Municipal Calcutta- Its Institutions in Their Origin and Growth

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center>About the Book S.W. Goode's seminal work tells the story of Kolkata, from its, founding by the British in the seventeenth century to its emergence as one of the crowning metropolises of the British Raj. Written in the First decade of the twentieth century, it records the city's history from the ‘malarious swamp' in the times of Job Charnock to its establishment as the commercial capital of British india.

Colorful descriptions of,, its offices and institutions, its squares and parks, including 'the famous Eden Gardens, its Roman Doric style Town Hall is surely a journey back in time, bringing to life the glory and grandeur of the erstwhile Empire. The history of municipal governance, intertwined with the history of the city, has a value beyond that of a history chronicle. A full and interesting topographical history of Calcutta, replete with records, maps and surveys cited from earlier sources adds to the value of this work.

Reprinted 'from the last remnant copy kept at the Central Record Section of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the book promises to allure, not just historians and administrators, but all those who are fascinated by the colonial history the city hides and flaunts in its architecture.

About the Book S. W. Goode, B.A. (Canterbury), CIE, ICS Served as Chairman of the Calcutta Corporation. In 1926 he was the Chairman of the Calcutta Trust. He has also published an article ‘Bridges of Calcutta’ in the Calcutta Municipal Gazette.

Preface THE compilation of a Municipal Gazetteer of Calcutta seems first to have been contemplated by the late Sir Charles Allen, Chairman of the Calcutta Corporation from 1905 to 1909. A rough table of contents was outlined by him, and a few sections dealing with some minor and comparatively modern municipal institutions, such as the Record Room and the incineration of refuse, were actually prepared. It soon however became evident that a historical and statistical account of the rise and growth of municipal government in Calcutta, involving a laborious examination of the voluminous records of the Corporation, could not be compiled in the leisure hours of its officers, and the work was perforce shelved for several years. In 1910 the Corporation decided on a revaluation of its Block, and Mr. S. C. Roy, M.A., Travelling Auditor to the Municipality, was placed on special duty with a small staff to ascertain the actual capital expenditure of the Corporation for the last half century by an examination of its records and accounts. In the course of his inquiries Mr. Roy collected valuable materials not directly pertaining to Block, which he suggested might form the basis of the proposed gazetteer. His period of deputation was extended from August 1911 to June 1912, and during this time he prepared a rough draft of the proposed work, and had elaborate though frequently incomplete statistics prepared from the materials used in his valuation of Block.

In 1914, when I was proceeding on leave to England, I was asked by the Corporation to undertake the task of completing the gazetteer. Mr. Roy's work was made over to me, and I obtained from the Municipal Record Room, along with such original records as could be conveniently carried, copies of the more important reports-such as those by the Fever Hospital Committee of 1837, the administration reports of the Improvement Commissioners, the discussions on the Municipal Bills of 1863 and afterwards, the report of the Sanitary Commission of 1884 and the Building Commission of 1897, the reports and discussions on the various drainage and water-supply projects, etc.-which have had important bearing on the policy and expansion of the Municipality since its earliest beginnings. I examined also before leaving Calcutta the extant volumes of the reports of the Lottery Commissioners (1817-36), but was unwilling to accept the responsibility of bringing these valuable records home. The study of these original documents has been a work of considerable labour, augmented in no small degree by the doubt arising from countless and inevitable lacunae, which only the Central Records Department could have made good. For filling in the details on the broad outlines which these authorities gave me, I have been constantly indebted to Mr. Roy's work: without his valuable re-searches into the Corporation archives, this gazetteer, and imperfect and fragmentary as in many places I know it to be, could not have been written. I am also much indebted to Mr. J. Ball Hill, A.M.I.C.E., Executive Engineer, Calcutta Corporation, and to Mr. A. Peirce, A.M.I.C.E., Water Engineer, for kindly placing at my disposal their valuable articles on the drainage and water-supply systems of Calcutta; in describing these systems in Chapters III. and V. I have followed their accounts closely, often indeed verbatim, without special acknowledgment.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages