Down the Winding Lanes of History

Kolkata, or Calcutta as many still like to address it by its old name, has a history as rich as the culture and the traditional grandeur that the city is famed for. With a history that dates back to the 16^th century, Calcutta.  

A colonial city developed first by the East India Company, and later by the British Empire, Calcutta served as the capital of the British Empire until 1911 from early in 1690 when Job Charnok, an agent of the British East India Company, selected this place for a British Trade settlement. The then Calcutta, was hardly the Calcutta we know now – it was a congregation of 3 large villages Sutanuti, Gobindapur and Kalikata, located along the east banks of the Ganges river, protected by river Hoogly on the west, salt lakes to the east and a creek to the north. Because of the locational convenience the East India Company bought over these three villages from the local landlords after the Mughal emperor, Jahangir, granted permission to the Company to trade against a yearly payment of Rs 3000, in 1612.

 In the 19^th century, Kolkata grew rapidly to become the second city of the British Empire, after London and came to be known as the ‘City of Palaces’. In the later part of the 1850s, Calcutta underwent rapid industrial growth under the influence of the Western Industrial revolution and grew strong trade relations with other nations. At the same time, the city went through a massive cultural development, which resulted in a fusion of Indian tradition with European philosophies, creating a breed of culturally elite Bengalis. With the formation of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, under the encouragement of the Governor General, Sir Warren Hastings, the intellectual and literary life of Calcutta received a great boost.  It was around the same time that Bengal’s first newspaper, the Bengal Gazette was published, which was the first newspaper to be printed in India. Prompted by this cultural intermingling, intercultural marriages became popular and it was this union between the Europeans, English, French and Portuguese, and local women, both Hindu and Muslim, which laid foundation to the Anglo-Indian community of Calcutta.

Being the cultural hub of the country Calcutta gave birth to many legendary revolutionaries and literary genius’ who later contributed largely to the freedom movement. The intellectual and cultural upheaval of the city nurtured a generation of genius’, most of whom died a valiant death, fighting the battle of freedom.