the Most Noble the Governor of Fort William that considerable inconvenience is experienced by the European part of the community who resort to the [R]espondentia, from the Crowds of Native Workmen and Coolies who make a thoroughfare of the Walk. His Lordship is pleased to direct that Natives shall not in the future be allowed to pass the Sluice Bridge (but such as are entering and leaving the Fort) between the hours of 5 and 8 in the Morning, and 5 and 8 in the Evening. (General Garrison Orders 1821, as cited in Sandeman 1869: 76)

This can be seen as an example of application of the colonial rule of difference. Originating in the sixteenth century in the treatises of Portuguese

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scholar João de Barros, the rule of difference allowed Europeans to claim privilege based on racial and religious difference. Application of this rule by the Europeans over the next five centuries would contend that a normative proposition of the ‘universal validity did not apply to the East because of some inherent moral deficiency of the Oriental’ (Chatterjee 2012: 34). Citing this example, Chatterjee (2012) argues that the criteria by which the colonial subjects could be declared as exceptions to the universal rule was diverse, ranging from prohibiting them from using clubs and swimming pools to regulating dress codes, demeanour, or even suspicious behaviour. As Chatterjee argues, in this particular case there was no blanket segregation, but a rule of exception that was applied to natives for specific times. The watering of Chowringhi Road was, in particular, another blatant case of discrimination in the provision of urban services. The Lottery Committee had constructed a large aqueduct in this elite European enclave to water the street. The committee found that the sparse population density of the area and unwillingness of the residents to pay made the scheme financially unfeasible. Ultimately costs had to be taken from municipal funds (Gupta 1993). Such discrimination in providing services is not surprising as one of the tasks of the Lottery Committee was to make Kolkata more suitable for Englishmen to live in the city for extended periods of time (Munshi [1986] 1990). The Lottery Committee was dismantled in 1836 as public opinion in England condemned the method of raising money through lotteries for municipal improvement. Lord Auckland, Governor-General of India from 1836 to 1842, appointed the Fever Hospital and Municipal Improvement Committee in 1836 in its place (Cotton 1907). Even the Fever Hospital and Municipal Improvement Committee’s recommendations were based on the medical theories of cause and spread of disease(s) prevalent at that time. The appointment of the committee was primarily attributable to the efforts of Sir James Ranald Martin, surgeon of the Presidency of Kolkata and the native hospital in Dharamtola. His Note on the Medical Topography of Calcutta and Its Suburbs, Chiefly with Reference to the Condition of Native Health, sent to the Board of Governors on 24 February 1834, recommended the establishment of a fever hospital and measures for sanitation of the city (Calcutta Journal of Medicine 1906b; Goode 1916). His fear about the spread of disease and the need to control it in the indigenous areas is clearly spelled out in the 1837 booklet, which stated: The north division between the Bow Bazaar and Machooa Bazar comprises perhaps the most dense part of the native population of Calcutta.

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It is surprising how much the condition of the native portion of the town has been neglected in this great city and its suburbs […] but in an affair of so much importance to the public health something may be done and at least ought to be tried, if only in the way of Municipal or Police Regulation. […] In the event of a contagious disease (and there is no reason why such should not occur here), the dense state of Burra Bazar and surrounding parts, the want of water courses and means of facility for removing accumulations of filth, etc., would stand as insuperable bars to the best devised regulations of medical police. All masses of buildings should be opened out, old walls and decayed houses removed, for even under ordinary circumstances these are fertile sources of fever. (Martin 1837, as cited in Cook 1900: 464)

Martin’s recommendation included widening the streets to expose more of such areas to the sun to rarify and lift the noxious vapours. This action would dilute these vapours and dissipate them through the winds. Martin’s discourse even linked the lack of the physical cleanliness in the native town to the absence of moral cleanliness among natives. For him, the natives not only lived in defective landscapes but were also people untutored in the science of sanitation (Beattie 2003; Chattopadhyay 2005). Implied in the depiction is the belief of racial inferiority and otherness. The committee prepared three reports. Its recommendations included drainage and conservancy, excavations of tanks and reservoirs for water supply, establishment of hospitals and dispensaries, improvement of the system for collecting taxes, construction of thoroughfares, and recommendations about municipal self government (Cotton 1907; Goode 1916; Beattie 2003). The reports identified the lack of proper drainage as the major source of disease and attributed to it the substandard state of the native town (Beattie 2003). The committee was also concerned with the lack of sewage disposal in the city, especially in the native areas (Smith 1860). The committee found that the native inhabitants of the town were not yet ready for municipal self-government but also realized that the Europeans did not possess sufficient numbers or length of residence in Kolkata to control an elected local government (Goode 1916). The immediate outcomes of the final report published in 1847 were the appointment of health officers and production of health reports and health maps from 1848 (Beattie 2003) (see figures 38 and 39 for a health map showing cholera deaths).

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Figure 38 Map of Kolkata showing cholera deaths from 1876 to 1880

Source: © The British Library Board, V/24/2873, Map of Calcutta Showing Cholera Details, 1886, f.133v, and V/24/2873, Map of Calcutta Showing Cholera Details, 1886, f.135

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Figure 39 Map of Kolkata showing cholera deaths from 1881 to 1885

Source: © The British Library Board, V/24/2873, Map of Calcutta Showing Cholera Details, 1886, f.133v, and V/24/2873, Map of Calcutta Showing Cholera Details, 1886, f.13

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Shifting the Discourse to Bustees as a Source of Disease A Calcutta Municipality Administration Report of 1868 marked a shift of concern with the unhealthiness of the native town and its potential to spread disease to that of the bustees. The report stated that: A bustee or native village generally consists of a mass of huts constructed without any plan or arrangement, without roads, without drains, illventilated, and never cleaned. Most of these villages are the abodes of misery, vice, and filth, and the nurseries of sickness and disease. In these bustees are found green and slimy stagnant ponds, full of putrid vegetable and animal matter in a state of decomposition, and whose bubling [sic] surfaces exhale, under a tropical sun, noxious gases, poisoning the atmosphere and spreading around disease and death. These ponds supply the natives with water for domestic purposes, and are very often the receptacles of filth. The arteries which feed these tanks are the drains that ramify over the village, and carry the sewage of the huts into them. […] None of these villages posses a single road or thoroughfare, properly so called, through which a conservancy cart or even a wheelbarrow can pass in order to remove filth. This filth is laid at the door of every hut or thrown into a neighbouring cesspool. (Calcutta Municipality Administration Report 1868, as cited in Goode 1916: 264)

The designation of bustees as breeding grounds for cholera intensified in the 1870s and continued into the 1890s. Arthur J. Payne and other health officers feared that if an epidemic occurred in the bustees, it would spread rapidly to the European sections of the town. For him, eliminating the bustees was the only solution to prevent the spread of disease. Payne believed that the bustee situation could be improved if a proper plan was implemented that defined its exact boundaries and the condition of tanks and ponds and distinguished the high from the lowlands. He also recommended providing drains and roads for efficient conservancy, a large tank for the provision of wholesome water, and public privies for men and women. He also believed that the installation of good lighting would help the police control crime. Subsequently the demolition of the bustees in White Town became a primary concern (Beattie 2003; Chattopadhyay 2005). The desire to improve bustees is also evident from several acts passed during the mid-1870s. However, the burden of improvement was that of the land owner. Act IV of 1876 empowered the commissioners to order a bustee to be inspected by two medical officers and ask the landowner to carry

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out any improvements deemed necessary by these officers. The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) – now known as the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) – had the right to execute these improvements at the owner’s cost if the owner failed to undertake them. Act II of 1888 required the bustee owner to prepare a plan for improvement for consideration by the commissioners. The commissioners were empowered to modify the proposal and refuse sanctioning of any buildings until improvements were made to their satisfaction. The alternative procedure spelled out in the legislation allowed commissioners to appoint two medical officers to prepare a standard plan after an unsatisfactory inspection, detailing the necessary work and a completion date. If the owner failed to execute the plan, the commissioners had the right to do so at the owner’s expense. Act III of 1899 also put the burden of improvement of the roads on the bustee owner (Goode 1916). Many bustee owners improved their bustees by building bathing platforms and privies. Additionally they gave up land for passages and drains. In turn, the CMC provided draining and conservancy measures. Such improvements increased the value of the bustees (Gupta 1993). The health officers continued to depict the native town and the bustees as unsanitary and breeding grounds for disease well into the late 1890s. Concerned with the sanitary condition of the native Burra Bazaar and Jora Bagan bustee, Dr. W.J. Simpson’s 1896 report for the Calcutta Corporation stated: The condition of the worst of these areas is indescribeable [sic]. […] Every one I have taken over the area […] is unanimous in condemning it as unfit for human habitation and a source of danger to the town. The whole area is intersected by narrow lanes and passages ranging from 6 to 20 feet in width. […] The houses facing the narrow streets are two, three, and four storeys high and often separated from one another by passages two or three feet wide. In these narrow passages […] are the latrines of the houses […] where the excreta have […] splashed in every direction and formed a cess-pool which it is impossible to clean properly. […] The narrow illventilated streets, the passages to which neither light nor fresh air have access, the filthy condition of both, the close proximity of the houses to one another and their overcrowded state combine to form conditions which render proper sanitation impossible. It is a standing menace to the rest of the city, and should plague once obtain a firm footing in this quarter, which is the worst I am acquainted with in any city I have seen, there is every likelyhood of the disease becoming endemic. (W.J. Simpson, as cited in Cook 1900: 464)

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Most of the measures undertaken to remedy the unhealthy situation benefitted the population of White Town first, again demonstrating the discrimination in the provision of services. For example, an underground drainage system was first built in the predominantly European central area between 1860 and 1875. This system was extended between 1891 and 1906 to the new southern European areas of the city (Beattie 2003; Chatterjee 2012). Another example was the filtered water that was supplied by the municipal government in 1870. The White Town in this case was the first beneficiary (Beattie 2003). Even 40 years later only a quarter of the properties in the Burra Bazaar were connected to the city’s water supply. When the British gained complete control of the CMC in 1899 sanitary improvements in the European southern part of the city were implemented with the demolition of many bustees. The native population always bore the burden of improvement in the White Town because of the disproportionate taxing mechanisms. The house tax, first levied in 1794, was one of the principal sources of municipal improvements. Natives with less capital who had invested in property in the northern areas of the town bore the major share of the taxes. At the same time, the European companies refused to be taxed and paid a paltry municipal tax. Yet, the White Town was always the first beneficiaries of any urban services. There was much resentment about such discrimination in services among the natives (Gupta 1993). A health report prepared in 1899 by Frank G. Clemow and William C. Hossack on the Burra Bazaar continued to express concerns that were outlined in Simpson’s earlier report. These included circulation of air around the buildings; admission of light and air into the buildings’ interiors; water supply; removal of refuse, excreta and waste water; road construction; provision of public facilities; and the controlling of nuisances. The report also included the British civilizing mission of educating the native population about the benefits of sanitary reform, use of modern sanitary appliances, and desire for cleanliness, light, and air (Beattie 2003).

The Calcutta Improvement Trust and E.P. Richards’s Plan for Kolkata The Calcutta Improvement Trust (CIT), now known as the Kolkata Improvement Trust (KIT), was set up on 2 January 1912 in response to a medical enquiry on Kolkata’s condition after the outbreak of plague in 1896, and a report by the Building Commission appointed in April 1897 to consider changes in the law for the buildings and streets of Kolkata (Beattie 2003).

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C.H. Bompas, an Indian Civil Service officer who made a number of reports on the problems of Kolkata, chaired the commission. He believed the city and its surrounding suburbs needed to be considered as a planning unit, and attributed the lack of proper streets as a major problem for the city and its environs (Evenson 1989). Subsequently he invited E.P. Richards, who joined CIT as the chief engineer in 12 September 1912, to prepare a detailed study for the city’s needs (Evenson 1989; Beattie 2003). Richards produced the first comprehensive planning report for the entire city and its suburbs, entitled Report by the Request of the Trust on the Condition, Improvement and Town Planning of the City of Calcutta and Contiguous Areas (1914). Richards based his plan on Western notions of town planning that he wanted to implement in Kolkata. There are numerous references to Western cities such as Baltimore, Birmingham, Chicago, Cologne, Glasgow, and Washington, DC. Other cities mentioned were Berlin, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Paris, Turin, and Vienna. The problems and solutions of these Western cities were researched so that the ideal plan for Kolkata and its suburbs could be formulated. In a similar vein, contemporary planning concepts – developed by architects, planners, and philanthropists such as Raymond Unwin, H. Inigo Triggs, S.D. Adshead, J.S. Nettlefold, Paul Waterhouse, and Thomas H. Mawson – are referenced in order to establish general principles of planning for the Kolkata plan. Western legislation and bylaws also are referenced (Richards 1914). The tendency to impose notions of Western planning theory and legislation became pronounced in Kolkata around the same time as in the rest of India. As pointed out by King (1976, 1990a), the transfer of planning concepts from Britain became more pronounced in the early twentieth century with the development of city planning theory, legislation, and ideology. Comprehensive in nature for its time, the plan considered Kolkata’s suburbs in its scope, covering such broad areas as slums, housing, transportation, water supply, drainage, parks, open spaces, legislation, aesthetics, and estimates for improvements. However, the emphasis was on the construction of thoroughfares and the enforcement of bylaws. According to Richards, One primary cause of streetless and slum areas in Calcutta has thus been the lack of building and street byelaws or their enforcement. Byelaws would have enforced the production of a street-mesh, and enforced the spreading out of the houses over twice their present area. (ii) The second cause of almost equal strength lie in the want of main roads. Had there been good main roads, that is, good rapid-transit lines between the inside and outside of the city, the inducements to extend slum upward and to crowd as much building as possible on each square foot of land would have

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Figure 40 Values Map of the City with One of the Road Schemes, by E.P. Richards

Source: Richards 1914

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been greatly weakened, because (chiefly by means of tramway rapid-transit) suburban development would have taken place, the population would have been spread over a greater area, and this would have prevented the present intense pressure in the central parts of the city. (Richards 1914: 237)

Figure 40 depicts one of Richards’s road schemes. The Values map over which the road scheme is superimposed shows his estimates of the values of proprieties in Kolkata. Zone I had the highest property value followed by Zone II. Zone III consisted of properties that offered frontage along main roads while Zone IV had the cheapest property values (Richards 1914). Richards also believed that native towns and especially bustees were breeding grounds for disease. Appalled with the congestion, lack of order, and hygienic condition of such settlements, he wrote: The writer […] walked […] in and about these streetless areas, and was profoundly impressed by their sad, dirty, intensely ugly, ramshackle, and degraded aspect; by the disorder, irregularity, and grave defects of the buildings; by the inhabited dens; by the innumerable weakly men and women, ricketty children and sick babies, the interminable coughing and expectoration, the depressed unsmiling faces; the stagnant heat and polluted over-used state of the air in those countless dark, unventilated, narrow passages; daily so thronged in parts with every kind of people, that clean and unclean are obliged to jostle closely and breathe and re-breathe each other’s direct emanations. It is certain that the Calcutta congested areas must constitute a great disease-breeding radial center, perhaps the greatest in India. (Richards 1914: 238)

Richards also connected the morality of individuals with their deplorable living conditions. For him, to live in slum steadily lowers the whole moral and physical tone of men, women, and children, prevents and destroys their happiness, and breeds among them discontent, sedition, anarchy, vice, misery, sickness, pain and death. Disease, crime, intemperance, and insanity are, of course, well known to be absolutely and directly bound up with slum results. (Richards 1914: 239)

Richards, however, realized that there were not enough financial resources available to acquire and demolish even the worst bustees of Kolkata and less than half, and in some cases even less than one-third of the population could be rehoused in cleared sites. He recommended an upgrading scheme that he

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called ‘Slum Repair’ or ‘Slum Mending’. Even this scheme was Eurocentric, drawing its inspiration from slum improvement in Birmingham, England. The improvement strategy recommended repairing houses that were unfit for habitation; removing buildings that obstructed air circulation, light, and access; and replacing pail or earth latrines and privies with modern Asiatic water closets. Additional recommendations included the provision of proper house drainage and paving and drainage of public places. Many of Richards’s suggestions had to be shelved because of the shortage of funds during the First World War and legal battles that the CIT would have to face if these actions were implemented (Gupta 1993).

Sir Patrick Geddes’s Plan for the Burra Bazaar Although Richards himself did not specifically have any recommendations for Burra Bazaar, the CIT continued the British planning tradition of improving the sanitary condition of the area and its accessibility, developing an improvement scheme for it between April 1918 and March 1919. The plan called for the construction of four roads north to south, seven roads east to west, widening of existing lanes, opening of new lanes, slum clearance, and the creation of a playground and several parks along a new boulevard (Gupta 1993). The CMC commissioned the Scottish town planner Sir Patrick Geddes to review the CIT plan towards the end of 1918. Geddes was convinced that in the Indian context, the Improvement Trusts were doing more harm than good. He further believed that the poor hardly benefited from the work of these trusts; the property owners and speculators being the primary beneficiaries. Geddes not only sympathized with indigenous cities, he also proposed a method of ‘conservative surgery’ that called for incorporating only necessary changes and avoiding mass-scale destruction of people’s homes and lifestyles. Consequently, he submitted an alternative report to the CMC on 31 March 1919. Much to its disdain, the CMC found that his plan would preserve 50 per cent of the houses in their present condition, leaving large blocks of unsanitary areas untouched. His proposal for small local playgrounds was also dismissed as the CMC felt that they would be used for dumping refuse. The CMC did, however, adopt some of the alignments he suggested for road improvements and his proposal for a large park. Geddes’s impact on the Burra Bazaar was limited but did preserve many of the existing streets and the overall urban fabric of the Burra Bazaar. Nevertheless, Geddes was unpopular. Despite his initial association with the ruling elite (Trywhitt 1947; Gupta 1993; Meller 1990; Beattie 2003), by

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the time he prepared the Burra Bazaar report, he was viewed with suspicion because his views were outside the mainstream of colonial discourse on native parts of the city. As pointed out by Evenson (1989), the Haussmannian approach continued to prevail in CIT’s work, and a number of broad avenues were cut through the native parts of the town by the 1930s. No significant planning endeavours were undertaken for the rest of the colonial period.

Racial Segregation Racial segregation continued to be the norm even in this period. Despite the commonplace and accepted segregation, the allocation of ‘White’ versus ‘Black’ areas still had a blurry boundary even in the more affluent and exclusive areas for Europeans around the administrative centre. Looking at the area, Emma Roberts observed, but even here, it must be acknowledged, that a certain want of keeping and consistency, common to every thing relating to India, injures the effect of the scene. A mud hut, or rows of native hovels, constructed of mud, thatch, and bamboos, not superior to the rudest wigwam, often rest against the outer wall of the palaces, while there are avenues opening from the principal streets, intersected in all directions by native bazaars, filled with unsightly articles of every description. (Roberts 1835: 3)

Clearly the natives encroached, even in this pristine enclave of White Town. As pointed out by Chattopadhyay (2000, 2005), the boundaries between White Town and Black Town were quite fluid and at no point was the White Town a homogenous space for the Europeans. As she further notes, property changed hands between Europeans and Indians frequently. Even the density of the European parts of the town was not as low as was portrayed. As discussed, the design of these British homes was hybridized. Finally, the presence of Indian servants in White Town further blurred the boundary lines. The use of the terms ‘White Town’ and ‘Black Town’ can be seen as a part of the imperial intention to construct the otherness by defining Indians as racially inferior. Lord Valencia’s writings are an example of such an attempt. In sharp contrast to his admiration for the White Town as a ‘City of Palaces’, his view of Black Town was somewhat different. He declared, The Black Town is a complete contrast to this as can well be conceived. Its streets are narrow and dirty; the houses, of two stories, occasionally

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Figure 41 An artist’s depiction of the Black Town: The Chitpore Road, Calcutta. Coloured chromolithograph by William Simpson, 1867

Source: © The British Library Board, X108(3)

brick, but generally of mud, and thatched, perfectly resembling the cabins of the poorest class in Ireland. (Annesley [1809] 1811: 192)

In the 1830s Emma Roberts wrote, ‘The Black Town, as it is called, extends along the river to the north, and a more wretched-looking place can scarcely be imagined; dirty, crowded, ill-built and abounding with beggars and bad smells’ (Roberts 1835: 13). According to Mary Carpenter’s depiction in the mid-1860s, A stranger to India cannot imagine the conditions of these low streets, inhabited by natives pursuing various humble callings. […] Shortly after my arrival, I drove through the busiest part of the native town, Chidpore Road. It was dirty and narrow; indeed, the low shops seemed placed one before another to make the most of the room. […] The odours arising from this district are indescribable. (Carpenter 1868: 181-182; see figure 41 for an artist’s portrayal of the Black Town in Kolkata)

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By the nineteenth century, Rudyard Kipling even suggested that turning Haussmanns loose in the city might be of benefit. After viewing the huts in Machua Bazaar, an indigenous part of Kolkata, Kipling wrote, All the more reason, then, to turn several Haus[s]manns loose into the city, with instructions to make barracks for the population that cannot find room in the huts and sleeps in the open ways, cherishing dogs and worse, much worse, in its unwashen bosom. (Kipling ([1899]: 227)

There is a similarity in such discourses about the native areas of other colonial cities of India.

Municipal Administration in Kolkata and the Expansion of Its Boundaries The work of the Justices of Peace discussed in the last chapter was overshadowed by the work of the Town Improvement Committee and the Lottery Committee. The executive authority of municipal administration eventually came under the jurisdiction of the chief magistrate, who was one among seven justices or magistrates. The number was later reduced to five including the chief magistrate (Goode 1916). By the time the Fever Hospital was established and the Municipal Improvement Committee was appointed, all matters of municipal governance including conservancy, assessment, judicial affairs, and policing were concentrated in the hands of the chief magistrate. The authority of justices in municipal administration was virtually superseded by the chief magistrate. Local taxation had not yet been carried out to its fullest extent because the local government did not have the authority. Hence, there was some fear as well as reluctance to impose further taxation without the consent of the people or their representatives without a popular vote. A proposal for a more representative municipal government in 1833 by Chief Magistrate D. M’Farlan failed as there was little support for such reform among the ranks of the British citizenry and administration (Goode 1916). The passage of Act XVI in 1847, which transferred the conservancy functions of the justices to a board of seven commissioners, initiated the attempts to form a local government. Three of these commissioners were appointed by the colonial government; the rest were elected by ratepayers from each division of the city. The commissioners received a salary that was fixed by the governor. Act XXII, passed in the same year, empowered

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the commissioners to act as a corporate body with a common seal and the right to sue and be sued. Act II of 1848 sanctioned appointments of a town clerk (later called the secretary), a surveyor, and other officers for the city’s administration, subject to approval by the governor. Reputable natives believed the elections to be a farce, and therefore undemocratic, and were reluctant to participate. Act X of 1852 divided the city into the Northern and Southern divisions and reduced the number of commissioners to four, with half being elected and half appointed. The act empowered the commissioners to appoint or dismiss all officers except the secretary, whose appointment and dismissal had to be approved by the governor. Act XXVIII of 1854 further suspended the electoral function by authorizing the lieutenant governor to fill vacancies in the board. Act XXV of 1856 reduced the commissioners to three; subject to appointment and removal by the lieutenant governor (Goode 1916). Act VI of 1863 transferred municipal affairs to a corporation consisting of all justices of the peace of Kolkata and those of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa residing in the city. The colonial government appointed the chairman, but he could be removed by a resolution of two-thirds of the justices. The justices themselves could nominate a vice-chairman subject to approval by the lieutenant governor. The power remained in the hands of the justices as both the chairman and vice-chairman carried out their orders and were only responsible for general management of municipal affairs. The justices also appointed high-level officials – the secretary, engineer, surveyor, health officer, collector, and assessor (Goode 1916). Act IV of 1876 – which led to the creation of the CMC with seventy-two commissioners, excluding the chairman and the vice-chairman – introduced a form of elected municipal government. Under this act, the ratepayers elected two-thirds of the commissioners, and the colonial government appointed the remainder. The electoral constituencies consisted of eighteen wards which corresponded to police divisions or thanas as they are known in Bengali. The act defined the ‘Suburban Municipality’, and while certain villages from the 24 parganas were included, some mauzas from Panchannagram were excluded. The city at this point had an area of about fifteen square kilometres. A committee known as the Town Council was appointed in 1877 and given legal status under Act VI of 1881; its purpose was to deliberate on matters referred to it by the commissioners and advise and aid the chairman (Goode 1916; Ray 1979). The next major change in municipal government came with Act II of 1888 that increased the number of commissioners to 75, with 15 to be appointed by the local government and 50 to be elected by ratepayers. In addition, the Bengal Chamber of Commerce

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and Trade Association were to select four each, while two were to be selected by Port Commissions. The number of wards increased to 25, and each was to elect two commissioners. Four commissioners were to be selected by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, four by the Trades Association, and two by Port Commissioners. The Town Council was reconstituted as the General Committee and had eighteen members. The elected commissioners chose twelve of these, and nominated commissioners named the rest. The chairman and vice-chairman were ex-officio members of the committee (Goode 1916). Act III of 1899 saw another major change as it vested the municipal authority to CMC, the General Committee, and the chairman. The number of commissioners was reduced to 50. Among these, 25 were elected at the ward level and the rest appointed: fifteen by the colonial government, four by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, four by the Calcutta Trades Association, and two by the Port Commissioners. The power was concentrated in the hands of the General Committee, and the secretary had executive power (Goode 1916). The British came to dominate the General Committee, leading to the resignation of native commissioners (Ray 1979). The native desire to participate in the local government was, of course, not approved by the British. According to Rudyard Kipling, the squalor of the city was attributable to the participation of Indians in the local government. As he reflected, it seems not only a wrong but a criminal thing to allow natives to have any voice in the control of such a city – adorned, docked, wharfed, fronted, and reclaimed by Englishmen, existing only because England lives, and dependent for its life on England. (Kipling ([1899]: 187)

It was not until the introduction of the Calcutta Municipal Act of 1923 that a democratic government was formed at the municipal level. Besides providing for annual elections of a mayor, women were also enfranchised by the act. The nationalist leader Chittaranjan Das, who formed the Swaraj Party, was elected the first mayor in 1924. Subhas Chandra Bose of the same party became the secretary. The party had been formed by Das, who had left the Indian National Congress out of disillusionment. He was joined by Bose for similar reasons (Moorhouse 1971; Ray 1979). Until independence, the CMC had been a platform for honest politicians to launch their careers. Municipal affairs were governed by the act until 1948 when the State government superseded the corporation. This topic is discussed in detail in the next chapter.

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Figure 42 Kolkata in 1945: City Plan from a guidebook to the city created by the US Army in India

Source: United States Army Forces in India-Burma, The Calcutta Key: Welcome United States Army (Calcutta: Information and Education Branch, 1945). Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, the University Texas at Austin

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Extensive changes were made to the boundaries of the town and its suburbs in 1889. The Suburban Municipality was divided into four sections, namely the North Suburban Municipality of Kashipur-Chitpore, the East Suburban Municipality of Maniktalla, the Suburban Municipality of Garden Reach, and the Southern Municipality of Tallygunge. In order to form the last two municipalities land from the 24 parganas was annexed. Some of the mauzas of Panchannangram that formed part of the old municipality in 1876 were added to the city’s boundaries. The city was divided into 25 wards at this point and occupied an area of 48 square kilometres. The Municipal Act of 1923 annexed the municipalities of Kashipur-Chitpore, Maniktalla, and Garden Reach into the city. Later, Garden Reach was separated (www. kmcgov.in) (see figure 42 for a map of Kolkata in 1945).

Haora’s Transformation to a Coolie Town The town of Haora continued its deviation from the overall scheme of British imperial urbanism. When Bishop Heber arrived, Haora was still ‘chiefly inhabited by ship-builders’ (Heber 1828: 58). John Clark Marshman, an English missionary and historian, expressed a similar opinion in the mid-1840s. He even compared it to the Southwark bank of Thames. According to him, There is little to notice in the villages of Seebpore, Howarh and Sulkea, the Southwark of Calcutta. The establishment of the Docks and a few manufacturers, and of the Company’s Salt Ware-houses gives an air of life and activity to the place, but the number of European residents, though not inconsiderable, is by no means proportioned to the vast population and wealth of Calcutta. (Marshman 1845, as cited in O’Malley and Chakravarti 1909: 104)

By the mid-nineteenth century, the docks had increased in size. Other industries such as rum distilleries, cotton, jute, flour, oil, paper, sugar, and saw mills flourished. In addition, indigo works, metal foundries, and engineering works were established on a large scale (O’Malley and Chakravarti 1909; Banerji 1972).8 The decision to locate the terminus of the East Indian Railway in 1850 in the city and the construction of a floating bridge in 1874 linking Kolkata and Haora provided a tremendous impetus to its industrial 8 The existence of some of these industries can be traced back earlier, but their large-scale growth began in the 1850s.

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development (O’Malley and Chakravarti 1909). By the turn of the twentieth century, comparisons with the Southwark bank of the Thames continued. Cotton noted that, ‘Nothing makes Calcutta seem more un-Indian than the smoking chimney-stacks of Howrah, which recall so vividly the Southwark banks of the Thames’ (Cotton 1907: 991). Thus, political economy transformed Haora into the workshop of British Calcutta. As it became an industrial town, it was viewed as ‘coolie town’ because of the large number of migrant labours or coolies that lived in the town. Architecture in the city was not designed to symbolize wealth and power. The number of Europeans living in the town was fewer compared to Kolkata and mainly worked in jobs connected to the industries. Unlike Kolkata, which was studded with neo-classical mansions and elegant garden houses, Haora only had ‘some pretty villas interspersed’ (Heber 1828: 58). In contrast to Kolkata, there was no need for a physical display of wealth and power manifested by impressive homes and grandiose structures. Bishop’s College, completed in the mid-1820s, was perhaps its only significant building in the early colonial period. It was founded in 1820 by the Anglican bishop of Kolkata, Thomas Middleton, to serve as an arts college and train Indian Christians for the priesthood and service as catechists and teachers in Christian colleges (Bishop’s College 2006). The original Gothic-inspired building still exists on the premises of the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology. It is now known as Madhusudhan Bhabhan (see figure 43). The only significant piece of civic architecture is the railway terminus, originally built in 1854. Rebuilt between 1900 and 1908, it is an imposing red-brick building infused with Oriental and Romanesque features (Davies [1985] 1987) (see figure 44). Even the courthouse was originally built in 1767 as a rum distillery (Banerji 1972). Nonetheless, one can see classically inspired buildings in the city (see figure 45). There were also a few neo-classical mansions built by the Bengali elite. The best example is the Andul Rajbari built by Rajnarayan Roy of the Andul Raj family in 1835 (see figure 46). The title of raja had been bestowed to one of his ancestors by the Mughal emperor upon the insistence of Lord Clive (Banerji 1972). Despite the absence of a significant number of Europeans, some level of racial segregation still occurred, following in the tradition of other British settlements. The European settlement consisted of an industrial-residential zone near the river, established by the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Offices and business firms owned by the Europeans were also located in this region. The indigenous population lived inland in the area known as Purāni Sahar (Old Town). The Grand Trunk Road separated the two

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Figure 43 Madhusudhan Bhabhan (Bishop’s College), completed in the mid-1820s

Source: Photograph by Tamali Basu. Courtesy of Sunando Dasgupta, 2014

Figure 44 Haora Railway Terminus. The architect of the building was Halsey Ricardo. It was rebuilt between 1900 and 1908

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2015

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Figure 45 Telegraph Office, Haora

Source: Photograph by the author, 1999

settlements. Winding lanes and congestion, filth, and dirt characterized the indigenous settlement. In contrast, the riverside where the Europeans lived had broader and straighter roads (Banerji 1972). Since the city was outside the realm of imperial urbanism and inhabited by only a few Europeans, the provision of urban services was naturally neglected. Upon inspecting the Haora municipality in 1889, the sanitary commissioner remarked, ‘Of all the large municipalities in Bengal which I have inspected – and I have inspected nearly all of them – Howrah is without exception the dirtiest, most backward, and badly managed municipality I have seen’ (sanitary commissioner, as cited in O’Malley and Chakravarti [1909]: 60). His successor agreed, declaring he did not even want to live in the town. According to him, [g]enerally speaking, the sanitary condition of the town of Howrah is most deplorable. On every side, one is met by violent breaches of ordinary hygienic laws. I have never, in fact, seen a town in such a dangerously

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Figure 46 Andul Rajbari, built in 1835

Source: Photograph courtesy of Sudeshna Ghosh, 2006

insanitary condition, and I should be very sorry to live in it myself. (Sanitary commissioner, as cited in O’Malley and Chakravarti [1909]: 61)

The sheer backlog of services and the pretext for not providing them is well reflected in the words of a sanitary commissioner who stated, The great sanitary need of the district of Howrah is the improvement of drainage, filling up the numerous unhealthy tanks, and the removal of excessive vegetation from the vicinity of dwelling-houses. In the town of Howrah drainage works are in progress, though it will take some years to bring the work to a completion. […] Very little has been done to fill up the large number of unhealthy tanks: the work progressing slowly for want of funds. (Sanitary commissioner, as cited in O’Malley and Chakravarti [1909]: 59-60)

Providing a f iltered water supply system, improvement of bustees and conservancy arrangements for disposal of filth and night soil were also identified as pressing needs for the city (O’Malley and Chakravarti [1909]). The city can, in fact, be viewed as defiance of the entire scheme of colonial urbanism. The indigenous inhabitants defied all norms of hygiene and orderliness that the British prescribed and built in any fashion they could.

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As pointed out by O’Malley and Chakravarti at the turn of the twentieth century, [a] very large proportion of the holdings are tiled huts, many of which are built on the insanitary, ill-ventilated plan commonly found in Bihar; and even the narrow gullies9 which exist between the huts are closed up so as to secure greater privacy, thus still further hindering ventilation and serving as receptacles for filth. (O’Malley and Chakravarti [1909]: 61)

Thus, the majority of the city consisted of bustees or bustee-like settlements. We even see resistance to the implementation of drainage schemes. Such work completed during the day was destroyed later that night (O’Malley and Chakravarti 1909).

9

The word gullies means narrow lanes.

4

Decolonizing Kolkata From an American Planning Paradigm to a Marxist City

Chandigarh: A Defining Moment in India’s Search for PostColonial Urbanism No significant planning or architectural endeavours were undertaken in Kolkata from the 1930s to the mid-1960s. Even when India gained independence in 1947 and its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, searched for architecture that would represent an independent, secular, modern, and industrialized India, architectural activity was limited in Kolkata. Nehru championed the architecture of Le Corbusier, the Swiss-born French architect who profoundly influenced India’s search for architecture of independence (Lang et al. 1997). As stated by Prakāsh, Le Corbusier’s modernism was embraced by Nehru not because it ‘embodied Nehru’s vision of an Indian architecture, but because it married well with his modernenlightenment-based anti-colonial political stance’ (Prakāsh 2011: 262). Chandigarh is a celebrated example of the emergence of new spatial and urban forms as a consequence of decolonization. The new capital of Punjab began construction in 1950 and was inaugurated in 1953. If New Delhi was a stamp of imperialism, Chandigarh was its post-colonial response. The imperial arrogance of New Delhi had to be overcome by a nationalist city, and Chandigarh was the answer (Khilani [1997] 1999). The loss of Lahore, the capital of Punjab, to Pakistan when that country was created in 1947 necessitated a new capital for the Indian portion of Punjab. The existing cities were inadequate to serve as a capital due to their lack of infrastructure and amenities and their burgeoning populations. It was believed that building a new capital, Chandigarh, would be no more costly than retrofitting one of the existing cities (Kalia 1987). From the onset the Punjabi officials wanted to visit Europe to find an architect/planner for building Chandigarh but could not do so because of Nehru’s intervention. The government of East Punjab opened negotiations with Albert Mayer and Otto Köenigsberger. Otto Köenigsberger was a Jewish-German architect who had not only worked as the chief architect of the Public Works Department in the Princely State of Mysore, but was also involved in the planning of Bhubaneswar, the new capital for Orissa. He also served as a consultant to Faridabad, near Delhi (Kalia 1987). Mayer, an American civil engineer who later became a registered architect and a planner, had served as a lieutenant colonel in India during

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World War II. He was familiar with India through his experimental rural development programs in the Etawah district of the Western United Provinces and assisting in developing master plans for Kanpur, Mumbai, and Delhi. Nehru believed that since both were familiar with India, they would be able to build a city that was rooted in India (Kalia 1987; Perera 2004). At Nehru’s insistence, the government eventually appointed Mayer in December 1949 to plan Chandigarh (Kalia 1987; Perera 2004). His associates Julian Whittlesey and Milton Glass; James Buckley, a consultant in urban economics and transportation; Ralph Oberlin, utilities, road and site engineering expert; Clara Coffey, a landscaping expert; and H.E. Landsberg, a climatologist, would assist Mayer. Mayer also requested Clarence Stein as a general consultant, and it was at Stein’s recommendation that Matthew Nowicki, a Siberian-born and Warsaw-educated architect, joined the team (Kalia 1987). However, Nehru’s dream of building an Indianized city ended with Nowicki’s death in an August 1950 plane crash. It became clear that Mayer would be unable to execute his plan by himself, and Nehru reluctantly authorized the Punjabi officials to visit Europe in search of an architect/planner. Le Corbusier was chosen as the chief planner/architect for the project and was to be assisted by his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and the English husband-wife architectural team of Edwin Maxwell Fry and Jane Beverly Drew (Kalia 1987; Perera 2004). From the beginning, Le Corbusier intended to impose his modernist architectural vision on the city, having little interest in familiarizing himself with India (Evenson 1966; Kalia 1987). Le Corbusier’s affinity for the industrial city made him unsympathetic towards the functional aspects of an Indian city and its aesthetics on an Indian urban environment. Le Corbusier’s plan was abstract and modernist, dictated by geometry and monumentalism, and designed from a European point of view in which Indian culture was conspicuously absent. Even though he spent some time in India before embarking on the planning, he did little to understand or adopt any facets of Indian life (Evenson 1966; Perera 2004). He was concerned more with the Capitol Complex and its monumental buildings than other aspects of city planning (Evenson 1966) (see figure 47). The landscape and ecology also influenced Le Corbusier’s design, which began with a visual consciousness of the landscape. He was conscious of the fact it was a flat site that was locked by the Himalayas to the north. He was aware that the smallest building appeared tall and commanding against such a backdrop and took full advantage of it by placing the capitol group of buildings at the head of the plan against the mountains. The ecological features of the site, which had no difficulties with the subsoil and offered

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Figure 47 The Assembly in Chandigarh Capitol Complex. Architect: Le Corbusier. Final design completed in 1957. Building opened in 1962

Source: Photograph courtesy of Suzanne Frasier, 2010

natural drainage, allowed him the freedom to create a hierarchy of roads without any constraint (Fry 1955; Evenson 1966). Chandigarh’s intentional rejection of a national style was symbolic. It signified that political authority in India must look outward at this critical time and its sovereignty should be internationally recognized. Chandigarh’s goal was to have an international impact and introduce India’s presence to the world (Khilani 1999 [1997]). Corbusian architecture became an image and symbol for modern India as well as the referential model for new architecture and urbanism of post-colonial India for the first 20 years (Lang 1997 et al.; Prakāsh 2011). As pointed out by Kalia (2006), the political endorsement of Le Corbusier’s ideas led to a new appreciation of modernism and a visual variety in Indian cityscapes. Nehru wanted to build a new capital of Punjab that had no association with the colonial past or colonial interpretation of Indian identity as one that was constructed through religious affiliations (Prakāsh 2011). The modernism developed in Chandigarh fitted with Nehru’s ambition for a secular country (Prakāsh 2011). It was acceptable because its design principles never posed a threat to a religiously pluralist India striving to develop a secular identity. A complete deviation from the architectural forms of the British Empire was needed, and modernism was associated with progress

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and liberalism, making it an appropriate architecture in the immediate post-colonial period. Modernism also became popular because it offered opportunities for technological innovation and an aesthetic expression that could solve social problems such as housing. It was an appropriate vehicle for technological and social programs of modernization. Modern buildings also gained popularity among developers because of their lower costs and quick construction methods (Curtis 1987; Kalia 2006).

Revivalist Architecture and the Search for Post-Colonial Architectural Identity Revivalist architectural styles also received a strong boost from many States in search of a post-colonial architectural identity of their own. In fact, before the arrival of Le Corbusier in the 1950s, a major revivalist phase in Indian architecture marked the search for a post-colonial style (Lang et al. 1997; Meherota 2011). Revivalism in Indian architecture included replication of traditional forms, a pastiche of architectural elements from the past and abstractions of past forms. The last type falls under the genre of ‘postmodernism’ and did not appear until the 1970s and 1980s. Revivalism inspired many of the buildings erected in Bhubaneswar, the new capital of Orissa. The planning for Bhubaneswar was initiated in 1946, and buildings such as the Secretariat Building, Staff Quarters, Red Building, Market Building (see figure 48), and the Police Building were built in this style. Other revivalist buildings included the Capital Boys School, Museum, and Guest House. Designed by Chief Architect of the Orissa Public Works Department Julius L. Vaz, or under his leadership in the late 1940s to early 1950s, such buildings incorporated Buddhist elements (Kalia 1994; Lang et al. 1997). As discussed by Kalia (1994), the politicians wanted to create a city inspired by the adjacent temple city. They were especially keen on building a capitol complex that replicated the Lingaraja Temple complex in old Bhubaneswar. They wanted the principal public buildings such as the Secretariat, Governor’s residence, and Assembly to be monumental in proportions like the Lingaraja Temple and built around a square. Besides pleasing politicians, Vaz himself may have wanted to build in the revivalist style given the debate about the search for an Indian architecture in the immediate post-colonial period (Lang et al. 1997). He may also have been influenced by his mentor Claude Batley. Batley was a British architect who had joined the Sir Jamsethji Jijibhai School of Art (popularly known as the Sir J.J. School of Art) in Bombay in 1914. He also

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headed the school from 1923 to 1943. Batley’s influence on his students as well as on Indian architecture in the 1930s was profound and comparable to that of Le Corbusier in the 1950s. He had appealed to the younger generation of Indian architects to develop an architecture that was suitable for India based on Indian tradition (Lang et al. 1997). Vaz was not only a graduate of the Sir J.J. School but had worked for Gregson, Batley, and King in Bombay from 1933 to 1943 (Kalia 1994; Lang et al. 1997). The Vidhan Soudha, the seat of legislature in Bengaluru and the capital in the State of Karnataka, is one of the most significant buildings constructed in revivalist style (see figure 49). It dominates the skyline and houses the Legislative Assembly, Council, and Legislature Library. The building also houses the secretariat offices, State archives, a banquet hall, and ministerial chambers and offices. Designed by the Mysore Public Works Department, it is made of granite and incorporates architectural elements from Hindu dynasties of the region, including the Chalukyan (sixth to twelfth centuries), Hoysala (twelfth to fourteenth centuries), and the Vijyanagar Empire (fourteenth to sixteenth centuries). The designer for the building was B.R. Figure 48 Market Building, Bhubaneswar. Architect: Julius L. Vaz

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2016

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Figure 49 Vidhan Soudha. Designer: B.R. Manikam. Constructed: 1952-1957

Source: Photograph by Shilpi Bharati 2014

Manikam, an Indian civil engineer and town planner. Kengal Hanumanthaiya, who served as chief minister of the State between 1952 and 1956 and 1962 and 1966, promoted the building as a symbol of Dravidian culture and tradition and enlarged it in concept and size (Lang et al. 1997; Nair 2002). When plans for the new structure were developed in 1951, Hanumanthaiya, then Congress president, expressed his dislike for a legislative building fashioned in the ‘plain and simple type of American architecture’ (Hanumanthaiya, as cited in Nair 2002: 1211). Consequently, when he became chief minister in 1952, he instructed the committee set up to redesign the House of Legislature to do so in Indian style (Nair 2002). The building was also an architectural reaction to the humiliation experienced during the colonial period. The prevalent belief is that Hanumanthaiya felt humiliated by Winston Churchill’s reference to Gandhi as a ‘half-naked Fakir’ who had climbed the Viceregal steps in Imperial Delhi to meet Edward Wood Irwin, viceroy of India from 1926 to 1931. He resolved to build a more grander flight of steps in Gandhi’s memory. This new, grander flight of steps was meant to undo this humiliation. He also intended to dwarf the Attara Kacheri, the former colonial government office building, in proportion and majesty, as this was a symbol of imperial power (Nair 2002). Revivalist architecture also received political support from the central government. The central state-sponsored Ashoka Hotel, built in the 1950s in

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Figure 50 Ashoka Hotel. Architects: J.K. Choudhury and Gulzar Singh, 1955

Source: Photograph by Deepanshu Singh. Courtesy of Sunando Dasgupta, 2016

Delhi (see figure 50), is an example of such architecture in the post-colonial era. In this case, Nehru and the bureaucrats intervened to pressure the architects to provide an Indianized facade (Evenson 1989; Lang et al. 1997). The State of Tamil Nadu continued the tradition of revivalism in the 1970s. The Anna Square, built in 1970 to commemorate C.N. Annadurai, is one such example. Annadurai was chief minister of the State from 1967 to 1969 and founder of the Tamil nationalist party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Symbolically located within a mile of Fort St. George and the Madras High Court, both symbols of British imperialism, the architectural style and design of the building is based on classical Hindu South Indian temples. The cultural centre Valluvar Kottam also drew on South Indian classical architectural traditions. The centre, built in Kodambakkam in 1976, was named after the famous Tamil poet and philosopher Tiruvalluvar (Lewandowski 1984).

Lack of a Search for Post-Colonial Architecture in Kolkata Kolkata never resorted to the Chandigarh style of modernism that had become the ‘referential model’ for new architecture and urbanism in postcolonial India. Neither did it adopt revivalist architecture as an expression of post-colonialism. Instead, the first two decades after independence saw

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limited building activities as subsequent regimes faced constant turmoil and crisis. The political economy of post-colonial Kolkata – consisting of the massive influx of refugees, proliferation of slums, and deteriorating urban infrastructure – dictated that local government concentrate on these pressing issues rather than architecture. The city never became the citadel of architectural thought that Mumbai was between the two world wars or Delhi in post-independence India (Lang 2002; Evenson 1989). Neither did Kolkata have the cotton barons of Ahmedabad who patronized Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, or even Balkrisha Doshi in the early post-independence period. In the case of Ahmedabad, Le Corbusier was invited to the city soon after his arrival in India for the Chandigarh project by the mayor, Chinubhai Chimanbhai, nephew of industrial baron Kasturbhai Lalbhai. Despite the fact that he designed only four buildings from his arrival in March 1951, Le Corbusier remained involved with the city until his death in 1965. He also introduced modernism to Ahmedabad’s cotton barons (Kalia 2004). Although his impact was not as extensive as that of Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, the Philadelphia-based American architect, also influenced post-colonial architecture to a great extent in India through his work a decade later (1962-1974) in the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (Lang et al. 1997; Kalia 2006). Doshi had associated with Kahn during his sojourn in the United States in 1958 through a Graham Foundation Fellowship and was instrumental in having Kahn accept the Indian Institute of Management project (Kalia 2004). The impact of Le Corbusier and Kahn was particularly evident among a group of young architects in New Delhi in the 1960s (Evenson 1989). Well-known Indian architects such as Charles Correa, Achyut Kanvinde, and Balkrishna Doshi were influenced by modernism in the 1950s and 1960s, although they later became critical of the style (Kalia 2006). In contrast, Kolkata lacked a distinct, modernist, architectural culture in the post-independence era, which prevented it from embracing this style. Unlike Punjab, Bengal did not need a new capital. Kolkata remained its capital, eliminating the need to establish a new capital with architecture that would symbolize a modern India. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, West Bengal’s second chief minister, looked to the American Ford Foundation for a post-colonial plan to save Kolkata from communism. He was seeking policy advice, rather than an architectural extravaganza, in developing a postcolonial urbanism in Kolkata. The only building that Roy patronized was the New Secretariat Building (1944-1954) (see figure 51) designed by Habib Rahman, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from MIT in 1943 and 1944, respectively. Originally a mechanical engineer,

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Figure 51 New Secretariat Building. Architect: Habib Rahman. Constructed: 1944-1954

Source: Photograph courtesy of Sudeshna Ghosh, 2015

Rahman was sponsored by the Bengal government for his architectural studies and made his initial career with the West Bengal Public Works Department (WBPWD). The new Secretariat Building was designed in the international modernist style by Rahman and is the only building of the era reminiscent of Corbusian architecture. Roy wanted a tall building that

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would symbolize the new political order. The building was fifteen storeys high and the tallest in India at that time (Lang et al. 1997). Another reason for the absence of architectural variety in Kolkata was a lack of established firms. Foreign architects carried out a large portion of the significant work undertaken in the early post-colonial period, illustrating the validity of King’s (1976) concept of cultural colonization. As pointed out by Crinson (2003), Indian independence did not bring about an architectural independence and a sundering of the professional architectural culture. Cultural colonialism persisted because of a shortage of architects and the perpetuation of ideas inherited from the British within the larger framework of development models. This, perhaps, explains the propensity for foreign firms doing architectural work in Kolkata in the early days. For example, Australian architect John A. Ritchie designed the Reserve Bank of India (see figure 52); a shell roof added over Mahajati Shadan Hall was done by an Italian, Dr. A. Carbone. The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Building begun by an Indian architect was taken up by Maxwell Fry and eventually completed by Mody and Colgan of Mumbai. Holabird and Root of Chicago designed the Tata Centre (see figure 53), Figure 52 Reserve Bank of India. Architect: John A. Ritchie

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

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and Willgoose and Chase of Washington, DC, did the US Consulate Staff Quarters. Even after the arrival of Le Corbusier, some of the significant buildings built in Kolkata were done in revivalist style. For example, the Akashvani Bhaban (the All India Radio building) (see figure 54) and the Ramakrishna Mission Complex – both completed in 1958 and designed by William B. Kerr of Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews – incorporated Arco Deco elements with traditional Indian motifs. The Birla Planetarium, Figure 53 Tata Centre. Designer: Holabird and Root of Chicago

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

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Figure 54 Akashvani Bhaban. Designer: William B. Kerr. Completed: 1958

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

completed in 1963 and designed by G.K. Gora of the same f irm, incorporated Buddhist architectural elements from stupas, railings, and the f inial at the apex (Lang et al. 1997) (see f igure 55). However, this does not mean that Kolkata became a revivalist city, as there was no one to champion the style. The introduction of the high-rise buildings was another signif icant aspect of the search for post-colonial architecture. Such buildings were seen as symbols of progress. In the early post-colonial period, high-rises were primarily located in the posh areas of Mumbai such as Malabar Hill and Cumballa because of the booming economy of the city and scarcity of land (Evenson 1989). Between the 1960s and 1990s, Nariman Point and Cuff Parade witnessed a proliferation of high-rise office buildings. These were the ‘architecture of commercialism’ and consisted of commercial development that began to appear in major Indian metropolises, particularly in Mumbai, in the 1970s. Symbols of individual status and wealth, they often were copied from photographs in international magazines, even when architects were involved in their design (Lang et al. 1997). Unlike Mumbai, except for a few office towers in the Chowringhi area, skyscrapers did not

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Figure 55 Birla Planetarium. Designer: G.K. Gora. Completed: 1963

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

dominate Kolkata’s skyline, due to the slow pace of development (Evenson 1989) (see figure 56). Over 20 years of limited and bureaucratic building activity by the local leftist regime and a private industry restrained by its leftist agenda resulted in a contained culture of domestic architectural design. The only exceptions were some bungalows in the rich enclave of Bidhannagar and a few isolated buildings for the ultra rich. As discussed in the next chapter, the government’s development agenda was limited to rural development. Marxist rhetoric infused the development of Kolkata’s post-colonial identity. The

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Figure 56 Kolkata skyline around Chowringhi: A view from the Maidan

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

Calcutta Book Fair (or ‘Boimela’ in Bengali), with fake architecture made of plaster of Paris, cloth, plywood, cardboard, and bamboo, took the place of any real architecture (see figure 57). The fair was initiated in 1976 by the Kolkata Publishers and Bookseller’s Guild. By the 1980s and early 1990s, the city hosted two book fairs, one by Kolkata Publishers and Bookseller’s Guild and the other, Gronthomela (Bengali for ‘book fair’), by the government of West Bengal. The phenomenal growth of Boimela led the government of West Bengal to merge the two in 1992. Held in the Maidan until 2009, the fair overlaps the festival of Saraswati Puja. Saraswati is the goddess of learning and widely celebrated in Kolkata. The fair has an international theme each year and mimics Western edifices in the flimsy materials described above. While Roy (2003) attributes a slightly different meaning, this can be deemed an effort of a leftist regime to define its own vision of urbanism. The Marxist agenda also restricted private investment, which limited building activities. The government had few architects who could build anything better than what is known as the ‘utilitarian modern’ style in Kolkata (see figures 58 and 59). The style emerged in the 1970s as the criticism against modern architecture in India intensified. The euphoria of modernism began to die by the late 1960s. Critiques questioned its ability to meet the housing needs of all classes, failure to meet the needs of Indian cultural and spatial

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Figure 57 The Eiffel Tower as the gate to the Boimela in 1997

Source: Photograph by Ananya Roy (taken from Roy [2003], p. 6). Used with permission from the University of Minnesota Press

requirements, and even its aesthetic appeal.1 As pointed out by Lang (2002), many building types including housing, office buildings, district centres, schools, and government administration buildings were built in utilitarian modern style. Such architecture evolved from the work of the large Anglo-Indian (especially the ones with Indian partners) and engineering firms. The Anglo-Indian firms had emerged at the turn of the twentieth century and were headed by British architects. Often, they employed Indians as draughtsmen. It was only by the 1940s that Indian architects became joint partners in such firms (Evenson 1989; Lang et al. 1997; Crinson 2003). Utilitarian modern buildings are reinforced concrete structures with flat roofs and shading devices consisting of projecting concrete slabs or chajjaas. The style is functionalist, but recognizably Indian. Despite the variety of buildings that fall under the style, housing schemes undertaken 1

For a detailed discussion, see Lang et al. 1997.

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Figure 58 Jalasampad Bhaban, the Office of Irrigation and Waterways Department, Government of West Bengal in Bidhannagar. An example of the ‘utilitarian modern’ style

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

by government agencies exemplify such work (Lang et al. 1997). In fact, it was often civil engineers who were responsible for the government buildings in Kolkata that led to the proliferation of the style. As far as domestic architecture is concerned, we see modern Indian vernacular architecture, especially in Bidhannagar (see figures 60 to 62). Modern Indian vernacular consists of a haphazard juxtaposition of architectural elements ranging from elements borrowed from modernism to Indian historical architecture. This type of architecture is found in suburban-plotted developments as well as high-rise office buildings and is popular among middle classes. Residential architecture that falls under this category is characterized by pitched concrete roofs with tiles, sloping concrete chajjaas, and concrete balustrades, projections at the floor or parapet level, and decorative arches (Lang et al. 1997). The most dominant type for the period is the architecture of the contract builder (see figure 63) and the houses built using a mistiri (master mason) (see figure 64). This is especially true in Kolkata’s residential architecture. Architecture of the contractor builder is a variety that prevailed from the

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Figure 59 The main office of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority in Unnayan Bhaban, Bidhannagar. Another example of the ‘utilitarian modern’ style

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

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Figure 60 A single-family residence in Bidhannagar. An example of modern Indian vernacular architecture

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

Figure 61 Flats in Bidhannagar. An example of modern Indian vernacular architecture

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

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Figure 62 Flats in South Kolkata. An example of modern Indian vernacular architecture

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

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Figure 63 Flats in South Kolkata. Architecture of the contractor builder

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

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Figure 64  Mistiri-built housing in South Kolkata

Source: Photograph by the author, 1999

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early post-independence period. These are mostly residential buildings designed and built by contractors according to standard models. Although an architect may be employed occasionally, the developer makes changes according to their needs. Profit and space maximization are the main motivations behind such architecture and they are often in violation of building codes (Lang et al. 1997). The mistiri-built housing has also been popular in residential construction in the post-colonial era. This simply entails the employment of a mistiri by the owner to construct a dwelling. Despite the lack of a definitive search for a post-colonial architecture, some of the new schools of architecture and planning were formed in Kolkata’s vicinity in the early post-independence period. The Department of Architecture and Town and Country Planning at Bengal Engineering College in Shibpur, Haora (now known as the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur) was initiated in 1949, while the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning was started at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur in 1959 (Evenson 1989; Crinson 2003). As pointed out by Crinson (2003), the development of architectural culture and education in India was a satellite of the imperial architectural culture, and later, a globalized architectural culture. Consequently, even the newly established schools continued to impart Westernized architectural education. The Western influence in Bengal Engineering College is evident from the fact that the architecture program was headed by Joseph Allen Stein, an American architect, from 1952. Stein was followed by a succession of Western architects, such as Eduardo Sacriste and J.A. Cordes. During the author’s architectural education in Bengal Engineering College from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, modernism was in vogue. History courses emphasized a survey of Western architecture, while Indian history was covered from an Orientalist perspective.2 Students looked at Western journals for design inspiration. The Indianization of their designs was limited to adding decorative elements such as chajjaas, jaalis, concrete balustrades, projections at the floor or parapet level, arches, and the use of exposed brick.

In Search of Post-Colonial Planning: An Overview The search for a post-colonial planning agenda was much more profound than the search for post-colonial architecture since India had more pressing 2

See Hosagrahar 2002 for the concept.

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planning problems when it gained its independence. These included an influx of refugees, underdevelopment and proliferation of slums, and a lack of housing and other infrastructure such as roads, dams, power, and industry. Upon gaining independence, India attempted to correct these legacies of colonialism by adopting a Soviet-style, centralized planning model with an urban industrial bias, a strong emphasis on economic self-reliance, and a commitment to promote indigenous industry. A series of Five-Year Plans were devised by the newly independent Indian state to guide the country’s development. The implementation of the First Five-Year Plan was in 1951. Although the First Five-Year Plan focused on development of agricultural infrastructure, the industrial bias was evident in the Second Five-Year Plan of 1956. The reasons for restructuring the industrial policy in the mid-1960s included: the realization that agricultural growth was as important as industrial growth; disillusionment with industry-led development model’s capacity to address the problems of rural poverty; a tremendous shortage of food; and pressure from the World Bank and the United States to change agricultural policies (Alavi 1975; Bardhan 1984; Rudolph and Rudolph 1987). The place of the city became an intense source of debate as the bureaucrats and leaders began to define the goals for national development (Evenson 1989). The First Five-Year Plan called for a uniform National Town and County Planning Act that would provide guidelines for zoning, land use and slum clearance; development control including location of industries; conduction of urban surveys; and preparation of master plans. In some States, legislation on town planning had already been enacted or was being contemplated at that time (Government of India 1951). The Indian state also embarked on building the celebrated State capitals of Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar as well as other new towns in which to settle refugees, house industries, and serve lesser administrative functions. The underlying assumption was that urban planning could serve as a policy tool for modernization, economic growth, and social change. The government had also planned on building 300 new towns by the end of the twentieth century. The government hoped that such policies would improve communications, raise living standards, bring law and order to communally torn areas, provide social mobility for the poor, and bring about a balanced urbanization pattern (Evenson 1989; Kalia 2006). Nehru himself was familiar with the modern city planning utopias of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and their potential for improving old cities and building new ones (Kalia 2006). Given such a modernist outlook, it was natural for him to patronize the ambitious urban planning programs that India launched after independence. He saw the

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city as the centre of modernization from which it would spread through the society (Khilani [1997] 1999). However, cultural colonization persisted as a larger number of foreign consultants were utilized in the arena of city planning (Evenson 1989).

The Initial Acts of Decolonization in Kolkata The first acts of decolonization in Kolkata were the removal of the statues of British colonizers and renaming of buildings and streets. This action was common throughout India.3 For example, immediately after independence, Harrison Road was renamed Mahatma Gandhi Road, the upper part of Chowringhi Road was renamed Jawaharlal Nehru Road, and Lower Chitpur Road became Rabindra Sarani (Moorhouse 1971). Wellesley’s palace was called Rajbhaban, meaning ‘house of the state’, as it became the State governor’s residence. This practice continued into the late 1960s. The principal ministries and various departments of the government of West Bengal are still housed in the Writers Building,4 which was renamed Mahakaran, which is the Bengali word for secretariat’. Dalhousie Square was renamed BinoyBadal-Dinesh Bagh to memorialize the three young revolutionaries who shot Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Skinner Simpson, the inspector general of prisons, in 1930 (Chatterjee 2012). Ochterlony Monument became Shahid Minar, which means ‘monuments of the martyrs’ in Bengali. Harrington Street became Ho Chi Minh Sarani. Naming streets after communist world leaders became popular with the United Front government – a coalition of anti-Congress and leftist parties that had come to power in the State of West Bengal for a second time in 1969. Dharmatala Street, for example, was renamed Lenin Sarani. A bronze statue of Lenin overlooking Lenin Sarani was mounted on a plinth in a small public garden formerly dedicated to Lord Curzon (see figure 65). The statue was a gift to the city from the USSR to mark Lenin’s birth centenary. Remaining vestiges of the British Empire in the forms of statues were removed from the Maidan and its vicinity and replaced with those of nationalist leaders. A Martyrs’ Memorial to local party heroes was placed across the street from Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh (Moorhouse 1971). 3 For such acts in other cities see, for example, Lewandowski 1984; Lang et al. 1997; Joardar 2006. 4 Some of the departments were moved to a building in Haora temporarily on 1 October 2013 in order to renovate the building. As the time of writing the renovations are ongoing. It is rumoured the current chief minister, Trinomool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee left the CPI(M) party leaders and officials in Mahakaran.

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Figure 65 Statue of Lenin overlooking Lenin Sarani

Source: Photograph by Subhadip Basu. Courtesy of Purnendu Bikas Sengupta, 2016

The spatial demarcations of the colonial city were retained immediately after independence. The native upper classes – consisting of capital and land owners, political leaders, and upper-level government officials – occupied the spaces once reserved for the British. Class divisions replaced racial

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divisions in the city (Chakravorty 2000), a pattern that was similar in the rest of India. As pointed out by Chatterjee (2004), the urban elite that emerged in the colonial period exercised their social and political dominance in postcolonial Indian cities by replacing the British in positions of state authority. With this new authority, they devised new means of control over new electoral institutions in the 1950s and 1960s. This was also true for Kolkata and can be seen as a major act of decolonization. In Kolkata, the wealthy property owners often became patrons and representatives of the ruling Congress Party, providing moral leadership to urban neighbourhoods. The wealthy and middle classes organized and supported an extensive network of neighbourhood institutions that included schools, sports clubs, markets, tea shops, libraries, parks, and religious and charitable associations. The social and political dominance of the wealthy in Kolkata was maintained through a grid of neighbourhood institutions that nurtured communities. The urban poor often entered patron-client relationships with the wealthy that were mediated by charitable organizations and proto-unions. In cases where political activists organized the industrial working class, unions provided a link between the bustee-dwelling workers and the middle-class intelligentsia (Chatterjee 2004).

Material Legacies of Colonial Planning and Kolkata’s PostColonial Urban Problems The material legacies of colonial planning contributed to Kolkata’s postcolonial urban problems. As discussed in chapters 2 and 3, the basic principle of town planning in colonial Kolkata consisted of making the city clean, healthy, and beautiful for the British and exerting control over the indigenous parts of the city. The municipal government refused to accept the moral responsibility for the hardship of bustee dwellers caused by such schemes. As a result, the bustee clearance and road construction schemes primarily benefitted the British and some of the wealthy Indians. In many cases, bustee dwellers simply moved to other bustees when their neighbourhoods were demolished, thereby perpetuating a vicious cycle. Obviously, the bustee problem that Kolkata inherited in the post-colonial period was a product of colonial urban planning policies. Discrimination in the provision of services in the colonial period also led to a lopsided development of Kolkata. The White Town generally received priority in health and sanitary measures, leaving large sections of the city in a slumlike situation.

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Political Economy of Post-Colonial Kolkata and Its Urban Problems The political economy of post-independence Kolkata contributed to its urban problems. The phenomenal population growth of Kolkata exacerbated the situation of the already deteriorating infrastructure and shelter in the city. The population of the Calcutta Metropolitan District (CMD) grew from 4.31 million to 5.37 million between 1941 and 1951, to 6.72 million in 1961, and to 8.33 million in 1971. The CMD was conceived by the Basic Development Plan (BDP)5 and consisted of the agglomeration of cities and towns that had grown in a linear and continuous pattern along both banks of the river Hugli or Ganga (see figure 66). The city’s population grew from 2.17 to 2.70 million between 1941 and 1951, to 2.93 million in 1961, and to 3.13 million in 1971 (Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation 1966; Racine [1986] 1990]). With the exception of the incorporation of the Tallygunge municipal area to the KMC in 1953, the boundaries remained the same. A new municipality adjoining the southern portion of Kolkata was set up in Jadavpur in 1980. The Jadavpur, South Suburban, and Garden Reach municipalities were merged into the KMC in 1983 (Lubell 1974; Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority 2000). As the chapter ends around the mid-1990s, it is important to describe the changes in Kolkata’s population and boundaries up to that point. The population of the CMD increased to an estimated 10.2 million in 1981 with the city’s population rising to 3.29 million (Racine [1986 ]1990). The phenomenal growth continued and the CMD was renamed the Calcutta Metropolitan Area (CMA). It had a population of 11.86 million in 1991, of which 4.39 million lived in the KMC and 0.95 million in the Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC). The CMA covered a total area of 1,380 square kilometres. Within this area were various administrative units, including three municipal corporations, 34 municipalities, four notified areas, and 20 panchayat samities (Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority 1994) (see figure 67). Notified areas are urban political units comparable to municipalities, while panchayat samities are local governments in smaller areas that are known as development blocks. Much of the population growth in the immediate post-independence period was attributable to an influx of refugees. In fact, the independence of India saw an influx of 700,000 refugees to Kolkata. As homeless people swarmed into the city, it was estimated that about 30,000 people 5

The BDP is discussed later in the chapter.

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Figure 66 The Calcutta Metropolitan District in 1966

Source: Developed by the author from: Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation 1966

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Figure 67 The Calcutta Metropolitan Area in 1991

Source: Developed by the author from: Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority 1994

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were living on the pavements by the early 1960s. By the late 1980s, the number of pavement dwellers was estimated to have risen to 60,000. Some of the refugees received government aid and were given shelter in relief camps. Many, however, had to squat in the empty buildings and lands in the marshy, low-lying areas on the periphery of the city. About 500 refugee families squatted in the Sealdah Railroad station until 1956. According to one estimate, one million refugees settled in the Kolkata agglomeration and its surroundings between 1946 and 1961. The influx of refugees not only aggravated the housing situation, it also increased competition for jobs (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Racine [1986 ]1990; Sinha [1986 ]1990; Evenson 1989; Unnayan 1992; Bardhan Roy 1994; Thomas 1997). In 1953, the bustee population was 600,000 and growing. According to a 1970 estimate, Kolkata had 949,905 legal bustee dwellers in 988 such settlements. The bustee population was estimated to be 1.35 million in the early 1980s and 1.8 million by 1991 (see figures 68 to 70 for views of slum and squatter settlements). In addition to the influx of refugees, Kolkata had to withstand a natural migration of 542,000 people between 1951 and 1961 and 15,140 between 1961 and 1971. The 1964 war with Pakistan and the Figure 68  Bustee in Kolkata

Source: Photograph courtesy of the Calcutta Urban Service, 2003

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Figure 69 Squatters along railroad tracks in Kolkata

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

Figure 70 Squatters along a canal in Kolkata

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

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Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 also resulted in numerous refugees coming to the city. In fact, Kolkata had to accommodate two million refugees within a quarter century after independence (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Racine [1986 ]1990; Sinha [1986]1990; Evenson 1989; Unnayan 1992; Bardhan Roy 1994 Thomas 1997). The infrastructure and housing in the city were not equipped to deal with the influx of this many people. In addition, the partition of Bengal at independence also crippled the economy. For example, the jute industry was severely affected as Kolkata no longer had access to hemp. The partition also deprived the city of a huge hinterland that its commerce and industry had served. Other traditional industries such as rubber, paper, and heavy engineering declined by the 1960s. New industries located in other competitive regions in India. The decline in manufacturing was attributable to power shortages, labour disputes, influx of refugees, lack of investment capital due to political climate, excess capacity of older industries in a shrinking world market for their goods, and national freight equalization schemes in steel and coal industries.6 Even the city’s traditional function as a port declined by the mid-1970s as a consequence of new ports being set up or existing ones being modernized in other parts of India (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Racine [1986]1990], Sinha [1986 ]1990; Evenson 1989; Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Unnayan 1992; Bardhan Roy 1994; Thomas 1997).

Administrative Structure and the Continuation of the Colonial Legacy in the Immediate Post-Colonial Period The local administrative structure of Kolkata remained the same in the immediate post-colonial period. The municipal affairs and collection of taxes continued to be governed by the Calcutta Municipal Act of 1923 and under the jurisdiction of the KMC. The KIT was still responsible for sanitary improvement and slum clearance. The KMC did not function effectively as many of the councillors acted in their own interests. As stated in the last chapter, the KMC had been a platform for honest politicians to launch their careers in the independence movement. This was not the case after 1947 when such politicians moved on to State and national politics, leaving behind a corrupt municipal body. Property was deliberately undervalued in the interest of the rich, thereby depriving the municipal body of revenues to provide adequate urban infrastructure. No civic elections were held after 6 These schemes are discussed in detail in the next chapter.

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1944, and the KMC was superseded in 1948 by the first elected government of the State and placed under the administrative control of a government official (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Pugh 1989). In the meantime, the KIT continued the colonial legacy of Haussmannian planning, and displacement of the bustee dwellers took place from the late 1940s through the early 1950s. All such evictions occurred despite the fact that the Thika Tenancy Act of 1949 had conferred legal rights to thika tenants to prevent the eviction of bustee dwellers. At that time land in Kolkata’s bustees was owned by mainly absentee landlords. They, in turn, leased the land to intermediary developers known as thika tenants who constructed the huts and rented them to the bustee dwellers (Unnayan 1992). Elections were held after the passage of the Calcutta Corporation Act of 1951, which laid down stipulations for bustee improvement. According to the act, the improvement in bustees was to be carried out by the bustee landlords or thika tenants. The act empowered the KMC to impose a penalty in cases of noncompliance. The KMC was reluctant to undertake slum improvement. The policy was a continuation of the colonial practice of leaving the onus of bustee improvements to owners. In fact, akin to colonial policies, the KMC was empowered to prepare a ‘Standard Plan’ of bustees that would guide the improvements of the settlement. The KMC also had the power to purchase bustee land in order to carry out the improvements (Pugh 1989; Unnayan 1992; Bardhan Roy 1994; Sengupta 2010). City-wide momentum on the mobilization of the inhabitants by the left began with the Calcutta Improvement (Amendment) Bill of 1954. The proposed bill would have provided statutory power to the KIT to clear bustees for developmental purposes. The left labelled this a ploy to uproot the entire bustee population of Kolkata. The Praja Socialist Party (PSP) led the organizing of the bustee dwellers’ against the bill with a bustee dwellers’ association known as Bastbasi Sammelan. By the mid-1950s, the CPI assumed the leadership. The party was already organizing bustee dwellers on political issues, preventing evictions, and providing protection against goondas7 as well as carrying out welfare activities. The placing of the Slum Clearance Bill in the West Bengal Assembly in 1957 resulted in a sustained agitation led by the Calcutta Bustee Federation and other bustee organizations with political support from the CPI. In fact, the agitation was instrumental in changing the provisions of the bill to include the rehabilitation of bustee dwellers in permanent housing when the bill was passed as 7 The word has its origins in Hindi. It is also used in Bengali and English to refer to hired thugs.

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the Calcutta Slum Clearance and Rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers Act of 1958 (Unnayan 1992). However, only twelve bustee rehousing schemes were undertaken by the KIT until the 1970s (Pugh 1989; Unnayan 1992; Bardhan Roy 1994; Sengupta 2010).

Western Discourse on Kolkata and the Advent of Western Planning The ‘scare of Kolkata’ portrayed in the discourse of such eminent figures as Lévi-Strauss, V.S. Naipaul, and Geoffrey Moorhouse as well as the visual images in Western films such as Louis Malle’s documentary Calcutta (1969), discussed in chapter 1, in part prompted Western planning interventions in the 1960s and 1970s. Besides the appalling conditions of the city, Westerners and the ruling Congress Party at the State and central level were also alarmed with the rise of leftist forces in Kolkata. As aptly stated by Munshi, ‘The scare of Calcutta had turned vivid during the early sixties with strikes and street battles, which had become everyday occurrences’ (Munshi 1978: 21). Munshi (1978) also points out that a 1961 New York Times article featured a detailed account of a communist conspiracy brewing in Kolkata. The newspaper informed its readers that the Ford Foundation had allocated US$800,000 for a development plan and another US$600,000 for research on the city by the New York Institute of Public Administration (New York Times 1961, as cited in Munshi 1978). This scare of Kolkata led, in part, to much of the planning activities described in the sections below.

The Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation and the Export of the American Planning Paradigm to Kolkata By the mid-1950s, Kolkata had earned its infamous reputation as the ‘cholera capital of the world’ because of more than a thousand cholera deaths a year (Thomas 1997). The continuous neglect of the bustee population from colonial times eventually led to the outbreak of a severe cholera epidemic in the city in 1958. The situation became so critical that it demanded immediate attention, and the West Bengal government invited the World Health Organization (WHO) to remedy the situation. The WHO team visited Kolkata in 1959 and recommended the immediate provision of a potable water supply, drainage, and sewerage along with a concrete long-term policy to remedy the problems of the city, addressing issues such as transportation,

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housing, slums, and land use (Bardhan Roy 1994; Banerjee and Chakravorty 1994). Soon after the WHO report, Dr. Roy and Nehru decided to seek the Ford Foundation’s help as consultants to develop a plan for Kolkata in 1960 to save it from communism. The Ford Foundation’s Indian Bureau initially was not interested in developing such a plan as urban planning was not within its broader mission for India. However, Dr. Roy persisted, with Nehru’s help, arguing that Kolkata and the whole of India were under the threat of communism unless living conditions for the city were improved (Banerjee 2005, 2009). The Ford Foundation eventually agreed to participate in the planning of Kolkata. In their initial visit to the city, Ford representatives found that Kolkata did not have a planning organization that could manage such a major planning initiative. This led to the establishment of the CMPO by the State government in 1961 to house the Ford Foundation team. The CMPO was formed hastily and not legislatively approved, thereby lacking statutory power to implement any major planning guidelines. The planning process began with a team of foreign experts assembled by the Ford Foundation. It included professionals from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the WHO. Local professionals were recruited soon after their arrival; many of them had been educated abroad. Some of those locally recruited professionals were well versed in American planning paradigms but others were not and had to become familiar with them. However, the plan was primarily prepared under the guidance of the foreign consultants and reflected their conceptual influence. The same team that had undertaken the Delhi Master Plan8 of 1962 initiated the planning for Kolkata. Unlike Delhi, the Ford Foundation’s involvement in Kolkata was longer and lasted until the advent of communists in the State government in the late 1960s (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Banerjee and Chakravorty 1994; Banerjee 2005). Despite the Ford Foundation’s effort to involve local experts, King’s (1976) concept of cultural colonization in the plan cannot be denied. Following King, this was a case where cultural independence lagged behind the political and economic autonomy as the new elites continued to depend on the West to create a plan for Kolkata. Although they did not turn to Britain, the planning was still done by Westerners. Ultimately, it was the biggest instance of a transfer of the comprehensive planning paradigm to a city in the Global South. Following the propositions of post-colonial theory (McEwan 2009),

8

For a detailed discussion of the Delhi Plan, see Chatterjee and Kenny 1999; Banerjee 2009.

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it was a case where the West created knowledge about the South in the form of developmentalism. Nonetheless, the BDP published in 1966 was a major shift from the master planning paradigm. It recommended long-range strategic initiatives for infrastructure and slum improvement, mobility and transportation, housing and neighbourhood development, future growth, and industrial and economic development. It was comprehensive, policy-oriented, regional in scope, and included social and economic policies to guide metropolitan development (Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation 1966). The influence of comprehensive planning on Kolkata was more significant than the influence of modernism on architects in the city. The BDP proposed a bimodal development strategy for the newly defined CMD, with government intervention at two centres – Kolkata-Haora and Kalyani-Basberia (see figure 66). The latter was conceived to act as a counter magnet for Kolkata. Although the BDP was not intended to be project specific, it did have a list of projects in an addendum, including ones that were already being implemented or under consideration. The reasons for these additional projects were primarily because of political pressure. It is important to note that the celebrated Bustee Improvement Programme (BIP) of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), now known as the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), was proposed in the BDP. BIP was a precursor to the World Bank’s ‘slum upgrading schemes’ and consisted of in situ environmental improvement of bustees by providing basic services such as water, sanitary latrines sewerage, stormwater drainage, treatment tanks, and electricity. The underlying assumption was that the previous policy of eradicating bustees and rehabilitating them in formal housing would not solve Kolkata’s problems. Although the BIP was strongly supported by the central government, it found little support from any local organizations and parties. The KMC refused to implement the BIP as the mayor who belonged to a leftist party resorted to Marxist rhetoric, declaring it a vicious plan to undermine the revolutionary potential for social change. Therefore the implementation of the BIP in this period was limited to a few bustees undertaken by the CMPO itself. The bustees that were selected for the BIP were on the outskirts of the city. Besides the BIP, the CMPO planned a slum clearance programme for central city areas because they were seen as densely populated and posing health hazards. Clearance and rehabilitation were to take place simultaneously (Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Bardhan Roy 1994).9 9

Also based on author’s interviews with KMDA officials in 1999 and 2003.

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The changing political climate of Kolkata and India hampered the implementation of the BDP. In the subsequent years after the BDP’s development, there were three elections in which various coalitions of left- and right-wing parties came to power in the State, each lasting for about a year. Leftist parties such as the CPI(M), the CPI, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) began to gain support by the mid-1960s. Eventually, a coalition of leftist and anti-Congress parties – the United Front – defeated the Congress Party in the State elections in 1967, ending its 20 years of dominance over the State. However, Congress still maintained its control on Kolkata as it had won the 1965 KMC elections. The overlapping jurisdiction of the city and State regimes in Kolkata witnessed several political battles that prevented any positive urban development. For example, the United Front government reduced taxes on bustees as a populist measure. Such a policy was also aimed at reducing the resource base for the KMC. The United Front also ordered the police not to interfere with labour management strife that led to numerous gheraos that crippled the industries (Kohli 1990). Since the Congress Party was the primary patron of the BDP, the loss in the State elections brought strong opposition to the BDP and CMPO. The coalition that came to power resorted to leftist rhetoric and demanded that the CMPO should not be allowed to proceed because it did not have the legal authority. It was also seen as a bureaucratic organization staffed with expatriates and funded by capitalist donors for the sole purpose of spying and labelled an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). There was no Dr. Roy to champion the cause of the CMPO and the BDP. He had died in 1962. Nor was there any support from the centre as Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who had just become the prime minister in 1966, was busy consolidating her power and dealing with India’s declining economy (Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Kohli 1990; Banerjee and Chakravorty 1994).

The Fear of Communism and the Formation of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority The ongoing Bangladesh Liberation War added to Kolkata’s woes through a daily influx of large numbers of refugees. The city’s infrastructure was rapidly deteriorating and a large proportion of the population was without any urban amenities. Unemployment, plant closures, and social unrest were on the rise. Colleges were closed due to violence that engulfed the city. The political instability of the period further exacerbated the situation. The escalation of the Naxalite movement led to infighting between the Naxalites

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and the CPI(M) and other political parties, and subsequent violence in Kolkata. As a result, Kolkata became a battlefield. The Naxalites killed what they deemed ‘class enemies’ on a daily basis, These ‘enemies’ consisted of members of other political parties – mainly the CPI(M) – university professors, informers, and members of the police, thereby unleashing an unprecedented urban terror in Kolkata (Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Kohli 1990; Banerjee and Chakravorty 1994).10 Perturbed by the revolutionary rhetoric of the Naxalites and the support they received from the youth and intellectuals as well as by the electoral inroads made into State politics by leftist parties, the central government felt that a massive flow of funds was needed for urban development to curb the rise of leftist forces (Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Banerjee and Chakravorty 1994). Mrs. Gandhi sent a high-powered delegation in 1970 to assess Kolkata’s situation. The delegation recommended the formation of the KMDA as a statutory body with legal powers to mobilize and allocate resources to execute urban development projects (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Banerjee and Chakravorty 1994). A presidential decree in 1970 created the KMDA to channel funding to Kolkata with a US$200 million grant from the central government to implement projects that were identified in the BDP. The World Bank was also instrumental in the creation of the KMDA. However, it did not begin providing assistance to the KMDA until three years after its formation. When the bank took an interest in Kolkata’s urban development in the early 1970s, it found existing municipalities too small and ineffective and proposed the creation of a new metropolitan development authority. KMDA was also created to serve as a metropolitan-level agency to plan, finance, and coordinate projects for Kolkata’s physical development and not duplicate the planning function of agencies such as the KIT. The agency was also not initially responsible for implementation or maintenance of these projects (Pugh 1989).11 In 1974 the KMDA began to implement 44 projects from the appended list of 160 in the BDP through a US$35 million loan from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank under Calcutta Urban Development Project 1, 1972/73-1975/76. The IDA loan granted in 1973 represented only 20 per cent of the KMDA’s total program. The projects were mainly infrastructure including water, roads, and bridges and did not 10 The description of Kolkata’s unrest in the 1960s and 1970s is also based on the author’s observations at that time. 11 Also based on the author’s interviews with senior KMDA officials in 2003.

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include the well-celebrated BIP. The projects approved by the World Bank were rather arbitrary because it had yet to establish a well-defined criteria for funding urban projects (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Pugh 1989; Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Banerjee and Chakravorty 1994). A second IDA credit of US$87 million was granted in 1977. This funding included support for the projects that were selected earlier, as well as participation in the BIP, construction and extension of primary schools, revamping the city’s waste collection and disposal system, and loans for small enterprises. The distinction between projects that could be funded by IDA assistance and the KMDA’s overall scheme of projects continued until the sanction of US$147 million in 1983 under the Calcutta Urban Development Project III out of a total KMDA program of US$347 million (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986). The World Bank did not approve the BIP initially because the KMDA was not willing to address the question of security of tenure. The bank was concerned that without legal tenure, there would be no further investment by bustee dwellers in the dwellings. Without such tenure, many of them, especially the renters, would be evicted as soon as improvements were completed. Such issues would affect the World Bank’s goals of cost recovery and replicability. The KMDA did not want to address the issue for several reasons. As previously explained, Kolkata’s bustees at that time were owned by (mainly absentee) landlords who leased the land to intermediary developers known as thika tenants. These tenants then constructed the huts and rented them to the bustee dwellers. So, there was a dilemma about who would get tenure in this situation. The KMDA argued that Kolkata’s bustees could not wait for the tenure issue to be resolved before undertaking the BIP. The political situation of the bustees also resulted in the KMDA’s reluctance to tackle the issue of tenure. When the KMDA embarked on the BIP in the early 1970s, the situation in the bustees was volatile. Many Naxalites had taken refuge there. They opposed the BIP because they felt it was a ploy to remove them from the bustees. Perhaps the KMDA would not have succeeded in implementing the BIP without the support of the thika tenants because they hoped that those improvements would raise their property values. Pursuing the issue of tenure would have, perhaps, urged the thika tenants to join the landlords and the Naxalites to disrupt the BIP (Sanyal and Tiwari 1991). The Thika Tenancy (Acquisition and Regulation) Act of 1981 eventually increased the security of tenure of the bustee dwellers. Since the act was passed, the thika tenants became tenants of the State, which abolished the landlord system by acquiring and purchasing the land that belonged to the landlords. The land tax is now paid directly by the thika tenants. The World Bank took a cautious stance and waited to

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see the progress of the BIP before it extended its support to the project. After seeing the success of the BIP in improving the living conditions in the bustees, the bank increased its loan to Rs 478 million (approximately US$55 million) under Calcutta Urban Development Project II, 1977/78-1981/82, which included loans for the BIP (Pugh 1989). The BIP was a progressive scheme because it was one of the first programmes in the Global South to recognize the housing stock of the poor. Prior to that, the existing policy in Kolkata was to eradicate bustees and relocate them in regular housing at a subsidized rent. However, it was realized that the magnitude of the problem was so huge that it was impossible to rehouse all the bustee dwellers. Most of the ones relocated in earlier schemes had moved on to other bustees, transferring the regular housing to a higher-income group. There was a realization that bustee dwellers lived in an informal economy that was grounded in the bustee. Consequently, it was determined that it was best to upgrade them rather than to relocate them. Initially, the process of upgrading was basic and consisted of improved sanitation practices. These included the removal of pit privies and the provision of community sanitary toilets, potable water, and street lighting. Further improvements included upgrades in sewage and drainage, garbage disposal, and street pavement. From 1975 onwards, the BIP extended its coverage to social and economic development (also see Pugh 1989 in this context).12 The BIP had four phases. Phase I of the Program was from 1971/72 to 1975/76, Phase II from 1975/76 to 1980/81, Phase III from 1977/78 to 1983/84, and Phase IV from 1982/83 to 1988. As stated above, the KMDA was able to increase the scope of BIP in Phase II because of World Bank assistance. Phase IV, under Calcutta Urban Development Project III, also involved the KMC. At the time the BIP was absorbed in the municipal reform programs of the early 1980s. The KMDA acted as guarantor of the grant and the KMC was responsible for design and implementation of the project. The KMDA supervised KMC activities and sanctioned the money under stipulations set forth under Calcutta Urban Development Project III (Churches Auxiliary for Social Action 1984; Bardhan Roy 1994; Thomas 1997). Despite its progressive nature, the BIP was a lost opportunity to involve the voluntary sector in grassroots planning. According to KMDA officials, a discussion with voluntary organization officials revealed that they were not involved in the physical improvement of bustees because it was too expensive. They were primarily involved in relief work. Accordingly, they were not involved in the BIP even during its heyday in the 1970s. The KMDA bypassed 12 Also based on author’s interviews with KMDA officials in 1996, 1999, and 2003.

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the entire voluntary sector, except for seeking an ‘entry’ into through CBOs, clubs, and NGOs including welfare wings of churches and Hindu religious organizations. According to CMDA officials, they encountered tremendous resistance from bustee dwellers when they first tried to enter these settlements. The KMDA was mainly staffed with technically oriented engineers, who had no concept of social planning for bustees. Fortunately, they also had a few social workers who had joined them from the CMPO and created a path for the KMDA to enter the bustees by establishing a rapport with the CBOs, NGOs, and local residents. The formation of the KMDA led to the demise of the CMPO. The organization had lost most of its foreign funding by the end of the 1960s and did not have the legal authority to raise its own funds. They lost senior staff, some of whom were expatriates, because they left India. Others joined the KMDA for a better salary. These losses, coupled with a demoralized junior staff who were seeking employment elsewhere, rendered the organization almost defunct. The organization was eventually merged into a state agency, the Town and Country Planning Organisation (TCPO), in 1977. Its planning function was reduced to planning for villages and cities that did not have any planning or development agencies (Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Banerjee and Chakravorty 1994). The rise of the KMDA as the primary urban development authority was attributable to the demise of the KMC and the CMPO by the late 1960s. The belief at that time was that apolitical institutions were better equipped to administer urban development. By the end of the 1960s, the KMC was practically bankrupt and without visionary leadership. As a result, the KMDA filled the vacuum armed with the funding of the central government and the World Bank. The KMDA’s authority was further expanded in 1974 when the State government gave it execution powers through an amendment of the CMDA Act. This amendment allowed the agency to take over the management of several sub-metropolitan organizations such as the Haora Improvement Trust (HIT) and the Calcutta Metropolitan Water and Sanitation Authority (CMWSA). A year earlier, the KMDA had taken over several infrastructure projects from such agencies as the KMC, Public Health Engineering, Public Works, and Irrigation and Waterways Directorates. Subsequently, the KMDA became involved in planning, financing, executing, and maintaining some of its projects. The KMC was once again superseded in early 1972. Many other municipalities in the CMD were also taken over by the State. As a part of municipal reform, the State Planning Board prepared a plan for a two-tier form of metropolitan government. This plan would consist of a top-tier metropolitan council and a series of

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lower-tier borough councils. The CMPO, KMDA, CMWSA, CIT, and the HIT were to be attached to or merged with the metropolitan council. The proposal was not adopted (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Sanyal and Tiwari 1991).

Political Climate and Municipal Reform The demise of the KMDA was attributable to the political climate in Kolkata. The CPI(M)-led coalition of nine left parties, the Left Front, that came to power in West Bengal in 1977 was a cadre-based party with strong grassroots connections. The party looked to further strengthen its base in the grassroots by resorting to Marxist rhetoric vilifying the KMDA, arguing that its focus on large-scale infrastructure provision did not benefit the poor in the outlying areas. This was because the party’s electoral support came from these areas. The CPI(M) argued that the poor really needed more employment opportunities, which the KMDA had failed to provide. According to the CPI(M), large infrastructure projects were counterproductive as they diverted attention from the economic decline that Kolkata and West Bengal were experiencing. Further, the CPI(M) blamed the central government for these deficiencies. For them, the BIP did not improve the conditions of the poor and was a capitalist ploy to maintain an exploitable pool of cheap labour. The KMDA was also seen as a bureaucratic institution that was not accountable to the electorate. It was considered to be an agent of the central government and the World Bank and therefore could not serve the needs of the poor (Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Thomas 1997). Municipal reform was resumed by the new government in 1977. As a first step, local government affairs and municipal development were placed under the jurisdiction of a minister of the State government, appointed as the vice chairman of the KMDA. The State government enacted several legislative reforms in the 1980s to provide the legal, administrative, fiscal, and statutory environment needed to empower municipalities as primary actors of urban development. The Calcutta Corporation Act of 1951 and the Bengal Municipal Act of 1932 were extensively scrutinized, creating the path for the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act of 1980 that became effective in 1984. During this period, the Howrah Municipal Corporation Act of 1980 was passed in 1983 for similar reasons. These acts enabled the formation of India’s first municipal cabinet system of government. In this system a ‘mayor-in-council’ is elected every five years and is responsible for the financial decisions. The State-appointed bureaucrat is merely a

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figurehead. Under this system ward councillors, who are elected, became representatives of the people. In turn, they nominate the ward committee members. Ideally such nominations were supposed to be non-partisan. However, party affiliations often determined the nominations. The Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act of 1980 fixed the number of wards at 141 in the KMC. Conversely, the numbers of wards in other municipal corporations are determined by the State government under statutory provisions. The wards are grouped into boroughs, each of them controlling a portion of the municipal budget (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Kohli 1990; Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Thomas 1997; Pal 2006, 2008; Sengupta 2010).13 The boroughs submit plans based on their priorities to the municipalities. Funds are then allocated with the borough being responsible for the implementation of programs. Technical staffs are posted at the borough and ward committee level to assist the planning efforts. The councillors select an alderman who elects the mayor. In turn, the mayor selects his or her deputy and members responsible for specific development sectors. During the Left Front regime, in many municipalities the CPI(M) and its allies occupied the political space at the municipal, borough, and ward levels. Most ward councillors and municipal-level chairpersons had ambitions beyond that level and accepted the mandates of the party leaders at the State level. Even those who did not aspire for higher levels of power did not antagonize Statelevel party leaders because they depended on their political patronage. Key committee posts at the ward and municipal levels were held by party cadres, controlled and administered by decision-making, umbrella institutions at the State level. Such excessive party involvement at all layers eliminated citizen involvement in the affairs of their municipalities and undermined the stated goals of democratic decentralization of urban management and development (Sivaramakrishnan and Green 1986; Kohli 1990; Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Thomas 1997; Pal 2006, 2008; Sengupta 2010).14 In the new leftist political climate, municipalities of councillors were seen as better equipped to carry out urban development, as they were elected and decentralized entities. The new regime felt that political representation and popular participation were key ingredients for equitable urban development, management, and maintenance of assets. In 1981, municipal elections outside Kolkata and Haora were held for the first time in thirteen years as a part of the decentralization process. However, the CPI(M) did not hold municipal elections in Kolkata until 1985. Unsure of its prospects of winning 13 Also based on author’s interviews with a KMDA official and HIT officials in 1996 and 2003. 14 Ibid.

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an election, the party governed the city through the State government from 1977 to 1985. Wards in the fringes of the city including Jadavpur, where the party had electoral support from former refugees, and rural areas that benefitted from the regime’s development programmes were added to the KMC to increase its electoral base. With this added support, the CPI(M) and its allies were able to win the 1985 elections by a slim majority (Kohli 1990; Sanyal and Tiwari 1991; Thomas 1997; Pal 2006, 2008; Sengupta 2010).15 The Municipal Development Programme (MDP), initiated by the Left Front government in the 1980s, also drastically reduced the power of the KMDA. Besides the declared goals of decentralization, one of the reasons for implementing the MDP was to channel more funding to municipalities with squatter settlements of refugees in the outlying areas of Kolkata and Haora. These settlements that had not benefited from earlier programmes were a critical element in the CPI(M)’s political base. One-third of the total of US$347 million of the CMDA’s budget was reserved for the MDP. Under this programme, municipalities were empowered to execute and plan capital projects, maintain municipal assets, and generate revenues from sources other than taxes. The State government gave them cash block grants for whatever development projects they felt necessary with the stipulation that they prepare a five-year plan of action based on State-approved guidelines. Thus, municipalities were no longer dependent on the KMDA for funding. Prior to the initiation of the MDP, the KMDA had been the primary actor in the planning and execution of all development projects. The KMDA’s function was reduced to merely a planning and coordinating body. Under this system, ward committees chaired by elected ward councillors determined the type of development and investment at the local level (Pal 2006, 2008).16 The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments Acts of 1992 further attempted to decentralize planning in India by raising gram panchayats (village councils), municipalities, and municipal corporations to constitutional status, thereby making them local governments. The government of West Bengal enacted the West Bengal Metropolitan Committee Act in 1994, leading to the development of the Kolkata Metropolitan Planning Committee (KMPC) seven years later. The KMPC was charged with developing a draft development plan for the KMA through a consolidation of plans for the municipalities and gram panchayats under its jurisdiction. Two-thirds of the members of the KMPC consisted of elected councillors of municipalities and gram panchayats of the KMA. One-third are nominated 15 Ibid. 16 Also based on author’s interviews with KMDA officials in 1996 and 2003.

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representatives of the government of India, State government, and from organizations related to urban development such as the KMDA, Port Trust of India, Indian Railways, and others. The KMDA, which became the technical arm of the KMCP, prepared a plan for the KMA in 2001 entitled Vision 2025: Perspective Plan of CMA (Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority 2000; Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 2005; Pal 2006, 2008).17 However, during the Left Front regime, most of the elected members of the KMCP outside of the regime’s influence took limited interest in its workings. These members felt that they had very little impact on the decision-making process. The nominated members rarely proposed new plans or opposed proposals that came from the elected members for similar reasons. Although the planners of the KMDA did decide on the allocation of limited State resources for plan proposals that came from the elected members of the KMCP, there is no evidence to illustrate if such proposals were selected on a technical analysis or if the planners acted under political pressure to accept certain proposals. There was very little communication about planning that took place at the KMCP to the municipal and ward levels (Pal 2006, 2008).18

The Infiltration of the Grassroots Space by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Its Allies We can conclude from the above discussion that efforts to decentralize planning were, perhaps, intended for the infiltration of grassroots space by the CPI(M) and its allies as well as rewarding the squatter settlements for their political support. Such infiltration by the CPI(M) and its cadres at the grassroots left very little space for other civil-society organizations such as the NGOs and CBOs to carry out empowerment-oriented activities. The lack of political space for NGOs and CBOs for empowerment is also attributable to the long history of political mobilization of the bustee dwellers dating back to the 1950s and the organizational culture of welfare among NGOs. As discussed earlier the leftist parties had been building a political base among the bustee dwellers since the 1950s. The CPI(M) and other leftist parties were instrumental in preventing the evictions of a large number of illegal refugee colonies that grew up in outlying areas of the CMD due to the influx of refugees. In fact, the Left Front that 17 Also based on author’s interview with a senior KMDA official in 2003. 18 Also based on the author’s interviews with KMDA officials in 1996 and 2003.

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came to power in 1977 drew its electoral support from such refugee colonies. Many of the older squatter settlements enjoyed the protection of political leaders, reasonable security of tenure, and access to amenities such as water taps. In return, they joined rallies, protests, and voted in favour of the party that protected them (Thomas 1997). But the support that the Congress had among some of the bustee dwellers in the 1950s and 1960s eroded because of the industrial and economic decline of the period. Consequently, their allegiance shifted to the CPI(M). The party also increased its political support by legalizing many bustees and initiating the same BIP program that they had earlier disparaged. Refugee settlements on the southern fringes of the city were also annexed into the KMC to increase the electoral support for the party (Thomas 1997). Roy (2003) demonstrates how the resettled colonies on the eastern borders of Kolkata have long been sites of mobilization for the left, ranging from land grabs in the 1960s to the refugee settlements of the 1970s. As the Left Front came to power in the State, it established a set of colonies in which to resettle squatters on a long-term basis. However, an ambiguity of tenure existed with these new settlements. They were on vested or private lands. Vested land in Kolkata’s fringes consisted of land that can be acquired by the State through: confiscation of agricultural land in excess of the land ceilings under agrarian reforms set for by the Left Front; non-agricultural lands acquired under the Urban Land Ceiling Act; and land that is acquired under ‘public interest’. The settlements on private lands were obtained through land invasions or the extra judicial process of ‘vesting’. Sharecroppers and bustee dwellers were also resettled on agricultural land through land invasions in the 1970s and 1980s (Roy 2003, 2004, 2011a). Given the ambiguity of tenure, the land in the colonies was promised but never secured. The Left Front again resorted to Marxist rhetoric to maintain this ambiguity of land tenure, arguing that regularization of tenure would lead to the commodification of shelter. This concept was counter to the party’s ideology. The CPI(M) did not allow the selling of the land except to the colony committee, basically a wing of the party. The party claimed that it did so in order to protect the inhabitants from bourgeois corruption. In reality, without land titles the inhabitants could not sell their land at market rates to outsiders. In this way the party remained the ultimate landowner and could continually mobilize the poor through the lure of tenure (Roy 2003). Such a history of mobilization by the left afforded little room for the NGOs and CBOs to undertake any activities, including empowerment, other than welfare. In fact, all political parties were eager to mobilize the urban poor, not only to increase their popularity, but also to attract votes. Unlike

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many other Indian cities, in Kolkata’s political culture ‘mass organization’ and ‘empowerment’ were the designated tasks of the ‘vanguard party’, that is, the CPI(M), and other leftist parties and not that of NGOs, even after the party had abandoned its leftist ideologies from the mid 1990s. In the early years of its administration, the Left Front was even critical about foreign-funded NGOs. Although more NGOs were allowed later to obtain foreign funding, their work remained welfare oriented. As aptly pointed out by Thomas (1997) and concluded from the author’s fieldwork, NGOs could work among bustee dwellers and squatters as long as their work was not politically threatening and the CPI(M) could take credit for what they were doing. Welfare work carried out by the NGOs and CBOs was tolerated in that climate. As pointed out by Sengupta (2010) and observed by the author, three decades of the CPI(M)’s regime in Kolkata led to the creation of political space for the assertion of political forces. This is a notion that ignores the role of NGOs and civil society in the development process. In such a political climate, the NGOs and CBOs that emerged in the 1980s had to make compromises to their original objectives and were co-opted by the regime, thereby undermining any bottom-up approach to planning. Pal (2008) adds another important dimension to the types of NGO activities that were tolerated by the Left Front regime. He demonstrates how NGOs working with sex workers in West Bengal were able to increase the bargaining power of the prostitutes. Among other reasons, such NGOs were tolerated because of the stigma associated with prostitutes in Bengali society and the subsequent lack of interest of the political parties to associate with their cause. The author would add that it was below the dignity of the communist bhadralok state to work with prostitutes. (The term bhadralok means ‘gentleman’ in Bengali.) The bhadralok class consists mainly of the Bengali urban intelligentsia that emerged in colonial Bengal. As discussed by Kohli (1990), the leadership of the CPI(M) at the city and State level came from upper-caste, educated men in their sixties who had been party members for several decades. The party cadres within the city were generally drawn from white-collar workers, educated Bengali middle class, university students, and professors. So essentially the state and its machinery consisted of bhadraloks.19 Thus, it was beyond the dignity of this class to be associated with prostitutes. The infiltration of the CPI(M) into squatter settlements and bustees is explained in Castells’s (1983) treatise on urban populism. Urban populism is the process of establishing political legitimacy through popular mobilization 19 Also see Roy 2003 for the concept.

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that is facilitated through the provision of land, housing, and other urban services. It can also be explained from Chatterjee’s (2004, 2010, 2011) treatise on political society in India. It can be seen as the state’s regulation of population groups whose habitation and livelihood verge on the margins of legality. Chatterjee argues that such populations groups comprised of street vendors, illegal squatters, and other urban poor constitute the political society, separate from the civil society. According to Chatterjee, Indian civil society consists of citizens with legal rights and includes the (traditionally small) urban middle classes. Given the illegal status of people in the political society, the state agencies devised numerous paralegal means of extending services to this particular subculture. This was conducted on an ad hoc basis so as not to jeopardize the overall structure of rules and principles for political and social reasons. However, this reduces the claims of the people in the political society to constant political negotiations. Even when their entitlements are recognized, they never become rights. Thus, these entitlements are not permanent and secure. The emergence of political society in the 1970s and 1980s opened up a field of competitive mobilization of the urban poor by political parties and political leaders. Chatterjee (2004) attributed the emergence of political society to the dual effects of democracy and development. Massive increases of population in the major Indian cities during this time led to political unrest, crime, homelessness, squalor, and disease. Such a situation caused concern in the provision of urban services such as housing, sanitation, water, electricity, transportation, education, and health services for the poor. These decades also experienced a proliferation of development and welfare schemes funded by the central government and international agencies such as the World Bank to accommodate the swelling number of urban poor. The urban development projects of these decades assumed that large sections of the urban poor would live in illegal settlements. Yet the authorities found ways to provide them with services. These services were necessitated by the reality that the urban poor not only provided the labour and services for the cities, but it was imperative that they were pacified to prevent any civil unrest that would threaten the rest of society. This led to the emergence of the political society and ended the dominance of the wealthy over the politics of the city. It also brought about the disengagement of the middle class from tumultuous urban politics. Even when the middle class engaged with the urban poor, the involvement was restricted to the non-political world of NGOs. Finally, the literature that examines why governments with a left-ofcentre commitment to people’s power may not welcome NGOs is also useful

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in providing an explanation for the lack of political space for NGOs (see, for example, Mageli 2004, 2005; Ramirez 2005; Pal 2006, 2008). Such literature argues that such governments claim to have a genuine understanding of popular aspirations and see no need for NGOs to perform the mass mobilization role of a ‘vanguard party’. These studies also recognize that in societies with communist governments, national structures and institutions are completely occupied by the state, leaving little room for civil society. This was exactly the case in Kolkata.

New Towns around Kolkata In terms of new town planning, nothing as monumental as Chandigarh was undertaken in Kolkata or its vicinity. Even Bhubaneswar, the new capital for Orissa, and Gandhinagar, the new capital for Gujarat, planned almost two decades after independence by Indian planners H.K Mewada and Prakash M. Apte, surpassed the modest new towns planned around Kolkata. 20 Saltlake, renamed Bidhannagar after Dr. Bidhan Roy who conceived it, was developed between 1958 and 1965 (see figure 66 for its location). The city was developed by the Irrigation and Waterways Department, which employed no planners whatsoever. The only reason that this organization was allowed to develop the city was because it had the authority to use silt from the Ganga that was needed to reclaim the marshy lands where Bidhannagar was built.21 Bidhannagar was a relatively successful satellite town. It was mainly settled by car-owning upper-class people living in exclusive bungalows or flats. Cars were a necessity as public transportation links from Kolkata to Bidhannagar were almost nonexistent in the early years. Most of the development gained momentum in the 1970s. The settlement was interspersed with illegal squatters who served its population as day labourers, rickshaw pullers, bicycle van drivers, vegetable vendors, cooks, and maids (Thomas 1997).22 Government offices including that of the KMDA are located there (see figures 58 and 59). Housing for government officials and cooperative housing for the moderate incomes (see figure 71) were also initiated there during these years. Kalyani and Basberia, (see figure 66 for their location) identified in the BDP as a part of the bimodal developmental strategy, were not as 20 For a detailed discussion on the planning of these towns, see Kalia 1994, 2004. 21 Based on author’s interview with KMDA officials in 1996 and 2003. 22 Also based on author’s observations.

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Figure 71 Cooperative housing for moderate income groups in Bidhannagar

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

successful because of poor transportation linkages from Kolkata. Kalyani was originally an American airbase during World War II. Planning the city had begun prior to the advent of the BDP in the 1950s under Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy’s vision for meeting the growing housing needs of Kolkata. Chuchura, Srirampur, and Chandannagar (see figure 66 for their location) were assimilated into the suburbs of Kolkata in the post-colonial period. Given Kolkata’s housing shortages, people commuted from these and other suburbs to Kolkata in local trains. The increasing cost of commuting in the mid-1980s also attracted the lower middle classes to the bustees as they provided a cheaper alternative to commuting.23

Haora’s Post-Colonial Urbanism Architectural styles were even more contained in Haora than Kolkata until the mid-1990s. Utilitarian modern (see figure 72) and mistiri-built housing (see figure 73) were the prevalent forms of architecture. Most of the elite did not want to invest in the housing market in Haora because of limited access 23 Based on an interview with a KMDA official in 1999.

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Figure 72 Sarat Sadhan Auditorium. Haora’s version of the ‘utilitarian modern’ style

Source: Photograph by the author, 1999

to the city, except in West Haora, which was better connected to Kolkata. Even West Haora’s access to Kolkata improved only after the opening of the Bidyasagor Setu or the second Hugli Bridge in 1992. Prior to that Rabindra Setu or Haora Bridge, which was the primary connection of the city to Kolkata, had perpetual traffic jams. The city lacked basic infrastructure such as accessible and well-maintained roads, telecommunication linkages,

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Figure 73  Mistiri-built housing in Haora with waterlogged lanes

Source: Photograph by Ashok Kar and Tul Tul Banerjee. Courtesy of Purdendu Bikas Sengupta, 2013

and proper electric and water supply. The city’s winding alleys, garbage dumped on streets (see figure 74), congestion (see figure 75), dilapidated houses, slums and squatters (see figures 76 and 77), uncovered drains, and pit toilets are well captured in the literal imagination of the Bengali novelist Shankar in his 1974 book Jekhane Jeman, in which an English wife of an expatriate from this city could not digest its filth and had to cut

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Figure 74 Rag pickers among garbage in Haora

Source: Photograph by the author, 1999

Figure 75 Congestion along a main thoroughfare in Haora

Source: Photograph by the author, 1999

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Figure 76 A bustee in Haora

Source: Photograph by the author, 1999

short her visit to the city of her husband’s birth (Shankar 1974). Of course, some of these conditions had changed by the mid-1990s, but not to a great extent. All these factors deterred the proliferation of better architecture. The contractor builders who had built the multi-storeyed housing in the mid-1990s in Haora often violated building codes (see figure 78). Only a few Bidhannagar-style houses could be found, mainly in West Haora, until that time.

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Figure 77 Squatters along a highway under construction in Haora

Source: Photograph by the author, 1999

The neglect of planning in Haora continued in the post-colonial period. The Haora Municipality, which had existed since 1858, did little to improve the deplorable condition of the city. The municipality was replaced by the Haora Municipal Corporation according to the stipulations of the Howrah Municipal Act of 1965. From 1984 onwards the mayor-in-council system was initiated in the city. The municipal governments of the post- independence era did very little to improve the infrastructure and sanitary conditions of the city (Bandyopadhyay 1995). The HIT, incorporated under the Howrah Improvement Trust Act of 1956 and created in 1957, was responsible for planning for the city. The HIT only undertook infrastructure and land development projects such as road and bridge improvements, sewerage works, park development, land development for housing, and housing development for middle-income groups. Any real planning for the city did not emerge until the BDP. According to a senior HIT official, the city of Haora with its old infrastructure was always looked down upon as the stepchild of Kolkata. A working-class, industrial city that had unplanned growth from the beginning, it could never shake off the stigma of a coolie town in the immediate post-colonial period. According to the same official, its residents were resistant to planning. Public consciousness and participation were low

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Figure 78 Flats in Haora juxtaposed with garbage. Architecture of the contractor builder

Source: Photograph by the author, 1999

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because it was a city of male migrants with little stake in the city’s future. A shortage of funds was also a major impediment to planning. In fact, the modest improvements in Haora’s civic condition that were achieved in the mid-1990s occurred only because of a written petition to the Supreme Court of India by founding leader Shubhas Dutta of the NGO Haora Ganatrantik Nagarik Samity (Haora Democratic Citizens Association) in 1995.24

24 Based on an interview with Subhas Dutta in 1996.

5

Globalizing Kolkata A Late Bloomer

Emergence of New Market-Driven Architectural Forms in India One of the key differences between Kolkata and other major Indian metropolises such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai is that new forms of architecture and urban planning associated with globalization appeared much earlier in these other cities. The advent of liberalization policies in the early 1990s broke a 40-year-old stranglehold by the state on a regulated economy. The physical manifestation of these policies since the early 1990s is the appearance of a whole range of market-driven architecture representing images of globalization that are spatially and visually transforming Indian cities (King 2004). Such projects include housing schemes and apartment complexes for high-income groups, hospitals, shopping malls, gated communities, private townships, office buildings for the service and financial sectors, SEZs, and IT parks and complexes. Over time, it became apparent that the local architectural industry was unprepared to deal with the demands for large-scale construction that globalization warranted. Consequently, a considerable number of such projects have been outsourced to international f irms from Singapore, Europe, and the United States. Some of these firms are completely insensitive to the Indian context and erect structures that do not blend into India’s urban fabric. This corporate practice is limited primarily to large firms with in-house specializations and the capacity to deliver products in a competent fashion based on a standard set of documents and designs (Mehrotra 2011). However, the problem lies deeper than the insensitivity of foreign firms. As this chapter will illustrate, often it is the clients who select foreign architects to design buildings with a global image that does not fit the Indian context. They do so to lure foreign capital, attract nonresident Indians (NRIs), or cater to the global taste of the elite. In Kolkata, municipal and State agencies are not only allowing the construction of such architecture but are entering into public-private partnerships to promote it. Even before global architecture began to appear in Kolkata or, for that matter, elsewhere in India, DLF City in Gurgaon – a private township 32 kilometres south-west of New Delhi – pioneered such architecture (see figure 79). The city was begun in the early to mid-1980s, before the arrival

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Figure 79 A variety of Euro-American forms of housing: DLF City

Source: Photograph by Mukul Sethi and C.V. Dinekar. Courtesy of Sunando Dasgupta, 2013

of globalization, on a modest 0.41 square kilometres, but by 2002 it covered an area that was bigger than colonial New Delhi (King 2004). Because of their links with the global economy through software and hardware firms and call centres, Bengaluru and Hyderabad have emerged as India’s hightechnology cities. As a result, their spatial and physical transformation occurred before Kolkata’s. New townships have been developed in these cities and their suburbs to meet the demand for upscale housing, catering to NRIs, the elite, and the global middle class who aspire to the NRI lifestyle (Chacko 2007; Chacko and Varghese 2009). Mumbai, India’s economic capital, was no different. The city’s population includes an upper class of business elites, who have thrived on generations of wealth, and a growing middle class. The latter is a product of Mumbai’s integration into the global economy and the subsequent expansion of the service sector. This segment of the population has been migrating to the gated communities found in the northern suburbs (Falzon 2004). Since their introduction in the early 1990s in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Bhubaneswar, and Hyderabad, IT parks with their global architecture are mushrooming on the outskirts of such cities (Chacko 2007; Chacko and Varghese 2009; Mehrotra 2011). Shopping malls that have also appeared in such cities project a similar image (see figure 80).

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Figure 80 MGF Mall in DLF City Centre

Source: Photograph courtesy of Suzanne Frasier, 2012

Why Kolkata Was a Late Bloomer Kolkata’s political history and culture explain why it has been a late bloomer in the proliferation of global architecture and new urban planning paradigms. The Left Front government had ignored Kolkata’s urban development because the dominant party – CPI(M) – in the coalition had its political base in the rural areas. All attention was focused on agrarian reform and land redistribution (Kohli 1988). As a populist measure, the Left Front introduced Operation Barga in 1978 to secure tenancy rights for the bargadars (sharecroppers). Operation Barga redistributed benami (‘nameless’ in Bengali) land, which had been illegally transferred to close friends or relatives, in excess of the ceiling limit to bargadars. The land reform improved agricultural performance as it brought about security of tenure for the bargadars and eliminated the regular transfer of benami land. The government’s effort to provide better access to low-interest credit for farmers to buy new varieties of plant seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers also increased agricultural productivity. On the other hand, militant trade unionism, strikes, and lockouts led not only to industrial flight but also

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resulted in immense losses and lower productivity for jute and engineering, the State’s primary industries (Mayers 2001; Shaw and Satish 2007). Given its Marxist philosophy, the Left Front placed a high priority on creating and retaining jobs. The government did not allow ailing industries to shut down and lay off staff. It even put extremely sick industries on public assistance to rejuvenate them. Such a pro-labour stance accelerated capital flight from West Bengal (McLaen 2001). The CPI(M) blamed the successive Congress (I) governments for the State’s industrial decline and argued that the central government had withdrawn support for public undertakings in the State. It claimed that the central government manipulated legislation regarding industrial licensing, aspects of its own economic policies, and the Planning Commission’s directives to discourage domestic and foreign capital investment in projects initiated by the Left Front. The Left Front was also critical of the central government’s discrimination in the disbursement of licences to establish large and medium-sized industries. The central government’s rationale behind licence control was to create even development in India and promote the economic development of its backward areas (McLean 2001; Mayers 2001). The CPI(M) was scathing about the Freight Equalization Policy, which in essence subsidized the freight cost of certain commodities so that the resource-poor States were not at a disadvantage due to distance. Instituted by the central government, it was aimed at uniform development throughout the country. The cost of commodities such as cotton, oil, seeds, and sugar cane, which were not produced in West Bengal, was calculated on the basis of distance, while costs of commodities that the State exported such as coal and steel were the same for any part of India. The Left Front argued that such a policy exploited the State’s resources, increased production costs of local industries, and left little profit for reinvestment and modernization of West Bengal’s industry. This policy remained a sore point with the Left Front until it was abolished in early 1994 (McLean 2001; Mayers 2001). Initially, the Left Front was sceptical and resistant to the central government’s New Economic Policy of 1991. It took them a few years to realize that reviving Kolkata’s manufacturing sector was essential for the State’s future. By that time the image of the city was one of a congested, polluted, and poverty-stricken city with militant trade unionism, and it was difficult to attract both foreign and domestic industrialists. Western discourse just prior to the advent of liberalization added to this image, and it lingered. For example, Günter Grass in his 1988 book Show Your Tongue described the city’s dump as ‘a spacious landscape invented from layers of garbage’ where ‘crows, vultures, goats, and dump trucks’ arrive ‘from the city day and

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night – for of garbage there is no end – are a part of the landscape’ (Grass [1988] 1989: 18). And, of course, the film City of Joy made Kolkata an icon of the slum in Western eyes. Sectional interests that constituted the vote banks of the left parties restrained the leadership from acting in a practical manner. Chief Minister Jyoti Basu had been making yearly trips to the United Kingdom since the 1980s. His attempts to lure the Bengali NRIs to invest in Kolkata were met with little success. The Left Front announced a new industrial scheme to attract foreign investments, technology, and multinationals in 1993. In 1994 it developed a new industrial policy aimed at privatizing selected public sectors, developing infrastructure through public-private ventures, and motivating the privatization of various economic sectors, including health, education, tourism, housing, and commercial complexes. Virtually an open-door policy was instituted, and multinationals were welcome even in traditionally State-owned sectors such as power generation. The Marxist regime reinvented itself by claiming that these goals were to be achieved by fostering a ‘class peace’ between labour and capital (Chakravorty and Gupta 1996; Mayers 2001; McLean 2001; Shaw and Satish 2007). With the exception of Japanese investment in the Haldia Petrochemical complex in Midnapur, there was little inflow of foreign or domestic capital following the formation of the policy. Furthermore, the investment in Kolkata was small compared to cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, and even smaller municipalities such as Pune (Shaw and Satish 2007). The government tried to pacify the fear of trade union militancy by promising tripartite negotiations at the unit and industrial level and a continuous dialogue between labour and management. Investors in India, however, sarcastically referred to Kolkata as the ‘Soviet Republic of West Bengal’, a city where trade unions controlled the government and it was almost impossible to lay off unproductive workers (Mitter and Sen 2000). The perception of government’s hostility towards capital lingered. Foreign capital was wary about the existence of a Marxist party long in power and its historical opposition to the introduction of international capital (McLean 2001).

Making Kolkata Attractive to Capital: Operation Sunshine and the Proposal to Remove Rickshaw Pullers Although Chief Minister Jyoti Basu continued to promote Kolkata to corporate investors both in India and abroad (McLaen 2001), its image

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Figure 81 Traffic jam in Kolkata after the advent of globalization

Source: Photograph by the author, 2003

as a polluted city jammed with traffic (see figure 81) and street vendors persisted. In order to change this perception, the KMC launched ‘Operation Sunshine’. Under this urban renewal scheme developed in 1996, municipal authorities and police evicted 100,000 hawkers (street vendors) in Kolkata in two weeks. This extreme effort attempted to regain middle-class support and ensure that Kolkata was a safe destination for global investment. The process of attracting capital also included projecting the image of Kolkata as a thriving, modern, dynamic metropolis. If Kolkata was to attract capital, it was essential that it be seen as the gateway to India and Southeast Asia (McLean 2001). Public discourse was riddled with jargon designed to sell Kolkata to international capital and the politicians had to be comfortable with this jargon. Hawkers were evicted in order to improve the visual image of the city. Both official and popular discourses portrayed the incidences as an effort to make Kolkata a bhadrolok city governed by principles of hygiene, order, and beauty (Roy 2011a). Subsequently, the State legislature amended the Kolkata Municipal Act in 1997, declaring that any form of occupation of streets and pavements by hawkers is a non-bailable offence. However, the hawkers began to reclaim their positions and stalls within a few weeks through their unions, opposition parties, and small factions of the Left Front. This policy was in sharp

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contrast to the Left Front’s stance since it came to power in 1977. Its initial policy was to maintain a status quo of the urban vote bank and only refuse to grant vending licences to hawkers who had occupied the pavements after 1977, which meant that such hawkers would not be rehabilitated in case of an eviction. The regime was trying to tighten its grip over existing mobilized groups through patronage. To gain political power, CPI(M) leaders selectively rehabilitated these evicted hawkers. In the decade that followed there were no major evictions. The Hawkers Sangram Committee (Hawkers Revolutionary Committee) which emerged in the aftermath of ‘Operation Sunshine’ was successful in mediating relations between the State government and the hawkers (Bandyopadhyay 2009). Another effort designed to attract local and foreign investment was the proposal to remove 100,000 rickshaw pullers and another 100,000 people indirectly involved in the rickshaw trade (Sen 1996). The effort to remove hand-pulled rickshaws was not new. In the early 1980s the Left Front government had started to ban unlicensed, hand-pulled rickshaws in the city. In response, Unnayan – an NGO in Kolkata1 – initiated a campaign to stop this policy. George Fernandes, a politician and trade union leader, noticed Unnayan’s campaign, mainly because many of the rickshaw pullers were from his constituency at that time, Muzaffarur, in Bihar. Subsequently, Calcutta Rickshaw Chalak Panchyat, a union of rickshaw pullers, was formed. The union convened mass gatherings all over Kolkata, which led to gheraos of politicians and the KMC’s licensing office, which in turn led to abandoning the policy (Sen 1996).

Singur and Nandigram: The Changing Priorities of the Left Front The cases of Tata Motors in Singur and a SEZ in Nandigram are well-known examples of the Left Front’s paradigm shift from a pro-agrarian Marxist government with a rural focus to one seeking private investment to increase the State’s industrial capacity. Tata Motors intended to build a manufacturing plant for its small car – the Nano – in Singur, about 40 kilometres from Kolkata. In May 2006 the Left Front government decided to acquire four square kilometres for the company to build the plant. The project would have affected 6,000 families of marginal peasants and landowners. A nontransparent and undemocratic process of land acquisition through police 1 The ultimate demise of Unnayan in the early 2000s was attributable to a lack of political space for empowerment-oriented NGOs in Kolkata, besides other issues, such as internal conflict and lack of funding.

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shooting and political force triggered numerous protests. The All India Trinamool Congress mobilized landowners, intellectuals, artists, poets, activist groups, and luminaries from West Bengal and the rest of India and launched a protest against the Left Front government and Tata Motors. After two years of agitation, Tata Motors eventually withdrew from Singur in October 2008 while Trinamool won the local panchayat elections in May 2008 (Bandyopadhyay 2008; Chandra 2008). In the case of Nandigram, the Left Front also deployed force to acquire land for a SEZ to house a chemical hub for the Indonesian company Salim Group in 2007. About fourteen farmers were killed and hundreds injured when police fired at protestors. In this case also, the Maoists and Trinamool Congress supported the struggle of the peasants, which eventfully led to the abandonment of the project (Bhadra and Guha Ray 2007). The protest also had support from the Bengali intelligentsia. Both protests demonstrate the triumph of Chatterjee’s concept of political society. As pointed out by Chatterjee (2004, 2010, 2011), the emergence of political society in the 1970s and 1980s opened a field of competitive mobilization of the urban poor by political parties and political leaders. This is exactly what happened in Singur and Nandigram when the Trinamool Congress stepped in to mobilize the peasants after CPI(M) abandoned them.

Kolkata’s Population Growth, Territorial Changes, and Administrative Structure Before delving into emerging architectural and planning paradigms, it is important that the reader is aware of Kolkata’s population growth, territorial changes, and administrative structure. By 2001, KMA had three municipal corporations: Kolkata, Haora, and Chandannagar. This huge area included 38 municipalities and 23 panchayat samities, consisting of 70 municipal urban areas. In addition, it contained fourteen out-growths with urban characteristics but not yet formed into municipalities. It covered an area of 1,785.4 square kilometres with a population of 13.12 million. Among these, 4.57 million lived in the city (Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority 2000; Census Organization of India 2011; Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 2017) (see figure 82 for the area encompassed by the KMA in 2001). While the number of municipal corporations remained the same, the municipalities increased to 39 and panchayat samities to 24 by 2011. The KMA’s area increased to 1,886.67 square kilometres with the addition of Haringhata

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Figure 82 KMA in 2001

Source: Developed by the author from: Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority 2000; Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 2017

(30.34 square kilometres) and Baruipur (4.92 square kilometres). The city’s population decreased to 4.47 million while the KMA’s population

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Figure 83 KMA in 2011

Source: Developed by the author from: Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority 2000; Bhatta 2012; Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 2017

increased to 14.11 million (Indiaonlinepages 2016; Census Organization of India 2011). The population of the KMA was estimated to be 14.39 million

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in 2014 with a projection of 20 million by 2021 (Indiaonlinepages 2016; Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 2017) (see f igure 83 for the area covered by the KMA in 2011). The municipal cabinet system of government discussed in the last chapter is still intact in Kolkata. There were 141 wards, grouped into fifteen boroughs (Bhatta 2012) (see figure 84) as of 2011.2 The only difference is that the Trinomool Congress won the 2010 elections and replaced the CPI(M) and its allies at the local government level (NDTV 2010). Key committee posts at the ward and municipal levels are now held by party cadres of Trinomool. As was the case with the previous Left Front, they are controlled and administered by decision-making, umbrella institutions at the State level.

Liberalization and the Changing Role of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation With the advent of liberalization, the KMDA has moved away from its traditional roles of bustee improvement programs and infrastructure provision by undertaking housing, new area development, and commercial projects through joint ventures with the private sector. The change in the KMDA’s role began in the early 1990s with its involvement in the central government’s Mega City Programme. Recommended by the National Commission on Urbanisation, the programme provided seed capital rather than an outright grant for mega-cities that included Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. According to the 1991 census, mega-cities were defined as cities with populations exceeding five million.3 The programme specified three categories of projects that could be ratified by the central government and lending institutions: (a) no cost recovery projects such as waste management, drainage, and sanitation; (b) partial cost recovery projects such as water supply, transport, and slum housing; and (c) full cost recovery and surplus generation projects such as housing, new area development, and commercial complexes. The cost-recovery element of the Mega City Programme skewed the KMDA’s projected budget towards housing and 2 Jhoka was added in 2012, which increased the wards to 144. This is not depicted in figure 84 due to a lack of data. 3 Hyderabad and Bengaluru were included in the programme, although their populations were between four and five million. Delhi was not included, however, as its funding came from another source: the National Capital Region Programme.

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Figure 84 Wards and boroughs of KMC in 2011

Source: Developed by the author from: Bhatta 2012; Kolkata Municipal Corporation 2017

new area development with a significant reduction in slum improvement, transportation, drainage, and sanitation. The slum improvement budget was negligible. The KMDA was ready to redefine its role, providing housing for the upper and middle classes and undertaking commercial area development (Chakravorty and Gupta 1996). The KMDA proposed an expenditure of Rs 16 billion (approximately US$520 million [in 1996 dollars]) for various projects in the KMA over a period of eight years. The proposal covered the last three years of the Eighth

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Five-Year Plan and five years of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. 4 The KMDA began receiving assistance from the programme in 1996. Programme funding financed 130 projects valued at over Rs 12.5 billion (approximately US$409 million [in 2007 dollars]). By 2007, 125 schemes worth over Rs 11.5 billion (approximately US$375 million [in 2007 dollars]) were being executed. Ninety-nine projects with a cumulative expenditure of just over Rs 9 billion (approximately US$300 million [in 2007 dollars] as of March 2007) had been completed when the Indian government decided to terminate the programme. Achievements listed by the KMDA in their 2007 Annual Report primarily included infrastructure projects for new townships and housing projects, indicating the redefinition of KMDA’s priorities (Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 2007). The KMDA also continues its regulatory function. It prepares land use maps and registers (LUMRs) and land use development control plans (LUDCPs) for various zones within the KMA under stipulations specified by the West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) Act of 1979. The purpose of LUDCPs is to provide regulatory measures to enforce environmental and eco-friendly urban growth. Given the lengthy process involved in official adaptation of LUDCPs, the KMDA prepares development control regulations (DCRs) as an interim measure to control unregulated growth. The enforcement of LUDCPs and DCRs is mainly the responsibility of local self-governments. However, the KMDA retains enforcement powers in certain jurisdictions. Of course, the agency has continued its tradition of developing policy plans and comprehensive planning documents (Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 2017b).5 The KMDA was identified as the State-level nodal agency for the implementation of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for Kolkata and Asansol’s urban areas. There were two sub-missions of JNNURM. These were ‘Urban Infrastructure and Governance’, and ‘Basic Services to the Urban Poor’. The f irst sub-mission involved upgrading infrastructure such as water supply, drainage, sewerage, sanitation, solid waste management, and urban transportation encompassing roads, bridges, flyovers, highways, expressways, and urban renewal. Issues of urban governance to facilitate the above interventions were within this sub-mission’s purview. The second sub-mission involved the integrated redevelopment of slums. Projects undertaken under this sub-mission include infrastructure 4 The Eighth Five-Year Plan period was between 1992 and 1997, while the Ninth Five-Year Plan was between 1997 and 2002. 5 Also based on the author’s interviews.

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development in slums and construction of new dwellings for the poor in the KMC area and other municipal towns within the KMA (Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 2011). JNNURM was launched on 3 December 2005 for the integrated development of urban infrastructure and services for 63 cities and discontinued on 31 March 2014. Despite its stated goal to provide basic services for the urban poor, it is yet another policy instrument that encouraged privatization of services. In Kolkata, 35 per cent of the project investment was provided by the central government; 15 per cent from the State government. The remaining 50 per cent had to be raised from financial institutions, private sector partners, the implementing agencies’ own sources, and the State government (Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority 2011). While the KMDA took an entrepreneurial role, the KMC has been involved in the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project (KEIP) from 2002 to 2013. Consequently, the onus of providing urban services to the poor shifted to this agency. KEIP aimed to arrest the environmental deterioration of Kolkata and improve the quality of life, especially for the poor, through provision of proper sewerage, drainage facilities, and solid waste management (Shaw and Satish 2007). The BIP was replaced by the Kolkata Slum Improvement Project (KSIP) funded by the UK Department of International Development (DFID). The KSIP fell under KEIP’s umbrella, and KMC undertook slum improvement through projects such as repairing access lanes; providing electric lights in lanes and open spaces; improving drainage, sewerage, and toilet facilities; and providing water (Sengupta 2010; Ghosh 2013).

Kolkata’s Private Townships and Gated Communities: Emergence of Real Estate-Driven Development Like other Indian cities, one of the physical manifestations of liberalization and globalization in Kolkata is the State-regulated planned townships, townships that are public-private ventures with gated housing communities catering to NRIs and the middle and upper classes aspiring to the NRI lifestyle. Such townships are also referred to as private, mini or integrated townships or urban integrated mega projects. Gated housing communities and private townships are spreading to the outer fringes of the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, the highway connecting Kolkata with the airport and the new town of Rajarhat (Bose 2007; Roy 2011a; Shatkin 2011). The same Marxist regime that settled squatters, sharecroppers, and slum dwellers in

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Figure 85 Eden City

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

the eastern fringes of the city through land invasions or the extra-judicial process of vesting began evicting them in the late 1990s to create townships and housing complexes. This was a new political move by which the Left Front sought to establish alliances with the bhadralok class that longs for a city of hygiene and order (Roy 2003, 2011a). As elsewhere in India, gated communities have Western names such as Rosedale Gardens, Ideal City, Unitech, Uniworld City, and Eden City (see figure 85). Just as burgers and pizzas have been modified to suit the Bengali palate, we also see names like Upohar, which means ‘gift’ in Bengali (see figure 86). As in other Indian cities, Western facilities such as temperaturecontrolled swimming pools, country clubs, sporting and exercise facilities, arenas, malls, coffee shops, and conference halls are often included in these housing complexes. Housing mimics North American-style suburban developments with wide roads, manicured lawns, and low population density (Bose 2007, 2015). Euro-American forms of housing such as penthouses, luxury villas, garden homes, duplex apartments, row houses, studio apartments, and designer bungalows are being offered. Armed uniformed guards at the gate ensure that undesirable elements are excluded from the communities (see figure 87). Larger and more exclusive gated communities

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Figure 86 Upohar

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

may have almost the same amenities as townships and often advertise themselves as such. Such communities are advertising a safe and sanitized environment removed from the slums and squalor of Kolkata as well as a Western lifestyle offering easy access to Western amenities. The only noticeable difference between gated communities and private townships is that the latter are larger in scale and boast additional amenities such as schools and hospitals. The wide array of market-driven Euro-American forms of housing is making Kolkata more cosmopolitan and internationalizing architectural space. At the same time, it is creating extreme shelter divisions between the super rich and the ultra poor. Bustees have long been an integral part of Kolkata. They have coexisted with Kolkata’s mansions in the native part of the city since colonial times and were adjacent to the posh enclaves of the immediate post-colonial era. Even the British could not avoid their encroachment into the White Town. Now, however, the gated communities and private townships completely exclude the poor. The inhabitants of these gated communities need the urban poor to maintain their lifestyles; the domestic help often come from the surrounding bustees as well as villages

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Figure 87 Guards at the entry of Eden City

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

surrounding the city. The proliferation of such housing is clearly leading to what Graham and Marvin (2001) call ‘splintering urbanism’ as they are ‘glocally’-oriented and self-contained enclaves surrounded by spaces that are socially and economically disconnected with them. Such communities are splintering themselves from Kolkata’s substandard infrastructure by developing their own private infrastructure at a higher cost. As pointed out by Roy (2003, 2011a) the bhadralok class longs for a city of hygiene and order. These Western-style living arrangements manifest such a desire. Hiland Park is an example of upper-income housing and commercial facility development undertaken by KMDA. In 1999 the real estate developer Hiland Group entered into an agreement with the KMDA to form Calcutta Metropolitan Group Limited (CMGL) to develop Hiland Park. This is a mixed residential and commercial complex spread over eleven acres with nine residential towers, with the tallest tower being 27 stories high with units consisting of luxury apartments, penthouses, duplexes, and a shopping mall (Bose 2007; Magicbrick 2017) (see figure 88). Housing occupies a key position in the economy and housing reform initiatives cater to the needs of the middle- and upper-income classes and

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Figure 88 Hiland Park

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

bypass the poor. The deregulation of financing for housing also is geared towards the needs of the middle and upper classes. The eligibility criteria for housing loans are very stringent and limited to people with a regular, salaried income or copies of tax returns demonstrating business income. Such restrictions deny access to those with lower incomes. A proposal was drawn up by the Urban Development Department permitting the construction of multi-storeyed buildings in bustees with the approval of tenants (Sengupta 2010). Illegal construction of multi-storeyed buildings in bustees had become common by the early 1990s. Thika tenants could add additional floors to their properties. Promoters continued building illegally with substandard materials. In time, the poor construction led to the collapse of many of these multi-storeyed buildings. The Left Front turned a blind eye because it did not want to alienate its bustee constituencies.6 With the advent of the liberalization process, from 1996 the Left Front also displaced squatters to make the highly subsidized housing colonies in Patuli available to

6 Also see Thomas 1997 in this context.

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middle-class families. Since then, this enclave on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass has become a suburban extension of Kolkata (Roy 2011a). Globalization has created a new real estate culture in Kolkata promoted by the State and private actors. Since the early 1990s, the Left Front regime has abandoned its Marxist philosophy and rural emphasis, embarking on an urban-focused real estate development approach for redeveloping Kolkata. Its aversion to capital was replaced by an allegiance to global investment and the creation of a corporate-political nexus (Sengupta 2010). Roy (2011a) further claims that Kolkata’s insertion into the global economy took place through a transnational form of property capital. Roy’s assertion seems valid since the city’s growth is mainly driven by real estate development and speculation. As discussed earlier, the Left Front failed to pursue local or international capital to arrest the city’s decline. This failure precipitated the channelling of capital to the secondary sector of capital through interventions such as the deregulation of housing finance and markets. The result was the creation of a nexus of global financial markets with large and medium-sized real estate developers, local merchants, and brand-name retailers through land subsidy and joint ventures.

Kolkata’s Office Buildings for the Service and Financial Sectors, SEZs, and IT Parks and Complexes One of the first initiatives of new Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee when he came to power in 2000 was to woo the IT sector to Kolkata. Unlike Bengaluru and other cities with an abundance of foreign firms, much of Kolkata’s IT and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES)7 were domestic entrepreneurs. In order to facilitate IT companies’ start-up businesses in Kolkata, the West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation (WEBEL) (see figure 89) created the Salt Lake Electronic Complex (Saltlec), a 150-acre, pollution-free IT park in Sector V of Bidhannagar. Sector V was set apart as an industrial sector of Bidhannagar (Shaw and Satish 2007; Bose 2007). Although some manufacturing units were built before globalization, there was no real industrial development in West Bengal at that time. The Standard Design Factory (SDF) building is the first to be constructed in Sector V in the mid-1980s. It currently houses the offices of a number of IT companies (see figure 90). As Sector V became saturated with IT firms, 7 Such services include call centres, data processing, medical transcription services, support centres, website services, and so on.

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Figure 89 The West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation in Nabadiganta

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

other facilities around Bidhannagar and in Rajarhat were set up. Due to its phenomenal growth, Sector V was given industrial township status in 2006 and renamed Nabadiganta (which means ‘new horizons’ in Bengali) Industrial Township (Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority 2017). Nabadiganta is home to the IT and ITES industry, including the Western India Products Limited (WIPRO) campus, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (see figure 91), Consulting Engineering Services (CES), Power Grid Corporation, WEBEL, and a number of offices for companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited (see figure 92). The State transport garage, NICCO amusement park, educational institutions (mainly private engineering colleges), and the Eastern Command Army campus are part of the Nabadiganta township. The roads built to cater to the occasional cars and trucks are now crowded with all modes of transport.8

8 Based on an email correspondence with Ashish Basu, architect and planner, Espace Kolkata, on 28 August 2013.

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Figure 90 SDF building in Nabadiganta

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

With the onset of liberalization, the Bengal Intelligent Park, a cluster of high-rise buildings to facilitate the IT industry, was also initiated. Intelligent work spaces such as INFINITY were constructed with high-rise towers within Saltec from the mid-1990s (see figure 93). The West Bengal Industrial

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Figure 91 TCS building in Nabadiganta

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

Figure 92 Srei building in Nabadiganta

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

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Figure 93 The INFINITY building in Nabadiganta

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

Development Corporation (WBIDC) entered into a joint venture with the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) Bank to form the West Bengal Infrastructure Development Corporation. Among other projects, this corporation set up a ‘Gem and Jewellery’ SEZ – Manikachan (which means ‘jewels and gold’ in Bengali) (see figure 94) – in Bidhannagar

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Figure 94 Manikachan, a SEZ in Bidhannagar

Source: Photograph courtesy of Ashish Basu, 2013

and a Toy Park to attract investments in these sectors (Shaw and Satish 2007; Bose 2007). As pointed out by Roy (2009) drawing from Ong (2006), SEZs are zones of exception where the state creates exceptional benefits for corporate investors. These subsidies – land and taxes to corporate houses provided by the state to facilitate capital accumulation – are what Harvey refers to as ‘geobribes’ (Harvey 1989).9 The Left Front’s argument was that without such exceptional benefits, global capitalists would look elsewhere and the State would be the loser (Roy 2009). The concept is not only applicable to the SEZs but the entire township of Nabadiganta. Since IT parks primarily cater to multinationals, their architecture is global in nature. They serve as icons for investment, assuring the investors that India is a safe place in which to invest. Glass buildings set in manicured lawns, completely detached from their Indian surroundings, characterize such parks (Mehrotra 2011). As the above images illustrate, the buildings are completely detached from Kolkata’s realities. Intelligent buildings offer a wide range of Western amenities such as car-parking facilities, food courts, 9

Also see Roy 2009 for a similar argument.

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and restaurants. We can also extend Graham and Marvin’s (2001) concept of ‘splintering urbanism’ to IT parks and other such buildings. These structures are ‘glocally’-oriented, self-contained enclaves with a global infrastructure. Like the gated communities, they are surrounded by areas that are socially and economically disconnected with them.

Shopping Malls Another product of globalization in Kolkata is the appearance of shopping malls such as South City Mall, one of the largest shopping malls in eastern India, located in the southern part of the city. The mall is part of the South City Mall and Housing Complex that occupies about 125,500 square metres of land and has residential buildings that are 35 storeys high (see figure 95), with the glass-clad shopping mall forming an imposing entrance (see figure 96). The complex has a school, an 1,800-car parking lot, and other Western amenities associated with such complexes (see figure 97 for the site plan). Anchored by well-known Indian retail outlets, more than 130 retail stores are spread over five floors. The mall itself is about 92,900 square metres of retail facility with multilevel parking, multiplex movie theatres, and a food court and restaurants offering local and international cuisines. The shops are located on multilevel decks with a central atrium and shiny floors reflecting the lights above. The CCTVs maintain strict surveillance; digital billboards display moving images to shoppers. The Usha factory, a subsidiary of Jay Engineering Works, was originally located on the complex site. After producing electrical consumer goods since the 1950s, the factory was declared a ‘sick industry’ in 2003. A real estate consortium, Merlin Group, bought the site and demolished the factory and filled in the large lakes in the complex. Construction of the South City Mall and Housing Complex began in 2004. Dulal Mukherjee and Associates, a Kolkata-based firm, was the principal architect, while Atlanta-based Stewart and Associates served as design consultants. Peridian Asia PTE, a Singapore-based firm, served as the landscape architects, while another Singapore-based firm, Meinhardt PTE, was the structural consultant. There is a Muslim bustee nearby, and a middle-class Bengali neighbourhood, Jodhpur Park, is located opposite the complex (Mukherjee n.d.; Himatsingka 2009; South City Mall 2017).10

10 Also based on a conversation with Anjan Gupta, architect and proprietor of Anjan Gupta Architects, July 2013.

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Figure 95 Apartments within South City complex

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

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Figure 96 Imposing entrance to South City Mall

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

Figure 97 Site plan for South City Mall Complex. Principal: Dulal Mukherjee and Associates. Design consultants: Stewart and Associates. Landscape architects: Peridian Asia PTE

Source: Adapted with permission from: Propertywala (2017)

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The South City Mall can be seen as a social fortress that divides middle-class consumers from the poor. As pointed out by Mukherjee (n.d.), working-class families with little or no purchasing power dress up to visit the mall during the weekends or festivals. Conversely, the middle class come to the mall daily armed with credit cards and cash. Even the mall’s movie theatre tickets are priced above the cost of normal movie theatres, thereby excluding the poor. A large number of people drawn from the neighbouring refugee colonies serve as salespeople in the numerous shops and restaurants. Rather than entering as consumers, it is their service that allows them to be in the mall (Mukherjee n.d.). Drawing from Voyce (2007), the architectural space in South City Mall can be seen as a regulated environment designed to keep out undesirables and promote a global consumer culture. Following Voyce (2007), it is detached from local physical space and history, contradicting any measure of social integration. Middle-class conceptions of purity and safety are the driving forces behind the mall and take precedence over the needs of the poor. These are leisure complexes that are causing ‘splintering urbanism’ in Kolkata. Malls along the southern part of the city are changing the spatial structure of the city. The entire stretch of land from Jadavpur to Garia was once studded with small-scale industries like Bengal Lamp, a manufacturer of electric lamps; Shulekha, an ink factory; and Dabur, an Ayurvedic11 plant. As these factories have become defunct, they have been transformed or are being transformed into upscale housing complexes with shopping malls. Besides altering the existing landscape, such complexes are also destroying natural ecosystems. In the case of South City Mall, a roughly 5,300-square-metre lake on the site has been partially filled in to make way for the construction of residential towers. The developers had permission from the State Pollution Control Board to fill in this area provided they replaced it with another body of water, about 5,700 square metres in size, despite protests by the NGO, Vasudhara, and other activists. Although the developers did replace the lake with an artificial one, the state’s approval demonstrated its desire to promote upscale real estate and commercial development regardless of the strain and cost it added to Kolkata’s traffic, water, and electrical problems (Mukherjee n.d.). Despite its egalitarian and socially inclusive claims, the prominent City Centre mall in Bidhannagar is another example of a social fortress (see figure 98). The City Centre was developed as a private-public venture between the KMDA and the Gujarat Ambuja Cement Group. This new partnership, the Bengal Ambuja Metro Development Limited, developed 11 Ayurveda is a traditional system of Indian medicine.

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Figure 98 The City Centre mall in Bidhannagar. Architect: Charles Correa

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

the complex. The government leased 27,275 square metres of land to the Ambuja Group at a subsidized price for the project. The mall itself occupies about 20,760 square metres, while the rest consists of housing (see figure 99). It has a built-up space of about 37,160 square metres and is three storeys high. There are approximately 250 shops, a multiplex theatre, entertainment areas, food courts, offices, and a multi-storeyed housing complex set in a large expanse of green space (Sanyal 2010). The mall was designed by the well-known Indian architect Charles Correa. Sanyal (2010) argues that the three-storied mall camouflages its vertical height to instil in the minds of shoppers that it is within their reach. Well-known Indian and international retailers anchor the mall (see figure 100). Restaurants in the food court include international chains and a variety of Indian cuisines that cater mainly to the IT professionals who live in the vicinity. The diversity that the mall owners and the architect claim consists of what is called a ‘Mall in Mall’ on the second floor, where local and lower-priced shops are segregated. According to Sanyal (2010), the ‘Mall in Mall’ is also a ploy to lure lowerincome shoppers into the mall in the hope that they may eventually go on a shopping spree. The window shoppers stay on the ground floor or go up to

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Figure 99 Housing in the City Centre mall in Bidhannagar

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

the third floor where the high-end shops are located. Eventually, they return to the ground floor or flock near the Kund.12 The salespeople, managers, and security personnel in the mall are required to dress in accordance with Western dress codes. Visitors to the mall, especially the youth, also dress up in Western clothes (Sanyal 2010). The City Centre can be viewed as a space where Kolkata’s youth masquerade themselves in order to transcend Global South realities by imitating and competing with the West. While the mall does not completely exclude the poor, they are relegated to segregated discount shops, the Kund, and window-shopping.

Emergence of New Planning Paradigms: State-Regulated Townships and Private Townships Since engaging in liberalization policies, State entities such as the West Bengal Housing Board, the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development 12 The word kund means a fountain of hot water. The Kund in the mall is actually a water body.

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Figure 100 Inside the City Centre mall

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

Corporation Limited (WBHIDCO), the Department of Urban Development, and the KMDA have been developing State-regulated planned townships such Rajarhat and Baisnabghata Patuli. The KMDA also has undertaken the development of private townships such as Kolkata West International City and Kolkata Riverside through public-private ventures. According to

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Sengupta and Tipple (2007), one of the reasons for new town development is to provide better housing for the returning NRIs, IT professionals, and other elites in the city’s expanding computer, electronics, and telecommunications sector. This policy is the result of land supply bottlenecks and the belief that better housing serves as a catalyst for development.

Rajarhat The government of West Bengal planned on creating the New Kolkata Township in Rajarhat in the early 1990s. The Department of Housing set up a technical committee in 1993 to prepare a preliminary report while the Housing Directorate prepared a base map in August. KMDA was charged to prepare a concept plan in 1994. A task force consisting of technical experts was set up and the Indian Institute of Science and Technology and the Director of Delhi School of Planning and Architecture were consulted. Based on the feedback, the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur prepared a revised plan. The first project report was prepared on the basis of this plan. In the mid-1990s the total area allocated for the new town was 27.5 square kilometres with specific amounts allocated for various land uses. The total area as well as allocation for various land uses has changed over time as well. The township was inaugurated in June 1995.13 Rajarhat was originally conceived as a self-contained nodal growth centre to house three-quarters of a million people with modern office complexes and open spaces, and relieve the congestion in Kolkata.14 The township is being developed as an IT hub, supported by other businesses, trade, and educational and cultural institutions. A number of IT parks have been earmarked in the city’s master plan, which also gives priority to spaces for setting up IT and ITES facilities. WBHIDCO, a West Bengal government enterprise within the Department of Urban Development, was specifically created for the purpose of planning and developing the township (Chen et al. 2009; Wang et al. 2010; Dey et al. 2013). WBHIDCO embarked on implementing the project in four action areas with scheduled dates of implementation for each of them (Dey et al. 2013) (see figures 101 and 102 for plot layouts of Action Areas I and II).15 Rajarhat is also expected to provide upscale housing and commercial facilities for workers in IT industries in the adjacent Nabadiganta Industrial Township. 13 For a detailed discussion see Dey et al. 2013. 14 Also based on the author’s interviews with KMDA officials in 1996, 1999, and 2003. 15 Some of the land uses shown in these Plot Layouts have not been built as yet.

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Figure 101 Rajarhat plot layout, Action Area I

Source: Adapted by the author from: West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (2017a)

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Figure 102 Rajarhat plot layout, Action Area II

Source: Adapted by the author from: West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (2017b)

The development of the town marks the emergence of a new planning paradigm as the city’s infrastructure and housing needs are being provided primarily by public-private partnerships. The State is responsible for land

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Figure 103 City centre, Rajarhat

Source: Photograph courtesy of Anjan Gupta, 2013

acquisition, development, and sale. The original intent was to allocate 40 per cent of the total residential land to private-public partnerships and lease the remaining 60 per cent to individuals and cooperatives. Plots for low-income groups were to be subsidized by plots in the middle- and high-income groups (Sengupta 2006; Chen et al. 2009; Dey et al. 2013). Real estate ventures and the demands of the IT industry, however, are dictating the growth of Rajarhat. Despite the rhetoric of providing housing for poor segments of the population through cross subsidy, very little housing is being constructed for lower-income groups because the cost of land development is too high. The types of amenities being developed exclude the poor, who cannot afford the upscale malls (see figure 103), schools, convenience stores, and hospitals that these developments offer (Sengupta 2006; Chen et al. 2009; Dey et al. 2013). The township has also displaced peasants, fisher folks, and other urban poor living in these outlying areas. The displaced population have not been compensated at current fair market rates. The land-acquisition process was started in the mid- to late 1990s. Land was forcibly acquired at belowmarket rates with brokers, goondas, political party leaders, and cadres of

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the CPI(M). Unwilling land owners were often harassed by the police or party cadres. Some were abducted, while many even committed suicide. Even speculators were allowed to acquire land with active support from the cadres of the CPI(M). There was even a violent demonstration when the local residents set fire to Vedic Village – a resort in the area in 2009. Despite protest from the grassroots and NGOs, there was no political party to support the cause. It was not until 2010 that the farmers, squatters, and fishery-based residents got support from Trinamool (Dey et al. 2013). Chatterjee’s (2004) proposition of how a post-industrial city became globally available in the 1990s is useful in explaining the proliferation of spaces of global culture and new urban planning paradigms in Kolkata. The central business district in Kolkata is old and incapable of supporting the advanced transportation, telecommunication facilities, and office space necessary to cater to IT and ITES needs, IT parks, and intelligent office towers. As a result, townships that are actually IT hubs are being developed far from the business district on the outskirts of the city. As pointed out by Chaterjee’s proposition, the rest of the city is slowly being characterized by segregated and exclusive spaces for the technical and managerial elites in the form of gated communities. Drawing from Ong (2011), the architecture of spectacle that Kolkata is attempting to build goes beyond mere capital accumulation and attracting foreign investments. It symbolizes the promissory value of the city, its geopolitical significance, and a desire for world recognition.

Haora’s Global Urbanism As always, Haora continues to defy conventional norms. In fact, the most dominant type of residential architecture in Haora is that of the contractor builder. The advent of globalization has, in fact, increased the production of such housing to a phenomenal level as contractor builders ignore local bylaws and construct multi-storeyed flats on narrow lanes (see figure 104). Low-quality gated communities have also appeared (see figure 105). Industrial parks are also being set up in Haora to promote industrialization. The first shopping mall built in the city, Avani Riverside Mall along the river Hughi, has about 42,000 square metres of retail space and is anchored by well-known retail shops and a variety of restaurants (http://kolkata.mallsmarket.com/malls/avani-riverside-mall-howrah). Its image is similar to those that exist in Kolkata (see figure 106). Nonetheless, the city is still crowded and congested.

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Figure 104 A view of a contractor-built multi-storey building in Haora

Source: Photograph by Ashok Kar and Tul Tul Banerjee. Courtesy of Purnendu Bikas Sengupta, 2013

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Figure 105 Vivek Vihar Apartments in Haora

Source: Photograph courtesy of Sudeshna Ghosh, 2015

Kolkata West International City Kolkata West International City, Haora’s private township launched in 2006, is an example of a private township being developed fully with foreign capital.16 It is the first such township in India initially developed through a joint venture between the Salim and Ciputra Groups of Indonesia, Universal Success Enterprises Limited of the Singapore-based Bengali NRI Prasoon Mukherjee, and the KMDA. High-level State officials had visited Indonesia to hold talks with the Salim group to promote Kolkata as an emerging business 16 The discussion on Kolkata West also draws from a telephone interview in April 2015 with Abhay Upadhyay, president of the Kolkata West International City Buyers Welfare Association.

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Figure 106 Avani Riverside Mall in Hoara

Source: Photograph courtesy of Sudeshna Ghosh, 2015

Figure 107 Kolkata West site plan showing various land uses

Source: Adapted by the author from: From a brochure provided by the developers to Sudeshna Ghosh, 2007

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Figure 108 The entry gate to Kolkata West

Source: Photograph courtesy of Sudeshna Ghosh, 2006

destination. Since that time Ciputra withdrew and Salim has exited from all of its projects because of the violence in Nandigram. Prasoon Mukherjee is the only foreign investor still involved. KMDA agreed to let them solely develop this township of roughly 1.5 square kilometres of land for about Rs 95 million (slightly over US$2 million [in 2006 dollars]) for 99 years (Chen et al. 2009; Banerjee 2011; Chakraborty 2013). The selling point for the city was secure, global, and environmentally safe housing for high-end buyers. The township also was expected to change how Haora is perceived. The developers promised 6,000 bungalows, four high-rise residential towers, three IT parks, about a 52,600-square-metre club, two schools, a 200-bed hospital, and four shopping malls (Bose 2015) (see figure 107). The design, planning, and layout of the city mirrored the gated communities in the West. The entrance to the township mimicked the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (Chen et al. 2009; Banerjee 2011; Chakraborty 2013; Bose 2015) (see figure 108). The stallions that adorned the gate were removed by Ciputra when they left the project. At the time of the writing of this book, the project has not been completed (see figure 109). However, a large number of prospective buyers have already paid

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Figure 109 Incomplete construction in Kolkata West

Source: Photograph courtesy of Abhay Upadhyay, 2015

for their housing. The project has become very controversial and the owners formed Kolkata West International City Buyers Welfare Association, an organization through which they are constantly filing petitions against the developers for failing to complete the project. In explanation, the developers cited difficulties obtaining environmental clearance and problems with contractors as the primary causes for the delay. KMDA officials blamed the delay on legal complications in delivering the entire land that was promised as well as problems with the master plan produced by the developers (Banerjee 2011; Chakraborty 2013). Bose (2015) points out that the location of the project in Hoara has, in part, contributed to its failure because it is still difficult to convince the buyers that the city is a desirable location. Another reason for its failure was its association with the investors in Singur and Nadigaram which tainted its reputation (Bose 2015). In a recent political move, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sent a strongly worded note to the KMDA for not releasing the remaining land of about 242,800 square kilometres to Universal Success Enterprises because of complaints filed against them, especially by the Kolkata West International City Buyers Welfare Association. In addition to failing to provide the housing, Universal Success Enterprises had violated

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the original agreement and signed an agreement with another developer to lease about 121,400 square metres of land and structures (Goswami 2015). Kolkata West’s venture to attract foreign capital through real estate was a failure. The township was part of a larger scheme to influence Salim Group to invest in West Bengal. The Salim Group had voiced interest in developing infrastructure such as roads and bridges and sector-based integrated townships outside Kolkata. In addition, a cooperative effort with Prasoon Mukerjee to build a two-wheeler manufacturing plant near Kolkata West was being considered (Chen et al. 2009). However, all of these promises were nullified when the company left the State after the Nandigram incident. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, initially a proponent of the project, reversed his position and refused to act on behalf of the buyers (Banerjee 2011; Chakraborty 2013). Such actions by the Left Front can be seen as fallout from the Nandigram and Singur incidents as well as the resistance faced in Rajarhat. The land acquisition process for Kolkata West was similar to that of Rajarhat (Wang et al. 2010). Consequently, the CPI(M) and its allies suffered severe setbacks in the 2008 municipal elections in West Bengal. In the KMC elections of 2010 they lost to the Trinamool Congress primarily because of the role the Trinamool Congress played in organizing the poor in Nandigram, Singur and other mega-projects around Kolkata. As pointed out by Shatkin (2011), the CPI(M)’s willingness to stake its political future in land for large development projects is a testimony to the power of real estate in Kolkata. He contends, however, that the gambit failed because of the party’s inability to control land in the fringes due to diffused land holdings, a legacy of national and local regulations on land, and fear of losing elections. The Trinamool Congress that succeeded the Left Front government is likely to be constrained by the same factors.

6

Concluding Remarks

As the book illustrates, Kolkata’s urbanism can be broadly divided into four distinct periods. The first began with the city’s establishment in 1690 and ended at the turn of the nineteenth century. The British victory in the Battle of Palashi in 1757 triggered the beginning of social and political control through planning endeavours. The erection of Lord Wellesley’s palace in the early 1800s marked the emergence of the employment of architecture as a symbol of domination and subjugation of the native population and the discourses that justified such architecture. Its construction, coupled with the spatial restructuring of Kolkata after the British victory, were major junctures in Kolkata’s imperial urbanism. Attempts to bring about symmetry and control and make the city beautiful and healthy for the British began immediately after the erection of the palace. The period transformed Kolkata from a ‘City of Huts’ to a ‘City of Palaces’. The second period of Kolkata’s urbanism was dominated by the British attempt to make the city clean and healthy for themselves, and give it a neo-classical look. The phase ended just before the dawn of independence in the 1930s, after which the British found it futile to undertake any major planning or architectural endeavours. This was a time of consolidation and decline of British power, and the subsequent planning and architectural endeavours in Kolkata reflected it. The third phase, during which Kolkata’s architecture and planning totally deviated from India’s, spans the period from independence in 1947 until the mid-1990s. It encompasses the city’s transformation to a Marxist city, which occurred between 1977 and the mid-1990s, as a result of a leftist regime that rewrote Kolkata’s identity. No major architectural or planning endeavours were carried out in this period. The last phase of Kolkata’s urbanism, which began in the 1990s and continues today, is marked by its attempts to globalize. Kolkata’s road to globalization took a different trajectory from the rest of India. This phase is changing Kolkata’s spatial structure and physical appearance in an unprecedented manner through the emergence of new urban forms such as Euro-American housing models, shopping malls, gated communities, private townships, IT parks, intelligent buildings, and SEZs. In all of these periods, Kolkata’s urbanism differed from that of the rest of India. In the early colonial period, Kolkata pioneered many colonial and architectural experiments. It became the first city in which the British promoted the city as a symbol of power and a stage for propagation of the empire. Thus, the British began to employ architecture as a symbol of

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political and imperial power from here. Government houses became the prototype of such a symbol, and Lord Wellesley’s palace is a quintessential example of this type of architecture. It was undoubtedly the most magnificent structure of the early British colonial era and symbolized an emerging empire. Even the site of the government house symbolized power. Foreign visitors as well as Indians could get an unobstructed view so that they could be awed by the power of the emerging British Empire. This desire to make Kolkata an imperial capital of an emerging empire resulted in imposing European ideas of planning, townscaping, and layout 60 years earlier than in other colonial cities in India. The erection of Wellesley’s government house triggered this process, and structures in the vicinity of the palace were built to complement its design. Kolkata was the first city that the British spatially restructured to impose social and political control. The scale of restructuring attempted in Kolkata was tried in Delhi a hundred years later. Kolkata was also the first city where the dominant British colonial planning paradigm of segregating themselves and imposing control on native areas they perceived to be health hazards emerged. These Haussmannian plans of bringing about symmetry and control over Kolkata through regulations on native-owned buildings, carving of rectilinear broad avenues, improving sanitation, and beautifying the city were indeed unique at that time. Again, this is because Kolkata was a seat of an emerging empire and the British wanted to symbolize that through architecture and planning. Despite these uniquenesses, the spatial pattern for Kolkata resembled other colonial cities of the period. Initially, the British mainly clustered inside or around the fort, with an adjacent native town. The early British practice of allowing spontaneous growth in initial phases of colonial urbanization was also followed in Kolkata. The White Town expanded beyond the narrow confines of the fort only after they established political and territorial control. Despite the British attempt to segregate themselves, the allocation of White versus Black Towns still had a blurred boundary as in other cities. Clearing the space in the vicinity of forts – a common feature for the British when defence became a significant motive for planning – can also be observed in Kolkata. Kolkata continued to be a unique example of British colonial urbanism in the second period. It was the first city where the British could build a unified and coherent centre of power and knowledge through architectural symbolism and townscaping. To add to the grandeur of the administrative area around the government house, smaller lots on Esplanade Row at the northern border of the Maidan were consolidated to accommodate the larger administrative buildings in the 1830s. The British also consolidated

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the principal off ices of the imperial government around Binoy-BadalDinesh Bagh in the 1870s to symbolize the area as the centre of power and knowledge. To give Kolkata an imperial stamp and Victorian grandeur, the British even retrofitted the mundane-looking Writers Building in 1880 and demolished native dwellings near Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh around the same time. Kolkata was, in fact, the most elegant city in India until the late nineteenth century. It continued to be the ‘City of Palaces’ in British discourse. Kolkata is also a quintessential example of discourse on bustees. British discourse on Kolkata’s bustees as breeding grounds for disease and crime began in the late 1860s and continued well into the twentieth century. Even when the Indo-Saracenic style became popular and Mumbai experimented with Gothic revival, Kolkata was unique in its adherence to neo-classical architecture, patronized because of its connection to the architectural vocabulary of the imperial Roman Empire. Given this connection, such architecture was seen as a symbol of imperial power from the early days of British Imperial urbanism until its decline in Kolkata. Kolkata was different because the British gained total political control after the Battle of Palashi. There were no palaces left where surveillance was necessary, so there was no need for the British to encourage the Indo-Saracenic style for palaces as they did elsewhere. Walter L.B. Granville, Kolkata’s leading architect in the Victorian era, strengthened the city’s adherence to neo-classical architecture by designing several buildings in this style. Lord Curzon reinforced it with the construction of the Victoria Memorial Hall at the turn of the twentieth century. The only significant secular building that was inspired by Gothic architecture in Kolkata was the High Court. Saint Paul’s Cathedral was also Gothic because of the British prescription of this style as the architectural language of Christianity. Kolkata had only a few private buildings in Indo-Saracenic, art noveau, art deco, or the international style. So strong was its adherence to neo-classicism that we do not find too much of a search for an Indianness in architecture despite the fact that one of the pioneers of the Modern Indian Architectural Movement, Sris Chandra Chatterjee, was a Bengali. Another major difference was that the discourse in vilifying Indian architecture in Kolkata was not as pronounced because the city was a British creation. The British could not find any grandiose indigenous architecture to vilify. However, the British discourse did disparage the hybrid mansions, their locations, and interiors built by the Bengali elite. Nonetheless, it was not as pronounced as it was in the case of the architecture of the Nawabs of Oudh in Lucknow. The discourse was limited to a disdain of their lifestyles and lack of taste in interior design ascribed to the Bengali elite. The British

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felt this way because they thought themselves racially superior. They were irked with the location of such mansions in the native town, which they considered filthy and crowded. These mansions defied their notions of functional zoning that prescribed living in a neighbourhood dominated by a single class. Their Euro-centric view and civilizing mission prevented them from understanding that the Bengali elite had no desire to live in functionally zoned neighbourhoods and the very economy in which they prospered warranted various housing types and mixed land-use patterns. A city in which architecture had emerged as a symbol of power also witnessed its demise as such ten years earlier. Although it was nowhere near the scale of Imperial Delhi, the Victorian Memorial Hall was a last desperate effort by the British to employ architecture as a symbol of power and spectacle. It was just one monument in a city, instead of being a city of monuments like Imperial Delhi. Kolkata’s vitality as the capital was eroding and it was futile to use architecture as a symbol of power any longer. Despite all these differences, the basic spatial pattern of British colonial cities persisted in Kolkata. It still consisted of a White Town around the administrative complex, and a Black Town. Again, the boundaries between the Black Town and the White Town were blurred as they were in the rest of India. Colonial urbanism was deeply embedded in Kolkata’s political economy and social milieu. British discourse was an integral part of the social menu. The way the British vilified the hybrid mansions, their locations, and the interiors built by the Bengali elite revealed the importance of discourse as a source of power. Discourse was also employed to justify the architectural extravaganza in their stately buildings. The British employed the concept of otherness and racial inferiority in their discourse on Kolkata to distinguish between the Black Town and the White Town. The concept was also used to who was denied participation in local government until 1924. The adjustments made by the British in the spatial arrangements in their architecture and furnishings, and the Bengali elite’s attempt to erect hybrid mansions, illustrate the importance of social milieu in colonial urbanism. Political economy even played an important role in Kolkata’s emergence as the imperial capital of the British Empire in India. The city was established as the nexus of European trade in India. While other European enclaves deteriorated with the decline of their powers, Kolkata prospered as the British became the primary European colonizer in the region. The rise of Kolkata even relegated Chennai from the centre of the British Empire in India to the backwater. The grandiose building activity seen in Kolkata from the 1780s is also attributable to Kolkata’s rise in the colonial political

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economy and the subsequent wealth amassed by both British and Indians. The colonial political economy also transformed Haora into the workshop of British Calcutta. Subsequently it lacked the grandiose colonial architecture and completely defied the British scheme of Imperial urbanism. The third period in Kolkata’s urbanism was entirely different from the rest of India. Neither Corbusian architecture nor revivalism became popular in Kolkata. The first three decades after independence made Kolkata different in terms of architecture since subsequent regimes faced constant turmoil and crisis, limiting building activities. Another twenty years of limited and bureaucratic building activity by the leftist local state and a private industry restrained by this agenda resulted in a constrained culture of domestic architectural design unseen in any other Indian city. Architectural styles were even more limited in Haora as the elite did not want to invest in the housing market of this stigmatized city. Since architecture was the last issue on this regime’s agenda, it used flimsy edifices of Western architecture in the Boimela to define its own vision of urbanism. Another reason for the absence of architectural variety in Kolkata in the early post-colonial period was a lack of established firms and local patrons of architecture. In no other Indian city was planning influenced by the political economy the way it was in Kolkata. It was the political economy of post-colonial Kolkata – fuelled by the massive influx of refugees, proliferation of slums, and deteriorating urban infrastructure – that pushed the post-colonial urbanism towards policy-oriented planning. The Congress government had to concentrate on more pressing issues, such as deteriorating infrastructure rather than architecture. Nehru had the luxury to look to Albert Mayer and his close associate Matthew Nowicki and later Le Corbusier to create Chandigarh as a symbol of post-colonial urban identity for modern India. In contrast, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy had little choice but to turn to the American Ford Foundation and its consultants for a post-colonial plan to save Kolkata from communism. The unprecedented transfer of an American planning paradigm that took place with the Ford Foundation’s involvement in Kolkata made policy planning the language of post-colonial urbanism in Kolkata, rather than an architectural extravaganza. Kolkata’s search for a post-colonial planning paradigm was the only instance in India where fear of communism prompted Western planning interests. Kolkata is also the only city in India where the rise of electoral and revolutionary Marxism in the 1960s led to the creation of planning organizations in the hope that better urban infrastructure would curb the growth of Marxism. The transformation of Kolkata into a Marxist city began with the rise of the revolutionary and parliamentary Marxism in the 1960s.

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The local state resorted to Marxist rhetoric to construct a city that was unique in urban India. This was a city of violence that endured into the mid1970s, when street battles between the Naxalites and the CPI(M) and other parties became a daily affair. Kolkata of the late 1960s and early 1970s was characterized by political murders, curfews, and gheraos. Beheaded statues of nationalist leaders like Gandhi and Nehru became a common scenario in every para1 as the Naxalites denounced them as bourgeois leaders and enemies of the nation. Kolkata of that era was well captured visually in films like Pratidandi (The Adversary, 1970) and Calcutta 71 (1972) by internationally acclaimed Bengali films directors Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. Pratidandi is based on a novel by the well-known Bengali poet and novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay in which the plight of an educated middle-class youth during the height of the Naxalite movement is captured by Ray. In a corrupt society with unprecedented unemployment and social unrest, the hero of the film can reconcile neither with his revolutionary brother or careerist sister. In Calcutta 71, Sen shows a young political activist running through the streets of Kolkata and compares that with images from the Bangladesh Liberation War. The advent of the Left Front government did eventually end the violence. However, the next 34 years of the regime transformed the city into a unique kind of Marxist city. The leading party, the CPI(M), became omnipresent in the city. It had penetrated Kolkata’s urban fabric to such an extent that it was almost impossible to distinguish between state and party. Kolkata became a stagnant city, shunned by outsiders, a ‘black hole’ in the eyes of foreigners. It remained a city of traffic jams, poverty, squalor, and slums. In the immediate post-colonial period, the spatial structure of Kolkata remained the same, with the elite replacing the ‘Whites’ in their enclaves. The practice of displacement of the bustee dwellers, which continued through the early 1950s, ensured retention of the basic spatial structure inherited from the colonial period. However, this began to change as the left became successful in stalling evictions from the late 1950s. Given the long history of the leftist culture and politics, the urban poor were not forcibly relocated in the fringes as they were in New Delhi and many other cities, especially when Mrs. Gandhi’s government declared an emergency from 1976 to 1997 (De Souza 1983; Pugh 1990). Unlike in New Delhi where the squatters were not welcome, in Kolkata the CPI(M) and other leftist parties prevented the evictions of a large number of illegal refugee colonies that grew up on the city’s outskirts. The Left Front government also legalized many bustees by 1

The word para in Bengali means neighbourhood.

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law from 1981, making the spatial character of this Marxist city different from the rest of India. Kolkata’s road to liberalization and globalization was also distinct. As is evident, it is a late bloomer in the appearance of the physical manifestation of globalization. Kolkata’s political history and culture explain why Kolkata has been so delayed in the proliferation of global forms of architecture and new urban planning paradigms. The Left Front’s attempt to catch up is also a unique story of how a Marxist regime had to reinvent itself in the face of globalization. This was the Left Front’s ‘perestroika’. The same regime that was pro-poor and pro-labour embarked on ‘Operation Sunshine’ in 1996 in an effort to regain the support of the bhadralok class and make the city a safe haven for investment. Another instance of the Left Front reinventing itself was the proposal to remove hand rickshaw pullers and people who were indirectly involved in the rickshaw trade in Kolkata around the same time. However, the perception of the government’s hostility towards capital lingered. The scenario began to change only in the early 2000s, as relatively more investment occurred. The same government that vilified the KMDA transformed the agency to implement its spatial instruments of globalization. The same is true for other State agencies that have been developing state-regulated planned townships with the advent of globalization. The Left Front’s effort to develop Kolkata through urban-focused real estate development is also unique. This policy has been followed by the Trinamool Congress. Clearly, Kolkata’s entry into the global economy is primarily taking place through real estate. The Left Front reinvented itself in the last period by replacing its traditional antagonism for capital with an allegiance to global investment and the creation of a corporate political nexus. Its reformist phase began to evict squatters, sharecroppers, and slum dwellers in the eastern fringes that it had previously settled. This land was needed to build townships and housing complexes. Besides the Nandigram and Singur incidences, the land acquisition process in Rajarhat eventually led to the demise of the left in Kolkata. The Trinamool Congress won in the competitive mobilization of the political society as the CPI(M) abandoned them. Unlike other Indian cities, large-scale development projects in Kolkata met with more resistance because of the Left Front’s inability to control land and diffused land holdings. They were also fearful of losing elections. The Trinamool Congress is likely to be constrained by the same factors; it came to power on its support of low-income interests against the megaprojects that were being developed in the rural areas and suburbs of Kolkata, further illustrating the complexities of political struggles in shaping Kolkata’s urbanism.

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Despite the presence of a strong political society, we still do not see the globalization at the grassroots level occurring through NGOs and other civil society organizations working with the poor to resist the detrimental effect of globalization. Kolkata’s political history and culture leaves very little political space for NGOs and civil society organizations to play this role. Globalization is disrupting and fragmenting Kolkata’s urban fabric. Gated communities and private townships are creating unparalleled shelter divisions in Kolkata. Such townships and communities are changing the traditional co-existence of Kolkata’s bustees and mansions; they are, in fact, the new White Towns of Kolkata, although they are more pristine than their colonial counterparts. As such, they embody Graham and Marvin’s concept of splintering urbanism in Kolkata. Naturally, bustees are appearing on the fringes of these communities because their inhabitants require the services of the urban poor just as the British needed their servants and maids. However, unlike the original White Town, which was not completely free from the encroachment of bustees, these global communities have completely excluded the urban poor. As was the case in the White Town, these communities are also importing architectural and urban design principles from the West to create an idyllic world of their own, far removed from real Kolkata’s bustees, congestion, and squalor. Kolkata’s malls are also a social fortress that divides middle-class consumers from the poor who cannot participate in this purified, quasi-public space. Such spaces are also splintering Kolkata’s urban fabric. The same is true for intelligent buildings, IT Parks, and SEZs. In terms of spatial structure, Kolkata is striving to become what Partha Chatterjee has termed a post-industrial city. Haora has continued to defy all norms and proclaim globalization in its own way. Kolkata does not possess the attributes and resources essential to a global or world city. World cities are organizational nodes that articulate regional, national, and international economies into a global economy. There is a hierarchical ranking of such cities according to their global economic power and command, which can change over time as power and command increases or decreases (Friedmann 1986; Knox and Taylor 1995). Global cities are ones in which key sectors involved in managing the global economic systems – such as business, producer services, legal, or financial services – generally locate. They do not function independently but are linked with each other through networks of communications, transport, and capital. Such cities compete and collaborate with each other at the same time in economic, political, and cultural spheres (Sassen[1991] 2013). Arguably, a global city would contain international institutions such as the World Bank, United Nations, European Union, or North Atlantic Treaty Organization

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(NATO); headquarters of Fortune 500 companies; international financial institutions; stock exchanges; and transnational law firms. It would possess infrastructure, such as a sophisticated communication systems and an advanced transportation network, including an airport that acts as an international hub (Bose 2015). A vibrant downtown business district; cultural amenities such as art galleries, theatres, playhouses, and bookstores; educational institutions; and spectacular structures of international significance such as the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, or the Statue of Liberty are also essential characteristics of such cities (Bose 2015). Sassen ([1991] 2013), who coined the term ‘global cities’, included London, New York, and Tokyo at the top of her list of such cities. As is evident from the previous chapters, none of these characterizations apply to Kolkata.2 Kolkata’s inability to become a world city was recognized by Chakravorty (2000) as early as fifteen years ago when he pointed out that one cannot expect Kolkata to become a global centre of production (e.g., aircrafts, ships, military, hardware) or services (banking and insurance). As this narrative has shown, key sectors involved in managing the global economic systems are not located in Kolkata. It does not boast international institutions of the calibre of the World Bank, headquarters of Fortune 500 companies, international financial institutions and stock exchanges, or transnational law firms. The airport has hardly any international traffic, and many international airlines do not even fly to Kolkata. The downtown is congested and has a poor communication and transportation infrastructure. It is improbable that all these characteristics will suddenly crop up in Kolkata. Thus, despite all the schemes, programs, and plans, Kolkata is unlikely to obtain global status. The literature defining cities that do not fit the model of a global or world city is useful in explaining Kolkata’s attempts at globalization. Robinson (2002, 2006), for example, points out that a large number of cities do not fit into these categories. These cities are interpreted through developmental lenses. They are often caught up in an effort to fit into globalization by emulating the successes of cities that are global, or they are undertaking initiatives to redress poverty to maintain infrastructure and ensure service provision and productivity. Even in the new millennium, cities of the Global 2 Kolkata is considered the cultural capital of India and does have its share of as art galleries, theatres, playhouses, bookstores, and educational institutions. However, cultural institutions cater essentially to the Bengali palate while the only educational institution with an international reputation is the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, a public business school located in Joka, Kolkata.

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South are seen as underdeveloped and mired in poverty, environmental degradation, and disease (Roy 2011b). Such cities are recognized worldwide through the icon of the slum and are apocalyptic in image. Mike Davis’s 2006 book Planet of Slums is a typical example of such a view. Referencing Günter Grass’s symbolic dump, Davis wrote, ‘the principal function of Third World urban edge remains as a human dump. In some cases, urban waste and unwanted immigrants end up together, as in such infamous “garbage slums” as […] the huge Dhapa dump and slum on the fringe of Kolkata’ (Davis 2006: 47). The 2009 film Slumdog Millionaire made Mumbai an icon of the slum to Western eyes. Although no comparable movies have been made about Kolkata in recent years, it has been an icon of poverty and squalor as far back as 1992 with the film City of Joy. This image remains unchanged despite its efforts to reinvent itself through architecture, technology, ideas, and other aspects of global culture. Kolkata’s strategy to integrate into the world economy is more easily understood if one is familiar with Ong’s (2011) treatise on the styles or ‘art’ of being global. She identifies three methods of urban development that Asian cities have attempted in their effort to globalize. The style most relevant to Kolkata is what she has termed ‘inter-referencing.’ This approach consists of ‘practices of citation, allusion, aspiration, and competition’ (Ong 2011: 17). This entails an elite dreaming in which politicians invoke images of cities such as Shanghai or Singapore or other cities in India to sell real estate programs or justify unpopular measures such as clearing slums and suppressing political resistance. Clearly, this has been Kolkata’s strategy as it attempted to draw close to or even surpass other Indian cities. All the while, Trinomool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee dreams of creating a Kolkata that is London. This ‘physiological vertigo’ among Asian leaders is the effort to catch up with the West and the benchmarks necessary to become global cities (Anderson 1998; Ong 2011). Kolkata’s leaders have not been able to escape this ‘physiological vertigo’ in their race to globalize. This is the story of Kolkata’s transformation from a colonial to a postMarxist city. It began with Job Charnock’s successful third attempt to set up an English factory in Sutanati on a stormy day in August 1690. Charnock’s ‘City of Huts’ had become known as the ‘City of Palaces’ by the early nineteenth century, but by the end of the nineteenth century, it had deteriorated into Kipling’s ‘City of Dreadful Night’, one befit to set a Haussmann loose. By the 1960s, it had been transformed into a ‘scary city’. This city was the Global South’s ‘black hole’ and an epitome of urban disaster. This city of violence lasted until the mid-1970s. The Marxist regime that came to power in 1977 transformed Kolkata into a Marxist city sarcastically referred to

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as the ‘Soviet Republic of West Bengal’. It was Günter Grass’s city of Show Your Tongue. This was the City of Joy that the White Knight, Patrick Swayze, rescued. Of course, that city has changed. It now showcases glittering shopping malls, exclusive gated communities, and private townships. It is difficult to guess if the late Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu would be happy or unhappy to know that real estate developers from Kolkata are travelling to the United States to promote their Euro-American housing at the North American Bengali Conference, or the Banga Sanskriti Sammelan3 as it is known in Bengali. However, Job Charnock will no longer be able to find his favourite Banyan tree to smoke his hukah but he could visit Charnock City – a department store in Bidhannagar with a bar on the top floor – to have an English beer in today’s global Kolkata. He could call Lord Curzon on an iPhone bought from a shopping mall to tell him that his everlasting symbol of empire has been decolonized to a recreational space for commoners. The 2012 Bengali comedy-thriller Bhooter Bhhabishyat tells Kolkata’s story of transformation today. The title could mean ‘future of the past’ or ‘future of the ghosts’. In the movie, ghosts from different eras of Kolkata, who live in a colonial Bengali mansion, attempt to prevent its conversion into a Singapore-style shopping mall. While in real life real people have not been so successful in preventing Kolkata’s transformation, the ghosts are able do so in the movie.

3 This is an annual conference held in North America to celebrate Bengali culture and bring together the Bengali diaspora. The Cultural Association of Bengal held its first conference in 1980 in New York City. It has since been held in several cities in the United States and Canada. The conference also brings together merchants who want to promote their products to the attendees.

Glossary baboo

bagan baris bargadars boimela bazaar benami Bengali bhadradlok bustee

chajjaas chattris coolie dastaks dhee firman ghat gheraos gram panchayats goondas gullies hat hukah jaalis jheel khal

Bengali clerk in colonial India who was literate in English. It also included the Bengali elite. The word is also employed as a courtesy title for a Bengali gentleman and is equivalent to ‘Mr.’ garden houses sharecroppers book fair marketplace nameless natives of Bengal, which includes the State of West Bengal, India, and Bangladesh gentleman; the bhadralok class consists mainly of the Bengali urban intelligentsia that emerged in colonial Bengal Distortion of the Bengali word basati, which means a habitation, residence, or colony. Bustees are the predominant type of legal housing for the urban poor in Kolkata. wide projecting cornices or projecting concrete slabs free-standing canopied turrets British term for native labourers in India imperial Mughal license British distortion of the Bengali word dihi, meaning a village or a group of villages royal mandate or a decree issued by the Mughal emperors series of steps leading down to a river encirclement village councils The word has its origins in Hindi. It is also used in Bengali and English to refer to hired thugs. narrow lanes mart stemmed device for smoking tobacco pierced lattice screens pool or lake stream or creek

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khal kutta kund mahakaran maidan michils mistiri mouza

nawab panchanna panchayat samities sepoys palkhi punkah para pargana puja raja rajbari sanad sutanati thanas thika tenants zamindari zamindars

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ravine or spillway fountain of hot water secretariat open space or park in a city or a town processions master mason Locality with one or more settlements. It was the smallest revenue unit initiated by the Delhi Sultanate and maintained by the Mughal Empire, and the British in colonial India. title bestowed to governors during the Mughal Empire 55 local governments in smaller areas that are known as development blocks Indian soldiers covered sedan chair with four poles used as a means of transportation hand-pulled fan neighbourhood revenue and administrative unit consisting of several mouzas initiated by the Delhi Sultanate worship king house of the king deed or legal right granted for a territory loop of yarn police divisions intermediary developers in bustees landlord rights landlords



List of Abbreviations

BDP BIP CBO CES CIA CIT CMA CMC CMD CMDA CMGL CMPO CMWSA Comintern CPI CPI(M) CPI(ML) DCR DFID DMK HMC HIT ICICI IDA IT ITES JNNURM KEIP KIT KMC KMDA KMPC KSIP LIC LUDCP LUMR MDP

Basic Development Plan Bustee Improvement Programme Community-based organization Consulting Engineering Services Central Intelligence Agency Calcutta Improvement Trust Calcutta Metropolitan Area Calcutta Municipal Corporation Calcutta Metropolitan District Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority Calcutta Metropolitan Group Limited Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation Calcutta Metropolitan Water and Sanitation Authority Communist International Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (Marxist) Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Development control regulation UK Department of International Development Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Howrah Municipal Corporation Haora Improvement Trust Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India International Development Association Information technology Information Technology Enabled Services Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project Kolkata Improvement Trust Kolkata Municipal Corporation Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority Kolkata Metropolitan Planning Committee Kolkata Slum Improvement Project Life Insurance Corporation Land use development control plan Land use map and register Municipal Development Programme

248  NGO NRI PSP PWC RSP Saltlec SDF SEZ TCPO TCS UNDP WBHIDCO WBIDC WBPWD WEBEL WHO WIPRO

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Nongovernmental organization Non-resident Indian Praja Socialist Party PricewaterhouseCoopers Revolutionary Socialist Party Salt Lake Electronic Complex The Standard Design Factory Special economic zone Town and Country Planning Organisation Tata Consultancy Services United Nations Development Programme West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation, Limited The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation West Bengal Public Works Department West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation World Health Organization Western India Products Limited

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Index 24 Paraganas 51, 124, 127 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments Acts of 1992 176 A New Account of the East Indies 39; see also Hamilton, Alexander Act II of 1848 124 Act II of 1888 115, 124 Act III of 1899 115, 125 Act IV of 1876 114, 124 Act VI of 1863 124 Act VI of 1881 124 Act X of 1852 124 Act XVI of 1847 123 Act XXII of 1847 123 Act XXV of 1856 124 Act XXVII of 1854 124 Adi Ganga 52 Adshead, S.D. 117 Africa 59 Agra 101 agrarian reform(s) 34, 178, 193; see also Left Front agricultural growth 155 infrastructure 155 land 178 performance 193 policies 155 productivity 193 Ahmadabad Chimanbhai, Chinubhai 140 cotton barons of 140 Kahn, Louis 140 Lalbhai, Kasturbhai 140 Ajanta 103 Akashvani Bhaban 43, 144; see also All India Radio Building; Art Deco, Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews; Kerr, William B.; revivalist style Alavi, Hamza 155 alderman 175 alienness 26 All India Radio Building 143; see also Akashvani Bhaban; Art Deco, Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews; Kerr, William B.; revivalist style Allende, Salvador 33 Amaravati 91 America 100 American airbase 182 architect 140, 154 architecture 138 civil engineer 133

Ford Foundation 140, 237; see also Ford Foundation planning paradigm (s) 19, 133, 166-167, 237 Revolutionary War 73 Andul Rajbari 128, 131 Anglicists 90 Anglo-Indian firms 147 Anglo-Indian life 80 Anna Square 139 Annadurai, C.N. 139; see also Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Tamil nationalist party Annesley, George 59, 63-64, 122; see also British aristocrat Appadurai, Arjun 29 Archer, John 57, 69, 86, 108-109 architectural activity 133 character 59-60 culture 140, 142, 154 design principles of the West 240 development of 154 domestic design 23, 145, 237 education 154 elements borrowed from modernism to Indian historical architecture 148 Buddhist 144; see also Capital Boys School, Guest House Museum classical 101 from Hindu dynasties 137 from the past 136 emerging paradigms 198 endeavours 133, 233 experiments 233 expression 91, 139 extravaganza 140, 237 in stately buildings 236 firm 105 formations 29 forms 30, 135, 191 globalized 154 history of Kolkata 36 identity 136 imperial 154 independence 142 industry 191 inspiration 104 language of Christianity 94, 235 modernist vision 134 post-colonial identity 136 professional 142 space 206, 218 style(s) 60, 92-94, 101, 136, 139, 182, 237

264 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

symbolism 22, 63, 84, 234 team 134 thought 140 tradition(s) 77, 98, 139 type 98 vocabulary of the British Empire 86 vocabulary of the imperial Roman Empire 60, 235 variety absence of variety in Kolkata 142, 237 architecture; see also American, A(a)rt D(d)eco, Art Nouveau, classical, Corbusian, Indian, international style, modernist, neo-classical, revivalist, utilitarian modern A(a)rt D(d)eco 102, 235 as a symbol of domination 24, 233 as a symbol of power 22, 59, 66, 82, 236 futile use of 101 classical 77, 92-93, 101 classically influenced 60 Corbusian 135, 141, 237 Indian 26, 90-91, 101, 133, 136-137, 235 Indianness 102, 235 Indigenous 22, 91, 235 market-driven 191 modern architecture 25, 146 modern Indian vernacular 148, 150-151 monumental 24 neo-classical 22, 87, 98, 235 new forms 191 of commercialism 144 of Independence 133 of spectacle 24, 64, 226 post-colonial 23, 136, 139-140, 144, 154 residential 148, 226 revivalist 136, 138-139 utilitarian modern 182 Western 60, 154, 237 Armenian(s) 46-48, 52 A(a)rt D(d)eco; see also Akashvani Bhaban; All India Radio Building; Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews; Kerr, William B, Ramkrishna Mission architecture 102, 235 elements 143 style 235 style buildings 94 art nouveau style 94 Aryan roots 90 Ashcroft, Bill 25, 28, 63 Ashok Singh Palace 104 Ashoka Hotel 138-139; see also Choudhury, J.K., Singh, Gulzar Asian cities effort to globalise 242 Asiatic Journal 65 Society 84, 90 Society of Bengal 100

water closets 120 Assembly Chandigarh Capitol Complex 135 Legislative 137 Vidhan Soudha 137-138 West Bengal 165 Attara Kacheri 138 Auckland, Lord 110 Austria 33 Avani Riverside Mall 226, 229; see also Haora Avenue, the 42 baboo(s) Anglicized 87 wealthy 87 bagan baris 57; see also garden house(s) Baker, Sir Herbert 101-102; see also Delhi Balasor 38; see also Orissa Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews 143; see also Akashvani Bhaban; All India Radio Building; Birla Planetarium; Gora, G.K., Kerr, William B.; Ramkrishna Mission Complex; revivalist style Banaras Hindu University 104 Banerjee, Mamata Chief Minister 231 Trinomool Congress leader 156, 242 Banerji, Amiya Kumar 76, 127-128, 130 Banga Sanskriti Sammelan 243; see also North American Bengali Conference Bangladesh Liberation War 164, 169, 238 Bardhan, Pranab 155 Bardhan Roy, Maitreyi 162,164-168, 172 bargadars 193 Baroque 74 Baruipur 199 Basberia 168, 181 Bashaks 38-39 Basic Development Plan (BDP) 159 bimodal development strategy 168 implementation of 169 strong opposition to 169 Bastbasi Sammelan 165 Basu, Jyoti Chief Minister 195 Marxist patriarch 243 Batavia 72 Batley, Claude 136 Bator 76 Battle of Chuchura 72 Battle of Palashi 51, 233, 235 Baucom, Ian 94 Bay of Bengal 38 Beattie, Martin 68, 111, 114, 116-117, 120 beggary 20 Belk, Russell W. 30-31; see also Varman, Rohit benami land 193 Bengal Ambuja Metro Development Limited 218

Index

Chamber of Commerce 84, 124-125 Council 41 Engineering College 154; see also Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Intelligent Park 211 Municipal Act of 1932 124 partition of 164 Province of 39, 101 region 37 remoteness of 37 trading potential of 38 Bengali architect 103; see also Sris Chandra Chatterjee culture 243 diaspora 243 educated middle class 179 elite 84-90, 128, 235-236 films 238; see also Calcutta 71 and Pratidandi (The Adversary, 1970) household 86 intelligentsia 198 middle class neighbourhood 215 novelist 184; see also Shankar NRI(s) 195, 228; see also Mukherjee, Prasoon palate 205, 241 poet and novelist 238; see also Sunil Gangopadhyay society 179 urban intelligentsia 179 wealthy 57, 88 Westernized elite 86 Bengaluru 137, 191-192, 201, 209 Bhabha, Homi 26, 30 bhadradlok(s) 179 Bharut 91 class 179, 205, 207, 239 state 179 Bhattacharjee, Buddhadeb 232 Chief Minister 209 Bhooter Bhhabishyat 243 Bhubaneswar see also Orissa Capital Boys School 136; see also revivalism, revivalist buildings, Vaz, Julius L. Guest House 136; see also revivalism, revivalist building, Vaz, Julius L. Köenigsberger, Otto 133 Lingaraja Temple complex 136 Market Building 136; see also revivalism, revivalist buildings, Vaz, Julius L. Museum 136; see also revivalism, revivalist buildings, Vaz, Julius L. Police Building 136; see also revivalism, revivalist building, Vaz, Julius L. Red Building 136; see also revivalism, revivalist buildings, Vaz, Julius L.

265 Secretariat Building 136; see also revivalism, revivalist buildings, Vaz, Julius L. Staff Quarters 136; see also revivalism, revivalist buildings, Vaz, Julius L. Bidhannagar 145, 148-150, 181-182, 186, 209-210, 213-214, 218-220, 243; See also Saltlake Bidyasagor Setu 183; see also second Hugli Bridge Bie, Ole 73 Bihar 38-39, 124, 132, 197 bijouterie 82 Binoy Badal Dinesh Bagh 43, 77, 79, 82-84, 92, 156, 235; see also Dalhousie Square, Tank Square Birla Planetarium 143-145; see also Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews; Gora, G.K.; revivalist style Bishop’s College 128-129; see also Madhusudhan Bhabhan Black Merchants 48 Black Pagoda 47-48; see also Navaratna Kali temple B(b)lack (T)town 19, 47, 54, 105, 122, 234, 236 Blechynden, Kathleen 37-43, 46, 51-54, 61-63, 69, 72, 74-75 Blunt, Alison 25, 29; see also McEwan, Cheryl Board of Governors 110 Boimela 146-147, 237; see also Calcutta Book Fair Bolshevik revolution 33 Bombay 94, 101, 136-137; see also Mumbai Bompas, C.H. 117 boroughs 175, 201-202 Bose, Pablo S. 204-205, 207, 209, 214, 230-231, 241 Bose, Subhas Chandra 125 Bou Bazaar Street 107; see also Bow Bazaar Street bourgeoisie corruption 178 leaders 238 Bourne and Shepherd 98, 108 Bow Bazaar Street 42, 110; see also Lal Bazaar Street Brandenburg Gate 230 Britain(s) 19, 101, 117, 167 British administrators 94 antagonism towards 101 architect(s) 101, 136, 147 architecture 24, 81 aristocrat 59; see also Annesley, George attempt to segregate 234 city planning 25 civilizing mission 26, 116, 236 colonial planning 28, 234 colonial practices 109 colonial urbanism 22, 234 colonialism 91

266 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

colonizer(s) 20, 156, 236 commerce 84 control 51 deemed 20 discourse 86, 91, 235-236 discursive practice (s) 56, 94 early colonial era 234 efforts 19 home design 121 imperial urbanism 76-77, 127, 235, 237 imperialism 139 India 32 lifestyles 86 Military engineers 81 obsession 20 planning tradition 120 possession 22, 72 power 25, 36, 39, 59, 75, 77 rationales 27 Raj 32, 63, 91, 93, 102 rule 53, 63, 100 settlements 44, 128 Sovereign 99 Suzerainty 102 use architecture as a symbol of power 66, 236 victory at Palashi 53, 233 British East India Company(’s) 38, 60, 72-73 agent 38 chief agents of 44 civil servants 60, 71 directors 50 Goods 44 losses sustained by 52 warehouses 42 British Empire 32, 60-61, 86, 98, 100, 135, 156, 234, 236 Brown, Archie 33 Buckley, James 134; see also Chandigarh Buddhist architectural elements 144 elements 136 building codes violated 186 violation of 154 Building Commission 116 Burra Bazaar 43, 51, 115-116, 120-121; see also Geddes, Sir Patrick bustee(s) as a breeding grounds for disease 115, 119, 235 British discourse on 235 clearance 158 demolition 114, 116 improvements 165 Jora Bagan 115 land in Kolkata 107, 165 landlords 107, 165 legalizing 178

Muslim 215 organizations 165 population 162, 165-166 rehousing schemes 166 social planning for 173 Standard Plan of 165 bustee dwellers displacement of 165, 238 eviction of 165 hardship of 107, 158 investment in dwellings 171 legal 162 neglect of 166 political mobilization of 177 rehabilitation of 165 security of tenure of 171 Bustee Improvement Programme (BIP) coverage to social and economic development 172 of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority 168 participation in 171 phases 172 success of 172 Busteed, Henry Elmsley 56 Buxar 59 Cairns, Stephen 90 Calcutta 71 238; see also Sen, Mrinal Book Fair 146; see also Biomela Bustee Federation 165 British 39, 59, 75, 128, 237 Christian 47 congested areas 119 Corporation Act of 1951, The 165, 174 Dhee 43 documentary 20, 166; see also Malle, Louis Improvement (Amendment) Bill of 1954 165 Improvement Trust (CIT) 116, 117, 175 Journal of Medicine 68-70, 106-107, 110 Metropolitan Area (CMA) 159 Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) 168; see also Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) amendment of act 173 budget 176 officials 173 Metropolitan District (CMD) 159, 173, 177 newly defined 168 population of 159 Metropolitan Group Limited (CMGL) 207 Metropolitan Planning Organisation (CMPO) 167-169, 173-174 demise of 173 establishment of 167 strong opposition to 169

Index

Metropolitan Water and Sanitation Authority (CMWSA) 173 Municipal Act of 1923 125, 164 Municipal Corporation (CMC) Act of 1980 174-175 Rickshaw Chalak Panchyat 197 scare of 166 Slum Clearance and Rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers Act of 1958 166 Trades Association 125 Urban Development Project I, 1972/1973-1975/76 170 Urban Development Project II, 1977/78-1981/82 172 Urban Development Project III 171-172 wealth of 127 Calicut 37 Canada 100, 243 capital accumulation 29, 214, 226 attracting 29, 196 flow of 29 195 formation 29 international 195, 209 principle circuits 29; see Harvey, David, Lefebvre, Henri secondary circuit 29; see also Harvey, David, Lefebvre, Henri tertiary circuit 29; see also Harvey, David Capital Boys School 136; see also Bhubaneswar, revivalism, revivalist building, Vaz, Julius L. capitalism 31 capitalist donors 169 money market 29 nations 31 urban system 32 Capitol Complex 134-135; see also Chandigarh, Le Corbusier Carbone, Dr. A. 142; see also Mahajati Shadan Hall Carey, W.H. 52, 65-66, 77; see also The Good Old Days of Honourable John Company Carita, Helder 49 Carpenter, Mary 89, 122 cash block grants 176 caste(s) loosing 80 trading 38 Castells, Manuel 24, 27, 33, 179 dependent urbanism 24, 27 urban populism 179 central business district in Kolkata 226 central government(s) New Economic Policy of 1991 194 Mega City Programme 201 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 169 centrists 35

267 Chajjaas 101, 147-148, 154 Chakravarti, Monmohan 127, 128, 130-132; see also O’Malley, L.S.S. Chakravarty, Shuhash 63 Chakravorty Spivak, Gayatri 26; see also post-colonial theorists Chalukyan 137 Chambers, William 90-91 Chandannagar 49, 51, 75, 182, 198; see also Chandernagore Chandernagore 75; see also Chandannagar French 49 Chandigarh(s) as a symbol of post-colonial urban identity 237 Buckley, James 134 Capitol Complex 134-135; see also Assembly Cofffey, Clara 134 Drew, Jane Beverly 134 Fry, Edwin Maxwell 134 Glass, Milton 134 grandeur 23 intentional rejection of a national style 135 Landsberg, H.E. 134 Le Corbusier(’s) 134-135, 237 Mayer, Albert 133-134, 237 Nowicki, Matthew 133-134, 237 Oberlin, Ralph 134 Stein, Clarence 134 style of modernism 139 Whittlesey, Julian 134 Charnock City 243 Charnock(s), Job 38-41, 43-44, 242-243 Chartered Bank Building 94, 96 Chatterjee, Partha 26, 29, 31, 48, 50-51, 53, 83-84, 110, 116, 156, 158, 180, 198, 226, 240; see also post-colonial theorists Chatterjee, Sris Chandra 103, 235 Chattopadhyay, Swati 56-57, 65, 69, 80-81, 84, 86, 111, 114, 121 chattris 101 Chief Minister see Banerjee, Mamata, Basu, Jyoti, Bhattacharjee, Buddhadeb, Hanumanthaiya, Kengal, Roy, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Chennai 38-39, 46, 52, 56, 66, 70, 84, 195, 201, 236; see also Madras Black town 44, 54 death rates 70 epidemics 70 fort 46, 54, 67 St. George 46, 139 (C)chief (M)magistrate 123 Chile 33 China(’s) 33-34, 39 Chinese 34 Chinsura 49-50; see also Chuchura

268 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

Chinubhai Chimanbhai 140; see also Ahmedabad Chiputra 228, 230; see also Kolkata West International City; Mukherjee, Prasoon; Salim Group; Universal Success Enterprises Limited Chitpore Road 42, 85, 107, 122 Chittagong 37 Choudhury, J.K. see Ashoka Hotel, Singh, Gulzar Cholera 20, 108, 114 ‘capital of the world’ 166 deaths 111-113, 166 epidemic 106, 166 Chopra, Preeti 49, 67, 84, 94 Chowringhee 107 Chowringhee Road 42, 79; see also Jawaharlal Nehru Road Christianization 27 Chuchura 49, 72, 182; see also Chinsura Churchill, Winston 138 Circular Road 46 city as a symbol of power 22, 68, 233, 236 City Centre Mall 218-221 City of Dreadful Night 20, 242; see also Kipling, Rudyard C(c)ity of H(h)uts 37, 41, 233, 242 City of Joy 21, 195, 242-243; see also Lapierre, Dominique; Joffé, Roland; Swayze, Patrick C(c)ity of P(p)alaces 37, 54, 59, 72, 79-80, 121, 233, 235, 242 city planning ideology 117 legalisation 117 schemes 19 theory 117 utopias 155 civil unrest 180 class divisions 157 enemies 170 peace 94 classical architectural 139 architecture 77, 92-93, 101 city 66 elements 84, 101 Hindu South Indian temples 139 idiom 102 influence 84-85, 93 inspiration 60 style 99, 101 classically influenced 92-93 inspired 60, 84, 128 classicism 77, 101 Clemow, Frank G. 116 Clive, Lord Edward 66 Clive, Lord Robert 20, 51-52, 66, 128

Clive Street 43 coalition government(s) 34-35 Cochin 37 Cockburn, Cynthia 31 Coffey, Clara 134; see also Chandigarh Collector of Calcutta 71 College of Fort William 60 colonial architecture 63, 91, 237 Bengal 179 buildings 60, 77 city(ies) 22, 82, 123, 157, 234, 236-237 dignitaries 107 discourse 26, 121 discursive legacies 28 domination 28 early period 128, 233 economic and political landscape 27 era 234 experience 28 government 67, 105, 123-125, 138 history 101 interpretation of Indian identity 135 legacy 165 New Delhi 192 past 31, 135 period 24, 35, 121, 138, 158, 238 planning 22, 28, 70, 158, 234 material legacies of 158 policies 165 political economy 39, 43, 57, 246 power(s) 25, 28 practice 165 rule of difference 26, 109; see also Chatterjee, Partha, post-colonial theory societies 25 spaces 29 state 26, 32 subjects 110 times 22, 166, 206 urban patterns 19, 27-28, 46 urbanism 22, 25, 36, 131, 133, 234, 236 urbanization 234 values 28 colonialism British 91 cultural 142 discursive legacies 25, 28 English 63 resistance to 102 language of 28 legacies of 28, 155 zenith of 22 colonization cultural 28, 142, 156, 167 European 48 French 75 major instrument of 27 motivation for 27

Index

motives 27 Portuguese 27 Spanish 27 colonizer(s) British 20, 156 domination by 27 European 236 memorializing the 108 transformation of 26, 80, 82 commissioners 114-115, 123-125 communism 19, 23, 32-34, 140, 167, 169, 237; see also Marxism, Socialism communist(s) bhadralok state 179 conspiracy in Kolkata 166 governments 181 in state government 167 international movement 34 regime 19 world leaders 56 Communist International (Comintern) 33-34 Communist Party of India (CPI) 169 founded 34 labour movement in India 34 organizing bustee dwellers 165 Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M) 23, 34-35, 156, 169-170, 174-176, 178-179, 194, 201, 226, 232, 238-239 abandonment of peasants 198 creation of 34 dominant party in the coalition 193 infiltration at grassroots level 177 infiltration into squatter settlements 179 leadership of 179 Left-Front 35, 174 mobilizing groups through patronage 197 policymaking 35 political agenda for rural reform 23 political base 176 political space 175 prevention of evictions 177, 238 setbacks 232 United Front 34 vanguard party 179 winning of the 1985 election 176 Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) − CPI(ML) 34; see also Naxalities established 34 peasant revolt 34 community-based organizations (CBOs) 3536, 173, 177-179 commuting cost 182 competitive mobilization of the political society 239 of the urban poor 180, 198 comprehensive planning 23 documents 203 influence on Kolkata 168 paradigm 167

269 report 117 congestion 20, 119, 130, 184-185, 240 Congress government 237 Congress (I) governments 194 Congress of Socialists 33 Congress Party 123, 158, 166, 169 Conjeevaraum 104 Connaught Place 80 conservative surgery 120; see also Geddes, Sir Patrick contractor builder 152, 186, 188, 226 control British controlling the native parts of the city 20 in the manner of living of the indigenous population 106 of disease 70, 109 of native areas 70, 234 of native lifestyles 106 on India 59, 77 through architecture 19 Cook, Nield J. 111, 115 coolie town 16, 35, 127-128, 187; see also Haora C(c)oolies 35, 109, 128 Corbusian architecture 135, 141, 237; see also Le Corbusier Cordes, J.A. 154 Cornwallis, Lord 63 corporate investors 195, 214 corporate-political nexus 209 Correa, Charles 140, 219 Cossaitolla Gulley (Bentinck Street) 42 Cotton, H.E.A. 37-39, 42-44, 46-47, 49, 51-56, 61, 69, 71, 75, 94, 106, 110-111, 128 Court of Small Causes 92 Crinson, Mark 142, 147, 154 Crown Rule 53 Cuba 34 Cuff Parade 144; see also Mumbai cultural circumstances 25 colonization 28, 142, 156, 167 identity 28 independence 28, 167 production 25 systems 22 Culture and Imperialism 26; see also Said, Edward Cumballa 144; see also Mumbai Curtis, William J.R. 136 Curzon, Lord 65, 98-101, 156, 235, 243 Customs House 54, 83 cyclone of 1737 17, 37, 47 da Gama, Vasco 37 Dalhousie, Lord 43, 101 Dalhousie Square 43, 82, 156; see also Binoy Badal Dinesh Bagh, Tank Square

270 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

Danes 37, 72-74 Danish East India Company 73 factory 72 gate 74 Serampore 72 settlement 72 Tranquebar 74 Das, Chittaranjan 125 dastaks 50; see also imperial Mughal license Davies, Philip 63, 66, 81-82, 91, 93-94, 128 Davis, Mike 21, 242; see also Planet of Slums de Barros, João 110 Deb, Binaya Krishna Raja 40, 44, 46, 51-52 decentralization declared goals of 176 democratic 175 decentralize planning in India 176 decline in manufacturing 164 decolonization first acts of 156 initial acts of 156 major act of 158 of Kolkata’s colonial spaces 29 defiance against the concept of functional zoning 89 Delhi Baker, Sir Herbert 101-102 Connaught Place 80 Imperial 101 imperial capital of 101 Lutyens, Sir Edwin 101-103 Master Plan of 1962 167 School of Planning and Architecture 222 democratic government 125 Denmark 74 Department of Architecture and Regional Planning 154; see also Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur Architecture and Town and Country Planning 154; see also Bengal Engineering College Housing 222 Urban Development 221-222 dependent urbanism 24, 27; see also Castells, Manuel, King, Anthony dependent urbanization 27 Desai, Madhavi 93-94, 104, 135-140, 142, 144, 148, 154, 156; see also Lang, Jon, & Desai, Miki Desai, Miki 93-94, 104, 135-140, 142, 144, 148, 154, 156; see also Lang, Jon, and Desai, Madhavi developers 30, 36, 107, 136, 165, 171, 209, 218, 229-231, 243 developing world 27 development

blocks 159 commercial 144, 218 control 155 control regulations (DCRs) 203 goals for national 155 industry-led model 155 Kolkata’s physical 170 new town 222 of architectural culture 154 of Kolkata’s post-colonial identity 145 plan (s) 166, 176, 203 process 179 purposes 165 rural 134-145 slow pace of 145 suburban 119, 205 developmentalism 28, 168 Dhapa dump 242 Dharamtola 110 Dharmatala Street 156; see also Lenin Saraini Dilwara 104 discourse(s) British 40, 63, 86, 90-91, 235-236 colonial 26, 121 functioning 25 imperial 25 institutionalized 25 legitimized 25 on Kolkata 236 Orientalist 90 popular 196 public 196 role of 21, 64-65 Victorian 90, 92 Western 166, 194 discrimination in provision of services 158 disease breeding grounds for 109, 114-115, 119, 235 spread of 108, 110, 114 disinvestment in cities 32 Disney, Anthony 37 DLF city 191 D(d)ocks 76, 127 domestic architecture 148 dominance military 53 of wealthy over the politics of the city 180 political 158 Doshi, Balkrisha 140 Dossal, Mariam 67 drainage better 70 facilities 204 improved 109 improvement of 131 improving 204 of public spaces 120 proper 111, 120 schemes 132

Index

system 116 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) 139; see also Annadurai, C.N., Tamil nationalist party Dravidian culture 138 Drew, Jane Beverly 134; see also Chandigarh Dudok, Willem Marinus 104-105; see also Garden Theatre and Lighthouse Cinema Dulal Mukherjee and Associates 215, 217; see also Meinhardt PTE; Peridian Asia PTE; South City Mall, Stewart and Associates Duncan, S.S. 31; see also Goodwin, M. Dupleix, Marquis 49 Dutch architect 103 Chinsura 49 factory 50 imperial intentions 72 power 72 trade 72 Dutta, Shubhas 189; see also Haora Ganatrantik Nagarik Samity (Haora Democratic Citizens Association) East Asians 19 East Indian Railway 127 Eastern Metropolitan Bypass 204, 209 Echoes from Old Calcutta: Being Chiefly the Reminiscences of the Days of Warren Hastings, Francis and Impey 56; see also Busteed, Henry Elmsley economic autonomy 28, 167 decline 174, 178 development 168, 172, 194 factors 29 landscape 27 restructuring 31 self-reliance 155 economy bazaar 89 booming 144 European 64 global 21, 23, 192, 209, 239-240 productive 30 world 27, 242 Edwardes, S.M. 71 Eight Five-Year Plan 202-203 Elberling, F.E. 72 elections 124-125, 164-165, 169, 175-176, 198, 201, 232, 239 electoral constituencies 124 electoral institutions 158 elite dreaming 242 ruling 120 Ellora 104 Emerson, William H. 99; see also Victoria Memorial Hall

271 eminent domain 109 empire establishment of 108 propagation of 22, 68, 233 seat of 101 Emporium 40 Engels, Friedrich 33; see also Marxism England 33, 51, 63, 74, 78-79, 110, 120, 125 English Company 40 factory 52, 242 H(h)ouses 46-47, 51, 79-80 I(i)nhabitants 48, 52 landscaping 43 merchants 56 models 27 mortality rates settlement 43, 46-47 settlers 43, 71 Enlightenment Movement 90 Esplanade Mansions 94, 97 Esplanade Row 55, 58, 84, 234 Etawah district 134 ethnography 35 Euro-American forms of housing 192, 205-206 housing 233, 243 housing models 19 Eurocentric 120 Europe Eastern 34 Western 33 European architecture 35, 59-60 early settlements 37, 41 enclaves 27, 72, 236 ideas of planning 66, 234 imperialism 28 neighbourhoods 107 point of view 134 powers 53 presence 101 re-development urban governance 105 Evangelical movement 90 Evenson, Norma 54-55, 79, 82, 84, 86, 89, 93, 117, 121, 134-135, 139-140, 144-145, 147, 154-156, 162, 164 ex-colonial powers 31 expatriates 169, 173 factories main components 37 Falzon, Mark-Anthony 30, 192 Fanon, Frantz 30 Faridabad 133 Fay, Mrs. Eliza 57-58 Fergusson, James 90-91; see also History of Indian and Eastern Architecture

272 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

Fernandes, George 197 Fernandes, Leela 30 Fever Hospital 110, 123 Firminger, W.K. Reverend 37-39, 41, 53-54, 93 First Indian War of Independence 53-54, 71, 92 First World War 120 Five Year Plans 155 Flyvbjerg, B. 35 Ford Foundation 140, 166-167, 237 F(f)oreign architects 104, 142, 191 foreign capital 191, 194-195, 228, 232 foreign investments 195, 197, 225-226 Forester, J. 35 F(f)ort William 41-42, 44, 47, 52, 58, 60-61, 109 Foucault, Michel 24-25, 63; see also post-structuralism France 51,73 Frederiksnagor 72 Freight Equalization Policy 194 French Chandernagore 75 colonization 75 defeat of 52 factory 75 governor 75 Pondicherry 49 rationales 27 settlements 75 Fry, Edwin Maxwell 135, 142; see also Chandigarh; Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Building Gandhi, Mahatma 138, 238 Swadeshi movement 103 Gandhi, Mrs. Indira 169-170 Gandhinagar 23, 181 Ganga 38, 46, 52, 159, 181; see also Ganges Ganges 38; see also Ganga Gangopadhyay, Sunil 238; see also Pratidandi; Ray, Satyajit garbage 172, 184-185, 188, 194-195, 242 garden house(s) 42, 56-57, 128; see also bagan baris Garden Reach 57-58, 127, 159 Garden Theatre and the Lighthouse Cinema 104-105; see also Dudok, Willem Marinus Garia 218 Garstin, John 77-78; see also Town Hall gated communities 19, 30, 36, 191-192, 204-206, 215, 226, 230, 233, 240, 243 larger and more exclusive 205 low quality 226 Geddes, Sir Patrick 120; see also Burra Bazaar Gem and Jewellery SEZ 213-214 General Committee 125 General Garrison Orders 109

General Post Office 92, 94; see also Granville, Walter L.B. geobribes 214; see also Harvey, David Geological Survey of India 84 Germany 33 ghats 46 gheraos 23, 169, 197, 238 G.K. Gora 144-145; see also Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews, Birla Planetarium, the revivalist style Glass, Milton 134; see also Chandigarh global architecture 191-193 capitalists 214, 241 cities 240 communities 240 culture 31, 226, 242 economic systems 240-241 economy 21, 23, 192, 209, 239-240 forms of architecture 239 image 191 investment 196, 209, 239 middle-class 30, 192 taste 191 urbanism 20, 29 Global South(s) black hole 242 realities 31, 220 globalization advent of 196, 226, 239 Kolkata’s road to 233, 239 physical manifestations 36, 204 spatial instruments of 239 glocally 30, 207, 215 Goa 37, 49 Goddess Kali 40 Golden Goa 49 Goldingham, John 66-67; see also Government House Golgotha 40 Good Old Days of Honourable John Company, The 65; see also Carey, W.H. Goode, S.W. 40, 43, 46, 51-52,71, 106-107, 110-111, 114-115, 123-125 Goodwin, M. 31; see also Duncan, S.S. goondas 165, 225 Gora, G.K. 144-145; see also Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews, Birla Planetarium, revivalist style Gothic inspired building 128 revival 235 revival style(s) 91, 94 Gottdiener, M. 29; see also secondary circuit of capital G(g)overnment H(h)ouse(s) 62-63, 72, 77, 79, 82, 234 as a symbol of power 67, 234

Index

in Chennai 66-67; see also Goldingham, John in Kolkata 61, 65-66 new 63, 64; see also Wyatt, Lieutenant Charles 74 old 62 Government of West Bengal 146, 148, 156, 166, 176, 222 Governor General 43, 61, 63, 110 Governor-General in Council 101 Govindapur 39, 40, 43, 53 Graham Foundation Fellowship 140 Graham, Maria 61 Graham, Stephen 30, 207, 215, 240; see also Marvin, Simon; splintering urbanism gram panchayats 176 Grand Trunk Road 128 Grandpré, L. O’ Hier de 56, 58, 61-62 Granville, Walter L.B. 92-95, 235; see also General Post Office, High Court, Indian Museum Grass, Günter 21, 194, 242-243; see also Show Your Tongue grassroots planning 23, 172 space 177 Gray Town 48 Great Bazaar 43 Great Haven 37 Great Tank 43; see also Lal Dighi Greece 91 Greeks 48 Gregson, T.S. 93, 137; see also Oriental Assurance Building, Royal Exchange Gronthomela 146 Guha, Ranajit 26, 29; see also post-colonial theorists Gujarat 37, 181 Gujarat Ambuja Cement Group 218 Gupta, Narayani 54, 67, 71, 84 Gupta, Samita 106-107, 110, 115-116, 120 Gurgaon 191 Hackworth, Jason 32; see also Lauria, Mickey; Reese, Laura A.; regime theorists; Rosenfeld, A. Haithcox, John Patrick 34 Haldia Petrochemical complex 195 Hamilton, Alexander 39-41, 44, 49, 76; see also A New Account of the East Indies Hanumanthaiya, Kengal chief minister 138 Haora(’s) see also Howrah architectural styles in 182, 237 Avani Riverside Mall 226, 229 civic condition 189 Ganatrantik Nagarik Samity (Haora Democratic Citizens Association) 189 global urbanism 226

273 housing market in 182 Improvement Trust (HIT) 173 Municipal Corporation 159, 174, 187 Municipality 130, 187 Purāni Sahar 128 R(r)ailway T(t)erminus 128-129; see also Ricardo, Halsey Telegraph Office 130 West 183, 186 workshop of British Calcutta 128, 237 Haora Bridge 183; see also Rabindra Setu 183 Haringhata 198 Harrington Street 156; see also Ho Chi Minh Sarani Harrison Road 156; see also Mahatma Gandhi Road Harvey, David 29, 33, 214; see also geobribes, secondary circuit of capital, three-circuit model Hastings Street 107 Hastings, Warren 101 hat (mart) 38 Haussmann(s) 123, 242 Haussmannian approach 121 plans 165, 234 tendency 105 hawkers 30, 196-197 Hawkers Sangram Committee 197 health maps 111 health reports 111 Heber, Bishop Reginald 58, 80, 127-128 heroum 66 High Court Kolkata 83, 93-95, 235; see also Granville, Walter L.B. Madras 139 high-rise building Cuff Parade 144; see also Mumbai Nariman Point 144; see also Mumbai Hiland Park 207-208 Himalayas 134 Hindoo conservatives 87 Hindu classical South Indian temples 139 College 79 dynasties of the region 137 elements 91 fabric 99 religious organizations 173 Hispanicization 27 Ho Chi Minh Sarani 156; see also Harrington Street Hodges, William 59 Holabird and Root 142-143; see also the Tata Centre Holland 72-73 Hooghly 37, 50, 57; see also Hughly, Hugli

274 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

Hosagrahar, Jyoti 54, 67, 71, 84, 154 Hossack, William C. 116 House of Legislature 138 house tax(es) 71, 116 housing complexes 31, 205, 218, 239 Euro-American 19, 233, 243 for high-end buyers 230 highly subsidized colonies 208 market 182, 237 reform initiatives 207 schemes 147, 166, 191 stock of the poor 172 upper-income 207, upscale housing 192, 218, 222 Howrah see also Haora Improvement Trust Act of 1956 187 Municipal Act of 1965 187 Municipal Corporation Act of 1980 174-175 Municipal Corporation (HMC) 159 Hoysala 137 Hughly 40; see also Hooghly, Hugli Hugli 37-40, 52, 101, 159; see also Hooghly, Hugli Hummel, R. 35 Hutnyk, John 21; see also The Rumour of Calcutta ICICI Bank 213 I(i)mperial capital 77, 101, 234, 236 city 19, 66 Delhi 101, 138, 236 discourse 25 government 83, 235 memories 101 Mughal license 50; see also dastaks Roman Empire 60, 77, 235 Secretariat Building 83 urbanism 36, 53, 76-77, 127, 139, 233, 235, 237 imperialist/neo-social dynamic 27 Improvement Trusts 120 Indian(s) architecture 26, 90-91, 101, 133, 136-137, 235 as draughtsmen 147 Christians 128 civil society 180 culture 92, 134 Institute of Engineering Science and Technology 154, 128, 222; see also Bengal Engineering College Institute of Management 140, 240 Institute of Technology 154, 222 Museum 83, 92; see also Granville, Walter L.B. National Congress 34, 125 servants 80, 121

style 138 tradition 49, 137 urban environment 28, 134, 158 wealthy 108 Indianised city 134 Indianised façade 139 Indianization of designs 154 Indianness in architecture 102, 235 indigenous architecture 22, 91, 235 areas 110 cities 120 communal divisions 92 huts 54 industry 155 inhabitants 131 merchants 109 population 26-27, 46, 68, 71, 106, 128 settlement(s) 54, 130 style 47 Indo-European roots 90 Indo-Saracenic 93, 101 architecture 94 design 99 form 92 style 77, 91, 94, 235 Indochina 75 Indonesia(n) 198, 228 I(i)ndustrial development 209 flight 193 growth 155 parks in Haora 226 working class 158 industrialization 226 infrastructure basic 183 improvements 19 networks 30 private 30, 207 urban 19, 140, 164, 204, 237 intelligent buildings 19, 214, 233, 240 international modernist style 140; see also architecture international style 235; see also architecture interventionist state 29 Irrigation and Waterways Department 148, 181 Irving, Grant Robert 101-102 Irwin, Edward Wood 138 IT and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) 209-210, 222, 226 hub(s) 222, 226 industry 211, 225 park(s) 19, 191-192, 209, 214-215, 222, 226, 230, 233, 240 professionals 219, 222 sector 209

Index

Italy 101 jaalis 101, 154 Jadavpur 159, 176, 218 Jameson, Fredric 32 Japanese investment in Haldia Petrochemical complex 195 Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) 203-204 Jawaharlal Nehru Road 156; see also Chowringhi Road Jeanneret, Pierre 134; see also Chandigarh Jekhane Jeman 184; see also Shankar Jemindar 48 Jodhpur Park 215 Joffé, Roland 21; see also City of Joy; Lapierre, Dominque; Swayze, Patrick Jones, Sir William 90 Jora Bagan bustee 115 Journal of the Society of Arts 59 judicial process of vesting 205 justices of the peace 71 of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa 124 of Kolkata 124 jute industry 164 Kahn, Louis 140; see also Ahmadabad Kali Kota 40 Kalia, Ravi 133-137, 140, 155, 181 Kalighat 40, 42 Kalikata 39-40 Kalyani 181-182 Kalyani-Basberia 168 Kanpur 134 Kanvinde, Achyut 140 Karnak 91 Karnataka 137 Kashipur-Chitpore 127 Kasimbazzar 38 Kedleston Hall 63, 65 Kerr, James 79-82, 84, 87, 89 Kerr, William B. 143-144; see also Art Deco, Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews, Birla Planetarium, Ramkrishna Mission, revivalist style khal 40 khal kutta 40 Khan, Ali Vardi 46 Kharagpur 159, 222 Khilani, Sunil 133, 135, 156 Kidderpore Nulla 52 Kindersely, Mrs. 54-56 King, Anthony 22, 24, 27-28, 54, 67, 71, 84, 108, 117, 142, 167, 191-192; see also dependent urbanism King Frederick VI 74 King George I 71 Kipling, Rudyard 20, 123, 125, 242; see also City of Dreadful Night

275 Kirby, Andrew 31 KMA 176-177, 198-204 Kodambakkam 139 Köenigsberger, Otto 133; See also Bhubaneswar Kohli, Atul 169-170, 175-176, 179, 193 Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project (KEIP) 204 Fire Brigade Building 93 Improvement Trust (KIT) 116, 164-166, 170 Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) 168, 170-177, 181-182, 201-203, 207, 218, 221-222, 228, 230-231, 239 as guarantor of the grant 172 change in role 201 created 170 demise of CMPO 173 demise of KMDA 174 entrepreneurial role 204 execution powers 173 expansion of authority 173 formation of 170 planners of 177 primary urban development authority 173 rise of 173 redefine its role 202 reduced the power 176 regulatory functions 203 reluctance to tackle the issue of tenure 171 Metropolitan Planning Committee (KMPC) 176 Municipal Act 196 Municipal Corporation (KMC) 115, 159, 164-165, 168, 172-173, 178, 204 demise of 173 design and implementation of the project 172 elections 169, 232 licensing office 197 Operation Sunshine 196 number of wards 175 resource base for 169 undertook of slum improvement 204 Wards and boroughs 202 Wards in the fringes of the city 176 Publishers and Bookseller’s Guild 146 Slum Improvement Project (KSIP) 204 West International City 221, 228, 232; see also Chiputra; Mukherjee, Prasoon; Salim Group; Universal Success Enterprises Limited entry gate 230 failure 232 incomplete construction 231 land acquisition process 232 site plan 229

276 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

West International City Buyers Welfare Association 15, 36, 228, 231 Krätke, Stefan 31; see also Schmoll, Fritz Kund 220 labour movement 34 Lady Duffferin Memorial Hospital 104; see also Ballardie, Thomson, and Matthews Lahore 133 Lakhnâû 87 Lal Bazaar Street 42; see also Bow Bazaar Street Lal Dighi 43, 58; see also Great Tank Lalbhai, Kasturbhai 140; see also Ahmadabad Lamb, Thomas W. 94, 97; see also MetroGoldwyn-Mayer, Metro movie theatre land acquisition 197, 225, 232, 239 development 187, 225 redistribution 193 use(s) 89, 155, 167, 203, 222, 229, 236 Land Use Development Control Plans (LUDCPs) 203 Land Use Maps and Registers (LUMRs) 203 landlord system 171 Landsberg, H.E. 134; see also Chandigarh Lang, Jon 93-94, 104-105, 135-140, 142, 144, 147-148, 154, 156; see also Desai, Madhavi Desai, Miki Lao People’s Democratic Republic 34 Lapierre, Dominque 21; see also City of Joy, Joffé, Roland, Swayze, Patrick Lauria, Mickey 32; see also Hackworth, Jason; Reese, Laura A.; regime theorists; Rosenfeld Raymond, A. Laxmi Vilas Palace 93; see also Mant, Major Charles Le Corbusier 133-137, 140, 143, 237; see also Chandigarh Lefebvre, Henri 29; see also secondary circuit of capital Left Front (s) 23-24, 33, 35, 178-179, 194, 198, 208, 232, 239 advent of 238 agrarian reform(s) 178 alliances with the bhadralok class 205 argument for exceptional benefits 214 cadre-based party 174 changing priorities 197 coming to power 35, 174, 178 electoral support 174, 176, 178 government 19, 23, 176-177, 197 hostility toward capital 195 ignoring of Kolkata’s development 193 inability to control land 239 new industrial scheme 195 Operation Barga 193 paradigm shift 197 Perestroika 239

regime 175, 177, 179, 209 resistance to liberalization and globalization 23 rise of 19 small factions of 196 leftist agenda 23, 145 forces 166 ideologies 179 local state 237 parties 35, 156, 169-170, 177, 179, 238; see also CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), PSP political climate 175 regime 145-146, 233 rhetoric 169 Legislative Assembly 137 legislative reforms 174 Legislature Library 137 Lenin Sarani 156-157; see also Dharmatala Street Lenin, statue of 156-157 Lenin, Vladimir 33; see also Communism; Engels, Friedrich; Socialism; Marx, Karl; Marxism Lévi-Strauss 20, 166; see also Tristes Tropiques Lewandowski, Susan J. 46, 52, 56, 67, 70, 84, 139, 156 Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Building 142; see also Fry, Maxwell, Mody and Colgan Lindemann, Albert S. 33-34 Lingaraja Temple complex 136; see also Bhubaneswar Little Haven 37 local architectural industry 191 London 48, 117, 241-242 Loomba, Ania 28-29 Losty, Jeremiah P. 45, 47, 73 Lottery Commissioners 105-106 Lottery Committee 106-107, 110, 123 Love, Henry Davison 39, 44 low-income groups 225 Lower Chitpur Road 156; see also Rabindra Sarani Lucknow 87-88, 235 Lutyens, Sir Edwin 101-103; see also Delhi Lyon, Thomas see Writers Building, The M’Farlan, D. 123 Maanen, J. Van 35 Machooa Bazar 110; see also Machua Bazaar Machua Bazaar 123; see also Machooa Bazar Macleod, Norman 86, 88-90 Madhushudhan Bhabhan 128-129; see also Bishop’s College Madras 38, 44, 54-55, 57, 67, 101, 139 ; see also Chennai Magahda 103 Mahabalipuram 91; see also Mamallapuram

Index

Mahajati Shadan Hall 142; see also Dr. A. Carbone Mahakaran 82-83, 156; see also Writers Building Mahatma Gandhi Road 156; see also Harrison Road Maidan 52-55, 83-84, 109, 146, 156, 234 Malabar 37 Malabar Hill 144; see also Mumbai malaria 41, 108 Mall in Mall 219 Malle, Louis 20, 166; see also Calcutta (documentary) Mallick, Ross 34-35 Mamallapuram 91, 104; see also Mahabalipuram Manikachan 213-214 Manikam, B.R. 133; see also Vidhan Soudha Maniktalla 127 Mant, Major Charles 93; see also Laxmi Vilas Palace manufacturing sector 194 Mao Zedong 34 Maoists 34, 198 Maratha Ditch 46, 51-52, 56 Marathas 46 Marquis Curzon of Kedleston 65, 98-101, 156, 235, 243 Marshman, John Clark 127 Martin and Company 94, 96-97 Martin, Sir James Ranal 68, 110-111; see also Note on the Medical Topography of Calcutta and its Suburbs, chiefly with reference to the condition of Native health Martyrs’ Memorial 156 Marvin, Simon 30, 207, 215, 240; see also splintering urbanism Marx, Karl 33, 53; see also Communism; Engels, Friedrich, Lenin, Vladimir; Socialism Marxism 32-34, 237; see also Communism; Engels, Friedrich, Lenin, Vladimir; Socialism Marxist(s) agenda 146 analysis 33 city 22-23, 133, 233, 237-239, 242 government 197 -Leninist ideology 33 of Trotskyist persuasion 33 party 195 philosophy 194, 209 political economy 29 regime 32, 195, 204, 239, 242 rhetoric 19, 145, 168, 174, 178, 238 theory 32 thought 33 Massey, Montaque 82-83 master planning paradigm 168

277 mauzas 51, 124, 127 Mawson, Thomas H. 117 Mayer, Albert 133-134, 237; see also Chandigarh mayor-in-council 174, 187 mayor’s court 71 McEwan, Cheryl 25, 29; see also Blunt, Alison medieval Hinduism 90 Mega City Programme 201 Meherota, Rahul 136 Meinhardt PTE 215; see also Dulal Mukherjee and Associates, Peridian Asia PTE, South City Mall, Stewart and Associates Meller, Helen 120 Merlin Group 215 Metcalf, Thomas R. 59, 66, 87-92, 94, 99, 101-102 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 94; see also Lamb, Thomas W., Metro movie theatre Metro movie theatre 94, 97; see also Lamb, Thomas W., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer metropolitan development 168 miasmata 108 miasmatic theory 108 michils 23 middle-class(es) conceptions of purity and safety 218 global 30, 192 housing for 202 intelligentsia 158 lifestyle 30 new 31 plight of youth 238 Middleton, Thomas 128 militaristic 27 mistiri 148, 154 -built housing 153-154, 182, 184 Mitra, Gobinadram 47 Mitra, Prithvijit 94 Mitter, Swasti 195; see also Sen, Asish mixed residential and commercial complex 207 mobilization by the left 165 competitive 180, 198, 239 history of, by the left 177-178 mass 181 popular 179 site of the left 178 modern city planning utopias 155 Modern History, or the Present State of All Nations 44; see also Salmon, Thomas Modern Indian Architecture Movement 102 modernism 104, 135-136, 148, 154 Ahmedabad 140 Chandigarh style of 23, 139 developed in Chandigarh 135 euphoria of 146 in Europe 102

278 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

influence on architects 140, 168 Le Corbusier’s 133 limited 104 new appreciation of 135 Modernist architectural vision 134 Corbusier’s plan 134 culture 140 inspired building 104 outlook 155 style 141 work 104 modernization 136, 155, 156, 194 Mody and Colgan 142; see also Fry, Edwin Maxwell, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Building Moffat, James 57, 75; see also Chandernagore Moghul building 98 Mogul 39 monumentalism 104, 134 Moorhouse, Geoffrey 20, 125, 156, 166 Moors 48 Moscow 33-34 Moslem Kings 99 Mughal(s) 38, 92 authority 39 eagerness 39 emperor(s) 37-38, 43, 50, 53, 59, 128 imperial license 50 officials 38 royal port 38 rule 39 Mukherjee, Prasoon 228, 230, 232; see also Chiputra, Salim Group; Kolkata West International City; Universal Success Enterprises Limited, NRIs Mumbai 39, 59, 67, 70, 84, 94, 98, 134, 142, 144, 191, 195, 201, 235; see also Bombay as an icon of slums to western eyes 242 citadel of architectural thought 140 Cuff Parade 144 Cumballa 144 integration into the global economy 192 India’s economic capital 192 Malabar Hill 144 Nariman Point 144 M(m)unicipal administration 71-72, 123 budget 175 cabinet system of government 174, 201 development 174 elections 175, 232 government(s) 116, 123-124, 158, 187 improvements 105-106, 116 reform(s) 23, 172-174 tax 116 Municipal Development Programme (MDP) 176 municipalities of councillors 175

Munshi, Sunil 110, 166 Murphey, Rhoades 20, 37-39 Murshidabad 52 Muslim elements 92 Muzaffarpur 197 Mysore 66 Princely state of 133 Public Works Department 137 Nabadiganta 210-214 Industrial Township 210, 222 township 36 Naipaul, V.S. 20, 166 Nair, Janaki 138 Nandigram 197-198, 230, 232, 239 Nariman Point 144; see also Mumbai Nasir-ad-dîn-Haidar 87 National Monument 100 Planning Committee 103 Town and County Planning Act 155 nationalism 101 nationalist beheaded statues of leaders 238 city 133 identities 28 leader(s) 125, 156 native bazaar(s) 43, 121 dwellings 84, 235 gentry 89 houses 46, 86 hovels 121 inhabitants 68, 111 owned buildings 69, 234 population(s) 22, 43, 52, 107, 109-110, 116, 233 town 47, 51, 68, 70, 86, 88-89, 107, 111, 114-115, 119, 122, 234, 236; see also Black Town upper classes 157 village 114 Workmen and coolies 109 Zamindar 47 native-owned buildings 69, 234 natural ecosystems 218 Navaratna Kali Temple 47; see also Black Pagoda N(n)awab(s) 40, 50-52, 59, 61 of Bengal 39, 41, 46, 50, 92 of Lucknow 87, 235 of Oudh 59, 87, 235 Naxalbari 34 Naxalite(s) 34-35, 169, 171, 238 killing of class enemies 170 movement 34, 169, 238 revolutionary rhetoric 170 street battles 238

Index

Nehru, Jawaharlal 103, 133-135, 139, 155, 167, 237-238 neo-classical architectural influence on the Bengali elite 84 architecture 22, 87, 98, 235 elements 86 façade 86 manager’s house 74 mansions 128 Palladian villas 80 revival 98 style 60, 74, 77, 92, 98 neo-classicism 77, 235 Nettlefold, J.S. 117 New Delhi 32, 93, 102-103, 133, 140, 191-192, 238 New Economic Policy of 1991 194 New Kolkata Township 222; see also Rajarhat New Secretariat Building 140-141; see also Rahman, Habib New York Institute of Public Administration 166 New York Times 166 Nilsson, Sten 37, 49, 53-54, 59, 61, 63, 66, 72, 74-75, 77, 82 Ninth Five Year Plan 203 Nirmal Hriday 21 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) 191-192, 195, 204, 222 nongovernmental organization(s) (NGO(s) 16, 35-36, 193, 177-181, 189, 197, 218, 226, 240 North Africa 75 North American Bengali Conference 243; see also Banga Sanskriti Sammelan North American-style suburban developments 205 North Korea 34 Note on the Medical Topography of Calcutta and its Suburbs, chiefly with reference to the condition of Native health 110; see also Martin, Sir James Ranal Nove, Alec 33 Nowicki, Matthew 134, 237; see also Chandigarh Oberlin, Ralph 134; see also Chandigarh Ochterlony Monument 156; see also Shahid Minar Old Delhi 153 Old Goa 48-49 O’Malley, L.S.S. 127-128, 130-132; see also Chakravarti, Monmohan Ong, Aihwa 24, 28-29, 214, 226, 242 Operation Barga 194 Operation Sunshine 196 O(o)riental court 87 façade 92

279 Oriental Assurance Building 92; see also Gregson, T.S. Orientalism 24-26; see also Said, Edward Jones, William Sir 90 Orientalist discourse 90 Orientalist perspective 154 Orientals 101 Orissa 38-39, 124, 133, 136, 181; see also Balasor, Bhubaneswar, Revivalism otherness 26, 111, 121, 236; see also Bhabha, Homi; Chatterjee, Partha, post-colonial theory outsourced 191 Paine, James 63; see also Kedleston Hall Pakistan 133, 162 Pal, Anirban 175-177, 179, 181 palanquin 65; see also palkhi palanquin-bearers 65 palkhi 65 Panchannagram 51, 124 panchayat elections 198 panchayat samities 159, 198 parganas 51, 124, 127 Park, the 43, 51 Parthenon 91 Patna 38 Patuli 208, 221 pavement dwellers 162 Payne, Arthur J. 114 Perera, Nihal 37, 134 Peridian Asia PTE 215, 217; see also Dulal Mukherjee and Associates, South City Mall; Stewart and Associates physiological vertigo 242 Pilkhana bustee 21 Pipli 38 Planet of Slums 21, 242; see also Davis, Mike planned city 27, 55 planned townships 204, 221, 239 planning American paradigm(s) 19, 133, 166, 167, 237 bottom up approach 179 British tradition 120 colonial legacies 19, 28, 158 colonial paradigm 22, 234, 237 colonial practice 70, 155 defence as a motive for 234 general principles 117 grassroots 23, 172 interventions 20, 166 neglect of 187 new schools of 154 policy-oriented 237 post-colonial 154, 237 process 167 town 106, 117, 155, 158, 181 unit 117

280 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

urban 19, 21-22, 24, 31, 35, 155, 158, 167, 191, 193, 226, 239 Western 21, 28, 117, 166, 237 Planning Commission 194 political agenda(s) 23, 32 atmosphere 100-101 authority 67, 135 climate 27, 101, 164, 169, 174-175, 179 control 22, 46, 50, 52-53, 231, 233-235 culture 179 economy 22, 39, 128 colonial 39, 43, 57, 80 Haora 128, 237 international 27, 72 Kolkata 23, 236-237 Marxist 29 of post-colonial Kolkata 140, 159 endorsement of Le Corbusier’s ideas 135 history 193, 239-240 instability 169 landscape 19, 27 objectives 101 society 29, 180, 198, 239-240; see also Chatterjee, Partha space 23, 175, 177, 179, 181, 197, 240 struggles 22, 239 unrest 180 politics of exclusion 30; see also Falzon, Mark-Anthony Pondicherry 49, 62; see also Puducherry population growth of Kolkata 159, 198 post-Independence period 159 port and fort 27 Port Commissioners 125 Porto Grande 37 Porto Piqueno 37 Portuguese 37-38, 46-48, 76, 109 colonization 27 empire 37 factory 37 power 38 trade 37 trading outposts 37 post-colonial architecture in Kolkata 139 era 139, 154, 206 India 135 period 22, 28-29, 35, 136, 142, 144, 158, 164, 182, 187, 237-238 plan to save Kolkata 140, 237 planning 154, 237 response 133 theorists 26; see also Bhabha, Homi; Chatterjee, Partha; Chakravorty Spivak, Gayatri; Guha, Ranajit theory 25-26, 28, 32, 167 urbanism 22, 23, 36, 133, 182, 237

post-independence India 140 era 140,187 Kolkata 150 period 23, 72, 154, 159 post-industrial city 31, 226, 240; see also Chatterjee, Partha postmodernism 136 post-Palashi period 52, 54-55 post-structuralism 24; see also Foucault, Michel poverty 20-21, 51, 155, 194, 238, 242-243 Praja Socialist Party (PSP) 165 Prakāsh, Vikramāditya 133, 135 Pratidandi 238; see also Gangopadhyay, Sunil, Ray, Satyajit Princely State(s) 32, 99, 133 Princes of the House of Timour 64 private infrastructure 30, 207 investment 146, 197 sector 201, 204 privatization of services 204 of various economic sectors 195 pro-agrarian Marxist government 197 process of attracting capital 156 public assistance for sick industries 194 public health 71, 111 public opinion in England 110 public-private partnerships 224, 191 ventures 195, 204, 221 Puckah 41 Puducherry 49; see also Pondicherry Punjab 133-135, 140 Punjabi officials 133-134 punka 82; see also punkah punkah 82; see also punka Purāni Sahar 128; see also Haora Queen Victoria 98-99 Rabindra Sarani 156; see also Lower Chitpur Road Rabindra Setu 183; see also Haora Bridge races pre-Aryan 91 racial(lly) difference 110 divisions 157 inferior(ity) 26, 88, 90, 111, 121, 236 origin 26, 91 segregation 19, 28, 44, 121, 128 superior 236 Rahman, Habib 140-141; see also New Secretariat Building Raja Rajendra Mullick 84

Index

Rajarhat 210, 222, 225, 239; see also New Kolkata Township City Center 225 new town 204 planned townships 221 plot layout, Action Area I 223 plot layout, Action Area II 224 resistance to land acqusition 232 Rajbhaban 156; see also government house in Kolkata Ramakrishna Mission Complex 143; see also Art Deco, Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews, Kerr, William B; revivalist style Ray, Rajat Kanta 124-125 Ray, Satyajit 238; see also Gangopadhyay, Sunil; Pratidandi real estate culture 209 consortium 215 developer(s) 30, 36, 207, 209, 243 developing the city 24 development 204, 209, 229 entry into global economy 239 foreign capital 232 importance of 29 industry 24 investments 23 power in Kolkata 232 programmes 242 second circuit of capital 29 speculation 29, 209 upscale 218 ventures 225 rebellion(s) by Sobha Singh 41 in Telangana 34 Red Building 136; see also Bhubaneswar, revivalism, revivalist buildings, Vaz, Julius L. Red Fort 54 Red Sea 39 redevelopment 105, 203 Reese, Laura A. 32; see also Hackworth, Jason, Lauria, Mickey, regime theorists, Rosenfeld, Raymond A. regime(s) local 32, 53 typology of 32 urban 32 regime theorists 32; see also Hackworth, Jason, Reese, Laura A, Lauria, Mickey, Rosenfeld, Raymond A. R(r)egulation(s) absence of 71 local 232 Municipal 111 nuisances 69 of native-owned buildings 69, 234 police 111

281 public markets 68 relief camps 162 state’s 180 Renaissance style 99 town 49 Report by the Request of the Trust on the Condition, Improvement and Town Planning of the City of Calcutta and Contiguous Area 117; see also Richards, E.P. Reserve Bank of India 142; see also Ritchie, John A. resettled colonies on the eastern borders of Kolkata 178 sites of mobilization for the left 178 resistance 28, 31, 53 colonial urbanism 25 faced in Rajarhat 232 from bustee dwellers 173 from the indigenous population in Kolkata 27 from the native population 109 notion of 26 political 242 to colonialism 102 to intervene in Kolkata’s urban fabric 19 to large-scale development projects 239 to the implementation of drainage schemes 132 Respondentia Walk 109 revivalism see also Bhubaneswar, Vaz, Julius L. in Indian architecture 136 inspired buildings 136 popular 237 tradition of 139 revivalist buildings see also Bhubaneswar, Vaz, Julius L. Capital Boys School 136 Guest House 136 Market Building 136 Museum 136 Police Building 136 Red Building 136 Secretariat Building 136 Staff Quarters 136 city 144 phase 136 styles 136-137, 143; see also Akashvani Bhaban, Ballardie, Thompson, and Mathews, Gora, G.K., Kerr, William B., Birla Planetarium, Ramkrishna Mission Complex revolution armed 33 betrayed 33 Bolshevik 33 Russian 33

282 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) 169 revolutionary(ies) 35, 238 Marxism 160 potential for social change 168 rhetoric 170 socialism 33 Ricardo, Halsey 129; see also Haora Railway terminus Richards, E.P. 116-120; see also Report by the Request of the Trust on the Condition, Improvement and Town Planning of the City of Calcutta and Contiguous Areas Richards, J.M. 49 rickshaw(s) 197 pullers 21, 181, 195, 197, 239 trade 197, 239 union of 197; see also Calcutta Rickshaw Chalak Panchyat Ritchie, John A. 142; see also Reserve Bank of India road improvements 120 road schemes 1180-119 Roberts, Emma 65, 78-80, 82, 121-122 Robinson, Jennifer 241 Roman(s) 60 allegory 60 buildings 60 Empire 60, 77, 235 fashion 60 Governor 60 imperial power 60 Romanesque features 128 Rome 91, 100 Rome of the Orient 49 Rosenfeld, Raymond A. 32; see also Hackworth, Jason; Lauria, Mickey; Reese, Laura A.; regime theorists Roy, Ananya 33, 146-147, 178-179, 196, 203-205, 207, 209, 214, 242 Roy, Dr. Bidhan Chandra 140-141, 167, 169, 181-182, 237; see also Chief Minister Roy, Manabendra Nath 34 Roy, Rajnarayan 128 Royal Exchange 92; see also Gregson, T.S. Rudolph, Lloyd I. 155; see also Rudolph, Susanne H. Rudolph, Susanne 155; see also Rudolph, Lloyd I. rule of exception 110 rural areas 176, 193, 239 development 145 development programs 134 emphasis 209 focus 197 land reform 23 poverty 155 Russia 33 Russian

path to socialism 33 revolution 33 Sacriste, Eduardo 154; see also Bengal Engineering College Said, Edward 24-26; see also Orientalism Saint Paul’s Cathedral 93, 96, 235 Salim Group 198, 238, 232; see also Chiputra; Kolkata West International City; Mukherjee, Prasoon; Universal Success Enterprises Limited Salmon, Thomas 44; see also Modern History, or the Present State of All Nations Saltlake 181; see also Bidhannagar Salt Lake Electronic Complex (Saltec) 209 salt lakes 40 sanad 39, 40, 43 Sandeman, David Hugh 109 S(s)anitary appliances 116 commissioner 130-131 conditions in Burra Bazaar 120 conditions in Burra Bazaar and Jora Bagan bustee 115 conditions in Kolkata 59 conditions of Haora (Howrah) 130, 187 improvement(s) 116, 164 latrines 168 measures 158 need 131 planning 43 practices reform 116 toilets 172 sanitation aim of 105 concerns for 71, 180 improv(ed)/ing 69, 106, 234 measures for 110 no cost recovery projects 201 practices 172 proper 115 reduction in 202 science of 111 upgrading 203 Sanyal, Amit 219-220 Sanyal, Biswapriya 164, 167-171, 173-176; see also Tiwari, Meenu Saracenic 92 Saraswati Puja 146 satellite town 181 Satgaon 37, 76 scarcity of land 144 scare of Kolkata 166 Scarsdale, Lord 63 Schmoll, Fritz 31; see also Kratke, Stean School of Art and Government Art Gallery 84 Scriver, Peter 90-91 Sealdah Railroad station 162

Index

second Hugli Bridge 183; see also Bidyasagor Setu second World Congress of Comintern 34 Second World War 34 secondary circuit of capital 29; see also Gottdeiner, M., Harvey, David.; Lefebvre, Henri Sector V 209-210; see also Bidhannagar secular country 135 segregated discount shops 210 housing complexes 31 lower priced shops 219 spaces for the elite 31, 225 segregation blanket 110 racial 19, 28, 44, 47, 121, 128 Sen, Asish see Mitter, Swasti Sen, Jai 197 Sen, Mrinal 238; see also Calcutta 71 Sen, S.P. 49 Sengupta, Urmi 165-166, 175-176, 204, 208-210, 222, 225; see also Tipple Allen G. Sepoy Mutiny 53; see also First Indian War of Independence sepoys 53 Serampore 72, 74; see also Srirampur Seringapatam 66; see also Srirangapatna servants 240 C(c)ivil 60, 71, 77 clad in flowing white garments 80 company’s 41, 48, 72 domestic 80 encumbrances 54 entourage of 65, 80-81 Indian 80, 121 many 80 quarters 80 reside in 54 Seths 38 settlement(s) 27, 37, 39, 42, 49, 51-52, 72, 74-75, 130, 181 bazaar 43 Bengal 50 British 44, 128 bustee 119, 132, 162, 165, 173 Danish 72 defence in planning activities 46 early days 41 early phase 45 English 43, 46-47 European 27, 37, 41, 48-49, 72, 75, 128 fortified 70 foundation 39 French 75 illegal 180 Indian 54, 72 indigenous 54, 130 major 72-73

283 modest 41 nucleus of 41 on private lands 178 refugee 178 significant structures 44 squatter 21, 162, 176-179 sewerage 166, 168, 187, 203-204 Shah Alam II 59 Shah, Ghanshyam 34 Shah Jahan(’s) 38, 53 Shâh/Shah(’s), Wajid Alî 87 Shahid Minar 156; see also Ochterlony Monument Shahjahanabad 53 Shankar 184; see also Jekhane Jeman Shantiniketan 104 sharecroppers 178, 193, 204, 239; see also bargadars Shatkin, Gavin 204, 232 shelter divisions 206, 240 Shibpur 154 Shilpa Shastras 104 shopping mall(s) 19, 30-31, 191-192, 207, 215, 218, 226, 230, 233, 243 Show Your Tongue 21, 194, 243; see also Grass, Günter sick industry(ies) 194, 215 Simpson, Dr. W.J. 115-116 Simpson, Norman Skinner 156 Simpson, William 122 Singh, Gulzar 139; see also Ashoka Hotel, Choudhury, J.K. Singh, Sobha 41 Singur 197-198, 231-232, 239 Sinha, Pradip 38, 43, 47-48 Sinha, Sukumar 162, 164 Sir Jamsethji Jijibhai School of Art 136 Siraj ud-Daulah 50-51, 59, 61, 92 Sluice Bridge 109 S(s)lum(s) 20-21, 89, 105, 117, 119, 162, 167, 184, 238, 242 areas 117 clearance 120, 155, 164 clearance programme 168 clearing 105, 242 dwellers 30, 204, 239 elimination of 31 garbage 242 housing 201 icon of 21, 195, 242 improvement 120, 165, 168, 202, 204 infrastructure development 204 legal 21 like 158 Mending 120 of Kolkata 206 on the fringe of Kolkata 242 proliferation of 140, 155, 237 redevelopment 203

284 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

Repair 120 upgrading schemes 168 Slum Clearance Bill 155, 165 slum lords 21 Slumdog Millionaire 242 Smith, David, B. 111 Smith, Neil 202 Smith, T. Roger 59-60 social arrangement of houses 80 change(s) 32, 35, 155, 168 control 22, 52, 234 control as the dominant planning paradigm 50 control through planning endeavours 53, 233 development 172 dominance 158 dynamic 27 expenditures 29 factors 29 fortress 30, 218, 240 integration 218 life of the British 65 milieu 22, 236 mobility 155 models 28, 34 planning 173 policies 32, 168 problems 136 programs 136 reality 26 reformer 89 restructuring 31 structures 28 systems 22 unrest 169, 238 workers 173 socialism 32-34 democratic 33 evolutionary 33 lower stage of 33 modern 33 political and societal aim of 33 principles 33 revolutionary 33 Russian path 33 Soviet 33-34 S(s)ocialist 33 camp 34 democratic parties 33 governments 33 modern movement 33 regime 33 societies 33 system 33 Society of Arts 59 socio-spatial boundaries 30

South City Mall 215, 217-218; see also Dulal Mukherjee and Associates, Meinhardt PTE, Peridian Asia PTE, Stewart and Associates South Indian classical architecture tradition 139 temples 139 South Suburban municipality 159 sovereignty Britain’s 101 India’s 135 Soviet brand of socialism 34 experiment in socialism 33 political, social, and economic model 34 Republic of West Bengal 195, 243 socialism 33 society 33 style centralized planning model 155 Soviet Union 34 Spanish colonization 27 spatial(ly) arrangement in houses 80 arrangement in stately buildings 65 arrangements in architecture and furnishings 236 aspirations 31 character of Marxist city 239 demarcations of the colonial city 157 environment of dwellings 86 formations 29 forms 30, 133 history 22, 36 instruments of globalization 239 pattern of British colonial cities 236 pattern of Kolkata 234 requirements 147 restructuring of Kolkata 233 restructuring to impose political and social control 50, 53, 234 structure 30, 53, 218, 233, 238, 240 transformation of Indian cities 191,192 special economic zones (SEZ(s)) 19, 191, 197-198, 209, 213-214, 233, 240 splintering urbanism 30, 207, 215, 218, 240; see also Graham, Stephen; Marvin, Simon Srirampur 72-75, 182; see also Serampore Srirangapatna 66; see also Seringapatam St. Peter’s Church 93 St. Petersburg 80 Stada Diretta 49; see also Old Goa Staff Quarters 136; see also Bhubaneswar, revivalism, revivalist buildings, Vaz, Julius L. Standard Design Factory (SDF) 209, 211 state(s) agency(ies) 173, 180 approval 218 authoritarain 24 authority 158 capitalist 31

Index

central 31-32, 138 concept of 31-32 distinguish between party and the 238 exceptional benefits for corporate investors 214 facilitate capital accumulation 214 formation of 34 Indian 155 interventionist 29 leftist agenda 23 leftist local 237 local 23-24, 31-32, 237-238 machinery 179 monolithic entity 31 power 26, 63 regulation 180 relationship between squatters 33 stranglehold 191 structures and institutions 181 State(s) actors 209 agencies 191, 239 appointed bureaucrat 174 capitals 155; see also Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh Congress Party 166, 169 elections 167, 169 entities 220 governor’s residence 156 industrial capacity 197 industrial decline 194 industries 194 institutions 201 land acquired by 178 leadership 179 legislation 155 legislature 196 nodal agency 203 officials 228 parties 169 party leaders 175 politics 164, 170 power 178 public undertakings 194 regimes 169 resource poor 194 resources 177, 194 sectors 195 tenants of the 171 transport garage 210 State government 125, 165, 167, 173-177, 197, 204 State of Andhra Pradesh 34 Karnataka 137 Tamil Nadu 139 West Bengal 19, 156 State Planning Board 173 State Pollution Control Board 218

285 States and Union Territories 32 Statesman House 93 Stein, Clarence 134; see also Chandigarh Stein, Joseph Allen 154; see also Bengal Engineering College Stewart and Associates 215, 217; see also Dulal Mukherjee and Associates, Meinhardt PTE; Peridian Asia PTE; South City Mall Stone Age 91 strategic initiatives 168 subaltern groups 29 subsidies 214 Suburban Municipality 124, 127 Sumatra 72 Supreme Court of India 189 Surman, Edward 52 Surman’s Nulla 52 surveillance 235 architecture 25; see also Foucault, Michel easier 92 Foucauldian notion 53 in guiding British city planning 25 over indigenous population 26, 68 over the native population 107 problem 92 strict 215 Surveyor General of India 38-41, 43, 84 Sutanati 242 Swaraj Party 125 Swayze, Patrick 243; see also City of Joy; Joffé, Roland; Lapierre, Dominique Sweden 33 symbol(s) Dravidian culture 138 for modern India 135, 237 of British empire 98-99, 243 of British imperialism 139 of colonial success 57 of empire 84, 243 of imperial power 77, 138, 235 of independence 23 of memorializing the colonizers 108 of newly acquired wealth 56 of progress 144 of status and wealth 144 of wealth and power 128 Tagore, Rabindranath 104 Taj Mahal 91 Tallygunge 127, 159 Tamil Nationalist party 139 Tank Square 43; see also Binoy Badal Dinesh Bagh, Dalhousie Square Tashkent 34 Tata Centre 142-143; see also Holabird and Root Tata Motors 197-198; see also in Singur taxing mechanisms 166

286 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

Tebhaga movement 34; see also CPI technological innovation 136 Telangana 34; see also CPI Telegraph Office Haora 130 Kolkata 83 tenure 171 ambiguity of 178 legal 171 lure of 178 regularization of 178 security of 171, 178, 193 Thames 127-128 thanas 124 Tharangambadi  74; see also Tranquebar The Rumour of Calcutta 21; see also Hutnyk, John Thika Tenancy (Acquisition and Regulation Act) of 1981 107 Thika Tenancy Act of 1949 165 thika tenants 165, 171, 208 Third World urban edge 242 three-circuit model 29; see also Harvey, David Tillotson, G.H.R. 59, 91, 93, 101 Tipple, Allen G. 222; see also Sengupta, Urmi Tiruvalluvar 139 Tiwari, Meenu 164, 167-171, 173-176; see also Sanyal, Biswapriya Town and Country Planning Organization (TCPO) 173 Council 124-125 Hall 77-78; see also Garstin, John Improvement Committee 69-71, 105-107, 123 town planning basic principle of colonial 158 legislation on 155 Lottery Committee 106 new 181 Westernized notions of 117 townscaping 22, 66-67, 84, 234 townships amenities 206 build 239 changing the traditional co-existence 240 creation of 205 exclusion of the poor 206 in Kolkata and its surroundings 36 IT hubs 226 mini or integrated 204 new 192, 203 outside Kolkata 232 private 19, 36, 191, 204, 206, 220-221, 233, 240, 243 State-regulated planned 204, 220-221, 239 urban integrated mega projects 204

Toynbee, George 72-75 trade as a primary function 37 as a primary motive 27 Bengal 38 boom 73 cloth 43 Dutch 72 duty-free 50 English 73 European 39, 76, 236 free 43 freedom of 39 militant unionism 193-194 monopoly 37 overseas 76 Portuguese 37 Potential 38 profits from 72-73 protection of 50 revenues from 39 rickshaw 197, 239 successful 39 union leader 197 union militancy 195 unionism 23 unions 23, 195 trader(s) 38-40, 59 Trades Association 125 Tranquebar 74; see also Tharangambadi transportation 117, 134, 166 advanced 31, 226 infrastucture 241 links (ages) 181-182 means of 65 network 241 provision of 180 strategic initiatives 168 upgrading 203 treatise(s) 31 analytical framework 24 De Barros, João 110 drawing from 26 Falzon, Mark-Anthony’s 30 Foucault’s 24-25 King’s, Anthony 27 on Orientalism 26 on political society 180; see also Chatterjee, Partha on the styles or ‘art’ of being global 24, 242; see also Ong, Aihwa on urban populism 179; see also Castells, Manuel Triggs, Inigo H. 117 Trinamool Congress attempts made by 24 coming to power 24 constrained by 232 mobilization 198, 239

Index

organizing of the poor 232 party cadres of 201 policy 239 support for struggle of the peasants 198 tripartite negotiations 195 Tristes Tropiques 20; see also Lévi-Strauss Trotsky, Leon 33 Trotskyist persuasion 33 Trywhitt, Jaqueline 120 Turanian people 91 United Front government 22, 34, 56, 169 United Kingdom 195 UK Department of International Development (DFID) 204 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) 167 United States 35, 73, 126, 140, 243 capitalist urban systems 32 city plan for Kolkata 126 firms 191 pressure from 155 theories developed in the context of 32 Universal Success Enterprises Limited 228; see also Chiputra, Kolkata West International City; Mukherjee, Prasoon; Salim Group of Indonesia Unnayan 162, 164-166, 197 unplanned growth 187 Unwin, Raymond 117 Upohar 205-206 upper-caste 179 upper class(s) 157, 181, 192, 204, 208 upper-income housing 207 upscale malls 225 urban amenities 169 colonial patterns 27-28, 46 dependent patterns 27 design 19, 22, 104, 240 deteriorating infrastructure 237 development equitable 175 in the early 1970s 170 institutions 32 methods 242 positive 169 prevention of primary actors 174 projects 170-171, 180 to curb the rise of leftist forces 170 disaster 21, 28, 242 economics 134 elite 158 environment 134 fabric 19, 23, 120, 191, 238, 240 focused real estate development 239 form(s) 54, 133, 233 governance 105, 203

287 growth 203 hygiene 105 identity for modern India 237 India 23, 32, 36, 38 industrial bias 155 infrastructure 104, 164, 204, 237 integrated mega-projects 204 land 107 Land Ceiling Act 178 management 175 middle classes 180 neighborhoods 158 new aesthetics 30 planning as a policy tool for modernization 155 as instruments of domination, subjugation, and control 24 associated with globalization 191 colonial policies 158 India 35 Kolkata 22 new paradigms 193, 226, 239 paradigms 31 plan 167 programs 155 role of discourse and the Western conception 21 political units 159 politics 180 poor exclusion of 240 housing 21 including 30 living in outlying areas 225 mobilize(ation) 178, 180, 198 not forcibly relocated 238 patron-client relationships 158 services of 180, 204, 240 swelling number of 180 to maintain their lifestyle 206 post-colonial identity 237 post-colonial problems 158-159 projects 171 properties 107 regimes 32 renewal 203 renewal scheme 196 services 109, 130, 180, 204 space 30 strategy 30, 110, 116 surveys 155 terror 170 theory(ies) 29, 32-33 vote bank 197 waste 242 Urban Development Department 208 urbanism definition 22 Kolkata’s 22, 36, 40, 233, 237, 239-240

288 

COLONIZING, DECOLONIZING, AND GLOBALIZING KOLK ATA

vision of 146, 237 urbanization pattern 155 US Consulate Staff Quarters 143; see also Willgoose and Chase Usha factory 215 USSR 156 utilitarian modern see also architecture buildings 147 forms of architecture 182 style 146-149, 183 utopian society 33 Valentia, Viscount 59, 63 Valluvar Kottam 139 Varman, Rohit 30-31; see also Belk, Russell W. Vasudhara 218 Vaz, Julius L. 136-137; see also Bhubaneswar, revivalism, revivalist buildings Vedic Village 226 vested land in Kolkata’s fringes 178 vesting 178, 205 Viceregal steps 138 V(v)iceroy’s house 102-103 of India 138 palace 49 Victoria Memorial Hall 98-99, 101, 235; see also Emerson, William H. Victorian appearance 84 era 92, 235 grandeur 235 Vidhan Soudha 137-138; see also Manikam, B.R. Vietnam 34 Vijaynagar 104 Vision 2025: Perspective Plan of KMA 177 Voyce, Malcom 30, 218 war(s) between England and France 51 between the province of Mysore and the British 66 British war with the Mughals 38 with Pakistan 162 world 140 ward(s) 70 committee(s) 175-176 councillors 175-176 in KMC 202 in the fringes of the city 176 level(s) 125, 175, 177, 201 number of 125, 175, 201 of the city 71, 127 of the Town 69 Waterhouse, Paul 117 WBHIDCO 221-222 Wellesley(’s), Lord 65, 68-69

appointment of Town Improvement Committee 69 arrival in India 61 decision on a new residence 63 improvement of Kolkata 69 order 46 palace 65-66, 156, 233-234; see also new government house in Kolkata planning 68 recall 63 Wellesley Street 107 West Bengal Assembly 165 Electronics Industry Development Corporation (WEBEL) 209-210 Housing Board 220 Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (WBHIDCO) 220, 223-224 Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) 211 Infrastructure Development Corporation 213 Legislative Building 93 Metropolitan Committee Act 176 Public Works Department (WBPWD) 141 Town and Country (Planning and Development) Act 203 West Bengal(’s) 33-34, 140, 174 capital and industrial flight 194 commodities produced in 194 industrial development 209 industry 194 invest in 232 municipal elections in 232 Western amenities 206, 214-215 architects 154 cities 117 civilizations 100 clothes 220 domination 26 dress codes 220 edifices 146 eyes 20, 195, 242 facilities 205 films 20-21, 166 ideas 28 image 21 imagination 20 influence in Bengal Engineering College 154 interiors 87 journals 154 legislation and bylaws 117 lifestyle 206 minds 20 names 205 notions 21

289

Index

quest for being 31 representation 21 standards 86 style living arrangements 207 world 21 Western India Products Limited (WIPRO) 210 Western United Provinces 134 Westernized architectural education 154 Bengali elite 86 White Town 19, 44, 47-48, 54, 80, 105, 107, 114, 116, 121, 158, 206, 234, 236, 240 Whittlesey, Julian 134; see also Chandigarh Willgoose and Chase 143; see also US Consulate Staff Quarters. Wills, Lieutenant William 46 Wilson, C.R. 38-39, 42, 47-48 window shopping 220 Wood, William 79 working-class families 218 industrial 187 World Bank(’s) 240-241 agent of 174 assistance 171-172 cautious stance 171

creation of the KMDA 170 disapproval of BIP 171 funding 173, 180 goals of cost recovery and replicability 171 interest in Kolkata’s urban development 170 International Development Association (IDA) 170-171 pressure from 155 slum upgrading schemes 168 world economy development of 27 Kolkata’s strategy to integrate 242 World Health Organization (WHO) 166-167 world market 33, 164 World War II 134, 182 Writers Building, The Mahakaran see Lyon, Thomas Wyatt, Lieutenant Charles 63-64; see also new government House in Kolkata Zamindar 47, 71 zamindari 39, 43-44, 51 zamindars 57 zoning functional 79, 89, 236 guidelines for 155

Publications / Asian Cities

Norman Vasu, Yeap Su Yin and Chan Wen Ling (eds): Immigration in Singapore 2014, ISBN 978 90 8964 665 1 Gregory Bracken (ed.): Asian Cities. Colonial to Global 2015, ISBN 978 90 8964 931 7 Lena Scheen: Shanghai Literary Imaginings. A City in Transformation 2015, ISBN 978 90 8964 587 6 Anila Naeem: Urban Traditions and Historic Environments in Sindh. A Fading Legacy of Shikarpoor, Historic City 2017, ISBN 978 94 6298 159 1