Calcutta: A Study in Urban Growth Dynamics (An Old and Rare Book)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The city of Calcutta has not lacked attention from scientists of divers disciplines. It can claim much literature devoted to its growth, structure, organic function and chiefly its relationship to the State to which it belongs in the wider frame of the eastern region and the economic life of India. It has proved an inexhaustible source of curiosity, particularly to sociologists. Since 1950, it has won the loyalty of a new sect demographers, although even for them the still must authoritative and in some ways authentic book was written by A. Κ. Roy as far back as 1903 under the inspiration of H. H. Risley: and to A. K. Roy must all demographers turn for guidance, interpretation and authentic information even today. This was the era of the first generation of Indian sociologists and anthropologists, then concentrated mostly in the eastern part of India, who brought a great deal of insight and interpretative skill to whatever they assembled and analysed; for the companion volumes on Bombay and Madras cities written the same year as A. K. Roy's under the aegis of 1901 Census were com paratively wanting in evocativeness and illumination.

2. We saw new path breaking work in Dr. S. N. Sen's work on Calcutta in the year 1960. The value of this book is hard to overestimate, for one suspects that this, along with some of the investigations that were conducted by the West Bengal State Statistical Bureau on Living Conditions in Calcutta early in the 1950s, must have deeply disturbed those who were in charge of the destinies of the State into establishing the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation. The 1951 Census of Calcutta for the first time made available a large volume of uniform information for the lowest census tract of the city, in Census jargon, the enumerators' block. After the main Census of 1951 was over, the Census office of West Bengal went into more detailed tabulation of the economic characteristics of the population of the Calcutta industrial region, cross classified by a variety of social and cultural variables. These tabulations facilitated a deeper understanding of the demographic situation of the Calcutta industrial region.

We remain in gratitude to different persons who aided us in their distinguished capacities. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the co-operation of Mrs. Roma Ray and Mrs. Manjushree Datta in preparing tables and maps for our books. Other kinds of material help and advise have been offered by Shri Phanibhusan Majumdar, Shri Ajit Halder, Shri Bidhu Bhusan Das, Shri Sankar Bhadury of National Library and Shri Delia Mitra, Assistant Librarian, National Library.

We gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to Shri Amar Nath Datta and Shri C. R. Banerjee, Chief Librarian, Central Reference Library for their personal attention and valuable suggestions we receive in preparing the manuscript and to Sri Jyotsna Singha Roy for his personal care, assistance and guidance to our effort.

Last of all we feel deep gratitude being favoured with the crudite preface written by Sri Asok Mitra, LC.S., Secretary. Planning Commission, Government of India. We are extremely obliged for his kindness rendered to us inspite of his excessive pre-occupations with official affairs.

Inspite of our best effort and outside help we could not avoid the errors in the book for our own fault.