25 Years After Calcutta Became Kolkata, Motherland‘s 22nd Issue Explores How The City Is Defining Itself

Twenty-five years after Calcutta officially became Kolkata, cultural journal Motherland returns to one of India’s most culturally, intellectually and politically influential cities to ask: what changed when the name changed – or did anything change at all?

An independent print publication founded by V.Sunil in 2010, Motherland is known for their thematic, deep-dive issues, published in their signature long format style, with rich visuals and strong design language.

Motherland launched their Kolkata special edition on 29th May at the Kolkata Centre for Creativity – longtime supporters of the magazine. The event commenced with an opening speech by Ms. Ushmita Sahu (Director and Lead Curator, Emami Art) followed by an in-conversation with magazine contributors Meghdut RoyChaudhry (founder, Make Kolkata Relevant Again) and writer Karuna Ezara-Parikh. Meghdut and Karuna join 20+ contributors whose writings and photographs make up this edition. 

Focusing on this quarter-century slice of history, Motherland’s editorial point of view moves beyond the tropes nostalgia associated with Kolkata. Instead, the issue explores how the city has negotiated the last 25 years, balancing memory and reinvention, charting its own path of identity and relevance against the backdrop of a changing nation. 

“Cities are often understood through landmarks and statistics. Kolkata is better understood through its contradictions,” says the editorial note. “Twenty-five years after the transition from Calcutta to Kolkata, we wanted to explore not only how the city has changed, but how it continues to carry multiple versions of itself at once.”

Across essays, reportage, photography and visual storytelling, the issue traces the cultural and social currents that have shaped Kolkata since the new millennium, with a generation (Gen Z) now coming of age in this particular climate. 

With the range of topics and voices represented, the issue is as much a cultural audit, as a portrait of a city. 

The stories examine everything from the shifting politics of Eden Gardens (by Sushovan Sircar) and the evolution of Bengali comic-book culture (by Abhijit Gupta), to the city’s remarkable typographic landscape (in a photo essay by Aashim Tyagi). 

Writer Karuna Ezara Parikh reflects on the evolving food scene, while also interviewing Anoushka Shankar for the magazine, during her Chapters – India Tour. Elsewhere, a photo essay from the Sundarbans expands the conversation beyond the city itself, highlighting the environmental realities that will increasingly shape Bengal’s future. 

The magazine closes with two essays on music subcultures at the fringes of Kolkata – an essay by journalist Shoaib Daniyal on Kalkatiya rap and filmmaker Q writing on the DIY soundsystems taking over the outskirts of the city, complete with photographs by photojournalist Arko Datta. 

Throughout the issue, Kolkata emerges as a city that has resisted easy narratives. It is neither the romanticised Calcutta of popular imagination nor a city seeking validation through rapid transformation. Instead, it remains a place where history is actively negotiated in the present through language, design, sport, food, art, music and everyday life.

The issue’s central premise reflects a broader question facing many Indian cities today: how does a place evolve without losing sight of itself?

Kolkata offers a fitting subject for Motherland – an independent publication that continues to capture the Indian zeitgeist, through the subculture and counterculture narratives that slip through the mainstream. A quarter-century after the renaming, the city stands as a compelling case study in continuity and change.Motherland Issue 22: Kolkata is available to purchase online. MRP INR 750.