A city is more than its buildings and streets. A city is the people who live, work, and play in it and make it their own. This book brings together original essays and interviews which trace the history of the peoples in the city of Calcutta. Those who came and stayed; why they did so; and how they contributed in building the city. Once celebrated as the second city of the British Empire after London and more recently derided as the dying city, Calcutta is simultaneously associated with intellectual creativity, processions and palaces and a unique way of claiming the outsider as its own. This collection brings together the stories of the Armenians, Chinese, Sikhs, ‘South Indians’, Bohra Muslims and other communities who have come and created this wondrous mosaic, the city of Calcutta.

Himadri Banerjee is the Guru Nanak Professor of History at Jadavpur University, India. Nilanjana Gupta is Professor of English and the Director of the School of Media, Communication and Culture at Jadavpur University, India. Sipra Mukherjee is Reader in English at Bhairab Ganguly College, India.

Anthem South Asian Studies

Acknowledgements; List of Contributors; Introduction  1. Mapping the Spaces of Minorities: Calcutta through the Last Century; 2. The Armenians of Calcutta; 3. The Jews of Calcutta: An Interview of Michael Ezra; 4. The City of Colleges: The Bengali Muslim in Colonial Calcutta; 5. The Sindhis of Calcutta; 6. The Chinese Community of Calcutta: An Interview of Paul Chung; 7. The Anglo-Indians of Calcutta: An Interview of Rudolph L Rodrigues; 8. The Biharis of Calcutta: An Interview of Sachchidand and Indu Rai; 9. Agraharis of Calcutta: A Minority Group within a Larger Minority Community; 10. A Journey into My Neighbourhood: The Bohra Community of Calcutta