The creation of Kolkata is generally attributed to Job Charnock, an administrator with the British East India Company, who established a trading post in the area on August 24, 1690. While historically credited as the sole founder, modern historical consensus and a 2003 Calcutta High Court ruling have clarified that the city grew from earlier settlements, and no single individual can be credited as its sole creator.
Kolkata, or Calcutta, was a colonial city. The British East India Company developed Calcutta as a village 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.
Job Charnock is often regarded as the founder of the city; however, in response to a public petition, the Calcutta High Court ruled in 2003 that the city does not have a founder. The area occupied by the present-day city encompassed three villages: Kalikata, Gobindapur and Sutanuti.
Formerly known as Calcutta, the city was founded in the late seventeenth century, with the coming of the British East India Company. The city is dotted with heritage structures that continue to tell tales of its historic past. Kolkata has also been the nucleus of Bengali cuisine, literature, cinema and drama.
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.
For years, the British had ruled from Calcutta, the commercial hub of India, which the East India Company, in the 18th century, had developed into a colonial city. Hardinge argued that the rising importance of the elected legislative bodies meant that Britain needed to find a more centrally located capital.
This has evolved the Indian capitals often: Pataliputra during the Maurya and Gupta eras, Delhi under the Sultanate, and Agra. New Delhi became the capital in 1911, as declared by King George V. Calcutta as British India's capital.
Calcutta's decline started in February 1968, with the Ashok Kumar Nite at Rabindra Sarobar Stadium. The gathering was attacked by goons, women pulled out and their naked bodies found on and around the lake next morning. The Communist leaders called it the inevitable rise of the proletariat against the rotten bourgeois.
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.
The bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 resulted in the residual state having no capital city, with Hyderabad serving as the state's temporary capital city despite being located in the new state of Telangana.
A city of commerce, transport, and manufacture, Kolkata is the dominant urban centre of eastern India. The city's former name, Calcutta, is an Anglicized version of the Bengali name Kalikata.
Kolkata is called the Black City, Surat the Diamond City, and. Bengaluru the Garden City. These titles highlight their rich heritage, industries, and cultural significance.
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.
Definitions of Calcutta. noun. the largest city in India and one of the largest cities in the world; located in eastern India; suffers from poverty and overcrowding. synonyms: Kolkata.
