Settling for less: the uneven urbanization and modernization of nineteenth-century Calcutta

Nineteenth-century Calcutta was a premium port city and the nerve-centre of the British Empire’s commercial activities in South Asia. In many ways it was presented as a promising mercantile global metropolis – a symbol of efficiency, infrastructure and urban modernization – celebrated in contemporary colonial accounts and literature. 1 However, looking beyond, it is possible to locate other perspectives that challenge the colonial narrative. Reading both against the grain of colonial archives and closely examining Indian accounts, this article highlights the gaps in its smooth functioning, and uncovers local practices that challenged metropolitan blueprints. As seen here, it was possible for the everyday city to pose a serious challenge to European – purportedly universal, and therefore global – models of urbanization implemented by the colonial government. Calcutta here emerges as much a product of its own social, cultural and natural environment, as that of global modernization regimes unleashed by colonialism, the legacy of which can be seen even today.