Kolkata

Kolkata
Location of Kolkata
Location	22.82° N 88.20° E
State	West Bengal
District	• Kolkata • 24 Parganas (South) • 24 Parganas (North) • Howrah • Hooghly • Nadia
Mayor	Bikash Bhattacharya
Altitude	6 metres
Area	1,036 km²
Population ( 2001)	4.6 million (city), 13.2 million (urban agglomeration)
Density	11,680/ km²
Codes • Postal • Telephone • Vehicle	700 0xx +91 (0)33 WB-?
Time zone	IST ( UTC +5:30)

Kolkata ( Bangla: কলকাতা, Hindi: कोलकता, alternate English Calcutta), is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and was capital of British India until 1912. The city's name was officially changed from Calcutta to Kolkata in January 2001. Despite the new name being phonetically closer to the Bengali version, many people and organisations still refer to it as Calcutta in the English language. In Hindi, the city is referred to as Kalkatta.

Kolkata also refers to the name of the Kolkata administrative district of West Bengal that part of the city lies in. The urban agglomeration of Kolkata covers several municipal corporations, municipalities, city boards and villages and is the third largest urban agglomeration in India after Mumbai and Delhi. As per the census of 2001, the urban agglomeration's population was 13,216,546 while that of the city (Municipal Corporation of Kolkata) was 4,580,544. Kolkata city's population growth has been pretty low in the last decade.

The city is situated on the banks of the Hoogli River (a distributary of the Ganges). Some of the renowned engineering marvels associated with Kolkata include the bridges that span across this river to its twin city of Howrah (which is routinely considered as part of greater Kolkata): the Howrah Bridge (Rabindra Setu), Vivekananda Setu and Vidyasagar Setu.

History

Kolkata's history is intimately related to the British East India Company, which first arrived in 1690, and to British India, of which Calcutta became the capital in 1772. In the nineteenth century Calcutta was the epicentre of activity in the early stages of the national movement of independence. Kolkata remained in the forefront of Indian prosperity up to independence and for some more years afterwards before the population pressure on infrastructure and political disturbances led to a gradual decline. A violent and bloody Marxist-Maoist movement known as the Naxal movement (after Naxalbari, the place where it first started) in the 1970s left the city badly bruised. The city's recovery process gathered steam after India's liberalization in the early nineties.

Geography

Kolkata is located in the eastern part of India at 22°82′N 88°20′E. It has spread linearly along the banks of the river Hooghly.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has an area of 185 square kilometres. The city proper today can be roughly divided into two sections along Mother Teresa Sarani (Park Street). North of Park Street is the more congested part of the city. South of Park Street is the slightly better planned section of the city. The old Kolkata Business District (CBD) is where the seat of the West Bengal Government is located, along with many other government offices. Several banks have their corporate ( Allahabad Bank, United Bank of India, UCO Bank) or regional headquarters ( Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of India, Bank of India, Central Bank of India amongst many others) around the B.B.D. Bagh (Dalhousie) area. Many of Kolkata's older business groups have their main offices here. The area is a mix of multi-storeyed office blocks and colonial buildings.

The newer CBD is around the south of Park Street, Camac Street and AJC Bose Road. Several high-rise office blocks including some of Kolkata's tallest commercial buildings - like the Chatterjee International Centre, Tata Centre, Everest House, Industry House, CGO Building - are located here.

Maidan (open field) is situated between the river Ganges and J.L. Nehru Road (or Chowringhee). It is said to be the lungs of Calcutta. The lush green meadow also houses Victoria Memorial, Eden Gardens, and several other sporting clubs. Calcuttans simply love to stroll in the Maidan.

In an effort to relieve congestion in the main city, many government offices have shifted to high-rise office buildings lining Bidhan Nagar's ( Salt Lake) Central Park.

The residential buildings are mainly lowrise and comprise of older colonial buildings and numerous new four storey apartment blocks. Ten to twelve storey apartment blocks have come up in large numbers in south Kolkata. The city has relaxed its rules on highrise construction recently and twenty storey buildings are becoming more common. The tallest residential towers of eastern India - the four thirty-five-storey towers of South City are under construction on Prince Anwar Shah Road.

Huge construction activity along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass is changing the face of the city. Luxury hotels, a convention centre, speciality hospitals, condominium complexes, malls and multiplexes are coming up at a rapid pace.

The city's expansion in the eastern side is spearheaded by the construction of a huge new city called New Town adjacent to the well planned Bidhan Nagar. Located in Rajarhat, it is one of the largest planned urban developments in India.

The neglected western side of the urban agglomeration has got a boost recently with the signing of an agreement with an Indonesian company to build the West Kolkata International Township. Another huge new township is in the proposal state in Dankuni.

Slums and dilapidated structures exist in many pockets of the city proper and house over 25% of the city's population (Census 2001). Slum redevelopment schemes have helped improve living conditions to a slight extent but there is huge scope for improvement in this area. Efforts to shift slum dwellers to newer developments have often met with resistance and failure because many of the slums are in prime areas of the city and the slum dwellers who are integrated in the social structure of the neighbourhood do not want to shift.

Climate

Calcutta has a subtropical climate, with summer monsoons. The annual mean temperature is 26.8 °C, and monthly mean temperatures range from 20 °C to 31 °C and maximum temperatures in Calcutta often exceed 40 °C during May-June.The lowest temperature hovers around 12 - 14 °C in the winter months of December and January.Winter is short- lasting - about 2 and a half months.

The main seasonal influence upon the climate is the monsoon. Maximum rainfall occurs during the monsoon in August (306 mm) and the average annual total is 1,582 mm.

Early morning mists are common. Evening smog often occurs due to nighttime temperature inversions and mixing heights are generally restricted to below 500 m during the night.

Summer is dominated by strong south-westerly monsoon winds. Mean ventilation coefficients are greatest in the pre-monsoon (8,118 m2s-1) and monsoon (7,410 m2s-1) periods. Total duration of sunshine is 2,528 hours per annum with maximum insolation occurring in March.

Administration

Kolkata Municipal Corporation is the governing body of the city proper. The corporation council is composed of one elected representative from each of the 100 wards of the city.

The council members annually elect a mayor (at present Bikash Bhattacharya), a deputy mayor, and a number of committees to conduct the activities of the corporation. A commissioner, the executive head of the corporation, is responsible to its elected membership. A largely ornamental Sheriff of the city exists, usually some famous citizen is chosen for the post.

The city is also a part of the Kolkata Metropolitan District, which includes a large rural hinterland around the urban centres.

Kolkata being the capital of West Bengal, the governor resides in the city in the historic Raj Bhavan. The state Legislative Assembly and the Secretariat ( Writers' Building) is located in the city . The Calcutta High Court, exercising original jurisdiction over the city and appellate jurisdiction over West Bengal, is also located there.

Economy

The ' Babu' culture and the left rule had taken its toll, and by the early 1990s, there was a gradual realisation that things needed to change. This has led to wooing of foreign investment and control over the trade-union activism by the ruling Left establishment. In recent years the city has managed to attract a steady flow of investment from various private sector organizations. The landscape of the city is also fast changing with flyovers, gardens and new commercial establishments. The city itself has expanded into its suburbs, with Greater Kolkata stretching from Kalyani (in Nadia District) in the North to Diamond Harbour in the South (in the South 24 Parganas District).

Kolkata is the main business, commercial and financial hub of eastern India. Kolkata witnessed an economic decline from the late sixties till the late nineties. The city's economic fortunes turned the tide as the early nineties economic liberalization in India reached Kolkata's shores during late nineties.

Since 1977, a "Left Front" coalition of communist and Marxist parties has continuously ruled the state. The Left Front regained control of the Municipal Corporation of Kolkata from the Trinamul Congress in the 2005 civic elections.

The city's fortunes have looked up since the early nineties, coinciding with the liberalization of the Indian economy. Its economy has been amongst the fastest growing in the country. The new metro city is characterised by popular shopping malls, restaurants, coffee shops and entertainment complexes such as the City Centre, Nandan, Tantra, Barista, Sourav's Pavilion and Science City.

Kolkata is home to many industrial units, of large Indian corporations, whose product range is varied and includes - engineering products, electronics, electrical equipment, cables, steel, leather, textiles, jewellery, frigates, automobiles, railway coaches, wagons.

Several industrial estates like Taratolla, Kalyani, Uluberia, Dankuni, Kasba, Howrah are spread throughout the urban agglomeration. A huge leather complex has come up at Bantolla. An export processing zone has been set up in Falta. Specialized setups like the country's first Toy Park, and a Gem and Jewellery Park have also been established.

Kolkata is also becoming a major hub for the IT ( Information Technology) industry. With construction underway of New Town at Rajarhat and extension of Salt Lake's Sector-V, Kolkata is rapidly turning into a preferred IT/BPO destination. More and more businesses are coming to Kolkata to set up their offices, including multinationals such as IBM, HSBC and ABN AMRO Bank. Leading the way in growth have been the Kolkata based companies such as Skytech, WDC, Vision Comptech and Polaris Networks amongst numerous others. This apart, other big Indian software firms are choosing to make Kolkata their hub of operations. Of these Wipro, TCS, MBT, Cognizant are leading the way.

Demographics

Kolkata is a multicultural, cosmopolitan city.

Residents of Kolkata are called Calcuttans. As of 2001, Kolkata city had a population of 4.6 million, while the total urban agglomeration population was 13.2 million.

The population density in the city is 24,760 per square km,and the size of the city is 185 square km.The sex ratio is 828 females per 1000 males.The literacy rate is 80.86 %,much higher than the national average of 59.5%.

Besides Bengalis, there are considerable number of Marwaris and Biharis in the city.Besides, there are several families from other parts of India like Tamilnadu,Kerala, Punjab,Gujarat and many others.Apart from the diversity of India, the cultures represented are that of the Europeans (Including Germans, Armenians, and others), and other Asians (Including Chinese, Sinhalese, and Tibetans).

The major languages spoken are Bengali, Hindi, English, Bhojpuri.

Some of the expatriate communities include Chinese, Tamil, Marwari, Anglo-Indian, Jewish, Armenian, Tibetan, Greek and Parsi.

Also see : Ethnic communities in Kolkata

Culture

Kolkata is said to be the cultural capital of India.The city is known for its literary and revolutionary heritage.A specialty of Kolkata culture is the Paras. Para in Kolkata signify a neighbourhood with a strong sense of community, and are usually sharply defined on the basis of loyalties (like which households contribute economically to which public or " barowari" puja).

Typically, every para has its own community club, with a club room ("club ghar"), and often a playing field. People of a para habitually indulge in adda or leisurely chat in "rock"s or "rowacks" (porches) and teashops in the evenings after work. North Kolkata paras typically have more streetlife at late nights with respect to South Kolkata paras. Sports ( cricket, football, badminton) and indoor games ( carrom) tournaments are regularly organized on an inter-para basis.

An adda may be viewed as a form of intellectual exchange among members of the same socio-economic strata. It is most popular among the youths belonging to the so-called "middle-class intelligentsia". Although many Kolkatans boast of the city being the birthplace of adda culture, Satyajit Ray (in his film Agantuk) traces back the origin of the tradition to regular intellectual dialogues prevalent in ancient Greece at the time of Socrates or Plato. The adda culture is waning as modernisation and fast-life gradually takes over the city.

Another intersting aspect is the political graffitis. Walls were "captured" for fixed numbers of years, and graffiti overpainting was tantamount to political transgression. Generations of political graffiti artists have been at work on Kolkata's walls, producing slander, witty banter and limericks, caricatures and propaganda.

Calcuttans are aggressive commuters, but with a sense of humour. The local and suburban rails and buses, as well as the underground Kolkata Metro railway are usually packed during office hours. The practice of "reserving" public seats by daily passengers is widespread. Share taxis are a common occurrence for travel to and from railway stations and such. The practice of car pools is also growing after the construction of the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and the emergence of the CBD in Bidhan Nagar.

Besides all these cultural features of Kolkata daily life,there is of course more organized cultural activities like music,arts,talks and discussion etc.Several theatres and halls regularly arrange for cultural functions and deliberation.People of calcutta are lovers of Art and literature and generally welcoming towards new talents. Devajyoti Ray's new style pseudorealist art has recently recieved rave comments from Calcuttans. Famous new generation Indian artists like Sanjay Bhattacharya, Shakila and Paresh Maiti had also started their careers from this city.

Cinema of Kolkata has always been the best in India.Stallwarts like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen are the pride of Kolkata. Aparna Sen, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Goutam Ghosh, Rituparno Ghosh are at present carrying out the tasks the Calcutta film cylture. Kolkata Film Festival held annually across several cinema theatres in the city serves to the taste of Kolkata people for cinema from all over the world.

To promote Bengali language in West Bengal, the state government established Paschimbanga Bangla Academy in Kolkata. It has its official building on the campus of Nandan.

Tourism

Wikitravel page for Kolkata

Kolkata been nicknamed the City of Palaces. This comes from the numerous palatial mansions built all over the city.

During the British colonial era from 1700- 1912, when Kolkata was the capital of British India, Kolkata witnessed a spate of frenzied construction activity of buildings largely influenced by the conscious intermingling of Gothic, Baroque, Roman, Oriental and Islamic schools of design. Unlike many north Indian cities, whose construction stresses minimalism, the layout of much of the architectural variety in Kolkata owes its origins to European styles and tastes imported by the British and, to a much lesser extent, the Portuguese and French.

The buildings were designed, and inspired by the tastes of the English gentleman around and the aspiring Bengali Babu (literally a nouveau riche Bengali who aspired to cultivation of English etiquette, manners and custom as such practices were favourable to monetary gains from the British).

Today many of these structures are in various stages of decay. Some of the major buildings of this period are well maintained and several buildings have been declared as heritage structures. Conservation efforts are patchy and are often affected by problems of litigation, tenant troubles, ownership disputes, old tenancy laws and a lack of funds.

Kolkata has many museums, libraries, hotels, parks, memorials, sports venues, markets, temples, mosques and clubs which may be of interest to the tourist.

Victoria Memorial remains one of the most well known structures in Kolkata.The memorial also boasts of a great museum. Indian Museum is the largest museum in Asia and the oldest in the Asia - Pacific region (est. 1814).Situated on Chowringhee Avenue, the Indian Museum houses perhaps the greatest collection of Indian natural history and an Indian Art collection .The Marble Palace is a privately owned collection of eclectic sculptures, paintings and a small menagerie and aviary off Chittaranjan Avenue in North Kolkata. National Library of India(estd.1836) located in Alipore is India's leading library and a public library.The Jorasanko Thakurbari is the ancestral home of the Tagore family and was converted into a museum in 1961. Nandan is a modern cinema complex, a unique cultural centre without a parallel in the country, and also a popular hangout.Government House, Calcutta, built in the early 19th century, was once the seat of the Viceroy of India.

The Maidan is a large open field in the heart of the city where several sporting events take place regulerly. Indian Botanical Garden, Central Park, Rabindra Sarobar, Millennium Park are some other large parks.

Dakshineswar Kali Temple, Kalighat,Birla Temple, Belur Math, Tipu Sultan Mosque, Nakhoda Masjid , St. Paul's Cathedral are some of the notable religious centers of the city. College Street, Free School Street, Park Street, Sudder street, Chowringhee Avenue are some of the famous streets.

Howrah Bridge and Vidyasagar Setu are the two bridges connecting Kolkata with Howrah over the Ganges.

Transport

The two major railway stations of the city are at Howrah and sealdah. The Eastern and South Eastern Railways are headquartered in the city. The electrified suburban rail network of the SER and the ER is extensive and includes the Circular Rail. The city also has South Asia's oldest underground metro railway. Until mid 2005 it was the only underground metro railway in the Indian subcontinent.

The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport is at Dum Dum.

Kolkata is also a major port and together with the Haldia dock systems, the Kolkata Port Trust has been amongst top performers in the country.

Kolkata is the only city in India to have a tram network.

The city has an extensive bus network and taxis, autorickshaws and rickshaws are plenty in number.

The Auto rickshaws deserve special mention. Auto-rikshaws or autos as they are achronymed are small contraptions on the roads. They have three wheels, are extremely agile, take you anywhere your fancy MUV will not go. The regulation is three passengers at back, one in front along with the driver. This regulation is diregarded with impunity and often six or more people get in. Autos ply on fixed routes and the fare ranges from Rs.2.50 to Rs. 15, depending on the distance covered.

Festivals

The religious festivals are

• Durga Puja - the main annual festival in Kolkata as well as West Bengal.The festival comprises of 4 to 5 days in the month of October.
• Kali Puja
• Saraswati Puja
• Dol / Holi
• Ratha Yatra
• Eid
• Christmas

The cultural festivals are

• Calcutta Book Fair [1]
• Dover Lane music festival
• Calcutta International Film Festival
• National Theatre Festival

Education

Kolkata has many schools, colleges and universities, as well as technical institutes and national centres of excellence, used in education. Schools in Kolkata can be run by the West Bengal state government or can be run independently or with financial aid from the government. The independent schools can be private or religious (usually Christian or Muslim).Schools usually follow CBSE, ICSE or West Bengal state board.

Kolkata also has 9 universities (including those affiliated to the state of West Bengal), as well as numerous colleges affiliated to them. Various other polytechnics cater to vocational training. Finally there are many autonomous institutions and centres of excellence in Kolkata.

University of Calcutta founded in 1857, has more than 150 affiliated colleges. Besides these colleges, there are university colleges of arts (humanities), commerce, law, medicine, science, and technology specialize in postgraduate teaching and research. Other notable universities are:

• Jadavpur University
• Rabindra Bharati University
• Bengal Engineering & Science University
• West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
• Netaji Subhas Open University
• West Bengal University of Health Sciences

Some well-known general colleges are:

• Presidency College( 1817)
• Scottish Church College
• Bethune College
• Lady Brabourne College

The city has 5 medical colleges and one dental college. Presidency College is one of the most renowned colleges in India and has a host of stellar alumni and faculty. Calcutta Medical College ( 1835) is the oldest college of European medicine in Asia.

Some institutions of national importance are:

• Asiatic Society
• Indian Statistical Institute
• Indian Institute of Management
• Marine Engineering Research Institute
• Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
• Indian Institute of Chemical Biology
• Institute of Jute Technology
• [ http://www.veccal.ernet.in Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre]
• Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
• Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute

Media

Kolkata has a thriving and independent media culture with many eminent and respected newspapers and television production houses. This city can also claim a widespread argumentative culture that adds to its reputation as being one of the best centres for journalism in India. A few of the widely circulated newspapers are as follows:

Bengali

• AnandabazarPatrika
• Aajkaal
• Bartaman
• Sangbad Pratidin

English

• The Telegraph
• The Statesman
• Asian Age
• Hindustan Times
• The Times of India

Hindi

• Sanmarg

Kolkata in the media

Several important and famous literary and film works were based on Kolkata.

Travelogues like The Great Railway Bazaar ( Paul Theroux) and Following The Equator ( Mark Twain) describes Kolkata.

Notable books are City of the Dreadful Night and American Tales Rudyard Kipling, City of Joy ( Dominique Lapierre), Calcutta: The Living City Volumes 1 & 2(ed. Sukanta Chaudhuri), Calcutta - City of Palaces: A Survey of the City in the Days of the East India Company 1690-1858 (Jeremiah P. Losty), Calcutta 1981 (ed. Jean Racine).

Bengali films like Apur Sansar, Mahanagar, Agantuk, Calcutta 71, Interview, Ek Din Pratidin, Antareen, Meghe Dhaka Tara, Jukti Takko Aar Gappo, Parama, Unishe April, Chokher Bali and Hindi films like Howrah Bridge, Amar Prem, Do Bigha Zameen, Devdas(1955), Devdas(2002), Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Hazaar Chauraasi Ki Maa, Parineeta, Yuva, Raincoat are set on the backdrop of Kolkata.

Some English films like Calcutta ( Louis Malle), 36 Chowringhee Lane, City of Joy ( Roland Joffe), Citi Life - Calcutta My El Dorado ( Mrinal Sen), 10 Days in Calcutta ( Gerhard Hauff), Bow Barracks Forever , Call Cutta ( Anjan Dutt), 15 Park Avenue ( Aparna Sen) are based on Calcutta.

Sports

Football (soccer) is a passion for many Calcuttans with the national clubs, East Bengal Club and Mohun Bagan Athletic Club being the best known teams. Sourav Ganguly, who is considered the most successful captain of India in Test cricket hails from Calcutta.

Eden Gardens is presently one of only two 100,000 seater amphitheatres for the game of cricket. Salt Lake Stadiumis a multi-use stadium in Salt Lake City. Netaji Indoor Stadium is an air-conditioned indoor stadium. CCFC is the second oldest cricket club in the world.

Summer Olympic medallists from Kolkata:

• Norman Pritchard ( Athletics - 1900)
• Richard James Allen
• Leslie Claudius ( Field Hockey - 1924, 1928, 1936)
• Gurbux Singh
• Dr. Vece Paes ( Field Hockey - 1980)
• Leander Adrian Paes ( Olympic Bronze medallist at singles tennis in 1996 Olympics; also Wimbledon and French Open Men's Doubles champion, with Mahesh Bhupathi; and Mixed Doubles Champion 1999 and Wimbledon Mixed Doubles Champion 2003, with ace Martina Navratilova)

Other sportspersons of Kolkata

• Sourav Ganguly
• Gobor Goho (World Amateur Wrestling Championship USA 1900-2)
• Manotosh Roy (former Mr Universe - 1950s)
• Manohar Aich (former Mr. World - 1950s)
• Chandra Hirjee (1958 winner of the inaugural World Amateur Snooker Championship held at Kolkata. Also Indian Open Billiards Championship winner in 1946, 47, 56 and 58, runner-up in 1952, 54, 55, 57 and Indian Snooker Championship runner-up in 1952, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
• Mihir Sen ( Guinness Record holder of being the first person to swim across the English Channel in 1958 and the seven straits across all major continents)
• Jyotirmoyee Sikdar (1998 Asian Games Gold medallist in four events in racing)
• Arjun Atwal (PGA Golf champion 2003)
• Dibyendu Barua and Surya Sekhar Ganguly (current FIDE Chess Grandmasters)
• Trans-continental wizards Mohammed Salahuddin Choudhury and his wife Neena, have the acknowledgment of the Guinness Book of World Records for the first and fastest circum-navigation of the world by car – under the rules applicable in 1989 (in a "Contessa Classic" 1989 car) and 1991 (in a Nissan jeep), and thereby embracing more than an equator's length of driving (40,750 km or 24,901 road miles) in 69 days, 19 hours and 5 minutes in 1989 and in 39 days and 20 hours in 1991 respectively.

Trivia

• India has 7 Nobel Prize winners, either by birth or citizenship, to date and 4 of them are directly connected to Kolkata.
• Kolkata has an eminent place in the history of American diplomacy as one of the oldest American Consulates anywhere in the world, and the oldest in India .
• Kolkata and Mumbai are the only two cities in India where the honorary designation of the Sheriff still exists.
• Kolkata and Mumbai were two of the main export/import destinations for British beer, which would go stale and sour during the sea voyage. So the IPA (India Pale Ale) style of beer was created specifically to withstand the rigours of the sea between London and these Indian ports. Link
• South Point High School, Kolkata entered the Guinness Book of Records (from 1984 to 1992) as the school with maximum student enrollment.
• The Indian Botanical Gardens at Shibpur, near the Bengal Engineering College, is home of the largest banyan tree in the world (the banyan tree with the biggest girth), according to the Guinness Book of Records.
• Kolkata is sister city to Long Beach, California.
• Kolkata is home to the oldest golf course outside the British Isles at The Royal Calcutta Golf Club.
• Calcutta Medical College is the oldest institution of European Medicine in Asia.
• Kolkata was the original headquarters of IBM Corporation in India before shifting to Bangalore on its return to operations in the country.
• Kolkata based physician Subhash Mukhopadhyay was the second doctor to perform a successful in-vitro fertilization in the world leading th the birth of Kanupriya Agarwal, alias Durga.
• Kolkata based accountant Amitava Banerjee is the first single man in India (and South Asia) to father an in-vitro fertilised baby [2].