The period after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 saw the gradual expansion and consolidation of the English East India Company’s grip on the province of Bengal. However, while the pivotal battle yielded an easy victory for the Company, the task that followed—the imposition of municipal, fiscal and mercantile order on the region—presented numerous unforeseen challenges. And at the centre of this project was the fledgling town of Calcutta, destined to become the second city of the British Empire.

In this volume, historian Kaustubh Mani Sengupta lays out in detail the complex negotiations that played out behind the scenes during this formative phase in the establishment of the Company’s presence in Bengal. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, the book reconstructs the planning and execution of key infrastructural, economic and civic projects, including the construction of Fort William and the city’s dockyards and canals, as well as colonial efforts to regularise bazaars and bring Bengal under a standardised legal framework. In his study of the interaction between political power, social power and mercantile power in shaping the space of the early colonial port-city, Sengupta vividly portrays the confusion and tumult that characterised these processes, and also the factors that influenced colonial decision-making, ranging from trends in European military architecture to the mobility patterns of Bengal’s labourers.

Carving Calcutta offers fascinating insights into the evolution of the East India Company’s understanding and priorities as it shaped Calcutta into a military stronghold, an administrative centre and an urban space distinct from the rest of the province. It will be valuable to scholars of colonial and urban history, urban planners, as well as those with an interest in the history of military architecture and civic development.