Monday, January 22, 2018

Disciplining college street - The case of Presidency wall and Bhawani Dutta Lane

Two kinds of politics linked with colour Kaleidoscope knows, the 'politics of colour' and 'politics with colour.' The very idea that makes him feel fortunate that his species is not as colourful as birds and other animals. Has it been the case, history of homo sapiens would have seen more bloodshed in the name of colour. Meanwhile, he is witnessing what can be termed as politics with colour.

The blue white combination which now represents his cityscape and the 'statescape' - the paints of all public properties he believes adds to a great visibility to the state led development initiatives.

However, there are other forms as well. Most notably, at college street, as part of beautification the historical presidency university has transformed all the shanty like different looking old book stalls into similar looking smaller shops. They are painted in creme yellow colour and have thus lost their distinctiveness. One can rarely differentiate between them any more.

While, disciplining happens to be one of the primary aims of the late capital civilisation, Presidency, one of the important hotbeds of the promotion of distinctive, radical and often antiestablishment thoughts and actions is sadly following the similar trend. Not much ago nearby college square experiences a ban on display of protest politics!
The disciplined shops in Presindency wall

However, there are still those colourful shanty like shops providing a rainbow just inside Bhawani Dutta lane. For now at leasr 'corporates' are busy with the conspicuous spaces. This is why there are alleyways with wonders that embraces the old us... the happy us.

The old, colourful Bhawani Dutta lane


2 comments:

  1. Yes it is! No doubt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately the state is trying to build up a monolithic society and our tradition of diversified cultural identity is under threat. But hope college street and presidency college will continue to be the seedbed of independent thoughts and ideas and this attempts wont be successful to change the mindscape of this part of the city.

      Delete