Sleeping factories, jamborees in city malls, abridged flyovers and the speed of mal-development in Kolkata

Abstract

This paper presents the multiplicity of a south-Asian city namely Kolkata, East India, and examines the conflicting nature of (mal)-development in a post-colonial city. It closely reads the ways in which disparate ‘sub-cities’ coexist and persist. First, it hopes to fill the gaps within the studies of urban cultures and Kolkata. Secondly, it addresses the city’s development over the years and its transformations especially during the current period. By using the shifts as a backdrop, this paper particularly deliberates upon the drives towards economic liberalization and evolving global cultures, and the emergence of city-malls on defunct factory premises. Thus, it analyses a unique contemporary phenomenon that is the growth of the South-City mall and Housing Complex as an economic, cultural, and visual rupture within our post-colonial experiences. In conclusion, it brings out the volatile relations between the city-mall and its adjacent slum areas.