There is another Kolkata within the Kolkata we know — one where tap water can disappear for months, power lines can be disconnected, and an MLA can use his power to tell residents they will get neither public services nor official help. Their offence? They belong to a religious minority. A Sawaal reporter travelled to this “other Kolkata”. This is the story of Jyotinagar.
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On paper, removing one hawker is an administrative decision. In life, it affects many people. That is why eviction is often not a solution to a problem. It is a relocation of the problem. The city therefore has to learn not only from planners, but from the people who live in it. Because a city is not only bricks, concrete, roads and titles to land. A city is a name for relationships between people.
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This city is made as much by its pavements, open grounds, bustees, settlements beside railway lines, temporary markets, tea stalls, rickshaws, handcarts and the livelihoods of ordinary people as it is by its planned roads, flyovers, markets, houses, offices, parks, train routes and government buildings. What we so easily call ‘unruly’ or ‘messy’ has a deep social logic of its own. The market, in other words, was also a social institution.
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