History of Kolkata

Kolkata was the capital of British India till 1912.

The history of Kolkata is attached to that of the British East India Company. Job Charnock, an English merchant is regarded as the founder of Kolkata. Charnock laid the foundations for modern day Kolkata when he established a factory in 1690 at Sutanuti, one of the villages on the banks of the river Hooghly. Ten years later a fort was built in what is now known as the BBD Bagh.

In 1707, Kolkata became a separate presidency under the direct control of the directors of the East India Company.

Siraj-ud-Daula captured Kolkata in 1756 but then ceded power to Robert Clive in 1757.

In the turn of the 18 th century, Kolkata became an important trading centre. Kolkata by this time also became the nerve centre for the freedom movement. In 1857, Mangal Pandey, an Indian sepoy shot his officer in Barrackpore near Kolkata. This incident led to the Sepoy Mutiny. The British were soon to suppress the revolt and declared Kolkata as the imperial capital.

In 1905, Lord Curzon, the then Governor General of Bengal partitioned Bengal in order to kill the growing nationalist sentiments. The partition was later revoked in 1911 and the capital shifted to Delhi. The country was finally independent in 1947. A great number of serious thinkers, with Gandhian philosophy emerged as a result. This was the period, which gave rise to the Marxist, Naxal and communist way of thinking as well.

The India Pakistan war of 1971 brought in a flood of refugees into the city.

In 2001, Calcutta was officially renamed Kolkata.

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