Kolkata/Calcutta

Some may ponder the relevance of an entry on “Kolkata” in a bibliography on Hinduism. By official accounts, this is not a Hindu city. Nor is it a city with ties to a Hindu kingdom. It is instead a modern city made famous for being the first capital of the British Empire in India. Kolkata is, however, the largest city in the region of Bengal that is home to long-standing and distinctive Hindu traditions. Hindus furthermore make up about 75 percent of the city’s population. As such, Kolkata is home to some of the most well-known and well-frequented temples in the region and also hosts some of the most elaborate celebrations of Bengali Hindu festivals. As a major metropolis, it is also home to vibrant non-Bengali Hindu traditions. Hindus in Kolkata furthermore live alongside a very large Muslim minority as well as smaller religious and ethnic minority communities—leading at times to catholic and hybrid manifestations of Hinduism, and at other times to more defensive ones. Another reason Kolkata is an important site for the study of Hinduism is that it was the center of major Hindu reform and revival movements in the 19th century that went on to shape nationalist movements across India, and continue to influence the way Hinduism is understood around the world today. The first half of this bibliography addresses Hindu sites, practices, and communities in the city, while the second half focuses on major Hindu debates, movements, and leaders that emerged in the city during the colonial era. A short note on scope: This is a bibliography on Kolkata, and yet—much like the category “Hinduism” itself—this is not a bounded entity that lends itself to easy demarcation. It refers to a territory that originally included only three villages on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River: Sutāṇuṭi, Kalikātā, and Govindapur. Yet the Kolkata metropolitan area today includes over 700 square miles of territory that includes towns as far north as Barrackpore, as far south as Joka, and that extends eastward to new developments such as Salt Lake and New Town. This bibliography takes the term “Kolkata” (and “Calcutta” when referring to the city prior to its official name change in 2001) quite liberally. It includes studies dealing with sites close to the city as well as those that hearken to the city as their major locus of authority.