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Sunset at Vidyasagar Setu

Introduction :
Calcutta, Bengali KALIKATA, is the capital city of West Bengal, in India. It is the former capital (1772 1912) of British India. The city boasts being the nation's largest metropolitan in area. Calcutta is located on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, an arm of the Ganges, about 96 miles (154 km) upstream from its mouth at the head of the Bay of Bengal. This river port is the most important urban center of Eastern India.  The climate is subtropical, with summer monsoons. Calcutta is the world's largest processor of jute; also important are food processing, hosiery and footwear production, the manufacture of textiles, and the making of iron and steel goods. The coal mines, tea gardens, and industrial concerns of West Bengal and neighbouring states are managed and financed from Calcutta. Chief exports through the city's port are crude steel, pig iron, coal, machinery, gunnies (jute sacking), sugar, and tea. Calcutta is eastern India's financial headquarters, with many foreign banks, several chambers of commerce, and a stock exchange.
One of the city's chief recreational areas is the Maidan (plain, or park), occupying about 1,300 acres (500 hectares) along the river; major sporting events are held there. Western and Eastern influences mingle in Calcutta's architecture: Victoria Memorial, one of the city's finest buildings, represents a mixture of classical Western and Mughal (Mogul) styles.
Calcutta is known as the "Cultural Capital" of India. It serves as the major educational and cultural centre, catering to a cosmopolitan population speaking Bengali, English, Hindi, and Urdu. Higher education is offered by the universities of Calcutta, Jadavpur, and Rabindra Bharati.
The Indian Museum is the oldest in India. Other museums offer collections of archaeological and historical artifacts and folk and fine arts. Valuable library collections are housed in the National Library. Construction of India's first subway system was begun in Calcutta in 1973; a section in the central area opened in 1986. National highways and railways connect Calcutta to other cities; Sealdah and Howrah stations are the terminals of several railway lines; and air service is provided by the Netaji Subhas Chandra (Dum Dum) International Airport.

Metro Rail- Calcutta's pride.

THE CHARACTER OF THE CITY :-
Fashioned by the colonial British in the manner of a grand European capital --Calcutta has grown into a city of sharp contrasts and contradictions. Calcutta has had to assimilate strong European influences and overcome the limitations of its colonial legacy in order to find its own unique identity. In the process it created an amalgam of East and West that found its expression in the life and works of the 19th-century Bengali elite and its most noteworthy figure, the poet and mystic Rabindranath Tagore. This largest and most vibrant of Indian cities thrives amidst seemingly insurmountable economic, social, and political problems. Its citizens exhibit a great joie de vivre that is demonstrated in a penchant for art and culture and a level of intellectual vitality and political awareness unsurpassed in the rest of the country. No other Indian city can draw the kinds of crowds that throng to Calcutta's book fairs, art exhibitions, and concerts. There is a lively trading of polemics on walls, which has led to Calcutta being dubbed the "city of posters." Yet for all of Calcutta's vitality, many of the city's residents live in some of the worst conditions, far removed from the cultural milieu. The city's energy, however, penetrates even to the meanest of slums, as a large number of Calcuttans sincerely support the efforts of those who minister to the poor and suffering. In short, Calcutta remains an enigma to many Indians as well as to foreigners. It continues to puzzle newcomers and to arouse an abiding nostalgia in the minds of those who have lived there.

THE LANDSCAPE :-
The city site:
The location of the city appears to have been originally selected partly because of its easily defensible position and partly because of its favourable trading location. Its maximum elevation is about 30 feet (nine metres) above sea level. Eastward from the river the land slopes away to marshes and swamplands. Similar topography on the west bank of the river has confined the metropolitan area to a strip three to five miles wide on either bank of the river. Reclamation of the Salt Lake area on the northeastern fringe of the city demonstrated that the spatial expansion of the city is feasible, and further reclamation projects have been undertaken to the east, south, and west of the central area. The principal suburbs of Calcutta are Howrah (on the west bank), Baranagar to the north, South Dum Dum to the northeast, the South Suburban Municipality (Behala) to the south, and Garden Reach in the southwest. The whole urban complex is held together by close socioeconomic ties.
Climate
Daily Weather Report:
Calcutta has a subtropical climate with a seasonal regime of monsoons (rain- bearing winds). The maximum temperature reaches about 108 F (42 C) and the minimum temperature about 44 F (7 C). The average annual rainfall is about 64 inches (1,625 millimetres). Most of this falls from June to September, the period of the monsoon. These months are very humid and sometimes sultry. During October and November the rainfall dwindles. The winter months, from about the end of November to the end of February, are pleasant and rainless; fogs and mists occasionally reduce visibility in the early morning hours at this season, as also do thick blankets of smog in the evenings.
City Layout:
The most striking aspect of the layout of Calcutta is its rectangular, north-south orientation. With the exception of the central areas where Europeans formerly lived, the city has grown haphazardly. This haphazard development is most noticeable in the fringe areas around the central core formed by the city of Calcutta and the suburb of Howrah. The bulk of the city's administrative and commercial activity is concentrated in the Barabazar district, a small area north of the Maidan (the park containing Fort William and many of the city's cultural and recreational facilities). This has encouraged the development of a pattern of daily commuting that has overburdened Calcutta's transportation system, utilities, and other municipal facilities. Calcutta's system of streets and roads reflects the city's historical development. Local streets are narrow. There is only one express highway--Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, which stretches from Calcutta to Dum Dum. The main roads form a grid pattern primarily in the old European sector, but elsewhere road planning has a haphazard character. Part of the reason for this has been the difficulty of providing enough river crossings; and it is for the same reason that most streets and highways run from north to south. Nullahs (watercourses) and canals that require bridging have also been important factors in influencing the road pattern.

Calcutta Night view

THE PEOPLE :-
Calcutta has experienced a high rate of population growth for more than a century, but events such as the partitioning of Bengal in 1947 and warfare in Bangladesh in the early 1970s precipitated massive population influxes. Large refugee colonies have also sprung up in the northern and southern suburbs. In addition, a large number of migrants from other states--mostly from neighbouring Bihar and Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh--have come to Calcutta in search of employment. More than four- fifths of the population is Hindu. Muslims and Christians constitute the largest minorities, but there are some Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists. The dominant language is Bengali, but Urdu, Oriya, Tamil, Punjabi, and other languages are also spoken. Calcutta is also a cosmopolitan city: other groups present include a variety of peoples from Asia (notably Bangladeshis and Chinese), Europeans, North Americans, and Australians. Calcutta was racially segregated under British rule, the Europeans living in the city centre and Indians living to the north and south. The pattern of segregation has continued in the modern city, although the distribution is now based on religious, linguistic, educational, and economic criteria. Slums and low-income residential areas, however, exist side-by-side with more affluent areas.

CULTURAL LIFE:-
Calcutta is the most important cultural centre of India. The city is the birthplace of modern Indian literary and artistic thought and of Indian nationalism, and the efforts of its citizens to preserve Indian culture and civilization have no parallel in the rest of the country. The blending of Eastern and Western cultural influences over the centuries has stimulated the creation of numerous and diverse organizations that contribute to Calcutta's cultural life. In addition to the three universities, these include the Asiatic Society, the Bengal Literary Society (Bangiya Sahitya Parishad), the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, and the Maha Bodhi Society.
Museums and libraries:
Greater Calcutta has more than 30 museums, which cover a wide variety of fields. The Indian Museum, founded in 1814, is the oldest in India and is the largest museum of its kind in the country; the archaeology and numismatic sections contain the most valuable collections. The exhibits at Victoria Memorial trace Britain's relations with India. The Asutosh Museum of Indian Art in the University of Calcutta has exhibits of the folk art of Bengal among its collections. Valuable library collections are to be found in the Asiatic Society, Bengal Literary Society, and the University of Calcutta; the National Library is the largest in India and contains a fine collection of rare books and manuscripts.
The arts:
Calcuttans have long been active in literary and artistic pursuits. The literary movement spawned there in the mid-19th century through exposure to Western forms sparked a cultural renaissance throughout India. The best exponent of this movement was Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature of 1913, whose remarkable creativity in poetry, music, drama, and painting continues to enrich the cultural life of the city. Calcutta remains at the vanguard of artistic movements in the country, and several artists' societies present annual shows. Calcutta is also a centre of traditional and contemporary music and dance. In 1937 Tagore inaugurated the first All-Bengal Music Conference in Calcutta. Since then, a number of classical Indian music conferences have been held every year. The home of many classical dancers, Calcutta was also the location of Uday Shankar's experiments at adapting Western theatrical techniques to traditional dance forms. The school of dance, music, and drama founded by him has been in the city since 1965. Professional drama got its start in Calcutta in the 1870s with the founding of the National Theatre. Modern dramatic forms were pioneered in the city by such playwrights as Girish Chandra Ghosh and Dirabandhu Mitra. Calcutta is still an important centre of professional and amateur theatre and of experimental drama. The city has also been a pioneering centre of motion-picture production in India. The avant-garde film directors Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen have achieved international acclaim. There are scores of cinemas in the city, which regularly show films in English, Bengali, and Hindi.

Calcutta Skyline from Maidan where Bookfair is Being held

HISTORY:-

THE EARLY PERIOD:
The name Kalikata had been mentioned in the rent-roll of the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556-1605) and also in the Manasa-mangal of the Bengali poet Bipradas (1495). The history of Calcutta as a British settlement dates from the establishment of a trading post there by Job Charnock, an agent of the English East India Company, in 1690. Charnock had previously had disputes with officials of the Mughal Empire at the river port of Hooghly and had been obliged to leave, after which he attempted unsuccessfully to establish himself at other places down the river. When the Mughal officials, not wishing to lose what they had gained from the English company's commerce, permitted Charnock to return once more, he chose Calcutta as the seat of his operations. The site was apparently carefully selected, being protected by the Hooghly River on the west, a creek to the north, and by salt lakes about two and a half miles to the east. Rival Dutch, French, and other European settlements were higher up the river on the west bank, so that access from the sea was not threatened, as it was at the port of Hooghly. The river at this point was also wide and deep; the only disadvantage was that the marshes to the east and swamps within the area made the spot unhealthy. Moreover, before the coming of the English, three local villages--Sutanati, Kalikata, and Gobindapore, which were later to become parts of Calcutta--had been chosen as places to settle by Indian merchants who had migrated from the silted-up port of Satgaon, farther upstream. The presence of these merchants may have been to some extent responsible for Charnock's choice of the site. By 1696, when a rebellion broke out in the nearby district of Burdwan, the Mughal provincial administration had become friendly to the growing settlement. The servants of the company, who asked for permission to fortify their trading post, or factory, were given permission in general terms to defend themselves. The rebels were easily crushed by the Mughal government, but the settlers' defensive structure of brick and mud remained and in 1700 came to be known as Fort William. In 1698 the English obtained letters patent that granted them the privilege of purchasing the zamindari right (the right of revenue collection; in effect, the ownership) of the three villages.
CALCUTTA IN THE 20TH CENTURY :-
The 20th century marked the beginning of Calcutta's woes. Lord Curzon, viceroy of India, partitioned Bengal in 1905, making Dacca (now Dhaka) the capital of eastern Bengal and Assam. Insistent agitation led to the annulment of this partition, but in 1912 the capital of British India was removed from Calcutta to Delhi, where the government could enjoy relative calm. The partition of Bengal in 1947 was a final blow. As Calcutta's population grew larger, social problems also became more insistent, as did demands for home rule for India. Communal riots occurred in 1926, and, when Mahatma Gandhi called for noncompliance with unjust laws, riots occurred in 1930. In World War II, Japanese air raids upon the Calcutta docks caused damage and loss of life. The most serious communal riots of all took place in 1946, when the partition of British India became imminent and tensions between Muslims and Hindus reached their height. In 1947 the partition of Bengal between India and Pakistan constituted a serious setback for Calcutta, which became the capital of West Bengal only, losing the trade of a part of its former hinterland. At the same time, millions of refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) flocked to Calcutta, aggravating social problems and increasing overcrowding, which had already assumed serious proportions. Economic stagnation in the mid-1960s further increased the instability of the city's social and political life and fueled a flight of capital from the city. The management of many companies was assumed by the state government. Particularly in the 1980s, large-scale public works programs and centralized regional planning contributed to the improvement of economic and social conditions in the city.