History of Kolkata
Kolkata’s recordable history dates back to 24 Aug 1690, when a British adventurer and merchant Job Charnock sailed up the Hooghly River accompanied by thirty soldiers and decided to establish a settlement here.
Till as recently as 2003, the city celebrated its birthday on this day until better sense prevailed and dawned the realisation, that when Charnock had hit the land here, it was not uninhabited!
The Armenians had already migrated and settled here around the tank that’s popular as ‘Lal Dighee’ today. They had settled there and were trading from what continues to be called ‘Armenian Ghat’ even after all these years.
As if as an evidence, lies here a tomb of a spiritual Armenian Lady, Rezabeebeh. The tomb is dated 1630, that is sixty years before Charnock arrived here.
The Portuguese had set up a trading post too in Bengal, way back in 1535 followed by the Dutch years down.
Later came the French in 1693 and established their factories in Chandannagar.
Well, the place where Charnock showed up was Kolikata village, now known as Kalighat, which was a sleepy fishing village at the time. Soon, the British established their foot firmly here in terms of British East India Company.
By 1698, Kolikata and the neighbouring villages of Gobindapore and Sutanati were signed over to the British East India Company. The region came to be known as Calcutta and became the capital of the British East India Company and remained so till 1911.
Gradually the British expanded their base and in their defence against the French built a fort, Fort Williams, named after King Williams III of England on the East bank of river Hooghly.
They cleared a vast area around the Fort to keep a watch which forms today’s ‘Maidan’, where thousands of children, big and small, are seen playing cricket and football on holidays.
Once the British founded their power, they started evading the taxes persistently. This provoked the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daula, who attacked the Fort William in on 19 June 1756 and captured about 146 Britishers inhabiting the fort.
He had them all locked up in a tiny cell overnight and by morning many had died. This incident became infamous in the history of Calcutta as The Black Hole incident of Calcutta. The figure of those killed was exaggerated by British to garner more support from London for enhancing attacks against Indians.
However, it’s said that what happened was nothing as compared to the atrocities Indians bore at the hands of the British, throughout India and in their own motherland.
This was the first dent in British pride who, however later in 1757, defeated and imprisoned Nawab Siraj-ud-daula in Battle of Plassey.
Later, the British built another stronger and impenetrable fort on the east bank of River Hooghly with a large moat around and various other security measures and named it Fort William again.
Then on, there was no looking back for the British who spread their wings and the civilization around the fort and beyond.
Soon, the city was divided into the royal White Town, where the English dwelled, and the Black Town where the natives lived.
The White Town developed around the Fort William with its magnificent palatial mansions which can still be seen around Park Street and Alipore and extended south while the Black Town with its narrow haphazard lanes occasionally dotted with grand palaces of some rich zamindars and local rajahs extended towards North Kolkata.
In 1777, Kolkata acquired a printing press under the British Raj and the development continued. Many buildings like Writer’s building, The Treasury, G.P.O came up and the development continued.
While most Britishers led insular and luxurious life, a few stepped forth to own the local culture and language. Like Warren Hastings, one of the significant British Officers in Bengal after Robert Clive spoke fluent Urdu, Bengali and Persian.
Few British scholars even showed keen interest in Sanskrit, translating old scriptures like Bhagvada Gita and even published books on Bengali Grammar. In 1784 Asiatic Society of Bengal was set up.
Gradually, the English and the local zamindars & Rajahs began to mingle. The arrogant zamindars and Rajahs who would throw grand feasts with splendid entertainment shows for the English widened the gap with the poor and thence developed the ‘baboo culture’.
The culture of grand feasts and festivities still continue in Bengal and can be best experienced during Durga Puja celebrations or Bengali ceremonies like birthdays, weddings etc.
All was hunky dory for the British till some middle-class Calcuttans brought some social reforms which led to Bengal Renaissance. Soon Kolkata became hot with the flame burning in the hearts of the Indian patriots who sowed the seeds of independence.
The wave of patriotism spread like wildfire throughout India and finally India gained independence from the British rule in 1947.
But independence came at a big price in the form of partition of the country into Hindustan and Pakistan which proved even further detrimental for Calcutta as here the movement was just one-way, with influx of hordes of Hindus from East Bengal choking the already bustling city.
Another similar blow came during Indo-Pak war in 1971 which proved really devastating.
The result is an overcrowded and polluted city with a number of heritage monuments and age-old houses.
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