Calcutta (now officially Kolkata) derived its name from Kalikata, one of three villages (along with Sutanuti and Gobindapur) that existed before the British East India Company established a settlement there in the late 17th century. The name likely stems from the Bengali word Kalikshetra, meaning "Ground of the Goddess Kali".
The rent-roll of Akbar, the 16th century Mughal emperor, and the work of a Bengali poet, Bipradas Pipilai, of the late 15th century, both make mention of the area's early name's being Kolikata, from which Kolkata/Calcutta derive. There is much discussion about the origin of the city's name.
Following English transcription, "Kāl Kāʈa" became "Calcutta". The name may have its origin in the words khal meaning "canal", followed by kaṭa, which may mean "dug". The name may have been derived from the Bengali term kilkila ("flat area"). Another theory is that the name derives from Kalighat.
Later, Madras (the capital of Tamil Nadu) was officially renamed Chennai in 1996. The name of Calcutta, which was amongst the first cities to be settled by the British, was changed to Kolkata (reflecting the local Bengali pronunciation) in 2001.
In 1696, Old Fort William was established and this was the origin of the city of Calcutta. The name Calcutta is derived from Kalikata, one of the three villages whose lands became a part of the new settlement.
HISTORY OF KOLKATA || HOW DO KOLKATA GOT IT'S NAME || MUST WATCH
What language do they speak in Calcutta?
The primary and official language of Kolkata is Bengali (Bangla), spoken by the majority, but the city is multilingual with significant populations speaking Hindi, Urdu, and English, reflecting its diverse cultural history as the former capital of British India. Bengali is a rich Indo-Aryan language, featuring classical, standard, and colloquial forms, with the Kolkata dialect being a key part of modern usage, noted for its melodic quality and cultural significance.
Bombay was changed to Mumbai in 1995 by the Maharashtra government, led by the Shiv Sena party, to shed colonial-era influence and embrace the city's local identity, deriving the new name from Mumba Devi, the patron goddess of the city's original inhabitants, the Koli people, reflecting a broader Indian trend of renaming places to reclaim cultural heritage.
After independence, civil strife and communist rule saw Kolkata lose pace to other Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. In 1985 the prime minister Rajiv Ghandhi described Kolkata as a “dying” city.
In 1996, in keeping with the recent nationwide practice of Indianizing city names, the Government of Tamil Nadu, then represented by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, renamed the city to Chennai.
These changes aimed to restore the native pronunciation and meaning of the names that were lost or altered over time. Another reason for renaming places in India was to assert the linguistic and cultural identity of the regions and communities that inhabited them.
After seeking a place in the fort to confine the prisoners (including Holwell), at 8.00 p.m., the jailers stripped the prisoners of their clothes and locked the prisoners in the fort's prison—"the black hole" in soldiers' slang—a small room that measured 14 by 18 feet (4.3 m × 5.5 m).
He travelled across the length and breadth of the nation in order to educate the people regarding his philosophy. In this regard, he travelled to Kolkata on 4th September 1921, accompanied by the eminent Khilafat leaders Muhammad and Shaukat Ali, as well as Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das.
In 1911, the British decided to shift the capital of India from Kolkata to New Delhi. This decision was influenced by several factors, including the growing importance of northern India, the need for a more centralized location, and the desire to create a new capital that symbolized British imperial power.
Kolkata constitutes a metropolitan city region with over 18 million inhabitants and is by far the poorest and least developed urban mega-region in India.
What was Chennai previously called? Chennai was previously called Madras. Madras was the shortened name of the fishing village Madraspatnam, where the British East India Company built a fort and factory (trading post) in 1639–40. Tamil Nadu officially changed the name of the city to Chennai in 1996.
On 11 May 1661, the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, placed Bombay in the possession of the British Empire, as part of Catherine's dowry to Charles, along with the North African city of Tangier.
Kolkata earned its nickname 'The Black City' due to its historical association with the coal trade and the pervasive soot that filled the air, impacting both its landscape and the lives of its inhabitants. This moniker took root during the significant industrial development of the 19th century.
South Indian foods like Idli, sambhar, Dhosa, Masala Dhosa, Coconut chutney are among the most consumed street foods in Kolkata since these are easy to ready and easy to eat.
