History of Kolkata

Today Kolkata, on the banks of the river Hooghly, is a sprawling metropolis, home to around twenty million people, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and often known by its pseudonyms such as “the City of Joy” or “the Cultural Capital of India. While modernisation has overwritten the heritage of most cities and towns, Kolkata stands apart for having preserved much of its old-world charm, whilst keeping pace with the modern era. Every bit of the city has a unique history. In fact the city got its present name only in 2001, until when the official name was “Calcutta”, a name so dear to many of the city’s residents that they still prefer using it to the new one.

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While there is archaeological evidence suggesting areas of present-day Kolkata being inhabited for over two millennia, the city’s recorded history began in 1690 with the English East India company arrived, keen to expand its business in Bengal. Kolkata had grown from three villages called Kalikata (from where the city got its name), Gobindapur and Sutanuti. In 1698, taxation rights to these villages were transferred to the Company.

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In order to protect their factory and trading interests, the British built Fort William on the river-bank in 1712. Skirmishes with the French who had a colony upstream in Chandannagar (around 20 miles from the city) since 1673, became frequent, leading to strengthening of the fortifications by the British. Displeased with the militarisation and loss of his authority was the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daulah, who attacked and captured Fort William in 1756. The succeeding year, a force led by Colonel Robert Clive of the East India Company comprising of Company soldiers (sepoys) and British troops recaptured the city. The very same year, Colonel Clive and Admiral Charles Watson of the British Navy attacked the French fortifications at Chandannagar by the river-route and captured the town as well.

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Read more about the town of Chandannagar here.

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Once Calcutta fell to the British, they consolidated their stand. Bengal was next to fall, only a matter of time after the Nawab was defeated in the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757, betrayed by the ambitious Mir Jafar, who led his troops away from the battlefield. Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah was thus defeated and Mir Jafar was made the “puppet Nawab” of Bengal as a reward for his treachery. This is considered the beginning of British imperialism in India. Thus Clive was able to get rid of both enemies-the Nawab and the French by 1757. Mir Jafar’s name symbolises treachery to this day and his house in Murshidabad is known as ‘Nimak haram Deuri´ (Traitor’s home).

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Calcutta became the capital of British India in 1772 and remained so until 1911. From 1912 to India’s independence in 1947, Calcutta remained the capital of all of Bengal and subsequently the capital of the state of West Bengal. Hickey's Bengal Gazette or the Calcutta General Advertiser became the first newspaper to be printed in India in 1780. Marriages between the European and local communities were fairly common at that time. In 1784 Sir William Jones founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal, giving a great boost to Calcutta’s intellectual life. Some of India’s oldest colleges and universities were set up soon after, leading to spread of the English system of education. The Fort William College came up in 1800, Hindu College (later Presidency College and now Presidency University) in 1817, Calcutta Medical College (Asia’s oldest medical school) in 1835 and so on.

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In 1798, Lord Richard Wellesley became the governor general and was at the forefront of the development of the city and its public architecture. A vast open space, which came to be known locally as the Maidan, had been left around Fort William as a line of fire. The pattern was replicated in many other towns. Rapid industrialisation occurred from the 1850s onwards, especially in jute and textiles, leading to massive British infrastructure investments. Calcutta emerged as the largest commercial centre in British India.

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Calcutta came to be regarded as “the second city of the British empire” and the “City of Palaces”. The amalgamation of the British and Indian cultures gave rise to a new “Babu culture”; members of this social class were usually from upper class Hindu communities, often serving as bureaucrats. The Bengal Renaissance (19th century onwards) brought about an increased sociocultural sophistication among the city residents.  This awakening of modern liberal thought gradually permeated the rest of India.

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Calcutta was at the forefront in the early stages of the Indian independence movement. Exactly a hundred years after Bengal fell in 1757, Calcutta saw the beginning of the Revolt of 1857. Many prominent events and individuals which shaped the movement had roots in the city. The ancestral residence of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at Elgin Road from where he escaped British surveillance under disguise using the cover of night and escaped to Germany on 17 January 1941 today houses the Netaji Research Bureau and the Netaji museum that attracts visitors worldwide.

 

The partition of Bengal in 1905 by then Viceroy Lord Curzon along religious lines under the garb of administrative efficiency led to massive outrage and made Calcutta less hospitable for the British. The capital was shifted to New Delhi in 1911. The city and its port were attacked by the Japanese during World War II, around the same time the Bengal Famine, aggravated by the militant administrative policies pursued by Winston Churchill claimed millions of lives. A huge demographic shift occurred with the partition of India in 1947, and another during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, leading to a massive influx of thousands of refugees. This put a strain on an already stagnant economy, resulting from severe power shortages and a bloody Marxist-Maoist Movement by the Naxalites.

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 For a period of 30 years from 1977-2011, West Bengal was governed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front, the world’s longest serving democratically elected government. Calcutta was a key base for Indian communism during this period. In 2011, the Trinamool Congress defeated the Left Front and has been in power since.