Calcutta (now Kolkata in its decolonised form) is a city of migrants. The urban expansion of Calcutta is inextricably linked with British commercial activities and population movements associated with them. As a hub of colonial trade and commerce and the erstwhile capital of the British Empire, it has received waves upon waves of migration at different points of time. People from various countries and occupations of varied descents came to the city with their specific cultures, knowledge practices and distinctive ways of their life. In the process, the city has acquired a sizable cosmopolitan migrant population including the Jews, Armenians, Parsees, Afghan and Chinese who arrived throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. They gradually have adapted well to the city and carved out space for themselves in physical, economic and cultural senses. A significant number of Armenians came as refugees on Indian shore before the British. They established themselves as a prominent business community in Calcutta that ran coal mines, indigo and shellac business and built some of the city’s famous landmarks including Stephen Court on Park Street and the iconic Grand Hotel at Esplanade. Some Afghans or ‘Kabuliwalahs’ came to Calcutta from Afghanistan to escape the conflict in their homeland. They have traditionally worked as moneylenders. Chinese migration which started from the 19th century and earlier, became synonymous with leather (tannery) ceramic, catering and personal care industries and appropriated a distinct space for themselves which in Calcutta’s Chinatowns located at Tiretta bazaar and Tyangra in the east. Existence of the large immigrant trading communities of diverse origin in the central part of the city in the so-called ‘cosmopolitan’ or ‘brown’ town, located in between the traditional native or ‘black’ in the north and the European ‘white’ town towards the south have lent the urban morphology of Calcutta its distinct characteristics.

Migration in Calcutta increased from the late colonial period. The growth of the jute industries in the surrounding areas of the city brought a huge number of labour migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The labours came from the erstwhile Bhojpur region of the states and gradually became one of the inevitable parts of the city. A section of labouring people came from Orissa who migrated to the city as the carriers of a palanquin (a typical transport carried by men), cart drivers and cooks. The clay modellers migrated to this city in the late eighteenth century and established their colony (Kumortuli) at the northern part of the city. A colony of the migrated milkmen from Bengal, Bihar and Orissa came to the city and established their colony (Ahiritola). A large section of labour migrants living in the slum areas were working in the rich households of the city. The oil merchants from Orissa also made their colony (Kolutola) in the nearby areas of the city.

The nature of the migration changed with time. H. Beverley, the census commissioner in 1881, pointed out the changes. The first was the emergence of cotton and jute mills. The increasing dependence of the city’s economy to the traders also became a reason behind the rise in the city’s migrant population. As a result, the population increased up to 59 per cent from 1876 to 1881. The census report of 1891 showed a huge increase of migrant labourers in the slums of Shovabazar, Bagbazar, Entally and Garden Reach. The census figures of 1901 evince the transformation in the population density of the city. The census report indicated that the houses were overcrowded and the slum areas were congested. The rate of increase was the highest in the northern part of the city than the southern. Most of the increase happened in the Bagbazar, Kumartuli and Chitpur Road areas. The census of 1911 showed a major shift of Calcutta’s commerce and business economy from the Armenians to the Marwari community. The Marwaris migrated from Rajasthan to the then capital of the Indian subcontinent and established their business at the Burrabazar area of the city. On the other hand, the slum areas of Kolutola, Muchipara, Watgunj and Burrabazar became densely populated by the migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Increase in the number of migrants also put pressure on the slum areas. According to the 1911 census, almost two-fifths of the inhabitants of the city came from outside of Bengal. The annual report of the Calcutta Corporation (Later Calcutta Municipal Corporation) showed that at least 88000 persons were living in the 197 registered slum areas in 1933. That shows the increase in the number of labour migrants in the 1930s. The 1931 census admitted this fact. According to the report, the number of migrants increased up to 82 per cent in 1901. Most of the migrants were living in the slums.

The entire situation changed during independence. Indian independence also caused two unavoidable incidents that created an impact on the demographic feature of the city. The riots (popularly known as great Calcutta killing) in August 1946 and the partition in 1947 not only caused the influx of migrants from the eastern part of the then undivided Bengal but also divided the city into communal lines. Different places of the city marked as an area of a particular community.

The refugees from East Pakistan (later became an independent state Bangladesh) established several colonies and settlements in the southern part of the city. The census report of 1951 referred to the refugees containing at least 27 per cent of the total population of Calcutta. The influx of refugees caused an extension of the city towards the south. Thus several colonies at Jadavpur, Bijoygarh, Ramgarh and Bikramgarh emerged to shelter the refugees. Calcutta became a city of refugees and migrants. The refugees of the post-partition Calcutta were a back-bone of different socio-political movements that gave this city a new dimension in the political scenario. The food movements in 1959 and 1966, the ultra-leftist revolution (popularly known as Naxalite movement), several civil and human rights movements in the 1960s and 70s witnessed participation of the migrants and refugees in considerable numbers.

The city came under various projects of neoliberal restructuring from the late 1980s generating its own internally displaced groups (IDPs) pushed out first from their settlements and then from the city to the countryside surrounding it. The city skyline is thus constantly pushed with disastrous effects on its environment and ecology. Calcutta’s wetlands in the east have been particularly volatile as it came under processes of unequal and exclusive urban expansion. These parts have seen spates of displacement and mushroom growth of unplanned shanties and slums inhabited mostly by the IDPs.

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unavoidable situation which caused massive unemployment among the labouring communities of the city. The daily wage workers of Burrabazar, hawkers in Hatibagan and Dharmatolla, domestic workers, sex workers and various others lost their job. Almost all of them were dependent on the relief given by the different government and private agencies. A newspaper report said that the rate of unemployment in West Bengal increased from 6.9 per cent in March to 17.3 per cent in June. A large number of them are marginal workers who migrated to this city in search of jobs. (https://www.deccanherald.com/business/economy-business/coronavirus-lockdown-unemployment-rate-in-west-bengal-lower-than-india-says-cmie-data-846071.html) The economists predicted more job losses in coming months because of an estimated increase in the number of patients affected by COVID-19 after the festival month.

Due to the pandemic situation, Calcutta Research Group has been compelled to redesign the field trip. The field trip will turn to a bus trip which will show the selected areas of this city which has reflected its migrant character. Participants will board on the bus from the workshop venue for a 3hours long bus trip to several crucial points of the city.

The areas that have decided for the field visit are:

1. East Calcutta Wetlands: The East Calcutta Wetlands, are a complex of natural and human-made wetlands lying east of the city of Calcutta (Kolkata), of West Bengal in India. The wetlands cover 125 square kilometres and include salt marshes, as well as agricultural fields, sewage farms and settling ponds. The wetlands are also used to treat Kolkata’s sewage, and the nutrients contained in the wastewater sustain fish farms and agriculture. Apart from its environmental importance to maintain the ecological balance of the city, lots of people were also dependent on this area. Therefore, it became a major issue of conflict when the government of West Bengal decided to sell 227acres of this wetland for commercial purposes. Several legal fights had been conducted in the Calcutta High Court and Supreme Court as well as Environment Tribunals to secure the ecological balance of this city and livelihoods of various people. To know more about the wetlands please CLICK HERE.

2. Bantala Leather Complex: Kolkata’s tanneries, numbering 500, were situated mainly in Tangra, Tiljala and Topsia areas of the city. These areas, which were once on the outskirts of Kolkata, in the course of time, with the rapid expansion of the city, found themselves in densely populated areas. As a result, the tanneries in these areas could neither expand, modernise, nor implement an effective solid and water waste management system. This caused serious problems for the tanneries as well as for the people living in these neighbourhoods. To tackle this problem, in 1992, the Govt of West Bengal took the decision to relocate all tanneries in the city to a new complex. This complex would be built with modern technology and would be equipped with a CETP (Common Effluent Treatment Plant) which would manage and treat the water and solid waste released by the tanneries. To know more about the Bantala leather complex please CLICK HERE.

3. Kidderpore Dock area: One of the oldest areas of the city was well known about one of the oldest migrant settlements in the city. Once popularly known as the old colony of Hindu zamindars, Khidderpore became a shelter of the Muslim migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other parts of undivided. A large section of migrants are the labours working in the dock areas. Khidderpore was also famous for different kinds of electrical goods and Mughal Indian cuisine. Most plausibly, the name is a corruption of Khidrpur or Khizarpur, Khizr/Khidr being the guardian saint of the seas to the fishing communities of Bengal. Another theory points out that the port probably got its name from James Kyd, a 19th-century engineer who designed and supervised the building of the lock gate that connects the nearby port to the Hooghly River. To know more about Khidderpore please CLICK HERE.

The trip will be coordinated by Samata Biswas, Sabir Ahmed – both senior members of Calcutta Research Group and Rajat Kanti Sur, Research Fellow, Calcutta Research Group. They will brief the participants on the eve of the departure for the field trip. The participants are requested to follow the coordinators and not to ask private and invasive questions to the locals and not to take photographs of the locality and its inhabitants without due permission.