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Kolkata(help·info) (IPA: ['kolkat̪a] Bengali: কলকাতা) (formerly Calcutta(help·info)) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. The city has a population of almost 5 million, with an extended metropolitan population of over 14 million, making it the third-largest urban agglomeration and the fourth-largest city in India.
The city served as the capital of India during the British Raj until 1911. Once the centre of modern education, science, culture and politics in India, Kolkata witnessed economic stagnation in the years following India's independence in 1947. However, since the year 2000 an economic rejuvenation has arrested the morbid decline, leading to a spurt in the city's growth. Like other large cities, Kolkata continues to struggle with urbanisation problems like poverty, pollution and traffic congestion. A vibrant city with a distinct socio-political culture, Kolkata is noted for its revolutionary history, ranging from the Indian struggle for independence to the leftist and trade union movements.
Referred to as the "Cultural Capital of India", "The City of Processions", and the "City of Joy", Kolkata has been home to luminaries such as Rabindranath Tagore, Ronald Ross, Subhas Chandra Bose, Mother Teresa, Satyajit Ray, Satyendranath Bose, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekananda and many others.
Name
The names Kolkata and Calcutta were probably based on Kalikata, the name of one of the three villages (Kalikata, Sutanuti, Gobindapur) in the area before the arrival of the British.[(Mukherjee 1991)] "Kalikata", in turn, is an anglicised version of Kalikshetra ("Land of the goddess Kali"). However, other theories exist regarding the origin of the name. The original settlement of the city was claimed to be located beside a khal, meaning a canal in Bengali. Khal might have given rise to the name. Again, the place was known for the manufacture of shell-lime and the name could have been derived from lime (kali) and burnt shell (kata). Alternatively, the name may have been derived from the Bengali term kilkila ("flat area").[Kolkata (Calcutta): History. Calcuttaweb.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-01.] The government of West Bengal changed the official name of the city from Calcutta to Kolkata; the new name was legalised in 2001. A number of other Indian cities have enacted similar name changes.
History
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The discovery of the nearby Chandraketugarh,[
History. Yahoo! Pte Ltd. Retrieved on 2006-05-08.] an archaeological site, provides evidence that the area has been inhabited for over two millennia.[
] Das S. "Pre-Raj crown on Clive House - Abode of historical riches to be museum", The Telegraph, Calcutta, India, 2003-01-15. Retrieved on 2006-04-26.
The city's documented history, however, begins with the arrival of the British East India Company in 1690, when the Company was consolidating its trade business in Bengal. Job Charnock, an administrator with the Company who eventually settled in Sutanuti after invading through Hijli Kingdom, is traditionally credited as the founder of this city.
In 1699,the British completed the construction of old Fort William, which was used to station its troops and as a regional base. Kolkata (then Calcutta) was declared a Presidency City, and later became the headquarters of the Bengal Presidency. Faced with frequent skirmishes with French forces, in 1756 the British began to upgrade their fortifications. When protests against the militarisation by the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-Ud-Daulah went unheeded, he attacked and captured Fort William leading to the infamous Black Hole incident. A force of Company sepoys and British troops led by Robert Clive recaptured the city the following year. Clive himself described it as one of the most wicked places in the Universe.[Dash, M. (2005). Thug: The True Story of India's Murderous Cult. Granta Books, 108. ISBN 1-86207-604-9.]
Kolkata was named the capital of British India in 1772. A contemporary description refers to the splendid sloth and languid debauchery of European society, when great men rode about in State coaches, with a dozen servants running before and behind them to bawl out their titles.[ Eden, Emily: Letters from India (Richard Bentley, London 1872).]
By the early 19th century, Kolkata was split into two distinct areas — one British, one Indian, known as 'Black Town'. Even at the time, the poverty of the 'Black Town' shanties was considered shocking. The city underwent rapid industrial growth from the 1850s, especially in the textile and jute sectors; this caused a massive investment in infrastructure projects like rail roads and telegraph by British government. The coalescence of British and Indian culture resulted in the emergence of a new class of urbane Indians — Asia's first middle class — whose members were often professionals, read newspapers, were Anglophiles, and usually belonged to upper-caste Hindu communities.[Jack I. (2001). "Introduction to (Chaudhuri 2001, pp. v-xi) URL accessed on 2006-04-26.
] Throughout the nineteenth century, a socio-cultural reform, often referred to as the Bengal Renaissance resulted in the general uplifting of the people. In 1883, Surendranath Banerjea organised a national conference — the first of its kind in nineteenth century India. Gradually Kolkata became a centre of the Indian independence movement, especially revolutionary organisations. The 1905 Partition of Bengal on communal grounds resulted in widespread public agitation and the boycott of British goods (swadeshi movement). These activities, along with the administratively disadvantageous location of Kolkata in the eastern fringes of India, prompted the British to move the capital to New Delhi in 1911. The city's port was bombed twice by the Japanese during World War II.[
] Randhawa K. The bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese. BBC. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. As food stocks were being diverted to feed Allied troops, millions starved to death during the Bengal famine of 1943.[(Sen 1973)] In 1946, demands for the creation of a Muslim state led to large-scale communal violence resulting in the deaths of over 2,000 people.[Suhrawardy HS (1987). “Direct Action Day”, Talukdar, MHR. (ed.): Memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. University Press of Bangladesh, 55-56. ISBN 840510878. Retrieved on 2006-04-24.] The partition of India also created intense violence and a shift in demographics - large numbers of Muslims left for East Pakistan, while hundreds of thousands of Hindus fled into the city.[(Gandhi 1992, pp. 497)]
Over the 1960s and 1970s, severe power shortages, strikes and a violent Marxist-Maoist movement — the Naxalites — damaged much of the city's infrastructure, leading to an economic stagnation. In 1971, war between India and Pakistan led to the mass influx of thousands of refugees into Kolkata resulting in a massive strain on its infrastructure.[(Bennett & Hindle 1996, pp. 63-70)] In the mid-1980s, Mumbai overtook Kolkata as India's most populous city. Kolkata has been a strong base of Indian communism as West Bengal has been ruled by the CPI(M) dominated Left Front for three decades now — the world's longest-running democratically-elected Communist government.[
] Biswas S. Calcutta's colourless campaign. BBC. Retrieved on 2006-04-26.[(Roy & Alsayyad 2004)] The city's economic recovery gathered momentum after economic reforms in India introduced by the central government in the mid-1990s. Since 2000, Information Technology (IT) services revitalized the city’s stagnant economy. The city has also experienced a growth in the manufacturing sector. Following similar moves elsewhere in the country, the state government changed the city’s official name from Calcutta to Kolkata in 2001; this act was seen largely as a political ploy.[
] Easwaran K. Politics of name change. Retrieved on 2006-04-26.
Geography
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 A radar image of Kolkata showing different urban land use patterns. North is to the upper left. Central Kolkata is the light blue and orange area on the right of the river in the center of the image. Kolkata is located in eastern India at 22°33′N 88°20′E in the Ganges Delta at an elevation ranging between 1.5 to 9metres.[NASA image] It is spread linearly along the banks of the River Hooghly in a north-south direction. Much of the city was originally a vast wetland, reclaimed over the decades to accommodate the city's burgeoning population. The Sundarbans National Park separates the city from the Bay of Bengal, which is located about 154km to the south.
Like the most of the Indo-Gangetic plains, the predominant soil type is alluvial. Quaternary sediments consisting of clay, silt, various grades of sand and gravel underlie the city. These sediments are sandwiched between two clay beds, the lower one at depths between 250 and 650m and the upper one ranging between 10 and 40m in thickness.[
] Bunting SW, Kundu N, Mukherjee M. Situation Analysis. Production Systems and Natural Resources Use in PU Kolkata (PDF Format) pp. 3. Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the town falls under seismic zone-III, in a scale of I to V (in order of increasing proneness to earthquakes)[Hazard profiles of Indian districts (PDF). National Capacity Building Project in Disaster Management. UNDP. Retrieved on 2006-08-23.] while the wind and cyclone zoning is "very high damage risk", according to UNDP report.[
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Climate
Kolkata has a tropical climate. The annual mean temperature is 26.8°C (80°F); monthly mean temperatures range from 19°C to 30°C (67°F to 86°F). Summers are hot and humid and maximum temperatures often exceed 40°C (104°F) during May and June. Winter tends to last for only about two and a half months, with seasonal lows dipping to the 12°C – 14°C between December and January. The highest recorded temperature is 43°C (111°F) and the lowest is 5°C (41°F).[
Weatherbase entry for Kolkata. Canty and Associates LLC. Retrieved on 2006-04-26.] Often during early summer, dusty squalls followed by spells of thunderstorm and heavy rains lash the city, bringing relief from the humid heat. These thunderstorms are locally known as Kal baisakhi (Nor'westers).[http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=kal-baisakhi1]
The southeast monsoon[
The Indian Subcontinent. NASA RP 1344 -- Total Solar Eclipse of 1995 October 24. NASA. Retrieved on 2006-05-03.] rains lash the city between June and September and supplies the city with most of its annual rainfall of 1,582mm. The highest rainfall occurs during the monsoon in August (306mm). The city receives 2,528 hours of sunshine per annum, with the maximum sunlight occurring in March.[
] Calcutta: Not 'The City of Joy'. Gaia: Environmental Information System. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. Pollution is a major concern in Kolkata, and the Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) level is high when compared to other major cities of India,[
] Central Pollution Control Board. Ambient Air Quality in Seven Major Cities During 2002. Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt of India. Retrieved on 2006-04-26.[
] Central Pollution Control Board. Air quality in major cities on 16-17 March, 2006. Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt of India. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. leading to regular smog and haze.
Urban structure
Kolkata city, under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), is not very large and has an area of 185km². The Kolkata urban agglomeration, however, has continuously expanded and as of 2006, the urban agglomeration (Kolkata Metropolitan Area) is spread over 1750 km² and comprises of 157 postal areas. The urban agglomeration is formally administered by several local governments including 38 local municipalities. The urban agglomeration comprises of 72 cities and 527 towns and villages.[
] 007 Kolkata (India) (PDF Format). World Association of the Major Metropolises. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. The suburban areas of Kolkata metropolitan district incorporates parts of the districts North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia.
The east-to-west dimension of the proper city is narrow, stretching from the Hooghly River in the west to roughly the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in the east, a span of roughly 5–6km.[deduced from the satellite map] The north-south expansion is roughly divided into North, Central and South Kolkata. North Kolkata locality is the oldest part of the city, with 19th century architecture and narrow alleyways. The ambience in this area is reminiscent of the old Kolkata. South Kolkata grew mostly after independence and consists of elite localities. The Salt lake City (Bidhan Nagar) area to the northeast of the city is a planned section of Kolkata. Rajarhat, also called New Town, is the newest township being developed on the north-eastern fringes of Kolkata city.
Central Kolkata houses the central business district around the B. B. D. Bagh area. The government secretariat, General Post Office, High Court, Lalbazar Police HQs and several other government and private offices are located here. The Maidan is a large open field in the heart of the city where several sporting events and public meetings are held. Several companies have set up their offices around the area south of Park Street which has become a secondary Central Business District.
Economy
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 Vendors selling flowers in a market Kolkata is the main business, commercial and financial hub of eastern India and the northeastern states. It is home to the Calcutta Stock Exchange — India's second-largest bourse.[
] Genesis and Growth of the Calcutta Stock Exchange. Calcutta Stock Exchange Association Ltd. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. It is also a major commercial and military port, and the only city in the region to have an international airport. Once India's leading city and Capital, Kolkata experienced a steady economic decline in the years following India's independence due to the prevalent unstabilised political condition and rise in trade-unionism supported by left-wing parties. Between the 1960s to the mid 1990s, flight of capital was enormous as many large factories were closed or downsized and businesses relocated. The lack of capital and resources coupled with a worldwide glut in demand in the city's traditional industries(e.g. jute) added to the depressed state of the city's economy.[
] Follath E. "The Indian Offensive: From Poorhouse ro Powerhouse", Spiegel Online, 2005-11-30. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. The liberalisation of the Indian economy in the 1990s along with the election of a new reformist Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya have resulted in the improvement of the city's fortunes.
Until recently, flexible production had always been the norm in Kolkata, and the informal sector has comprised more than 40% of the labour force.[Chakravorty S (2000). "From Colonial City to Global City? The Far-From-Complete Spatial Transformation of Calcutta" in (Marcuse & van Kempen 2000, pp. 56-77)] State and federal government employees make up a large percentage of the city's workforce. The city has a large unskilled and semi-skilled labour population, alongwith other blue-collar and knowledge workers.
Kolkata's economic revival was led largely by IT services, with the IT sector growing at 70% yearly — twice that of the national average.[
] Datta T. "Rising Kolkata's winners and losers", BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents, 2006-03-22. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. In recent years there has been a surge of investments in the housing infrastructure sector with several new projects coming up in the city.[
Mukherjee Shankar. "Demand spurs New Town III- Never-before response to Rajarhat sale", The Telegraph-Kolkata, 2005-03-28. Retrieved on 2006-07-25.] Kolkata is home to many industrial units operated by large Indian corporations with products ranging from electronics to jute. Some notable companies headquartered in Kolkata include ITC Limited, Bata India, Birla Corporation, Coal India Limited, Damodar Valley Corporation,United Bank of India, UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank Vijaya Bank. Recently, various events like adoption of "Look East" policy by the government of India, opening of the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim as a border trade-route with China and immense interest in the South East Asian countries to enter the Indian market and invest have put Kolkata in an advantageous position.
Civic Administration
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The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), (formerly the Calcutta Municipal Corporation), established in 1876, is responsible for the civic maintenance and infrastructure of Kolkata. The city is divided into 141 administrative wards that are grouped into 15 boroughs. Each of these wards elects a councillor to the KMC. Each borough has a committee consisting of the councillors elected from the respective wards of the borough. The Corporation, through the borough committees, maintains government-aided schools, hospitals and municipal markets and partakes in urban planning and road maintenance.[
] 007 Kolkata (India) (PDF Format). World Association of the Major Metropolises. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. The corporation as the apex body discharges its function through the Mayor-in-Council, consisting of a mayor, assisted by a deputy mayor, and ten other elected members of the KMC. The mayor is responsible for the overall functioning of the KMC and has a tenure of five-years.[
] About Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. At present, the CPI(M) led Left Front holds the power in KMC.
The city also has an apolitical titular post, that of the Sheriff of Kolkata. The Sheriff presides over various city-related functions and conferences. Another ancillary civic body is the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) responsible for the statutory planning and development of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA). The KMA includes a large suburban hinterland around the urban centers of Kolkata.
As the capital of the state and the seat of the Government of West Bengal, Kolkata houses the state Legislative Assembly, the Secretariat (Writers' Building) and the Calcutta High Court. Kolkata also has lower courts; the Small Causes Court for civil matters, and the Sessions Court for criminal cases. The Kolkata Police, headed by the Police Commissioner, comes under the West Bengal Home Ministry. The city is administratively divided into five police-zones subdivided into 48 local police stations. The city elects 3 representatives to the Lok Sabha (India's lower house) and 21 representatives to the state Legislative Assembly.[
] West Bengal Assembly Elections 2006. Indian Elections. Retrieved on 2006-09-05.
Utility Services and Media
The KMC supplies potable water to the city, sourced from the River Hooghly. The water is purified and treated at Palta water pumping station located in North 24 Parganas. Almost all of Kolkata's daily refuse of 2500tonnes is transported to the dumping grounds in Dhapa to the east of the town. Agriculture on this dumping ground is encouraged for natural recycling of garbage and sewer water.[
] Sound Practices Composting. United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. Parts of the city still lack sewage facilities leading to unsanitary methods of waste disposal.[
] Calcutta: Not 'The City of Joy'. Gaia: Environmental Information System. Retrieved on 2006-04-26. Electricity is supplied by the privately operated Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) to the city region, and by the West Bengal State Electricity Board in the suburbs. Frequent interruption of power supply was a problem until the late 1990s; however the situation has since improved. The city has 20 fire stations (under West Bengal Fire Service) that attend to 7,500 fire and rescue calls on average per year.[
] Dheri SK, Misra GC. Fire: Blazing Questions (PDF Format). indiadisasters.org. Retrieved on 2006-04-26.
State-owned BSNL and private enterprises like Hutch, Airtel, Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom are the leading telephone and cell phone service providers in the city. Cellular coverage is extensive with both GSM and CDMA services being available. Broadband internet penetration has steadily increased with BSNL, Tata Indicom, Airtel and Reliance being the leading service providers.
Bengali language newspapers like Anandabazar Patrika, Aajkaal,
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