Gobindapur was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Calcutta in late 17th century. The other two villages were Kalikata and Sutanuti. Job Charnock, an administrator with the British East India Company is traditionally credited with the honour of founding the city. While Kalikata and Sutanuti lost their identity as the city grew, Gobindapur was demolished for the construction of new Fort William.
When the Portuguese first started to frequent Bengal, around the year 1530, the two great centres of trade were Chittagong, which the Portuguese called Porto Grande or Great Haven, in the east and Satgaon, which the Portuguese called Porto Piqueno or Little Haven in the west. Tolly’s Nallah or Adi Ganga was then the outlet to the sea and ocean-going ships came up to around where Garden Reach is now, then the anchoring place for ships. Only country boats operated further up the river. [1] Possibly the Saraswati river was another watery life line. It started drying up from the middle of the 16th century. The Portuguese built a new port at Hugli in 1580. [2]
There is another story regarding the foundation and naming of the village. Towards the end of the 16th century, the Indian merchant-princes of Port Piqueno were forced to seek another market for their trade. Most of them settled down in Hugli but four families of Basaks and one of Sheths, determined to profit by the growing prosperity of Betor, founded the village of Gobindapur, on the east bank of the river. [1] Gobindaji was the family deity of the Sheths and Basaks, and so they named the village Gobindapur. [3]
Beyond the purely European buildings lying around the Fort where four villages of mud and bamboo, all of which were included in the zemindary limits of the original settlement. These villages were the original three with the addition of Chowringhee, which was in 1717 a hamlet of isolated hovels, surrounded by water-logged paddy fields and bamboo-groves and separated from Govindpore by a tiger-haunted jungle where expands the grassy level of the maidan. The Esplanade was a jungle not yet cleared, interspersed with a few huts and small plots of grazing and arable lands. Beyond the Chitpore Road which formed the eastern boundary of the settlement, lay more pools, swamps and rice fields, dotted here and there with the struggling huts of fishermen, falconers, wood-cutters, weavers and cultivators. [4]
In 1596, the place is mentioned as a district of the Sirkar (or government) of Satgaon, in the book Ain-e-Akbari by Abul Fazal, the prime minister of Akbar. As traders, the Portuguese were succeeded by the Dutch and finally the British. [1]
There is yet another story regarding the foundation and naming of the village. Gobinda Sharan Dutta was the second son of the three sons of zamindar Kandarpa Ram Dutta of Andul. He disagreed with his brothers regarding property entitlements; left Andul and took employment under Raja Todar Mal, a noble of Emperor Akbar's court. The Raja was very pleased with his performance. So, Gobinda Sharan Dutta was rewarded with land in Barbakpur (present-day Barrackpore). He settled down there and called the place "Gobindapur" after his own name. Based on evidence provided by Babu Gourdas Bysack, 19th century historian on Calcutta, it is clear that Gobindapur was established around the end of 16th century. [5] [6]
Job Charnock favoured Sutanuti as a settlement because of the security of the location. It was protected by the river on the west and by impassable marshes on the south and the east. Only the north-east had to be guarded. [7]
The three villages were part of the khas mahal or imperial jagir (an estate belonging to the Mughal emperor himself), whose zemindari rights were held by the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family of Barisha. On 10 November 1698, Job Charnock’s successor and son-in-law, Charles Eyere, acquired the land holding rights for the three villages from the Sabarna Roychoudhuris. The company paid regular rent to the Mughals for these villages till 1757. [8] Within a short period Kolkata grew considerably.
Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, was alarmed by the growing prosperity and enhanced fortifications of Kolkata. In 1756, he decided to attack Kolkata and captured it. Gobindapur was fired by the English themselves. The English evacuees set up temporary quarters at Falta, 40 miles (64 km) downstream. What followed was a series of skirmishes finally leading to the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757 and the establishment of British power in Bengal. [9]
On the riverside to the south of the settlement was the village of Govindpore, founded two centuries earlier by the Setts and Bysacks, the Hindu Fathers of Calcutta: and surrounding it was a thick tiger-infested jungle that could be easily cut down. The whole colony, with their tutelary deity Gobindjee, migrated to the north of Calcutta, and liberal compensation in money and in grants of lands were made to them for their dispossession. [10]
H.E.A.Cotton
One of the first things that the English embarked upon on their return to Kolkata was the construction of new Fort William. It commenced in 1758 and completed in 1773. The site chosen was in the heart of ‘populous flourishing’ village of Gobindapur. A portion of the ‘restitution money’ was spent in compensating the inhabitants who were given lands in other parts of the town notably in Taltala, Kumortuli and Shobhabazar. [11]
Job Charnock was an English administrator with the East India Company. He is commonly regarded as the founder of the city of Calcutta ; however, this view is challenged, and in 2003 the Calcutta High Court declared that he ought not to be regarded as the founder. There may have been inhabitants in the area since the first century CE. The High Court was right in claiming that villages that constituted colonial Calcutta were not established by Charnock or the British Raj itself, but Charnock’s ambition-driven doggedness toward setting up a East Indian Company frontier along the Eastern border of India that he could control on his own terms played a huge role in the creation of present day city of Calcutta.
Kolkata (Calcutta) was a colonial city. The British East India Company developed Calcutta as a city by establishing an artificial riverine port in the 18th century CE. Kolkata was the capital of the British India until 1911, when the capital was relocated to Delhi. Kolkata grew rapidly in the 19th century to become the second most important city of the British Empire after London and was declared as the financial (commercial) capital of the British India. This was accompanied by the development of a culture that fused Indian philosophies with European tradition.
Kolkata district is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It only contains the entire city proper of Kolkata, the capital city of the state and therefore it is a city district. It is the smallest district in the state and also the most densely populated district.
Khidirpur or Kidderpore is a neighbourhood of metropolitan Kolkata (Calcutta), in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India.
Kalikata was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata in India. The other two villages were Gobindapur and Sutanuti. Job Charnock, an administrator with the British East India Company is traditionally credited with the honour of founding the city. He settled in the village of Sutanuti.
Sutanuti was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata in India. The other two villages were Gobindapur and Kalikata.
Chitpur is a neighbourhood in North Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sometimes, the entire area along Chitpur Road is referred to as Chitpur, although the various localities have distinctive names.
There are several theories about the origin of Kolkata, erstwhile Calcutta in English, the name of the capital of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
Gobindram Mitter was one of the earliest Indian officials during the Company rule in India, who earned reputation for his wealth and extravagance.
Sarsuna is a neighborhood in South West Kolkata. It is a part of the greater Behala region and can be reached via Chowrasta or through Barisha. It is a predominantly Bengali neighborhood, though its fast becoming a cosmopolitan place. It is bordered by Barisha in the east and Maheshtala to the west.
Sabarna Roy Choudhury was a Zamindar family of Mughal Bengal. They controlled significant swathes of territory, including what would later become Kolkata, prior to the sale of zamindari rights in 1698 to the East India Company.
Kumortuli is a traditional potters' quarter in northern Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The city is renowned for its sculpting prowess. It not only manufactures clay idols for various festivals but also regularly exports them.
Dharmatala is a neighbourhood of Central Kolkata, in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Dharmatala Street has been renamed after Lenin as Lenin Sarani but the neighbourhood up to Wellington Square continues to be referred as Dharmatala. It is a busy commercial area that had come up with the growth of Calcutta during the British Raj and is thus one of the repositories of history in the city.
Shyampukur is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. As a neighbourhood, it covers a small area but its importance is primarily because of the police station.
Jorabagan is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. As a neighbourhood, it covers a small area but its importance is primarily because of the police station.
Shobhabazar is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district, in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Betore was a major trading centre, the location being around present Shibpur in Howrah district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Sett is a Bengali surname, derived from "Shreshthi" . Shreshthis were the oldest known businessmen in northern India. The name was changed to "Shethi" during the medieval period. After the arrival of the East India Company in India, the surname was anglicised to "Sheth" and later to "Sett".
Belgachia is an area of North Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Dihi Panchannagram was a group of 55 villages which the East India Company purchased in 1758 from Mir Jafar, after the fall of Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, in what is now the city of Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in Kolkata district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. These villages initially developed as suburbs of Kolkata, but now forms part of the city proper within the limits of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
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