Kolkata: Introduction-History

History In the 17th century, Job Charnock came to the banks of the river Hooghly and took the lease of three large villages - Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kolikata (Calcutta) to establish British East India Company in the Bengal region. The sites were carefully selected which were covered by river Hoogly on the west and salt lakes on the east. The selection of sites was very important due to the presence of a river. The villages were bought from the land lords and the company was given the right to carry on its trade with full autonomy by the Mughal emperors with an annual premium of Rs.3000.

Before the British rule, Kolkata was a small village and the capital of Bengal was Murshidabad which is situated at a distance of 60 miles from the present city. Calcutta was captured in the year 1757 by Robert Clive by defeating Siraj-Ud-daullah in the battle of Plassey.

During the time of British rule in India, Kolkata played a key role in both political and cultural reformation. Eminent personalities like Subhash Chandra Bose, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, had chosen this place as their Karma Bhumi. Till 1912, Calcutta was the capital of India, with important establishment like the Supreme Court. The capital was then shifted to Delhi and the city became the capital of West Bengal.