Calcutta from the 17th to the 19th Century (Set of 3 Books)

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Calcutta in The 17th Century

Calcutta in the 18th Century- Impressions of Travellers

Calcutta in the 19th Century (Company's Days)

Calcutta is all set to celebrate its tricentenary on August 24, 1690. Such an important event in the annals of Calcutta should not be missed to narrate the circumstances leading to its foundation in a befitting manner. This is what we have done in this A Tercentenary History of Calcutta, Volume 1: CALCUTTA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. We have traced its pre-history and have offered some new explanations about the meaning of the name Calcutta in the First Part of this volume. The circumstances leading to the foundation of Calcutta are fully narrated in the Second Part of this volume with the help of East India Company's records.

Calcutta is the only metropolitan City founded by the English in India unlike Bombay and Madras. And the honour of laying the foundation of Calcutta on the marshes of Sutanati, Govindpur and Kalkatah, as a prelude to a 'well-grounded dominion in India', goes to Job Charnock.

The birth of Calcutta was the result of Job Charnock's delibe- rate breach with Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb. That the East India Company entertained military designs in the 80's of the Seventeenth Century is a fact stranger than fiction. Charnock knew the strength and weakness of the Great Mogul. His 35 years' residence in Bengal gave him a keen insight into the Mogul court and camp. Sir John Child and other senior merchants of the Company in India in the 17th century were no match to Charnock's firm grasp of the political situation in Mogul India. Otherwise, how could he burn Hugli and Balasore with impunity? Sir John Child was ordered to be expelled from India by Emperor Aurangzeb for his war-mongering, but Charnock was granted permission to lay the foundation of a British Empire in India on the soil of Sutanati!

The foundation of Calcutta cannot be seen in isolation and the War with the Great Mogul cannot be treated as the childish prank of Sir John in India and his patron, Sir Josia Child, in England. The skirmish at Hugli, occupation of Hijili, burning of Balasore etc. are to be viewed as part of that grand design for establishing a dominion in India behind the back of Aurangzeb.

WAS JOB CHARNOCK THE FOUNDER OF CALCUTTA?

Who founded Calcutta? How was Calcutta founded? Why was Calcutta founded? These are the three questions that every student of history frequently asks. There was no dispute about who founded Calcutta till 1895 when an Armenian historian produced an epitaph bearing the date July 1630 from one of the churchyards of the city. This apparently cast doubts about the claim of Job Charnock being the founder of Calcutta as the Armenian burial is 60 years before the advent of Charnock on the scene. Was it a genuine tombstone or a fake? There are more myths about Calcutta and its founder. We shall have to examine them carefully.

Was the birth of Calcutta a fortuitous outcome of the East India Company's war with the great Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb? Was there any war or simply a naval blockade? Did the few English merchants entertain the idea of foundation of 'a large well-grounded sure English dominion in India as far back as 1685? Was the war with the Mogul undertaken with the sanction of the King of England? What were the grievances of the English merchants against the provincial governors of Aurangzeb? Was the war with the Mogul actually the brainchild of Job Charnock? We shall examine these questions in Chapter 3.

Was Charnock, who advocated a breach with Emperor Aurangzeb, a war-monger like Sir John Child, the Company's chief executive in India in 1685-1690? Was Sir John Child a brother of Sir Josia Child, the East India Company's Chairman from 1680 to 1686? Were the Childs simply children compared to Job Charnock in the breadth of his grasp of the political situation in Mogul India? Did Sir John live up to the expectations entertained of him by Sir Josia? Was not Aurangzeb incensed at the piratical and violent acts of Sir John Child? Did the occupation of the Island of Bombay by the Sidi, the Mogul Admiral, bring Child's mortification? Did Sir John eat h's own humble pie? Was he really a coward as alleged by Capt.

Mr. P. Thankappan Nair who has compiled Calcutta in the 18th Century: Impression of Travellers, has now fallen in love with Calcutta after deserting Indology and Anthropology. Beginning with Job Charnock, the Father of Calcutta, whom he has rescued from scandal-mongers and myth-makers, he had an excursion into British social life in Old Calcutta. A solution has been found out by him about the mystery surrounding the name Calcutta. His interest in Old Calcutta is sustained and he now parades fifteen foreigners who came here to discover Charnock's City, but the city, like its founder, has some charisma which is not easy to unravel.

CALCUTTA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: Impressions of Travellers, contains excerpts from 15 visitors' accounts to this metropolis in its infancy. Calcutta, before becoming the 'City of Palaces' in the 18th century, was dubbed a 'Ditch' and its denizens 'Ditchers', as the English settlement was bounded and butted by the Mahratta Ditch.

Job Charnock, the founder of Calcutta, had lived for about 35 years in different parts of Bengal. On his return from Madras, after the rupture with the Mogul Faujdar at Hooghly in 1686, he selected the marshy swamp, Sutanati, for the future seat of the East India Company's tradings operations in Eastern India, as he was far away from the prying eyes of the Dutch and French, who were all upstream at Hooghly. They were at his mercy as he was in a position to cut off their shipping.

The history of Colonial Calcutta dates from August 24, 1690. The zamindari rights of Sutanati, together with that of Kalkatch and Govindpur which adjoined it, were acquired from the Savarna Raychaudhuries of Barisha in 1698 for Rs. 1300. Sutanati, Kalkatah and Govindpur together grew into Calcutta in course of time. The Company's officials lived in thatched houses in Calcutta till Fort William was constructed. The Fort was begun in 1697 and was almost finished in 1708- The security afforded by the Fort to the life and property attracted natives and other European nationals from the nearby foreign settlements to Calcutta.

St. Anne's Church was consecrated on 5th June 1708. Fort William and the English Church were the landmarks of Calcutta during the first decade of the 18th century. We have accounts of the infant British settlement during this period from three visitors, namely, (1) Capt. Alexander Hamilton, (2) Father Matteo Ripa and (3) John Burnell. Capt. Hamilton's account was the staple of early historians and chroniclers of Calcutta. Father Ripa's account was inaccessible till it was translated by Fr. Hosten and published in 1914.

Thirty-five accounts relating to Calcutta before the Mutiny presented in this Calcutta in the 19th Century (Company's Days) will, we hope, enrich our knowledge about our city and serve as original source-materials for historians.

One-third of the present collection has come to us from seven ladies (Emily Eden, Fanny Parks, Maria Graham, Fenton, Emma Roberts, Honoria Lawrence and Hofland), whose hawkish eyes have left out practically nothing worth relating to old Calcutta. There are ten soldiers (Archer, Bacon, Bengalee, Davidson, Huggins, Leigh, Mundy, An Officer; Orlich; and Wallace) who took up pen considering it mightier than the sword. Journalistic accounts coming from the pen of Miss Emma Roberts and William Howard Russell are not particularly investigative as they were not assigned to Calcutta. The missionary accounts (Bishop Heber, Rev. Howard Malcom, a London Missionary and John Hobart Counter of the "Oriental Annual") of Calcutta are not solely concerned with conversions. Historians (Hamilton, Martin and Thornton) have not failed in their duty. We have only three foreign visitors (Victor Jacquemont of France, Leopold von Orlich and Georgian Rafail Danibegashvili), but their accounts give us an insight into many a little known aspect of the history of Calcutta.

We have seldom left out interesting facts relating to Calcutta while making out these extracts from the ponderous volumes of our authors. No liberty has been taken with their original texts. We have given notes wherever it has been deemed necessary.

Acknowledgments are due to the authorities of the National Library of India for their permission to copy the extracts from some of the rare books containing these accounts. Mr. Rathindra Nath Mukherji has again laid us under a deep obligation by not only lending some of the rare books from his collection, but also by publishing this volume. Mr. Sripati Ghosh of Firma took, as usual, upon himself the responsibility of seeing the manuscript through the press.

**Contents and Sample Pages**