Claiming the City
Protest, Crime, and Scandals in Colonial Calcutta, c. 1860–1920
Price: 995.00
ISBN:
9780199464791
Publication date:
29/04/2016
Hardback
340 pages
Price: 995.00
ISBN:
9780199464791
Publication date:
29/04/2016
Hardback
340 pages
Anindita Ghosh
This book on colonial Calcutta charts the history of its urbanization from below—in its streets, strikes, and popular urban cultures. Claiming the City offers a close up view of the city’s underbelly by drawing in a range of non-archival sources, from illustrations and amateur photographs to street songs, local histories, and memoirs, which show how Calcutta was not just a ‘problem’ to be disciplined and governed as the colonialists would have us believe. Instead, it emerges in Ghosh’s study as remarkably lively and crucial site for the shaping of a discourse of rights and claims to the city by various marginal urban groups. In doing so, the book uses the everyday as a prism for capturing the many urban political and social imaginaries that shaped the city through scandals, crime, street songs, protest, and violence.
Rights: World Rights
Anindita Ghosh
Description
As the administrative and commercial capital of British India and as one of the earliest experiments in modern urbanization in the sub-continent, Calcutta proved enormously challenging to both its residents and its architects. In this imaginative study of colonial Calcutta, Anindita Ghosh charts the history of its urbanization from below—in its streets, strikes, and popular urban cultures. Claiming the City offers a close-up view of the city’s underbelly by drawing in a range of non-archival sources—from illustrations and amateur photographs to street songs, local histories, and memoirs—which show that Calcutta was not just a ‘problem’ to be disciplined and governed, as the colonialists would have us believe. Instead, the city emerges as a lively and crucial site for the shaping of the discourse on claims to urban spaces and resources by various marginal groups. Ghosh uses the everyday as a prism for exposing the wide spectrum of political and social imaginaries that shaped the city and shows how the once proverbial ‘City of Palaces’ slowly turned into a city of endemic unrest and strife.
Anindita Ghosh
Table of contents
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Urban Space, Technology, and Community Chapter Two: Songs, the City, and the Everyday Chapter Three: Sexuality, Scandals, and the Urban Order Chapter Four: Battle for the Streets: Contesting Municipal Regimes Chapter Five: Criminality, Class, and Moral Anxieties Chapter Six: Collective Protest and Riots Conclusion Bibliography Index About the Author
Anindita Ghosh
Description
As the administrative and commercial capital of British India and as one of the earliest experiments in modern urbanization in the sub-continent, Calcutta proved enormously challenging to both its residents and its architects. In this imaginative study of colonial Calcutta, Anindita Ghosh charts the history of its urbanization from below—in its streets, strikes, and popular urban cultures. Claiming the City offers a close-up view of the city’s underbelly by drawing in a range of non-archival sources—from illustrations and amateur photographs to street songs, local histories, and memoirs—which show that Calcutta was not just a ‘problem’ to be disciplined and governed, as the colonialists would have us believe. Instead, the city emerges as a lively and crucial site for the shaping of the discourse on claims to urban spaces and resources by various marginal groups. Ghosh uses the everyday as a prism for exposing the wide spectrum of political and social imaginaries that shaped the city and shows how the once proverbial ‘City of Palaces’ slowly turned into a city of endemic unrest and strife.
Table of contents
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Urban Space, Technology, and Community Chapter Two: Songs, the City, and the Everyday Chapter Three: Sexuality, Scandals, and the Urban Order Chapter Four: Battle for the Streets: Contesting Municipal Regimes Chapter Five: Criminality, Class, and Moral Anxieties Chapter Six: Collective Protest and Riots Conclusion Bibliography Index About the Author
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