India Calcutta Kolkata Elites Estates History Maps Statistics 1st Ed 1978 Urban

by Pradip Sinha

$61 · Offered by eBay · No longer available

First edition

.no-subscribe { display: none} [contenteditable] { pointer-events: none; } Calcutta in Urban History by Pradip Sinha Published by Firma KLM Private Limited, Calcutta, 1978. First Edition. Very good hardcover, in good dustjacket. Tight binding, small tear to front hinge, solid spine, clean unmarked text. Light edgewear & tears to dj repaired with archival tape. 8vo, illustrated, index, 268 pages. Offers a scholarly examination of the city’s development from its colonial origins to the early 20th century. Sinha, a prominent historian of Bengal, released this 268-page first edition during a period of growing academic interest in Indian urban history. The book captures the city at a time when it was grappling with economic decline under the Left Front government, which had taken power in 1977, and the lingering effects of partition and deindustrialization. Sinha traces the city’s growth from its 1690 founding by Job Charnock, through its 18th-century consolidation under the East India Company, to its 19th-century peak as the second city of the British Empire, focusing on social structures, economic shifts, and spatial organization in areas like Burrabazar and Sobhabazar. Sinha examines Calcutta’s dual identity: the “White Town” of European elites versus the “Native Town” of Bengali inhabitants, a divide rooted in colonial urban planning. He highlights the role of Bengali compradors-turned-rentiers—like Sobharam Basak, who owned 37 houses by the mid-18th century—whose investments

• Publisher: Firma KLM Private Limited
• Year: 1978
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

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