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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 this
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.
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Calcutta is not an ancient city like Delhi, with its impressive relics
of the past. In fact, it's largely a British creation which dates back
only some 300 years and was the capital of British India until the
beginning of this century.
In 1686, the British abandoned Hooghly, their trading post 38km up the
Hooghly River from present-day Calcutta, and moved downriver to there
small villages - Sutanati, Govindpur and Calcutta. Calcutta takes its
name from the last of those three tiny settlements.
Much of the Calcutta's most enduring development took place between
1780 and 1820. Latter in the 19th century, Bengal became an important
centre in the struggle for Indian independence, and this was a major
reason for the decision to transfer the capital to Delhi in 1911. Loss
of political power did not alter Calcutta's economic control, and the
city continued to prosper until after WW11. |
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You must not miss Calcutta in the month of
October for the colourful festivities and people in complete high due
to the Durga Puja as well as Kali Puja that take place one after the
other.
However, the period remains filled with joy upto the month of March as
some event or the other keeps taking place, be it cultural or sports
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