Kolkata After Dark: How a Grassroots “Light Brigade” is Rekindling a City’s Pride 

The eastern Indian city of Kolkata is experiencing a remarkable transformation through a citizen-led initiative known as the Kolkata Illumination Project. Spearheaded by enthusiast Mudar Patherya and a loose collective of citizens, the project aims to restore civic pride by highlighting the city’s faded colonial-era heritage. Going beyond mere beautification, the group crowdsources funds to install energy-efficient LED lighting on neglected historic buildings, following a simple model where they cover installation costs and building owners pay the minimal electricity fee.

The illumination has been so successful that it has spawned popular nighttime heritage tours, revealing a dazzling side of the city that rivals global capitals. However, the project evolved to include genuine restoration, as the light often exposed decay, leading them to repair intricate clock towers and structures, effectively preserving history and lost arts. This efficient, grassroots effort has illuminated over 92 landmarks—from synagogues to markets—on a modest budget, demonstrating that heritage conservation can be a powerful, citizen-driven tool for urban renewal and community pride.

Kolkata After Dark: How a Grassroots “Light Brigade” is Rekindling a City’s Pride 

For decades, the narrative around Kolkata, the former capital of British India, has been one of faded grandeur. Often portrayed as a city clinging to its past, its magnificent colonial architecture—a sprawling museum of Neoclassical, Gothic, and Baroque styles—has been slowly succumbing to decay, neglect, and the relentless pressure of modern development. By day, the soot and grime of time can obscure the details. But as the sun sets over the Hooghly River, a quiet revolution is taking place. A citizens’ movement, armed not with protests but with LED lights, is systematically illuminating the city’s soul, one heritage building at a time, and in the process, forcing Kolkata to see its own reflection in a brilliant new light. 

This is not a government initiative with a massive budget. It’s the story of Kolkata Restorers—less a formal organisation and more a WhatsApp group of passionate citizens, led by one man’s vision to make his city sparkle. 

The Spark: From a Single Dome to a City Aglow 

The genesis of what is now known as the Kolkata Illumination Project is as organic as the city itself. It began with Mudar Patherya, a writer, financial analyst, and unabashed Kolkata evangelist. His initial goal was modest: to restore the iconic Bengali numeral clock and paint the grand dome of a 150-year-old market. He raised funds from friends, achieved the restoration, and then faced a new problem. 

“It looked magnificent by day,” Patherya explains, “but as evening fell, it vanished back into the darkness. The beauty was lost.” The logical next step was illumination. He passed the hat around again, raised more funds, and bathed the dome in a soft, golden light. The effect was transformative. With leftover funds, he turned his attention to a small, intricately carved stone temple in North Kolkata. Under the harsh sun, its details could be missed. Under carefully positioned LEDs, every carving was accentuated, its grandeur resurrected from the shadows. 

Patherya was hooked. The project snowballed with a speed that stunned even him. He adopted a brilliantly simple model: “It’s your property, my lights.” His team would handle the entire cost and installation of the energy-efficient LED lighting system; the building’s owners would only shoulder the minimal cost of the electricity, a figure his team calculated and presented in advance. 

From a single dome, the project has now illuminated over 92 structures in just 21 months. The portfolio is a breathtaking cross-section of Kolkata’s cosmopolitan DNA: 

• The Raj Bhavan: The sprawling neoclassical mansion, once the seat of the British Viceroy. 

• The General Post Office: A 157-year-old landmark with its iconic white pillars. 

• The Maghen David Synagogue: A stunning reminder of the city’s once-thriving Jewish community, its clock tower now repaired and lit. 

• The Burhani Masjid: A prominent mosque for the Bohra Muslim community, its domes and minarets now gleaming. 

• Greek Orthodox and Portuguese churches, Jain and Hindu temples, and colonial-era offices: A testament to the city’s incredible religious and cultural tapestry. 

More Than Just Lights: The Deep Work of Restoration 

As the project grew, a stark truth emerged: you cannot illuminate decay. The light, intended to highlight beauty, often unforgivingly exposed years of neglect. This forced Kolkata Restorers to evolve from mere illuminators into genuine restorers. 

The Hogg Market, a vast Gothic Revival structure, is a prime example. The goal was to light its clock tower, a timepiece with a unique feature: it chimed a different tune every quarter hour, a sound silent for decades. However, the team discovered the roof was leaky, the floorboards rotten, and the clock mechanism itself—a complex, century-old engineering marvel—was in pieces. 

This is where the story deepens from a tale of lighting into one of recovering lost arts. To fix the Hogg Market clock and others like it, Patherya turned to Swapan Dutta, a fourth-generation clock repairman. Dutta, nicknamed ‘Ghari-babu’ (Clock-man), inherited the craft from his great-grandfather who worked for the British firm Cooke and Kelvey. 

Sitting in his tiny workshop, surrounded by gears and pendulums of a bygone era, Dutta speaks with the passion of a historian. “These are not just clocks; they are the city’s heartbeat. We have to examine, calculate, and hand-make missing parts. It is archaeology combined with engineering.” His work, supported by the project, has brought the chimes back to several of Kolkata’s silent tower clocks, literally restoring the city’s rhythm. 

The “Kolkata by Night” Tour: Seeing the City with New Eyes 

The most powerful testament to the project’s success is its impact on the people of Kolkata. Local tour operator Sujoy Sen, upon reading about the illuminations, was compelled to see for himself. What he found left him awestruck. 

“I have seen Paris by night,” Sen remarked. “I didn’t realise Kolkata could be like that also.” He immediately launched a ‘Kolkata by Night’ heritage tour, where air-conditioned buses weave through the bustling evening traffic to showcase the lit-up landmarks. For residents and tourists alike, it’s a revelation. 

Himanjali Sankar, a Kolkata native now living in Delhi, took the tour. She found the experience profoundly moving. “The buildings are familiar, but the illumination changes them completely. It is like they are coming alive, reclaiming their grandeur. Mostly we talk about how Kolkata is not keeping up with the times. It is wonderful to see people who are excited and passionate about the city.” 

This rekindling of civic pride is the project’s most valuable achievement. In a city often anxious about its economic future, heritage is frequently dismissed as an expensive luxury. Patherya counters this narrative with powerful economics. 

“An apartment in one of the city’s poshest complexes can cost about 150 million rupees ($1.8 million),” he states. “With just 22 million rupees (approx. $265,000), all crowdsourced, we’ve restored 92 buildings, eight or nine clocks, and over 1,300 tombstone plaques. This proves heritage restoration doesn’t have to be a government-led, multi-million dollar white elephant. It can be citizen-led, efficient, and transformative.” 

A Beacon for Other Cities 

The Kolkata Illumination Project is more than a beautification drive; it’s a philosophical shift. It demonstrates that urban conservation is not just about preserving brick and mortar, but about revitalizing community spirit and re-anchoring a city’s identity in its unique history. 

It proves that a small group of dedicated citizens, leveraging modest funds and relentless passion, can challenge the narrative of their city. They are not just lighting up facades; they are illuminating history, restoring lost skills, and, most importantly, rekindling a sense of collective ownership and pride. 

As Mudar Patherya looks out over the Dalhousie area, now a glowing canvas of golden-hued architecture, his ambition is clear: “I want to get to 200 buildings. Then it would be one of the most wondrous cities at night in the country. Because the architecture is already there.” He and his fellow restorers are ensuring that Kolkata no longer hides its light under a bushel, but instead, shines brightly for all the world to see, reclaiming its title as the City of Joy, one brilliantly lit monument at a time.