ABSTRACT
From around the middle of the nineteenth century, British and Indian administrators sought to transform the port of Calcutta. The increase in steamer traffic in the Indian Ocean following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 made these changes critical. British and Indian administrators invested heavily in improving the port's infrastructure. In addition, the administrators of the Calcutta port instituted bureaucratic changes designed to bring the port under the authority of a single administrative unit. These changes led to the creation of the Calcutta Port Trust in 1870. From the 1870s, the Calcutta Port Trust administrators also instituted a medical service that supervised the health and medical conditions of the labor force. At one particular historical moment, the port labor force played a significant part in determining the shape and direction of the port's transformative process.
