Global histories have fixated on connections, notably in their treatment of colonial and postcolonial port cities. While such cities have been intensely connected places, however, they have also been intensely bounded ones. The present article takes as an example of this phenomenon the archetypal port city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) and its historical boundary, the Maratha Ditch. From the eighteenth century to the twentieth century, the ditch was a vital site of meaning-making that sustained lasting political, legal and social divisions. It separated Calcutta, in an evolving fusion of concrete and abstract, formal and informal ways, from the surrounding province of Bengal and from the rest of India. Nonetheless, for generations of rulers, citizens and outside observers, refiguring or repurposing the ditch was a means to remake the city. The story told here is instructive in two broad respects. Firstly, it suggests a new way to study the history of a port city like Calcutta: from its margins. Secondly, it provides the basis for a new historical geography of the urban world: one attentive to boundaries and connections alike.

中文翻译：

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港口城市边界的意义：加尔各答的马拉地沟，c.1700–1950

全球历史一直关注联系，特别是在他们对殖民和后殖民港口城市的处理方面。然而，虽然这些城市是紧密相连的地方，但它们也是紧密相连的地方。本文以典型的港口城市加尔各答（现加尔各答）及其历史边界马拉地沟为例来说明这一现象。从 18 世纪到 20 世纪，沟渠是维持持久的政治、法律和社会分裂的重要场所。它以具体和抽象、正式和非正式的方式不断融合，将加尔各答与周边的孟加拉省和印度其他地区分开。尽管如此，对于几代统治者、公民和外部观察者来说，改造或重新利用沟渠是改造这座城市的一种手段。这里讲述的故事在两个广泛的方面具有指导意义。首先，它提出了一种研究像加尔各答这样的港口城市的历史的新方法：从它的边缘。其次，它为城市世界的新历史地理提供了基础：关注边界和联系。