Calcutta Studies

  Subhajeet Singha revisits the legacy of Radhaprasad Gupta in localising the history of Calcutta.  Book- Kolkata r Firiwala r Daak ar Rastar Awaj (The calls and cries of the street vendors of Kolkata) Author- Radhaprasad Gupta Publisher- Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, India, 1984 History is a metanarrative, as Jean Francois Lyotard has mentioned in his works, which promotes the grand deception that history is constituted by those moments of exceptional achievements or monumental failures. History is not only written by the victors but also history dictates what should not be included inside the strict contingent defined as the body of history. Historiography, which can be simply decoded as the art of writing history, is always governed and regulated by those who are in power. Not every incident or discipline can be worthy of being included as ‘body of history’ and that was the stringent norm for ‘history as text’ until the theoretical turn to postmodernism and postcolonialis...

  Photo courtesy: Samata Biswas Samata Biswas  writes about Kunal Sen's memoir of his father, Mrinal Sen-- the quintessential chronicler of Calcutta.   What not to read in a hospital: Kunal Sen's memories of his father, Mrinal Sen, Bondhu  This hospital stay is two times more difficult than last year, because unlike last year I am neither in a feverish daze, nor safely away from the phone, a phone that shows people eating drinking and making merry. Of course, I hate the occasion that creates this merriment, still... But, I made myself read Kunal Sen's Bondhu and the sadness engulfed me many times more.  Photo courtesy: upajindia  (https://www.instagram.com/p/CC2ekl_hQjD/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==) Kunal Sen remembers the life and work of his extremely well-known father, Mrinal Sen, who he used to call, sometimes in secret, at other times boldly, Bondhu, friend. Most of the book are reflections on Mrinal 's life and relationships, with coworkers, other film ma...

  A Still from Gender Mela, 2022.   Aisarya Dutt Roy traces the history of P R I D E in Calcutta.  The city of Kolkata, with its effective organisation, mobilisation and community building since the early 90s, has been a pivotal site of a kaleidoscopic blend of queer voices and identities. While the post-NALSA (National Legal Services Authority vs. Union of India) queer-scape of the city in the last decade has witnessed a vibrant and outspoken assertion of queer identities intersecting with caste, religion, disability, age as well as mental health, the legacy in effect, goes back to the early 90s and even before. In August 1993, a small group of gay and bisexual men including journalist Pawan Dhall formed a queer support group called Counsel Club. Its biannual multilingual queer newsletter called Pravartak (renamed as Naya Pravartak in 1995) published letters from queer persons across the country and abroad (Dhall: 2020, 7-13). In an interview, D...

  In picture Central Calcutta Boarding House. Photo courtesy: Messbari Project. Shreya Das traces the history of Mess-bari culture of Calcutta.  The late nineteenth and early twentieth century Calcutta witnessed a rapid urbanization of the city. Hordes of people migrated from villages to this metropolitan city in the hope of securing a job under the colonial ruler. A huge number of students also came to the city to receive the modern British education to ensure jobs at clerical posts under the Raj. Several education acts (e.g. 1813, 1833, 1835, 1857 etc.) in the nineteenth century only confirm the British pet project of manufacturing “Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect” (Macaulay’s Minute, 1835). As a result, the institutionalization of the English education became necessary and several colleges were established in the major cities of India. Calcutta, being the then capital of India, became a field of experiment where t...