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Kolkata, 'The City of Joy', formerly known as Calcutta, is one of India's largest cities. The city is housed on the east bank of the Hugli (Hooghly) River, which was once the main channel of the Ganges (Ganga) River, about 96 miles (154 km) upstream from the head of the Bay of Bengal.
It is interesting to note that earlier, the city of Calcutta was the capital of India during the British Rule in the year 1772.
Calcutta: Three opinions on the origin of the city name
- Calcutta is an Anglicized version of the Bengali name Kalikata. According to some, 'Kalikata' is derived from the Bengali word Kalikshetra, which means Ground of Kali (the goddess)
- However, according to Britannica, some say that the name of the city is derived from the location of its original settlement on the bank of a canal (khal)
- According to the third opinion, the city's name was originated from the Bengali words -- lime (calcium oxide; kali) and burnt shell (kata), since the area was noted for the manufacture of shell lime
- On June 20, 1756, Siraj-Ud-Daullah, who was the Nawab of Bengal, attacked the city and captured the Fort William which was fortified by East India Company earlier
- Calcutta was re-captured by Robert Clive in 1757 when the British defeated Siraj-ud-daullah on the battle-field of Plassey
Calcutta was established in the year 1686 as a result of the expansion plans of the British Raj.
On August 24, 1686, Job Charnock, who was believed to be the founder of Calcutta first came to the village of Sutanuti as a representative of the British East India Company to establish a factory.
The city comprised three villages of Kalikat, Gobindapur and Sutanuti, which served as important trading centers in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
In 1772, when Calcutta was announced as the capital of British India, Warren Hastings, the first and most famous of the British governor-general of India moved all important offices from Murshidabad -- the former capital of Bengal during Mughal Period -- to Calcutta.
The end of battle in Calcutta witnessed the establishment of Supreme Court in 1774, making it the base of justice.
The period between 1820 and 1930 saw the growing of the seeds of nationalism when Lord Curzon carried out Partition of Bengal in 1905, despite strong Indian nationalist opposition.
In 1911, the capital was shifted from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi and east and west Bengal were reunited.
What happened in Calcutta during India's independence?
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- In 1947, when India gained independence, the partition of Bengal took place and Calcutta became the capital city of the state of West Bengal in India
- Dr. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh became the first Chief Minister of West Bengal on August 15, 1947
On January 1, 2001, Calcutta was officially renamed to Kolkata and August 24, 1686, has been celebrated as the foundation day of Kolkata before High Court order in 2003.
'Calcutta does not have a birthday,' announces High Court
In the year 2003, High Court in Calcutta ruled out Job Charnock -- widely held to have founded Calcutta with the British East India Company in 1690 -- and announced that his name should be struck from school textbooks, official documents, and websites.
According to a Telegraph report, the court added that no one person could be credited with founding the city and Calcutta had grown up from rural settlements, a process that began before Charnock set up camp on the swampy banks of the Hooghly river in 1690.
Famous Kolkatans that India won't ever forget
Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray, CV Raman and Amartya Sen are some of the famous Bengalis who lived in Kolkata whose contribution to the state and the country as a whole will be remembered forever.