Loreto College We ended the previous edition of our walk at Russell Street, which leaves us free this week to continue down Park Street and turn right parallel to Russell Street, on to a street still known as Middleton Row after Sir Samuel Middleton, president of
East India House in London in 1800 Slavery. An ugly word to describe an ugly, despicable practise. Owing to what history has documented, most of us probably tend to equate the term ‘slave’ with the image of Africans working on huge American cotton plantations, and the
St Thomas’ Church, Middleton Row We ended last week at New Market, and if you have had your fill of shopping, we can now walk on through a most interesting part of the city. As Calcutta grew and evolved, this was part of the area which
Tomb of Vijaya একদা যাহার বিজয় সেনানী হেলায় লঙ্কা করিল জয় একদা যাহার অর্ণবপোত ভ্রমিল ভারত সাগরময়। Rough translation: The one whose victorious army once took Lanka with ease/The one whose ocean fleet once roamed the Indian seas These famous lines from Dwijendralal Roy’s cult song ‘Bongo Amar Janani
Having ended last week’s walk at Hatibagan, from where you can take the Metro from Shyambazar station and travel back to Esplanade. As you emerge from the Metro station, you will be stepping back into the neighbourhood which once lay at the heart of British
সিংহাসনে বসল রাজা বাজল কাঁসর ঘন্টা, ছট্ফটিয়ে উঠল কেঁপে মন্ত্রীবুড়োর মনটা৷ বললে রাজা, মন্ত্রী তোমার জামায় কেন গন্ধ? মন্ত্রী বলে, এসেন্স দিছি - গন্ধ তো নয় মন্দ! (Rough translation: The king takes his throne, the fanfare we hear/ The old minister’s mind fidgets and quakes in fear/ Says the
Fort William in 1828 The British knew two things about Calcutta, the city they helped create from a cluster of villages for which they had obtained leases from the Mughal empire. One, it was a city built on trade, where merchants were VIPs. Two, Calcutta and
‘Nobody conquers a poor country. There is not enough return on investment.’ Can’t remember who said this, but it applies perfectly to the British and their conquest of India. When they arrived, India was among the world’s wealthiest countries. When they left, it was among
A few days ago, we spoke about the ways of crime and punishment in old Calcutta. This may lead quite naturally to questions about famous trials and the justice system as it then was, and while today is not the day to talk about all
Calcutta Supreme Court from a print by Thomas Daniell, 1786 In the past, we have written about how Calcutta Police was the world’s first police force to set up its own fingerprint bureau in 1897, or how the brutal murder of a young Anglo-Indian woman in