Spatial Transformation and its Contestations, CaseDumdum, Kolkata

Abstract

The uniqueness of a particular society is its man-made built environments. Only through a thorough understanding of the society‟s culture, beliefs, social and institutional organization, the built environment can be properly understood. In India during the industrial phase of colonial urbanisation, the urban form established a new pattern in urban development. The pattern was followed on by the new inhabitants after the independence. The case study area is one such example of the new urban pattern from the British ruled colonial society of Dumdum. From serving as Lord Clive‟s head quarter of Bengal Artillery Regiment to an industrial town, Dumdum played a very significant role in the history of Bengal. The advantage of this colonial society as a locus of research is because of its spatial distribution according to its multiple form of migration. The fundamental contestations on how social and cultural factors along with the impact of ethnicity, migration of population and other development pressures had its influence on the growth of Dumdum is being analysed in this thesis. The study also suggests strategies for enriching the historical value of the city as solutions to the existing contestations solutions to the existing contestations