Select Documents on Calcutta (1800-1900)

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In 1990, the West Bengal State Archives brought out a volume on Select Documents on Calcutta, covering the period 1764-1800. The present volume seeks to carry forward the task of the earlier work by publishing a selection of documents on Calcutta's urbanization process its the 19 century. In response to my request, Professor Pranab Kumar Chatterjee, a former Director of the West Bengal State Archives, has written the introductory note. It was during his tenure, the selection of documents was undertaken by the archival officers of the State Archives Their painstaking research work shaped the foundation of this volume.

After the "Diwani" powers were granted to the English East India Company by the Mughal Emperor in 1765, permitting the Company to collect land revenue of Bengal Subuh, Calcutta grew considerably as a trading centre and emerged as the seat of political authority for the Company in Bengal Presidency. Though the population of Calcutta was increasing rapidly throughout the 18" century, the attempt for systematic town planning was not undertaken before the first decade of the 19 century. As the East India Company sought to reach out to build an all-India empire, with Calcutta as the metropolitan centre, a concerted plan of governance became an imperative for the English rulers. This was reflected in the minute of Governor-General Lord Wellesley, dated 16th June 1803, outlining the need for a cohesive town planning mechanism for Calcutta. However, the imperial overtone overshadowed the concern for appropriate local self-government in the city and it tried to edge out the prospect of Indianization and democratization of municipal administration in Calcutta, From Wellesley to Curzon, the trend remained almost similar.

The imperial thrust, however, had to face resistance from the rising educated middle class of Bengal from the second half of the 19th century. They succeeded to make Calcutta a pivotal centre not only for the Indian Renaissance but also a meeting ground for initiating nationalist mobilisation against the colonial rule, which took far more comprehensive dimension in the 20 century. This alternative overview included deep concern for the urban development of Calcutta.

I am grateful to Professor Pranab Kumar Chatterjee for writing the Introductory Note for the volume. I also appreciate the endeavours of Smt. Bidisha Chakraborty and Dr. Sarmistha De, the archival officers of West Bengal State Archives, for selecting and processing the relevant historical source materials, available from Judicial (Criminal), Bengal Judicial and Municipal (Municipal) Proceedings. This volume, I hope, would be of help to the researchers on Calcutta's growth and development in the 19º century. There are considerable numbers of other proceedings such as General Department proceedings (which include Education Series and Miscellaneous Series), which may be utilised for highlighting the growth process of Calcutta in a more comprehensive way. This task is envisaged to be undertaken in future which will require publication of several volumes.

Smt. Aradhana Ghosh, Deputy Director of the State Archives and Shri Swapan Mukherjee, former Reprography-in-Charge of the State Archives, provided required assistance in the publication of the present volume. Active assistance also came from Smt. Rina Sinha, Shri Manas Kumar Sardar, Smt. Sashi Subba and other archival officers of West Bengal State Archives.

I would like to express my gratitude to Shri Sudarsan Raychaudhuri, Hon'ble Minister-in-charge of Higher Education Department, Government of West Bengal, for his constant encouragement. I also wish to record my gratitude to Shri Satish C. Tewari, Principal Secretary of Higher Education Department, for providing me with necessary support for this publication.

The history of Calcutta, the name coined from a pre-British sleepy village, may be fairly said to be epitome of the history of the British Empire in India. It was not Fort St. George and Madras or Bombay who can claim a longer history, but it has been from Fort William at Bengal that the edifice of the British Empire in India was laid. Needless to say the roots of the empire were laid by traders of the English East India Company who aimed at trade alone. It was the logic of trade that lay at the choice of Calcutta for being the English trading settlement in Eastern India. Hooghly, Uluberia, Balasore, or Chittagong all came up as probable site, but eventually Calcutta was selected both from trading as well as strategic considerations. As trade depends on transport and suitable hinterland, Calcutta had been the ideal choice. The location of Calcutta at the head of the great riverine system of the lower Gangetic valley placed it in an unassailable position as an entrepot of Northern India. Calcutta, the British trading centre's march to steady growth depended on trade, both overseas and inland. In course of time, both economic and political gravity shifted to Calcutta which grew into a primate city. In fact within a century after the foundation of English East India Company's settlement in India, Calcutta became the capital of British India and the second city of British Empire, ranking next to London.

Rudyard Kipling, a dichard imperialist considered that Calcutta's foundation was "chance-directed, chance erected'. To quote Kipling's well-known lines-

"Once two hundred years ago, the trader came,

Meek and tame.

Where his timid foot first halted, there he stayed,

Till mere trade.

Grew to empire, and he sent his armies forth

South and north.

Till the country from Peshawar to Ceylon Was his own.

Thus the midday halt of Charnockmore's the pity!

Grew a city

As the fungus sprouts chaotic from its bed,

So it spred,

Chance-directed, chance-erected, laid and built On the silt",

But, Calcutta did not originate in a vacuum. It had been a part of age old rich maritime tradition of South Bengal. Gangaridae, Tamralipti, Satgaon predated Calcutta as major ports of eastern India since the ancient times. Calcutta also followed the legacy of this tradition. Again Job Chamock did not land in Calcutta on 24th August 1690 in a fit of absent mindedness. Charnock came to India in 1656, when records show him as working as a junior member of the Bay Council of the English East India Company at the salary of twenty pounds, 24h August 1690 was the official date when the settlement came into existence, as the Council accepted the report of Charock to establish its settlement in the area which was Sutanuti, Dihi Kolkata and Gobindapur, which was then leased from the Mughal Government of the time on annual rent. Even before Charnock's landing, Kalikata had attracted rich Bengali trading communities like the Seths and the Basaks. Even the Dutch had come down to Calcutta. The English East India Company took a cool and calculated decision through a period of trial and error. But the British had to overcome a series of encounters at the initial stage since the days of Emperor Aurangazeb. Battles over Calcutta continued for more than seven decades. The Fort William became the matrix of Company's trading enterprise and defence, comprising the whole settlement of Sutanuti, Dihi Kolkata and Gobindapur. The Fort emerged as the symbol of Company's onward development, when Nawab Sirajuddaula's pre-emptive attack was designed to curb the Company's drive to encroach upon the Nawab's sovereign authority. After 20th June 1756, Siraj named the whole area as Alinagar. On 2nd January 1757, it was named Calcutta by Colonel Clive. The Battle of Plassey (1757), which the Company maneuvered to win, was a skirmish. But it was politically important. More decisive battle was fought at Buxar, which was followed by the grant of Diwani powers to the English East India Company by Mughal Emperor Shah Alam in 1765. This grant gave the Company a farman to collect land revenue of Bengal Subah. After the battles of Plassey and Buxar, the British were in an aggressive mood. They eliminated the European rivals and at the same time built up thriving trade in collaboration with Indian elements known as Banians. As the British trade multiplied, it was also heydays of the Banians. Leading Banians like Nabkisen of Clive, Kantababu of Warren Hastings, Gokul Ghosal of Verelst amassed huge money and sought to figure as the prominent leaders of Bengali society.

ROAD TO URBANISATION

Calcutta's march to urbanization had not been the outcome of a definite pattern. In fact there are three distinct phases in keeping with the East India Company's transformation. The first phase ended in 1757 when the Company had started playing an overtly political role. During the second phase, spanning four decades between 1757 and 1800, Calcutta ceased to be a mere trading centre, but grew into the seat of political authority in Bengal Presidency. From 1800 onwards, as the British carved out an all-India Empire, Calcutta achieved the exact status of being an imperial city, Calcutta's urbanization process is reflected in Lt. Col. More Wood's map of Calcutta drawn in 1784-85 (published by Bailey in 1792) showing clear cut demarcation between the White and Black Town. Calcutta's urbanization process revealed the character of a colonial city. The areas of European exclusiveness were distinct and articulated the organizational mould of an European Town. The European Town located around the Tank Square rested on highly intensive commercial activities. The physical planning of the European segment reflected early Victorian model. Apart from business and administrative buildings institutional structure came up from the late 18th century. The Asiatic Society, the Town Hall, the Public Library and clubs belonged to the latter category. The Black Town had, in contrast, an inclusive character. People belonging to different castes among the Hindus, the Muslims, the Armenians resided in native or Black Town. The Black Town was a congregation of bazaars (market). Bara Bazaar, the most important one, was originally dominated by Bengali merchants like Seths, Basaks and Mullicks. The Black Town however, grew in contrast. While the affluent sections of Bengali society lived in commodious palaces, artisans and daily wage workers were slum dwellers. Another characteristic of urbanization in 'Native' Calcutta was that many localities carried the trade practices of dwellers. The names of Kumartuli, Suriparah, Kansaripara, Jeliapara are derived from the traditional trading activities of potters, liquor-vendors, braziers, fishermen. Even though the spate of urbanization took a definite shape since the closing years of the 18 century, systematic town planning was yet to get serious thinking. Calcutta's urbanization had not assumed an organic cohesive character. Hostile climate, absence of public hygiene and bouts of flood and cyclone caused serious road blocks on Calcutta's healthy development.

Even though the city of palaces had started emerging, there was no concern for civic improvement. The English merchants mainly concentrated on trade and accumulation of profits. The Indians were not much concerned about civic awareness. The sorry state of affairs in 1774 drove William Mackintosh to write about dismal conditions of the city: "an undistinguished mass of filth and corruption, equally offensive to human sense and health, compose the capital of English Company's Government in India."