Kolkata in Space, Time, and Imagination Vol 1

This twovolume collection of eclectic essays on Kolkata seeks to explore areas not covered in the earlier works on the city, in terms of both topics and time. Contributors from India, Germany and beyond have used both academic research and lived experiences to reveal the dynamic process of Kolkatas urbanity rooted in its colonial history and constantly reshaped by its politics, economy and changing socio cultural norms. The first section of Volume 1 indicates how the city has negotiated space from its formative years right up to the crucial juncture it seems to have reached recently as a result of the drastic shift towards megaurbanity. The second section provides glimpse into the city in time, through the two global wars in the twentieth century, the Naxalite movement, the rule of the Left Front and beyond. The book seeks to understand the city not only in space and time, but also in imagination, which is highlighted in the second volume. While recognizing that the colonial rulers did play a vital role in the making of the city, the book is primarily about the active native participation in the process of Kolkatas urban transformation. It highlights the ordinary and the everyday, with special attention paid to the underclasses of the city. It uses a polyscopic perspective and presents the city as a fascinating heterotopia based on a coexistence of the haves and the havenots, of the old and the new, of formality and informality.