Intro with USIEF staff: Shevanti Narayan and Vinita Tripathi, Parvithra is from Kolkata but works in Delhi. Looks like we'll be relying on her big time.
Niladri Chatterjee as tour guide. He's an asst. prof. of English at Univ. or Kalyani (West Bengal). I'm scanning his bio now and man, he's published a lot of scholarly work, especially in gender (esp. masculinity) studies. He's a former Fulbright scholar and an expert on Kolkata, it looks like we'll learn a lot from him.
Our hotel is really centrally located, with markets all over and a metro stop one block away. Notes from his Powerpoint:
- Kumathuli: potters area, founded about 200 years ago as northern clay workers migrated south, settling where the clay suited their artistic/vocational needs. They make idols.
- Reminder: Ganesh is remover of obstacles. Begin all worship, undertakings with prayers/tribute to Ganesh. He's mischievous, so it behooves the supplicant to pay tribute to him first (to facilitate smooth progress in other pursuits).
- Durga Pooja, traced back centuries, but has been major festival only since 1757. Mother Goddess...but modern form is martial, 10-armed demon-slayer (!!)
Bengalis are "not very martial", not many in army. "What we really enjoy is sitting around and talking...and talking...and talking". Enjoy chatting so much there is a special word for it: adda, a free-wheeling chat. Can get heated, Bengalis especially enjoy politics. Says they love their mothers, a little too much. The question is, how to turn Durga into a docile mother? Best answer: get her married, ergo she'll be "tamed". So they got her married to Shiva, but then she needs to have children to be really tied to home. So Bengali Durga is unique. She has 4 children. Iconography varies by region, Bengali Durga is the only domestic one.
British control of Bengal begins in 1757 as well. First large-scale organization of Durga Pooja was is 1606. Strangely, this has a lot to do with money, business. British wanted more and more inroads into Bengali economy, and vice-versa. So Bengalis "wooed" British business interests via Durga Pooja for 4 days and nights, a "huge exhibition of consumption". Strategic message in this sales pitch: do business with us, we are rich, we will not fail you commercially. So Durga Pooja today still has commercial element, but it is also a festival wherein artists showcase their work. So Sept./Oct. for 4 days Kolkata turns into "a massive art gallery" with street illumination, makeshift temples, floats, etc. Very elaborate. His slides show the astonishing amount of creative industry in Durga art, celebrations. Like art festivals at home, just on steroids. The artists don't advertise their names; it's all publicly spirited, funded by patrons. Pieces of some structures are reused at next major festival, Kali Pooja, and others throughout Bengal. Says people are beginning to archive these because heretofore there are no records, now some museums are recording these artistic triumphs, constructed with plaster of Paris, jute, thermo(_____?) and other materials.
Bengalis draw inspiration from many cultures, appropriate ideas from other places into their art. Cites "astonishing and mind-boggling amount of architectural styles" you find in Bengal. Says they're very "promiscuous" with their architecture.
- Greek temple front was used by British a lot, becomes symbolic of power and control, acquires cultural and political significance, and in turn influenced the powerful and wealthy Bengali families who built their own villas with Greek temple fronts.
- St. John's church dates back to early 18th century, gives space for mausoleum of Job Charnock who was responsible for East India Company setting up house here in 1650s. Makes the point that many English adopted Bengali life/lifestyle in 17th/18th centuries.
- Kali temple, from 16th century...cite of some intercommunal moments of significance. Hindu-Muslim riots in 1926 and 1940s. Story about how Muslims protected Kali temple from violence of other Muslims during religious riots.
- Showed Esplanade Mansions, the only art nouveau building in all of India. Built by a Jewish man in 1910. Used to be a sizable (20-25K) Jewish population in Kolkata, but many left at creation of Israel. Nahoum's Confectionery remains, and supplies the cakes for Christmas. "right there in New Market". Portuguese church is one of few Catholic churches in the city.
- Some Kali festivals are reminiscent of Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. Gross explanation of Kali's disturbing accessories: dangling dead babies as earrings on Kali icon: this is a divine body. The parts of the body have tremendous significance. You can decorate the garland, the skirt with demon heads and hands. But to decorate the head, you need the purest forms of dead, so dead babies are purest kind of corpse, so those are the closest to the divine.
- St. Andrew's, only Scottish church here. Gothic church is St. Paul's Cathedral, main Church of England here, inaugurated 100 years before Indian independence. Houses Edward Burn Jones stained glass window, one of the most famous Victorian artists.
Kolkata doesn't have a main street, but if there were one, it would be Bidan Serani (formerly Cornwallis St.) divides north from south. Narrow, prestigious, first properly built British street in the city. Those with any money built their houses there (like 5th Ave.)
British imposed concepts of "proper" bodily regard, e.g. cover bodies of gods/goddesses. Bengalis now have "cultural amnesia", thanks to the legacy of education and enlightenment from the British.
Says South has escaped the British influence in this regard to a very large extent.
Goddess of learning: Saraswathi, very white. As a color and for Hindus, it is a marker of intelligence, purity and most important, renunciation. If you pray to her, you cannot pray for wealth also.
Current CM of Bengal is a woman (not sure who?)
Two major religions of Bengal: Hindu and Islam, but they celebrate Christmas. They decorate trees with cotton wool to simulate snow. Some streets are lit with colored lights.
Notes on Kolkata's history: items that jumped out at me
- 1535: Portuguese traders come to Bengal from Goa. It had been under Moghul rule. Dutch arrive in 1636.
- 1651: British set up first commercial venture, a factory at Hugli
- November 1698: British man Charles Eyre buys the zamindari of Calcutta from Sabarna Ray Chaudhuri for 1,300 rupees. East India Co. paid rent to Moghul Emperor until 1757, when Robert Clive took the city from Moghul control. Two years later, (treasonous) Mir Jafar gives land to Clive as his Jagir.
- 1721: cricket arrives in India; Calcutta Cricket Club formed in 1792.
- 1899: Electricity arrives. College Street becomes the "book district" of the city.
- 1900: Chinese brought rickshaw to Calcutta, only form of transport that was reliable during the monsoon.
- 1902: trams electrified.
- 1911: Capital of India shifts from Calcutta to Delhi
- 1930: first runway at Calcutta airport
- 1984: Metro opens
- 1999: India's first Pride parade held in Calcutta
Communist rule lasted long time here, rule ended in 2011. They have a strong influence on Bengal culture. They also got tossed out by voters because of the stranglehold of corruption the party imposed. College admissions, job postings, and other officially-set pathways became closed to non-party members. And though I lost some of the thread of the story here, I recall that the Communists sought to develop the region's economy in part through aggressive privatization schemes: think government strong-arming, appropriation of lands cultivated by farmers, several of whom were killed in subsequent anti-government protests. Due to the nature of the architecture-themed, large-group walk-and-talk, I didn't have the chance to follow up with clarifying questions about this. But I found it interesting that the Communists were a long-time power here so recently.
I hung out in bed at the hotel after a magnificent lunch. I'd like to take and post photos but it seems too bacchanalian. It had started raining, then pouring, as we ended our architecture walk. The rain continued all afternoon. I wanted to go see the movie about the Sikh runner, but they were sold out. So I hung out and recharged my batteries. The Oberoi is a great place to do that.
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