Calcutta 1981
The city, its crisis, and the debate on urban planning and development
A city laden with symbolic meaning in the Western mind, Calcutta – with ten million inhabitants today – is much more than the apathetic or violent display of urban destitution in India, as seen by the world at large. This collection tries to reach precisely beyond the cliches, to enable some of those who work in the city as decision-makers, planners or analysts, to speak out and Interpret the multifaceted crisis that has hit this city as it continues to grow, even though its economy is in decl...
Note de l’éditeur
This book is published by Concept Publishing, New Delhi in collaboration with: the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris and the French Institute of Pondicherry.
© Centre d’Etudes de Géographie Tropicale, Bordeaux et Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris
Éditeur : Institut Français de Pondichéry, Concept Publishing Company
Lieu d’édition : New Delhi
Publication sur OpenEdition Books : 14 avril 2020
ISBN numérique : 979-10-365-4977-9
DOI : 10.4000/books.ifp.5143
Collection : Mondes Indiens/South Asia
Année d’édition : 1990
Nombre de pages : 486
Inaugural Session
Prasanta Kumar Sur
Let your Seminar address itself to the GrassrootsSession I. A. The Foundations of the Present: Understanding Calcutta
Sunil K. Munsi
2. Genesis of the MetropolisAlok Banerjee
4. The city with two pastsNirmal Kumar Bose
Addendum A. An Immature Metropolis?Session I. B. The Foundations of the Present: Understanding Calcutta
Hiten Bhaya
DiscussionsSession 2. A. A Metropolis in Crisis
Santosh K. Bhattacharya
7. Calcutta in India's EconomyJean Racine
Addendum C. The Port CrisisNirmala Banerjee, Gautam Adhikari et Jean Racine
Addendum D. The Power Crisis in CalcuttaEmmanuel Romatet
Addendum E. A Case Study of the Informal SectorSmall Industries in Pilkhana Bustee, Howrah
Sudhendu Mukherjee et Jean Racine
Addendum F. The Urban PoorAn Outlook of Calcutta's Pavement-Dwellers
Shibani Kinkar Chaube
9. Violence, Crime and Labour Unrest in CalcuttaA Comparative Analysis in Social Tension
Session II. B. A Metropolis in Crisis
Asok Mitra
DiscussionsSession III. A. Tackling the Crisis
The Statesman
Addendum I. On the Crisis of TransportSession III. B. Tackling the Crisis
Barun De
DiscussionsThe Statesman et Unnayan
Addendum K. Whom Does One Plan For?A Case Study of Rickshaws and Rickshawallahs of Calcutta
Session IV. General Debate
Bhabatosh Dutta
DiscussionsBibliographies, Filmography
Jean Racine
Towards an Academic Bibliography on CalcuttaBarun Ray
A Selected Filmography on CalcuttaA city laden with symbolic meaning in the Western mind, Calcutta – with ten million inhabitants today – is much more than the apathetic or violent display of urban destitution in India, as seen by the world at large. This collection tries to reach precisely beyond the cliches, to enable some of those who work in the city as decision-makers, planners or analysts, to speak out and Interpret the multifaceted crisis that has hit this city as it continues to grow, even though its economy is in decline. Their words have all the force as they are derived from first-hand experience.
In analysing the laboured evolution of this city, once known as "the most beautiful city east of Suez", we have provided some material on a major case-study for the debate on urban planning and development in the Third World. The planning exercise launched in Calcutta in early 1960s, with support from American experts, hoped also to halt the spread of communism in Bengal. This was a vain expectation, however, as the Communist Party of India-Marxist has been continuously voted into power since 1977. From that date, the Left Front Government has controlled the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority, which provides amenities to the city and metropolitan district with support from, among others, the World Bank.
What are henceforth the urban development policies of "parliamentary communism"? What are the problems they are up against when action is necessary on all fronts at once? In the final analysis, for what purpose and for whom are they planning? What should be the priorities? To set up the economy to right first? To provide amenities for the city? Or to improve the daily life of the most underprivileged? When confronted with these realities, what the Left is able to achieve in power? These are some of the questions that the contributors to this collection have, in their own way, been concerned with in creating an image of present-day Calcutta, seen through its own eyes.
Born in 1946 in Northern France, carne in India for the first time in 1968. He spent most of the last fifteen years in India and stayed long in the South and in Calcutta, where he headed the French Cultural Centre from 1977 to 1982.
Since 1982, he is Fellow in Geography, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), based at the Centre for Studies in Tropical Geography, Bordeaux. Currently, he is with French Institute of Pondicherry.
A Ph.D from the Sorbonne University, he published his first book Tradition and Modernity in South India: Two Rural Studies in Tamil Nadu (in French) in 1976. He is presently carrying on a long-term research on "Territory, Civilization and Development in South India", focussed on a Tamil district, and heads an Indo-French research project entitled "To Migrate or to Stay? A Study in Rural Change, Mobility and Retention of Village Population in India. The case of South Karnataka".
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
Le vagabond et son ombre
G. Nagarajan
G. Nagarajan François Gros et Kannan M. (éd.) François Gros et Élisabeth Sethupathy (trad.)
2013
Vâdivâçal
Des taureaux et des hommes en pays tamoul
Cinnamanur Subramaniam Chellappa François Gros (éd.) François Gros (trad.)
2014
The legacy of French rule in India (1674-1954)
An investigation of a process of Creolization
Animesh Rai
2008
Deep rivers
Selected Writings on Tamil literature
François Gros Kannan M. et Jennifer Clare (dir.) Mary Premila Boseman (trad.)
2009
Les attaches de l’homme
Enracinement paysan et logiques migratoires en Inde du Sud
Jean-Luc Racine (dir.)
1994
Des Intouchables aux Dalit
Les errements d’un mouvement de libération dans l’Inde contemporaine
Djallal G. Heuzé
2006
Origins of the Urban Development of Pondicherry according to Seventeenth Century Dutch Plans
Jean Deloche
2004
Forest landscapes of the southern western Ghats, India
Biodiversity, Human Ecology and Management Strategies
B.R. Ramesh et Rajan Gurukkal (dir.)
2007
Le vagabond et son ombre
G. Nagarajan
G. Nagarajan François Gros et Kannan M. (éd.) François Gros et Élisabeth Sethupathy (trad.)
2013
Vâdivâçal
Des taureaux et des hommes en pays tamoul
Cinnamanur Subramaniam Chellappa François Gros (éd.) François Gros (trad.)
2014
The legacy of French rule in India (1674-1954)
An investigation of a process of Creolization
Animesh Rai
2008
Deep rivers
Selected Writings on Tamil literature
François Gros Kannan M. et Jennifer Clare (dir.) Mary Premila Boseman (trad.)
2009
Les attaches de l’homme
Enracinement paysan et logiques migratoires en Inde du Sud
Jean-Luc Racine (dir.)
1994
Des Intouchables aux Dalit
Les errements d’un mouvement de libération dans l’Inde contemporaine
Djallal G. Heuzé
2006
Origins of the Urban Development of Pondicherry according to Seventeenth Century Dutch Plans
Jean Deloche
2004
Forest landscapes of the southern western Ghats, India
Biodiversity, Human Ecology and Management Strategies
B.R. Ramesh et Rajan Gurukkal (dir.)
2007
