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A City in the Making

A City in the Making : Aspects of Calcutta's Early Growth book

A City in the Making : Aspects of Calcutta's Early Growth

By Ranabir Choudhury

Category: Heritage Books, History Books, Paper Missile Books
ISBN: 978-93-85285-28-8
MRP: 995

When Job Charnock landed at Sutanati in 1690 the place was no more than an ordinary Bengal village on the banks of the Hooghly. Yet, by the middle of the nineteenth century, it was being described as the second city of the British Empire. With the help of archival records, this volume plots the various stages of the journey on the part of the three villages of Sutanati, Kalikata and Gobindapur which collectively came to be called Calcutta (renamed Kolkata). The story is broken up into three sections the first of which deals with the unplanned growth of the place till the town fell to the forces led by the nawab, Shiraj-ud-Daula, in 1756. During this time the main effort on the part of the authorities was directed at cleaning up the place and setting up essential facilities such as a hospital, a jail, a mayor’s court, strengthening the banks of the river, etc. The second period, which extended till the end of the eighteenth century, saw the expansion of Calcutta southward and eastward which kept the authorities busy with issues such as compensation for acquired land, the formation of today’s Maidan, the building of the arterial Circular Road, the setting up of bazars, and improving the drainage system. The third period marked the advent of the town-planning era set in motion by Lord Wellesley. The volume takes the story to the point where the Lottery Committee was formed in 1817.

A City in the Making
Ranabir Choudhury

Ranabir Ray Choudhury, during his extensive career with The Statesman in Calcutta from 1970 to 1994, primarily as a leader writer, developed a keen interest in the historical aspects of this significant city. Calcutta had been chosen by the East India Company as the central hub for its operations in the Indian subcontinent, including the eastern regions extending to Singapore and beyond. This burgeoning interest eventually culminated in the creation of three compilations: "Glimpses of Old Calcutta 1835-1850" (1978), "Calcutta a Hundred Years Ago 1880-1890" (1987), and "Early Calcutta Advertisements 1875-1925" (1992). Ranabir Ray Choudhury subsequently authored "The Lord Sahib's House, Sites of Power: Government Houses of Calcutta 1690-1911" in 2010. His sixth book, "A City in the Making, Aspects of Calcutta's Early Growth," was published by Niyogi Books in 2016.

Format: Hard Cover
Size: 216 x 140 mm
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