The mercantile activity in colonial India made Calcutta a magnet for migrants. Yet the state did little to accommodate a population that was vital to the city's growth and dynamism. However, the anxiety to regulate growing numbers often translated into violent policies of demolition and displacement in Calcutta. This study tries to account for this policy, and its social and other costs to the citizens of the city. It tries to unravel the ideology underpinning town planning as well as the ambiguous response to it from both the state and the Indian elite. It suggests that control and regulation of land was vital to governance in Calcutta, and this was translated as state policy through town planning.

Showcasing that town planning can also be studied in terms of imperial ideology, the study follows a new and fresh approach to the subject and draws upon a variety of archival sources, hitherto not used by historians of Calcutta.

Partho Datta teaches history at Zabir Husain College, University of Delhi, Delhi.