ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with the historical and cultural past of the second-hand book market through the lens of the personal and the political. The chapter begins by describing the known historical origins of the space and the development of the area as the primary educational, political and cultural precinct of Calcutta, using glimpses of political movements and events that the city and the nation witnessed. The chapter braids in autoethnographic self-reflections with fieldwork data. It chapter explores how research methods, including semi-structured interviews, photo-elicitation, observational research and autoethnography, experience tensions when used simultaneously in the field. I focus on usefulness of implementing multiple forms of research methodologies and contextualise this strategy by introducing non-representational theory within heritage research in reference to the overall goals of the project. The chapter serves to demonstrate the ways in which memories of city spaces, their regular users and their active and passive engagement with the space both personally and politically are in a continuous conversation with the present.
