Calcutta

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Calcutta
Presidency: Bengal
Coordinates: 22.572625°N, 88.363893°E
Altitude: 9 m (30 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name: Kolkata
State/Province: West Bengal
Country: India
Transport links
East Indian Railway (Howrah)
Bengal-Nagpur Railway
Calcutta and South Eastern Railway (Sealdah)
Eastern Bengal Railway (Sealdah)
Calcutta Port Commissioners' Railway
Arrah-Sasaram Light Railway
Barasat-Basirhat Light Railway
Futwah-Islampur Light Railway
Howrah-Amta Light Railway
Howrah-Sheakhalla Light Railway

Calcutta (present day Kolkata) is a large city in north-east India. Calcutta was the headquarters of the Government of the Bengal Presidency. It was also the capital of British India until Delhi became the capital on 12th December 1911. The city had a large European mercantile community.

History

Battle of Calcutta 1757
3rd Carnatic War

Spelling Variants

Modern name: Kolkata
Variants: Calcutta

Location

Calcutta is now known as Kolkata in modern day India and is situated at 22°33′N, 88°20′E in the Ganges Delta.

Places of interest

Calcutta in 1862

The Maidan

The site of Fort William, the Maidan was (and still is) the centre of Calcutta. It was bounded on the west side by the Hooghly River and the Strand Road, and on the east side by Chowringhi Road. Government House, the Governor's residence, was at the north end of the Maidan and Belvedere, the residence of the Lieutenent-Governor of Bengal, was near the southern end.

Eden Gardens

The Eden Gardens were started by Lord Aukland's sisters and are beautifully laid out. They were the main gathering place of Calcutta Society in the time of the British Raj. They are also the home of India's oldest cricket ground, the Calcutta Cricket Club, and have a lake which was the home of the Rowing Club. Beside the lake is a Burmese Pagoda brought from Prome and set up in 1856. There were many statues in the Gardens. Calcutta Eden Gardens 1910 Postcard from Images of India

Churches and missions

Anglican

  • St James Church - see FIBIS Journal 5, "The Man Who Built St James Calcutta"
  • St John's Cathedral Church - consecrated 1787
  • St Paul's Cathedral - completed in 1847
  • St Peter's Church, Fort William - built 1828
  • 'Old' Mission Church - see article in FIBIS Journal 7, includes a list of graves
  • St Stephen's, Kidderpore
  • The contact address for the Church of North India is
Bishop’s House, 51, Chowringhee Road, Kolkata 700 071.
Phone : 033-22825259 033-22482583, 65347770
Fax : 033-22826340
Roman Catholic Church, Dhurrumtollah Street, Calcutta

Roman Catholic

  • RC Cathedral (Virgin Mary of the Rosary) - built 1797
  • St Patrick's Chapel, Fort William - built 1857
  • St Theresa - built 1893
  • St Thomas' Church - begun in 1841, adjacent to the Convent of Our Lady of Loreto

Other denominations

  • St Andrew's Church of Scotland - opened 1818. For contact address, see Church of North India above. The current (2010) Minister of St Andrew's is Rev. Andrew Simick, the Vice President of the Diocese of Calcutta (CNI).
  • Greek Church - established 1780
  • Holy Church of Nazareth (Armenian) - built in 1724. Dr. Reuben Khachaturyan/Liz Chater have transcribed all the baptisms at this church. They can be viewed on the FIBIS database. Liz also has many photos of graves at the Nazereth Church on her website.

Missions

  • Church Mission Society
  • Free Church of Scotland - started in 1830
  • London Missionary Society
  • Oxford Mission - Church of England
  • Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (Anglican)

Non-Christian places of worship

As well as the temples and mosques that served the general Indian populace, Calcutta also housed:

  • Parsi temple
  • Synagogue
  • Chinese temple

Cemeteries

See Cemeteries in Calcutta. There is also information about the crematorium.

Education

Colleges

  • Bengal School of Art
  • Bishop's College, Circular Road - run by the Oxford Mission
  • Calcutta Medical College - formerly Bengal Medical College, founded 1835
  • Doveton College
  • Presidency College

Schools

Also refer Orphans and Calcutta schools c late 1700s

  • Benevolent Institution School - see these two references from 1818 and 1851
  • La Martiniere School - established 1836
  • St James' School - founded by Bishop Cotton in 1864
  • St Lawrence High School
  • St Thomas School, Kidderpore - founded 1789 as the Free School
  • St. Xavier's Collegiate School - founded by the Jesuits in 1860

Economy and business

FIBIS resources

  • David Atkinson, "Eliza Fay: New Aspects" FIBIS Journal No 24 (Autumn 2010), pages 1-11. For details of how to access this article, see FIBIS Journals.

External Links

Encyclopedia entries
Maps
Guides and directories

See Directories online for links to many directories with information on Calcutta.

Pictures
Other

Historical books online

  • Volume 39, Part 1 Jan-March 1930 Archive.org
  • Volume 41, Part 2, April- June 1931 pages 101-188 Archive.org
  • A broken range of volumes is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website. Volume 2, part 2, commences at (actual) page 205, contents is computer page 8. Volume 25 has Volume 26 from computer page 211. Volume 44 is July-December 1932 and commences page 103, contents is computer page 7. Volume 49 has the language coded as bengali, so will not appear if the search is for english language books. Refer Online books-Digital Library of India for more details about this site.
Bengal, Past and Present, Journal of the Calcutta Historical Society was first published 1907 and is a very valuable source of information. Volumes are available at the British Library. There are published indexes, each of one volume, as follows: Volumes 1 (July 1907)-8 (June 1914); Volumes 9 (1914)-18 (1919); Volumes 1 (1907)-85 (1966); Volumes 1 (1907)-104 (1985). In addition, the British Library has an index for Volumes 19-29.
Note that a different Journal, with a somewhat similar name, is the Calcutta Historical Journal, published by the University of Calcutta, first published July 1976, available at the British Library
  • Baptisms 1767 -1777 and Baptisms 1778-1782 Transcriptions from Registers of St John's, Calcutta by E W Madge as they appeared in Bengal Past and Present – this link is to website of Madge Family of Bengal. The first page of the second pdf lists articles in other volumes of BP&P containing transcriptions of baptisms, marriages and burials to 1800. Each listing contains many pages of biographical notes (13 and 16 pages respectively)

References

  1. ↑ Reprinted in Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet, littérateur, scientist, page 330 by William Sloane Kennedy 1883, Archive.org, originally from Atlantic Monthly, January 1858
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