Author: Krishna Dutta
Publisher: Roli Books
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 255
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8174362606
Description
Calcutta - renamed Kolkata in 2001 - is a city of extremes, where exquisite refinement rubs shoulders with coarse commercialism and savage political violence. In this significant volume, Krishna Dutta explores these multiple paradoxes giving personal insight into Calcutta's unique history and modern identity as reflected in its architecture, cinema and music.
Calcutta is the place where the West first truly encountered the East. Founded in the 1670s by East India Company merchants beside the Hoogly River, Calcutta grew into both India’s capital during the Raj and the second city of the British Empire. Named the City of Palaces for its grand neo-classical mansions, Calcutta was the city of Clive, Hastings, Macaulay and Curzon. It was also home to extraordinary Bengalis such as Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel laureate, and Satyajit Ray, among the geniuses of world cinema.
City of Artists: Modern India’s cultural capital; home city of Tagore, Ray and Jamini Roy; College Street and the annual book fair; a city of learning and books.
City of Durga and Kali: Kumortuli’s holy images and the flamboyant annual Durga Puja: Kalighat Temple, and Kali, Calcutta’s divine and terrible protectress.
City of Palaces: Grand colonial monuments and crumbling mansions of the Bengali babus: a mix of Palladian, Baroque, Rococo, Gothic, Hindu and Islamic architecture.
Contents
Foreword by Anita Desai
Preface and Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
Kolikata, Calcutta, Kolkata
CHAPTER ONE
Company Calcutta
CHAPTER TWO
City of the Babus
CHAPTER THREE
City of the Sahibs
CHAPTER FOUR
City of Reformers
CHAPTER FIVE
Imperial City
CHAPTER SIX
The Struggle for Independence
CHAPTER SEVEN
City of Strife
CHAPTER EIGHT
City of Learning
CHAPTER NINE
Artistic Calcutta
Further Reading
Appendix
Index