5/5 Bikash Kumar S. 3 years ago on Google • 311 reviews
The East
India
Company obtained
from
the Mughal
emperor Farrukhsiyar,
in
1717,
the
right
to
rent
from
38
villages
surrounding
their
settlement.
Of
these
5
lay
across
the Hooghly in
what
is
now
Howrah
district.
The
remaining
33
villages
were
on
the
Calcutta
side.
After
the
fall
of Siraj-ud-daulah,
the
last
independent Nawab
of
Bengal,
it
purchased
these
villages
in
1758
from Mir
Jafar,
and
reorganised
them.
These
villages
were
known
en-bloc
as Dihi
Panchannagram and
Bhowanipore
was
one
of
them.
It
was
considered
to
be
a
suburb
beyond
the
limits
of
the Maratha
Ditch.[1][2][3]
Bhowanipore
existed
as
a dihi in
1765
and
also
absorbed
a
part
of
Dihi
Chakraberia.
The
construction
of
Harish
Mukherjee
Road
and
Lansdowne
Road
(now
Sarat
Bose
Road)
and
extension
of
Hazra
Road
to
Kalighat,
opened
up
the
area
at
the
beginning
of
the
20th
century.[4] Aritsans
played
a
role
in
developing
the
neighbourhood
and
making
it
a
populous
native
place.
The kansaris (braziers),
the shankharis (conch
workers)
and
the telis (oil
pressers)
-
all
had
their paras.
The
goods
were
sold
in pattis.
Along
with
these
artisans,
Indian
lawyers,
including
the
most
brilliant
among
them,
flocked
to
Bhowanipore,
as
the
Sadar
Diwani
Adalat,
the
highest
appellate
court
in
those
days,
had
shifted
to
the
old
Military
Hospital
Building
here,
and
the
District
Judge's
court
was
in
nearby Alipore.[4][5]
In
1888,
one
of
the
25
newly
organized
police
section
houses
was
located
in
Bhowanipore.[4]
When
the Bengal
Renaissance started
taking
roots
in
19th
century
Calcutta,
it
was
initially
limited
to
the
predominantly
Hindu
'Indian
town'
stretching
north
and
north-east
from
the
fringes
of Burrabazar,
with
a
somewhat
later
extension
to
south
and
south-east
of
the
'European
town'
to
Bhowanipore,
and
some
decades
later
to Ballygunge,
which
was
then
developing
as
a
suburb.[6]
In
the
first
half
of
the
20th
century,
“in
the
milieu
of
relative
urban
prosperity...
Calcutta’s
rich
citizens
–
those
connected
with
jute,
coal,
tea,
other
industries,
trade,
money-lending
and
rentier
income
from
urban
property
–
did
fabulously
well
for
themselves.”
Many
of
the
mansions
in Ballygunge,
Bhowanipore
and Alipore were
built
by
the
city's
Bengali
and
new
Marwari
elite
who
wanted
to
move
from
the
“dirtier
sections
of
north
Calcutta
to
the
more
fashionable
areas
in
the
south”.[7]
Again,
it
was
in
the
first
half
of
the
20th
century
that
with
the
implementation
of
the
Area
Improvement
Programme
of
Calcutta
Improvement
Trust
Bhowanipore,
an
old
residential
suburb
was
upgraded
to
modern
standards
of
town
planning.[8]
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