1st Edition
Urbanisation in Bengal Ideas, Institutions and Policies
This volume presents a comprehensive study of the urbanization of Bengal from ancient to postcolonial times. It analyses the notion of urban space, examines the institutions which constitute the ‘urban’, and explores the crises brought about by the Partition.
The book highlights the key features of urbanization in colonial Bengal––the print culture, institutions of Western education and Western medicine, and the census as a ‘modern form of knowledge’. It also looks at the refugee movement and discusses the contribution of Partition refugees in urbanizing Bengal.
Rich in archival sources, this book will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of urban history, urban studies, Indian history, colonial history, postcolonial studies, partition studies, and South Asian history, particularly those interested in Bengal.
List of Tables
Notes on contributors
Preface by Gopa Samanta
Editor’s Introduction
Section I: An Idea of the Urban Space: From Ancient to Modern Times
1. Early Historic Urbanization in Bengal: Bangarh, a Case Study
Chirantani Das
2. Cities of the Mind: Representing the Urban in Colonial Bengal
Kaustubh Mani Sengupta
Section II: Institutions of the Urban: Print, Education, Health, Census
3. Popular Print Culture in the late 19th and early 20th century Calcutta
Shrobona Banerjee
4. Breaking Barriers: Women’s Movement and Writings from Late Colonial Bengal
Nilanjana Paul
5. Struggle for space: Bengali Women and Urbanization of Colonial Calcutta
Ata Mallick
6. The Politics Of Census: Bengal And The 1941 Population Enumeration
Subhasri Ghosh
Section III: A Struggle for the Urban: Partition and Related Crises
7. From Refugees To Citizens Popular Protests In West Bengal 1947-6o
Sutapa Dasgupta
8. Carrying on the ‘Rural Home’ in the midst of the ‘Urban Jungle’: Refugee Colonies in the Post-Partitioned Calcutta
Anindita Ghoshal and Urvi Mukhopadhyay
9. ‘Refugee-woman’ in post-Partition Bengal: A Critical Re-assessment of their Roles and Image
Pallavi Chakravarty
Section IV: The Urban in the Present: Possibilities and Challenges
10. Industrialization, Migration and (Un)making of a City: Durgapur Experience
Abhinandan Das
Index
Biography
Pallavi Chakravarty is Assistant Professor at the School of Liberal Studies, Dr B R Ambedkar University Delhi, New Delhi, India. She is the author of Boundaries and Belonging: Rehabilitation of Refugees in India, 1947-71 (2022). She was also Junior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (now Pradhan Mantri Museum and Library, New Delhi). Her primary areas of research are partition studies, women and migration, oral histories. She has authored research papers which have been published in peer reviewed journals and edited volumes of national and international repute.
