The great houses of Kolkata 1750- 2006

Abstract

British colonial rule in India provided opportunities for certain indigenous groups to profit in both wealth and status. With the rise of the East India Company in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) during the eighteenth century, the mainly Hindu merchant class embraced British rule in many ways, a significant and lasting one is the architecture of their residential mansions and palaces, known as the Great Houses. This study traces the architectural history of these buildings through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and examines the style that developed as a consequence.

The main objectives of the thesis are to demonstrate that:

1. The architecture and style of the Great Houses of Kolkata’s indigenous elites were inspired by their colonial experience. 2. Despite the British architectural models available during the colonial period, the Great Houses feature hybrid designs and eclectic architectural forms. The thesis examines the meaning behind this anomaly. 3. The Great Houses embody a particular time and place in the history of Kolkata and are unique. They are part of Kolkata’s heritage. 4. In spite of the influence of British colonial rule, traditional Hindu ways of life continued unabated in the private domains of the Great Houses. 5. Their rise and decline parallels the socio-economic and political history of Kolkata.

The thesis approaches the complex reasons behind the transition and decline of the Great Houses by examining the history and architecture of these buildings in a chronologically linear order, beginning in 1757 with the Battle of Plassey, the political changes of the nineteenth century, and the subsequent relative decline of the importance of Bengal in the twentieth century to focus on the relevance of the Great Houses in the twenty first century.

The research has been undertaken on a number of levels. Primary and secondary sources have been used, both colonial and post Independence, in India and Australia. These methods have been supplemented by archival material including drawings of plans, by interviews with descendents of the Great Families, historians and architects in Kolkata and by an extensive photographic documentation of the houses as they are today.