More – Kolkata
Kolkata
About the city
Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal. It was earlier known as Calcutta. Kolkata is situated on the Hugli river. All the important offices of the state government are in kolkata. Kolkata is a major port. It is, however, not located on the sea coast. It is connected to the sea through the Hugli river. The main railway station is Haora, which is on the west bank of the Hugli. We have to cross the Hugli to enter the city. The old hanging bridge on the Hugli was called Haora Bridge. It is now called Rabindra Setu. Another bridge has been built on the Hugli river. This bridge is called Vidyasagar Setu. The climate of Kolkata is neither very hot nor very cold. It is mild. It rains heavily during the summer. The weather is warm and humid during the rainy season. Kolkata is an important industrial city. Jute, silk, rice, paper and chemicals are the main industries in kolkata. In the heart of the city are Fort William and the Maidan. Indian Museum, Victoria Memorial, Birla planetarium, the Botanical Gardens, Alipur Zoo, Rabindra Sarovar and Belu Math are places of tourist interest in the city. Kolkata has the Metro, an underground railway system. Trains are an important means of transport within the city. The men wear dhoti-kurta. Most men however now wear shirts and trousers. The women wear sarees, salwar suits and other dresses. People speak Bangla. English and Hindi are also widely spoken. Bengalis are fond of painting, singin and other arts, Their main food is rice and fish. The are also very fond of sweets. The rasogulla is a Bengali sweet popular all over the world. The most important festival is the Durga puja. Cricket and football are the most popular games in kolkata.. Kolkata, the 'Paris of the East' is a medley of moods, styles, cultures, politics, industry and commerce. The East India Company first set up a trading post at Sutanati and built the Old Fort William in 1696. The city went on to become the showpiece capital of the British Rj and the greatest colonial city of the orient. It became a leading centre of commerce and a port of call for east bound vessels. Kolkata, remained the capital of British India till 1912, but it continuted to be a major industrial and cultural centre. The city is a kaleidoscope of various contrasts, which are unseen anywhere else in the world. It is a uhnique blend of ancient and anon, occidental and oriental styles, skyscrapers and Victorian edifices and a haven of rich as well as poor. The city's rich cultural, literary and religious falvours are reflected in its fine arts, writing, music, dance and theatre. Kolkata, the city of love, hope and jou, is ever fascinating, effervescent and teeming with life and traditions.A Paradoxical city, it was at its zenith as the "second city of the Empire" trailing only to London. Glimpses of that glory can still be seen in the buildings of the Raj Era like the Writer's building, Raj Bhawan, the St. John's Church or the voctoria Memorial. The city is deeply steeped in arts and cultural activites.
Kolkata comes as a pleasant surprise to many foreigners. It has a charm of its own and it grows on you. Americans like it because it reminds them of New York, big action- packed and very volatile. The Bengalis are a civilized, friendly lot.
Kolkata (Formerly known as Kolkata - the founding name of the city)
Kolkata, on the Hooghly, retains the aura of days long gone, weaving the past and the present, the intense and the funloving into a charming fabric. Home to four Nobel laureates - Ronald Ross, Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa and Amartya Sen, Kolkata is the nerve centre of intellect and human values, where many modern movements began in art, cinema and theatre, science and industry. India's quest for freedom began here.Kolkata is the gateway to Eastern India. A city with a rich heritage, bustling streets and bewildering variety of facets. From October to March, Kolkata wears a radiant look. Sunshine, mild winter, lights, colours, fairs, festivals, galas and excursions, the mood is infectious and spirit sweeping.
Although the name Kalikata had been mentioned in the rent-roll of the Great Mughal emperor Akbar and also in Manasa-Mangal, to explore the history of Kolkata, we have to go back to the 17th century. It was in 1690 that Job Charnock of the East India Company came to the bank of the river Hooghly and took the lease of the three villages- Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kolikata (Kolkata) as a trading post of British East India Company. The city became famous in 1756, when Siraj-Ud-Dawlah, the last independent nawab of Bengal, captured the city. But the British regained their power in 1757 and the city was recaptured under Robert Clive. Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India, made it the seat of the supreme courts of justice and the supreme revenue administration, and Kolkata became the capital of British India in 1772. By 1800 Kolkata had become a busy and flourishing town, the center of the cultural as well as the political and economic life of Bengal.
Demography
Kolkata City has a population of 4,580,000. Its literacy rate is about 80.86% which exceeds the all-India average of 64.8%. Male literacy is around 77% and the female literacy is about 60%.A city of love and warmth, sorrow and despair, dreams and hopes, poverty and squalor, grandeur and glory. Calcutta is compelling, effervescent, teeming with life and traditions - a medley of moods, styles, cultures, politics, industry and commerce.More than 300 years ago, Job Charnock, an English tradesman set up a trading post on the banks of the Ganga along the three-village nucleus. Gradually Europeans started setting up business and trade establishments, the moneyed class taking interest in banking and usury. The East India Company steadily encroached into matters of state.The fate of the Nawabi rule was sealed in the Battle of Plassey and the English went ahead to seize power, a grip which loosened only 250 years later when power was transferred from the British Empire to the Indians. Independent India has crossed 50 years and these five decades have seen many miracles. Calcutta has grown, remains a city of contrasts, a mix-up of light and shade, a strange medley of ancient and modern, skyscrapers and Victorian edifices, haven of the rich and the poor as seldom found anywhere in the world. There is so much to see in thiscalcu2.jpg (6143 bytes) incredible city. A million people from every corner of India stream across the massive Howrah Bridge, swarm around the Hooghly river, flock along the busy avenues, through its narrow lanes. Then you arrive at the great expanse of the Maidan, the heart of Calcutta.Fort William, Victoria Memorial, Raj Bhavan, Palladian villas and the Botanical Gardens, the busy streets of Shyambazar, College Street and Kalighat, bookshops, art galleries, coffee houses - all are part of Calcutta's varied and vibrant shades, the birthplace of Rabindranath Tagore and cradle of the Indian Renaissance.Calcutta's fascination defies analysis. It is an addiction, an affair of the mind and heart. Anyone who has lived here can never be happy anywhere else in the world...
A city of Joy and Love, Grandeur and Glory... Kolkata alias Calcutta is full of life and bustle, verging on the chaotic as traditional occupations rub shoulders with ultra modern industries. Kolkata is India's second largest city and the capital of West Bengal, situated at the point where the Indian subcontinent starts to narrow into the triangular southern peninsula. Formerly the capital of British India (1772-1912), it is a city with a great deal of charm - its imperial monuments, strong cultural and religious flavour leaves an indelible impression on the visitor.
For most visitors, the first impression of Kolkata is somewhat joyless. Ramshackle buildings crowd over tube-well lined streets. Squalid slums and wayward traffic draw more attention than the city's legendary old world charm that they have heard so much about. Yet, driven by a wary, weary curiosity, they scratch its grimy surface. and discover a city of joy. Kolkata draws more associations than any other city in India. After Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity, Lapierre's book is possibly the most enduring of them all, with its story of the rickshaw puller --a sight only recently obliterated from the city. Think Kolkata, and the mind conjures up images that flit from Tagore's 'Gitanjali' to football matches and Mohan Bagan. From the Victoria Memorial to the Kalighat temple. From the Howrah bridge to '36, Chowringhee Lane'. Capital of the intelligentsia, Kolkata boasts a host of Nobel laureates, painters, poets, musicians, filmmakers and scientists. It is hardly modest about the eminent personalities it has produced - Rabindranath Tagore, Amartya Sen, Satyajit Ray, Sri Ramakrishna, Amitav Ghosh. Old British clubs, crowded coffeehouses, firefly lit lakes, art galleries, bookshops, Marxism, Shantiniketan, cricket, Chinatown, Marwari traders - present day Kolkata is a marvellous crucible of multiple cultures, influences and ideologies.
History
Kolkata, like Mumbai and Chenai, was founded by the English as a trading post. After various problems with local rulers, a permanent factory (as warehouses were called) and fort were in being by 1700. In 1756 the Nawab of Murshidabad took Kolkata and there followed the Black Hole incident, now regarded as of highly dubious provenance. It was this act that brought Clive north from Chennai and began a chain of events culminating in the British assumption of political power in India. By 1774 Kolkata was effectively the capital of British India, a position it held until 1911 when the move to Delhi was announced. For many years the reafter Kolkata, like Mumbai, remained of greater commercial importance than the new capital. But even today Kolkata evokes extreme reactions but all agree that there is an aura of culture surrounding the city.Actually, the name, Kalikata had also been mentioned in the rent-roll of the great Mughal emperor, Akbar and also in the Manasa-Mangal, to explore the history of Calcutta. In 1690, Job Charnock came to the bank of the Hooghly River (it's the part of the Ganges) and took the lease of the three villages-Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kolikata as a trading post of the British East India Company. The city become fmous in 1756, when Siraj-Ud-Dawlah, the last independent nawab of Bengal, captured the city. But the British regained their power in 1757, and the city was recaptured unde Robert Clive. Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of India, made the present, 'Kolkata' as the seat of the supreme courts of justice and the supreme revenue administration, and Calcutta became the capital of the British India in 1772. By 1800, Calcutta had become a buy and flourishing town.
Kolkata may well have got its name from Kalikutir --the house or temple of Kali --a reference to the 500 year old Kalighat temple. Recent archaeological evidence also suggests that a sophisticated civilisation (Chandraketugarh) dating back 2000 years existed near Kolkata. However, Kolkata's documented history is that of a very modern city - capital of British India until 1910, that dates back only some 300 years. In 1686 the British abandoned Hooghly, their trading post 38km up the river from present-day Kolkata, and moved to the villages of Sutanati, Govindpur and Kalikata, thus laying the foundations of Kolkata as we know it. In 1696, they built a fort near present-day BBD Bagh (formerly known as Dalhousie Square) and in 1698, the Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb s grandson, gave the British official permission to occupy the villages. Kolkata grew steadily until it was attacked by Siraj-ud-daula, the Nawab of Murshidabad, in 1756. A few British inhabitants were captured and packed into an underground cellar where they suffocated in what became known as `the black hole of Calcutta . In 1757, the British, under Robert Clive, reclaimed the city and made peace with the Nawab. A stronger fort (Fort William) was built in Kolkata and the town became British India s capital. Kolkata developed rapidly between 1780 and 1820. The British established a powerful organisational and social structure and the city soon became one of the most important centres for commerce, education and culture in the subcontinent. Later in the 19th century, Bengal became an important centre in the struggle for Indian independence, as a result of which the British decided to transfer the capital to Delhi in 1911.
