B. B. D. Bagh, formerly called
Tank Square and then Dalhousie Square (1847 to 1856),
is the shortened version for Benoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh. It is the seat of power of the state government, as well as the
central business district of
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
in
Kolkata district
Kolkata district (formerly known as Calcutta district) is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal, headquartered in Kolkata.
History
Long before the British came to India, the ''zamindari'' (land lordship) of all lands from Barisha to ...
in the
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
.
Origin of name
B. B. D. stands for three young
Indian independence activists
The Indian independence movement consisted of efforts by individuals and organizations from a wide spectrum of society to obtain political independence from the British, French and Portuguese rule through the use of a many methods. This is a l ...
—
Benoy Basu
Benoy Krishna Basu ( bn, বিনয় কৃষ্ণ বসু ''Binôe Boshu'') or Benoy Basu or Benoy Bose (11 September 1908 – 13 December 1930) was an Indian revolutionary against British rule in India, who launched an attack on th ...
,
Badal Gupta
Badal Gupta ( bn, বাদল গুপ্ত ''Badol Gupto''), real name Sudhir Gupta (1912 – 8 December 1930), was an Indian revolutionary against British rule in India, who is noted for launching an attack on the Secretariat Building - t ...
and
Dinesh Gupta
Dinesh Chandra Gupta ( bn, দিনেশ চন্দ্র গুপ্ত ''Dinesh Chôndro Gupto'') or Dinesh Gupta (6 December 1911 – 7 July 1931) was an Indian revolutionary against British rule in India, who is noted for launching an ...
— who on 8 December 1930 assassinated the Inspector General of Prisons, N.S. Simpson, in the balconies of the
Writers' Building
The Writers' Buildings, often shortened to just Writers, is the official secretariat building of the state government of West Bengal in Kolkata, India. The 150-meter long building covers the entire northern stretch of the iconic Lal Dighi pond a ...
of the then Dalhousie Square. The square had been named after
Lord Dalhousie
James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (22 April 1812 – 19 December 1860), also known as Lord Dalhousie, styled Lord Ramsay until 1838 and known as The Earl of Dalhousie between 1838 and 1849, was a Scottish statesman and co ...
,
Governor General of India
The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1 ...
from 1847 to 1856. At different times it has been called ‘The Green before the Fort’ and the Tank Square.
Geography
The B.B.D. Bagh area is near the
Hooghly River in the western part of Central
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
and is a square built around the old
Lal Dighi
Lal Dighi, also called the Tank Square or Dalhousie Square () is a man-made water tank in Kolkata, India.
Etymology
The park was referred to as Lal Bagh or Lall Bagh, due to the name of the surrounding neighbourhood, when it was first establis ...
tank. The old fort built by the British was near where the General Post Office now is. The area was in the heart of
Kalikata
Kalikata was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in India. The other two villages were Gobindapur and Sutanuti. Job Charnock, an administrator with the British East India Company is tradit ...
or the White Town in old Calcutta.
History
B.B.D. Bagh (or Dalhousie Square as it was formerly known) was created as the center of the
British East India Company's trading post along the banks of the Hooghly River. Between the river and the tank (now known as
Lal Dighi
Lal Dighi, also called the Tank Square or Dalhousie Square () is a man-made water tank in Kolkata, India.
Etymology
The park was referred to as Lal Bagh or Lall Bagh, due to the name of the surrounding neighbourhood, when it was first establis ...
), lay the original Fort William. In the summer of 1756,
Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa launched an attack on the British town for the company's decision to strengthen the fortifications around it. The survivors of the attack were sent to a garrison within the fort which spurred an incident infamously known as the
Black Hole of Calcutta
The Black Hole of Calcutta was a dungeon in Fort William, Calcutta, measuring , in which troops of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, held British prisoners of war on the night of 20 June 1756. John Zephaniah Holwell, one of the Britis ...
. The British soon retook the city after the Nawab retreated from the forces of
Robert Clive. Within a year, the British East India Company's forces had taken all of Bengal and Calcutta, along with the square, was established as the commercial and political center of
British-occupied India.
Over the next one and a half centuries, the square grew in importance and influence. It was named after
Lord Dalhousie
James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (22 April 1812 – 19 December 1860), also known as Lord Dalhousie, styled Lord Ramsay until 1838 and known as The Earl of Dalhousie between 1838 and 1849, was a Scottish statesman and co ...
, the Governor-General of India. After the
fall of company rule in India,
Writers' Building
The Writers' Buildings, often shortened to just Writers, is the official secretariat building of the state government of West Bengal in Kolkata, India. The 150-meter long building covers the entire northern stretch of the iconic Lal Dighi pond a ...
became the secretariat of the Viceroy of India. A number of corporations and institutions opened offices and headquarters in and around the square, giving it its role as the central business district of the city. In 1912, the capital of the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was him ...
was officially moved to
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...
, but the majority of the financial and political institutions in the area remained until the late 1920s.
Dalhousie Square (B.B.D. Bagh), Calcutta in 1910
During the first half of the 20th century, the
Indian Independence Movement
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947.
The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...
began to reach its peak and took a violent turn in Bengal. On the eighth of December 1930, three revolutionaries, Benoy, Badal and Dinesh, stormed the building and fatally shot the Inspector General of Prisons, N.S. Simpson. The three committed suicide and the square was renamed B.B.D. Bagh in their honor after Indian independence. In 1947, the political establishments were officially handed over to the government of India and the government of the newly formed state of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
. Over the next few decades, Kolkata would go through rapid economic decline, but B.B.D. Bagh would remain the heart of East India.
Modern significance
B.B.D. Bagh is still the commercial
and political center of all of East India and many of the business and political institutions from the colonial era still exist. The centerpiece is the
Writers' Building
The Writers' Buildings, often shortened to just Writers, is the official secretariat building of the state government of West Bengal in Kolkata, India. The 150-meter long building covers the entire northern stretch of the iconic Lal Dighi pond a ...
which is the secretariat of the Government of the State of West Bengal and houses the office of the
Chief Minister of West Bengal
The Chief Minister of West Bengal is the representative of the Government of India in the state of West Bengal and the head of the executive branch of the Government of West Bengal. The chief minister is head of the Council of Ministers and ap ...
. To the west lie the
General Post Office, the Royal Insurance Building, the eastern office of the
Reserve Bank of India
The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible f ...
, the headquarters of the
Eastern Railway, head office of the
Kolkata Port Trust
Port of Kolkata or Kolkata Port, officially known as Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port Trust (formerly Kolkata Port Trust), is the only riverine major port of India, located in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, around from the sea. It is the olde ...
and a number of other government offices. The native name of the area is '
''Office Para. To the north lie the Royal Exchange Building which houses the
Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the
Calcutta Stock Exchange, the
Standard Chartered Building and many financial establishments. The eastern end also houses a number of offices till
Chittaranjan Avenue. The south area of the square is home to the
Raj Bhavan
Raj Bhavan () is the common name of the official residences of the governors of the states of India and may refer to:
List of Raj Bhavan
See also
* Raj Niwas
*Rashtrapati Bhavan
The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, rāsh-truh-puh-ti bha-vun; ; o ...
, which is now the residence of the governor and the former residence of the viceroy and governor-general of India. A number of former British colonial administrative offices, including the former foreign and military secretariats, the Treasury Office, the Telegraph Office and
Kolkata Town Hall
Kolkata Town Hall in Roman Doric style, was built in 1813 by the architect and engineer Major General John Henry Garstin (1756–1820) with a fund of 700,000 Rupees raised from a lottery to provide the Europeans with a place for social gatherin ...
can be found here. This area is also a major commercial district with the offices of
HSBC at Hong Kong House and the
Great Eastern Hotel.
B.B.D. Bagh can still be considered one of the best remnants and concentrated zones of British colonial architecture in the world. The square is also characterized by other historical landmarks including
St. John's Church St. John's Church, Church of St. John, or variants, thereof, (Saint John or St. John usually refers to John the Baptist, but also, sometimes, to John the Apostle or John the Evangelist) may refer to the following churches, former churches or other ...
, which was one of the first buildings in Kolkata and is modeled on
St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London's Trafalgar Square. The church is home to beautiful stained glass windows and paintings as well as the mausoleum of
Job Charnock, the man who founded modern Kolkata. B.B.D. Bagh also has a statue of famous philanthropist
Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh of
Darbhanga (1858–1898), sculpted by
Edward Onslow Ford.
Overall, the square sees thousands of people arriving from all over the
Kolkata metropolitan area
Kolkata Metropolitan Area (abbreviated KMA; formerly Calcutta Metropolitan Area), also known as Greater Kolkata, is the urban agglomeration of the city of Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the third most populous metropolitan ar ...
to the offices and businesses that have characterized the area for the last three centuries since the establishment of Kolkata.
Preservation
Dalhousie Square was included in the
2004 and
2006 World Monuments Watch The World Monuments Watch is a flagship advocacy program of the New York-based private non-profit organization World Monuments Fund (WMF) that is dedicated to preserving the historic, artistic, and architectural heritage around the world.
Select ...
by the
World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and trainin ...
due to "decades of neglect".
World Monuments Fund - Dalhousie Square
/ref> After this listing the international financial services company American Express provided funding through WMF for the square's preservation. A number of buildings in the area have also been listed as heritage buildings and have gone through extensive restorations to bring back the charm of the square. The centerpiece, Writers' Building
The Writers' Buildings, often shortened to just Writers, is the official secretariat building of the state government of West Bengal in Kolkata, India. The 150-meter long building covers the entire northern stretch of the iconic Lal Dighi pond a ...
, has been temporarily vacated to give way for a massive restoration of the building, which has fallen into disrepair in many areas.
Gallery
File:Calcutta 0.jpg, Dalhousie and its landmarks in a British era postcard
File:Tea Board of India 20180823 144554.jpg, Tea Board of India
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and norther ...
image:Kolkata BBD statues.jpg, Statues of Benoy, Badal and Dinesh in front of Writers' Building
The Writers' Buildings, often shortened to just Writers, is the official secretariat building of the state government of West Bengal in Kolkata, India. The 150-meter long building covers the entire northern stretch of the iconic Lal Dighi pond a ...
image:General Post Office and Reserve Bank of India, Kolkata, India.jpg, General Post Office and Reserve Bank of India building from across Lal Dighi
image:Kolkata BBD Bagh3.jpg, The southern side of B.B.D. Bagh
image:GPO, KOLKATA.jpg, Dome of GPO from across Lal Dighi
image:Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh statue - Kolkata.JPG, Statue of Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh
image:Facade of Writers Building - Central Kolkata.jpg, The facade of Writers' Building
The Writers' Buildings, often shortened to just Writers, is the official secretariat building of the state government of West Bengal in Kolkata, India. The 150-meter long building covers the entire northern stretch of the iconic Lal Dighi pond a ...
File:The Royal Insurance Building, Kolkata, West Bengal.jpg, The Royal Insurance Building, Kolkata
File:Central Telegraph Office - Red Cross Place - Kolkata 2011-12-18 0166.JPG, The Central Telegraph Office which lies to the south of the main square
File:United Tower - Old Court House Street - Kolkata 2016-06-02 4115.JPG, United Tower
File:KolkataHSBC.JPG, Hong Kong House which has and still houses the offices of HSBC in Kolkata
image:Town Hall - Kolkata 2011-12-18 0335.JPG, Kolkata Town Hall
Kolkata Town Hall in Roman Doric style, was built in 1813 by the architect and engineer Major General John Henry Garstin (1756–1820) with a fund of 700,000 Rupees raised from a lottery to provide the Europeans with a place for social gatherin ...
File:Calcutta ei05-02.jpg, Calcutta High Court
image:Old Koilaghat Building - Kolkata 2012-09-22 0303.JPG, The old Koilaghat Building of the Eastern Railway
image:Samriddhi Bhavan - Strand Road - Kolkata 2012-09-22 0343.JPG, Samriddhi Bhavan, the eastern office of the State Bank of India
image:Strand Road - Kolkata 2012-09-22 0339.JPG, A view of Strand Road and a government administrative building
image:Currency Building - Dalhousie Square - Kolkata 2012-09-22 0289.JPG, The Currency Building undergoing renovations and restorations
image:South-east Crossing - Dalhousie Square - Kolkata 2012-09-22 0286.JPG, The south-eastern corner of the main square
image:St Andrew's Church - Dalhousie Square - Kolkata 2012-09-22 0281.JPG, St. Andrew's Church in the center of the square
image:Netaji Subhas Road - Dalhousie Square - Kolkata 2012-10-09 0296.JPG, Netaji Subhas Road (formerly Clive Road) which runs along the eastern side of Lal Dighi
File:Reserve Bank of India (RBI) building, September 2011.jpg, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Kolkata
image:Dalhousie Square South - Kolkata 2011-12-18 0130.JPG, A view down Dalhousie Square South
File:B. B. D. Bagh Bakultala.jpg, B. B. D. Bagh Bakultala
References
External links
*
{{Kolkata neighbourhoods
Neighbourhoods in Kolkata
Tourist attractions in Kolkata
Central business districts in India
Road junctions in India
Squares in India