The historical anatomy of a contact zone

Founded in 1690 as an entrepôt by the English East India Company, Calcutta has been at the intersection of a number of heterogeneous long- and short-range networks of trade, finance, diplomacy, law, crafts and learning. This article explores the history of the first century of its existence during which it grew from insignificance to become the second most important city of the British Empire. During this period Calcutta also emerged as a world-city of scientific knowledge making in botany, geology, geodesy, map-making, geography, history, linguistics and ethnology. Calcutta thus provides an excellent case study of the co-construction of knowledge and urbanity in the early modern context of globalisation. As a contact zone between different ethnic, professional and religious communities, each with their specific knowledge practices, this article shows that new forms of knowledge, many at the heart of the second scientific revolution, were produced in this city through attempts at recognising and managing difference in this cosmopolitan context.