Abstract
This chapter explores the transformation of criminality through an examination of changes in the Calcutta (now Kolkata) underworld over the last three centuries. It traces the rise of new types of crime perpetrated by both the first generation of rural migrants and the next generation of urban citizens in the course of Calcutta’s development as a metropolis during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It then analyses the underworld’s gradual upward mobility and its assimilation by sections of the Bengali upper class sociopolitical circles in the present phase of the city’s transition into a globalised megalopolis.
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In January 2001, Calcutta was officially renamed as Kolkata, but the city is still widely recognised as Calcutta.
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© 2017 Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla
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Banerjee, S. (2017). Crime in Calcutta: From Childhood in a Colonial Metropolis to Adulthood in a Globalised Megalopolis. In: Jayaram, N. (eds) Social Dynamics of the Urban. Exploring Urban Change in South Asia. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3741-9_6
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