Calcutta: the Stormy Decades

"Politics and culture are organically related in the city of Calcutta. The period (1940s to 1950s), was chaotic and turbulent, yet, this was also a time of significant creativity in literature, art, films and music in the city. This is an unusual feature of any city but is interestingly characteristic of Calcutta. The originality of the work lies in blending poetry with historical writing, retaining the essence of both forms against the backdrop of the tumultuous events of the critical decades, as against the entire historical period of a city. This historical method together with twenty-one papers give the readifer a sense of the pulse of this complex city 'emerging creatively and chaotically from its colonial past'."--Provided by publisher.

Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Contributors; 1. Introduction: Calcutta in History and Historiography; Ordering the Urban Space; 2. The Flute (1932); 3. Calcutta on the Threshold of the 1940s; 4. A City in Mourning: 7 August 1941; War, Famine and Unrest; 5. The Elusive Chase: 'War Rumour' in Calcutta during the Second World War; 6. Japan Attacks; 7. When Mill Sirens Rang out Danger: The Calcutta Jute Mill Belt in the Second World War; 8. Protest and Politics: Story of Calcutta Tram Workers 1940-47.

9. Emergence of Mahila Atma Raksha Samiti in the Forties-Calcutta Chapter10. Famine, Food and the Politics of Survival in Calcutta: 1943-50; Communal Relations: Solidarities and Violence; 11. On a Birthday (1946); 12. A Different Calcutta: INA Trials and Hindu-Muslim Solidarity in 1945 and 1946; 13. The Role of Colonial Administration, 'Riot Systems' and Local Networks during the Calcutta Disturbances of August 1946; 14. A City Feeding on Itself: Riots, Testimonies and Literatures of the 1940s in Calcutta; 15. Calcutta and its Struggle for Peace: Anti-Communal Resistance, 1946-47.

Postcolonial Transition16. Calcutta, a Ci…