ABSTRACT
The Introduction is an overview of the colonial origin of Calcutta. There is a theory often based on conjecture that Calcutta was pre-colonial and it was in the process of a take-off when the British grabbed the place and converted it into their base. This theory was OK only as a nationalist concoction and certainly not as a piece of knowledge supported by evidence. Calcutta has no specific date of foundation and no founding father, but Calcutta had a process of urbanization which was a colonial phenomenon. But that urbanization was slowed down because the political will was not there almost throughout the course of the eighteenth century. It also lacked finance. Situations were retrieved when money for urban development became available through lottery from 1793 and when Lord Wellesley’s Minute of 1803 gave clear directions for urban improvement. Spurred by geopolitics Calcutta’s urbanization took its forms. Two things marked its growth in the eighteenth century. One was the use of bricks, which started replacing thatch and mud along with wooden and bamboo structures that were susceptible to fire. The population surge in Calcutta because of Maratha invasions was the second major factor that gave the city a real boost.
