Table des matières

• REFERENCE MAPS

• The sessions chairmen
• The contributors
• Other participants in the debates
• Contributors, bibliographies and filmography

Jean Racine

Genesis of the Present Volume

• Our seminar: its aim
• Discussions
• Additions: why and how
• Illustrations, photographs, documents, maps
• Updating
• Multiplicity of views, plurality of the appraisal processes, unity of the key idea

Jean Racine

An Inside View of Calcutta in Crisis

• Calcutta: images and myths
• Calcutta in the mirror
• Narcissus' doubts
• An inside view of a metropolis in crisis
• The foundations of the present
• The crisis
• Tackling the crisis
• The discussions: some major questions
• Analysis of a decline
• The urban development contested: for whom are we planning?
• The Calcutta man
• Which city, which development, which future?
• Which priorities?
• Calcutta: a magnifying mirror
• Calcutta on the razor's edge

Inaugural Session

Prasanta Kumar Sur

Session I. A. The Foundations of the Present: Understanding Calcutta

Gaston Roberge

From Black Hole to Black Box

• THE BLACK HOLE
• Foreigners' image: tristes tropiques
• Indigenous images: "romantically yours"
• A personal image of Calcutta
• Towards an adequate imagery
• THE BLACK BOX
• CONCLUSION

Sunil K. Munsi

• Did Calcutta exist before Job Charnock?
• Calcutta - chance selected?
• Foundations of the major gateway to the Indian Empire
• Growth of the metropolitan node: conquest and administrative control
• Railways and the consolidation of the hinterland
• The growth of the suburbs
• The early morphology of the city
• The first Acts of city planning and administration

Jean Racine

A Regional and National Perspective

• EASTERN INDIA: ASSETS AND POTENTIALS OF A VERY DIVERSIFIED HINTERLAND
• Some striking physical and human contrasts
• The Himalayan barrier in the North
• The Circum-Assamese Highlands to the North-East
• The tribal plateau of western Deccan to the South-West
• The large paddy growing plains
• Amputateci Bengal
• A considerable economic potential reduced by numerous impediments
• The large alluvial plains
• The highlands of the North-East
• The plateaus of eastern Deccan
• THREE GEOGRAPHICAL IMBALANCES: WATER, AGRICULTURE, URBAN NETWORK
• Water: too much or too little
• Sea, river and marshes: site and situation of Calcutta
• Water: a major problem. The uncertainties of climate and of hydrography
• Rural overpopulation, agricultural underproductivity
• Thirst for land and low productivity
• The extreme imbalance of the regional urban network
• CALCUTTA AND WEST BENGAL IN THE SUBCONTINENT
• The Bengali particularism
• Afflux of labour force and exit of capital
• The refugees of East Pakistan and Bangladesh
• The immigrants from West Bengal
• The workers of neighbouring States
• The long range migrants
• RELATIONS WITH THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT: BENGAL, THE UNLOVED STATE?
• The four metropolises: Calcutta's decline

Alok Banerjee

• Introduction and assumptions
• Calcutta and her "imperial past"
• The "other past"
• Emigrants out of the "imperial past"
• The two pasts and communities of Calcutta today
• The future

Nirmal Kumar Bose

• Document: Colonialism, Capitalism, Hinduism and the Social Structure of Calcutta
• Nirmal Kumar Bose
• Some maps: a comment

Session I. B. The Foundations of the Present: Understanding Calcutta

Hiten Bhaya

• We are contracting ourselves, contracting our horizon
• Asok Mitra
• Raj-dhani; Banya-dhani; Babu-dhani
• Sivaprasad Samaddar
• The problem of Calcutta does not lie within Calcutta
• Biplab Dasgupta
• How does one create popular participation?
• Barun De
• Colonial cities: their activities and their morphology
• Must we maintain the British heritage?
• How to start popular action in the city: a personal anecdote
• The poor Calcutta will definitely emerge
• Sudhendu Mukherjee
• We are not talking about how the situation can change
• Jai Sen
• A perspective for action
• Hiten Bhaya
• On G. Roberge's paper
• On S.K. Munsi's paper
• On J. Racines paper
• On A. Banerjee's paper on a second Calcutta, and on the comments it brought about

Session 2. A. A Metropolis in Crisis

Subha Dasgupta

Morphology of a Congested City

• The morphology of the city: some basic characters
• The structure of built up areas in Calcutta
• Calcutta land use
• Calcutta past and present: a failure in management

Jean Racine

A Few Remarks

Sukumar Sinha

The Demographical Trends of Calcutta City

• A very depressing housing situation
• Employment: a decline in the working population
• The demographic trend of Calcutta city: less immigrants, more emigrants
• The relative stagnation of the core city, and the growth of the suburbs
• Conclusion a city losing its middle class

Santosh K. Bhattacharya

• Calcutta's economic role in the seventies
• Calcutta and Bombay, West Bengal and Maharashtra: their respective importance in the seventies
• Calcutta, Bombay and their Provinces in the thirties
• The causes of Calcutta's economic decline

Jean Racine

• HANDICAPS
• TACKLING THE PORT CRISIS
• Upstream: Farakka Dam
• Downstream: Haldia, estuarine port
• WHAT IS IN FUTURE?

Nirmala Banerjee, Gautam Adhikari et Jean Racine

• The Power crisis in the Calcutta Metropolitan District
• Nirmala Banerjee
• Learning to live in the dark: an analysis of the power situation in West Bengal
• Gautam Adhikari

Nirmala Banerjee

Employment in the Informal Sector

• A cut in wage rates
• Expanding the choice horizon
• Doing without
• What next?
• Conclusion

Emmanuel Romatet

Small Industries in Pilkhana Bustee, Howrah

• THREE DOCUMENTS ON PILKHANA
• Document 1: A survey of 53 industrial units of the informal sector
• Distribution of units by type of fabrication
• Proprietorship
• Age of the units
• Area of the workshop
• Use of the workshop
• Annual activity
• Daily activity
• Workers per unit
• Distribution of employment amongst the 329 "permanent workers of the 53 units surveyed
• Average salaries
• Distribution of workmen's weekly salaries amongst 242 workers
• Type of retribution
• Fixed capital per unit
• Mechanical equipment
• Monthly turnover (for 49 units)
• Monthly added value (for 42 units)
• Loans granted (for 53 units)
• Document 2: Some industrial units of the informal sector in Pilkhana, from bottom to top of the spectrum
• Document 3: How to climb the rungs in the small-scale mechanical industry units of Howrah
• Slum industries in Pilkhana bustee: Romatet's conclusion

Sudhendu Mukherjee et Jean Racine

An Outlook of Calcutta's Pavement-Dwellers

• Pavement-dwellers of Calcutta: a few significant figures from Sudhendu Mukherjee's report (1975)
• DOCUMENT: FIVE LIVES
• Bishu D.
• Kalipada M.
• Debala
• Harimati D.
• Mangal A.

Shibani Kinkar Chaube

A Comparative Analysis in Social Tension

• Calcutta—the violent city (?)
• A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH TO VIOLENCE, CRIME AND SOCIAL TENSIONS
• The meaning of violence
• The meaning of crime
• The social psychology of riot
• Indices of social tension
• A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF CRIME AND SOCIAL UNREST IN CALCUTTA AND FOUR OTHER INDIAN BIG CITIES
• Theft
• Robbery
• Murder
• Riot
• Crime and urban unrest
• Communalism
• Labour unrest and crime
• Crime in Calcutta
• Acknowledgements

Jean Racine

The Politicization of Social Tensions

Session II. B. A Metropolis in Crisis

Asok Mitra

• Why balanced Investments were not available in Calcutta?
• S. C. Chakraborty
• The poor and their economic activities
• Sudhendu Mukherjee
• What is the informal sector?
• M.G. Kutty
• Let us devote more attention to the complexity of Calcutta society
• Jean Racine
• Why those differences between Maharashtra and West Bengal?
• S. K. Bhattacharya
• Professor Chakraborty: (Intervention)
• Professor Bhattacharya: (continued)
• Pauperization and mobility of the commercial capital
• Nirmala Banerjee
• The causes of the industrial decline of Eastern India
• S.C. Chakraborty
• Investment and production relations
• S. K. Bhattacharya
• The gut problem of Calcutta is the economy
• Asok Mitra

Session III. A. Tackling the Crisis

S.K. Roy et Kalyan Roy

The CMDA's Involvement

• METROPOLITAN PLANNING EFFORTS
• THE SUCCESSIVE PROGRAMMES OF THE CALCUTTA METROPOLITAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
• Past Programme
• Present Programme
• Future Programme
• BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF CMDA PROGRAMMES
• Water supply
• Water supply position in 1982: increased supply, and a need for a more even distribution
• Sewerage and drainage
• Sewerage and drainage: the unsatisfactory position in 1982
• Garbage disposal and solid waste management
• Solid waste management in 1982: delayed projects
• Environmental hygiene
• Environmental hygiene. The position in 1982: some progress
• Traffic and transportation
• Traffic and transportation in 1982: good progress and many projects for the future
• New townships and area development
• New townships and area development in 1982: delayed schemes because of land acquisition problems
• Bustee (slum) improvement programme
• Bustee improvement in 1982: the programme almost completed
• Municipal and anchal development
• Municipal and anchal development in 1982: progressing disenclosement
• Small-scale enterprises programme
• Small-scale enterprises programme in 1982: much to be clone
• Special projects: schools, health centres, cattle and parks
• Primary schools
• Health facilities
• Cattle resettlement scheme
• Parks and playgrounds
• CONCLUDING REMARKS, 1979
• Concluding Remarks 1982: new intervention modalities

Jean Racine

The Magnitude of the Problem and the Development Policy

• Manicktala bustee: a case study
• The development policies
• Document: The impossible resettlement policy. A case-study of Chetla bustee
• Source: Calcutta slums: The problem and effort, CMDA, 1981
• The improvement policy
• The Thika Tenancy (Acquisition and Regulation) Act, 1981
• Source: Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority, 1983
• From physical improvements to socio-economic programmes

The Statesman

M.G. Kutty

• The Basic Development Plan and the economic programme: 1966-86
• Energy Problems
• Power programmes
• Utilization of power capacity
• The present industrial stagnation
• Industrial structure of Calcutta Metropolitan District
• Diversification of the industrial base
• Utilization of industrial capacity
• The port traffic: an economic indicator
• The industrial strategy for development
• State industrial policy
• Ancillary and small industries in CMD
• Institutional infrastructure
• Employment prospects
• Immigration and the regional dimension

The Statesman

Three Appraisals of Calcutta's Economic Problems

• Cup full of problems
• The Statesman, Editorial, 20 November 1981
• Jute in crisis
• The Statesman, Editorial, 27 April 1982
• The decline and fall of West Bengal's industry
• Amiya Gooptu

Bireswar Banerjee

Looking for a New Regional Balance

• THE METROPOLIS AND ITS BASIC PROBLEMS
• FOR A REGIONAL BALANCE : DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME AND NEW GROWTH CENTRES
• Haldia port and industrial complex
• Development of new growth centres
• Haldia
• Kharagpur
• Asansol-Durgapur
• Santaldih-Ramkenali
• Kalyani
• Farakka
• Siliguri
• Development of district towns
• Farakka barrage and Ganga link canal
• THE ELEMENTS OF AN ECONOMIC STRATEGY : MANPOWER, AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY
• Provision for better employment
• Comprehensive area development
• Development of industries
• The growth of basic services
• PROSPECTS

Session III. B. Tackling the Crisis

Barun De

• The right questions
• S.K. Bhattacharya
• This is not the way we want to start town planning
• Ninnala Banerjee
• Power crisis, industrial crisis, urban crisis: this is the quality of life
• Asok Mitra
• Where do you fit the Calcutta man in all those schemes?
• Gaston Roberge
• A regional development plan for all Eastern India is essential
• S.K.Munsi
• "1961: Calcutta is going to the Communists" or the origins of the urban planning in the metropolis
• Sudhendu Mukherjee
• We are not putting enough emphasis on e manpower resources
• Bireswar Banerjee
• We have nothing to be ashamed of what we have done
• S.C.Basu
• No plan is immutable
• M.G.Kutty
• Taxes and metropolitan development
• Inter-urban migration and the need for rural development
• No plan is immutable
• Do we want a Yankee Dick type future?
• Barun De

The Statesman et Unnayan

A Case Study of Rickshaws and Rickshawallahs of Calcutta

• NABUD ALI, RICKSHAWALLAH
• The Statesman
• RICKSHAWS AND RICKSHAWALLAHS OF CALCUTTA
• Jean Racine from an "Unnayan" appraisal
• The problem of unlicensed rickshaws: a question of traffic, or a question of planning?

Session IV. General Debate

Bhabatosh Dutta

• What is this crisis we are speaking of?
• The question of investment
• What development, what products, what entrepreneurs, what technology?
• Whom are we planning for?
• At which rate are we trying to solve the shelter problem?
• We are trying to develop Calcutta at the cost of the hinterland
• The poor and the middle class: a social geography on the move
• A few hypotheses on the non-economic causes of the urban crisis: Calcutta, nobody's city
• The dilemma of planning: planning for the city, or planning for the poor?
• A few hypotheses
• To raise consciousness on the problems
• Bhabatosh Dutta

Jean Racine

A Few Remarks

• Inertia?
• Scarce resources
• The political tangle: a nominated or an elected executive?
• The Lord Mayor’s show
• The day for a trank talk with you
• The Corporation of Calcutta

Durga Das Basu

• A paper not presented, not presentable

Bibliographies, Filmography

Jean Racine

Subha Dasgupta

A Tentative Cheklist

Barun Ray