History of calcutta

a presentation for my project

1. History of Calcutta Presented by: Tirth Deep Avnish Jaiveer

2. Introduction Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta in English, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. The city was a colonial city developed by the British East India Company and then by the British Empire. Kolkata was the capital of the British Indian empire until 1911 when the capital was relocated to Delhi . Kolkata grew rapidly in the 19th century to become the second city of the British Empire. This was accompanied by the development of a culture that fused European philosophies with Indian tradition . The city is also noted for its revolutionary history, ranging from the Indian struggle for independence to the leftist Naxalite and trade-union movements.

3. The Calcutta was labeled as "Cultural Capital of India", "The City of Processions", "The City of Palaces", and the "City of Joy", Kolkata has also been home to prominent people such as Thakur Shri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, Maa Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, Kazi Nazrul Islam, A. C . Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, Mother Teresa and Satyajit Ray. Problems related to rapid urbanization started to plague Kolkata from the 1930s and the city remains an example of the urbanization challenges of the developing nations.

4. Some images of Calcutta in medieval period

5. Establishment of English trade in Bengal There is a long chain of events behind the arrival of the British East India Company in Bengal. These incidents are documented in numerous records of the East India Company and by several authors . These documents tell the story of how the English were severely beaten and wiped out from Bengal several times by the forces of the Delhi Emperor and how each time they came back to Bengal to continue their trade.

6. The agents of the East India Company first visited the provinces of  Bengal, Bihar and Odisha, for trade during the period of Ibrahim Khan , the Subahdar(Governor) of Bengal at the time of Delhi Emperor Jahangir. In 1634, a Farman (royal decree) was obtained from the Emperor Shah Jahan which allowed them to establish a factory in Bengal and allowed the company agents to reside at Pipili, Odisha.

7. The story of permission to establish a factory in piply and Odisha There is a story behind the reason why emperor allowed the company to establish factory at piply, Odisha. Two years later, the daughter of the Emperor was severely burnt and a doctor named Mr. Boughton was sent from Surat for her treatment . He was able to successfully treat her burns and in reward the Emperor allowed the company to establish factory at Pipili, Odisha, and for the first time the English ships arrived at an eastern port.

8. Some snaps of factory

9. The name came into being when Job Charnock asked a farmer the name of the area around Hooghly River. The farmer misunderstood due to language problems and thought that he was referring as to when he harvested his paddy. He proudly replied " Kal Kaata " meaning I cut it yesterday." Job Charnock thought that the name of the place is Calcutta.

10. The area where the city is now located was originally inhabited by the people of three villages:  Kalikata ,  Sutanuti  and  Gobindapur . However, the boundaries of the three villages gradually became less distinct, and before the battle of Plassey, the city could be divided into four different sub-areas: European Kolkata ( Dihi Kolkata); a residential village with some sacred spots (Gobindapur); a traditional Indian market ( Bazar Kalikata or Burrabazar ); and a riverine mart concentrating on cloth trade ( Sutanati ).  After the battle of Plassey in 1757, the British started rebuilding the city with the idea of making it the capital for their empire.

11. The fall of Calcutta to Siraj ud-Daula When the Seven Years' War broke out, owing to their constant rivalry with the French, and the fall of Madras to the forces of Dupleix, early in 1756 the British authorities in Calcutta began repairs to the fortifications of old Fort William, which were extremely decayed. This irritated the new Nawab of Bengal,  Siraj Ud Daulah, who viewed it as a threat to his sovereignty. Calcutta, which fell after a short siege on 20 June 1756, during which the Governor and many other officials escaped down the Hooghly River, leaving the remainder of the garrison and the Eurasian population of Calcutta to their fate. This is now known as the Siege of Calcutta. It is said that 123 Britons later died in the Black Hole of Calcutta after his victory.

12. The Bengal Renaissanc e In the time of British India, Calcutta was regarded as "the second city of the British Empire” and was aptly renamed "City of Palaces" and the Great Eastern Hotel was regarded as the "Jewel of the East".  Calcutta at that time was famous for its " Baboo Culture", a mixture of English Liberalism, European fin de siecle  decadence, Mughal conservatism, and indigenous revivalism, inculcating aspects of socio-moral and political change

13. . This culture was fostered in its wake by theZamindari system, the Dayabhaga System the Hindu Joint Family System, the  Mitakshara System, the Muslim Zenana System, the Protestant spirit of free capitalist enterprise, the Mughal-inspired feudal system and the Nautch. This also fostered the Bengal Renaissance,  an awakening of modern liberal thinking in 19th century Bengal, and which gradually percolated to the rest of India.

14. Thank you