'Modern day Kolkata and mimicry of England': revisiting colonial nostalgia.
This paper explores the phenomenon of colonial nostalgia among middle-class and lower-middle-class residents in Kolkata and its surrounding suburbs – groups often overlooked in dominant discussions of postcolonial memory and urban identity. While nostalgia for the British Raj is typically associated...
| Publicado en: | Social Identities Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 808 - 825 |
|---|---|
| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Nov2025
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=189213577&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 189213577 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 13504630 SEN jtl: Social Identities issn: 13504630 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Nov2025 vid: 31 iid: 6 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 189213577 10.1080/13504630.2025.2524167 ppf: 808 ppct: 17 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 828KB tig: atl: 'Modern day Kolkata and mimicry of England': revisiting colonial nostalgia. aug: au: Bandyopadhyay, Ranjan Ray, Avishek affil: Institute for Social and Economic Research, Duy Tan University, Da Nang, Viet Nam National Institute of Technology Silchar, Silchar, India su: Kolkata (India) Social classes Postcolonialism British occupation of India, 1765-1947 Nostalgia sug: subj: Social classes Postcolonialism Kolkata (India) British occupation of India, 1765-1947 Nostalgia keyword: British Raj Colonial nostalgia hybridity Kolkata middle-class and lower-middle-class Indians mimicry British Raj Colonial nostalgia hybridity Kolkata middle-class and lower-middle-class Indians mimicry ab: This paper explores the phenomenon of colonial nostalgia among middle-class and lower-middle-class residents in Kolkata and its surrounding suburbs – groups often overlooked in dominant discussions of postcolonial memory and urban identity. While nostalgia for the British Raj is typically associated with elites or nationalist critique, this study reveals how individuals with limited access to Anglophone cultural capital also express a complex longing for aspects of colonial rule. Drawing on ethnographic interviews, the paper shows how colonial memory endures through everyday practices, inherited social norms, and the built environment. Rather than interpreting this nostalgia as a simplistic yearning for the past, it is examined as a means through which contemporary frustrations, social aspirations, and contested identities are negotiated. The paper also reflects critically on the researchers' own positionality, emphasizing how class privilege and language fluency shaped field interactions and knowledge production. By centering non-elite perspectives and interrogating the epistemic frameworks through which nostalgia is interpreted, this study contributes to broader debates in postcolonial studies, memory studies, and urban anthropology. It calls for more reflexive, decolonized methodologies attuned to local complexities and everyday negotiations with the colonial past. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|