Bowbazar ( bn, বৌবাজার, also spelt ''Boubazar''; formerly known as Bahubazar) is a neighbourhood 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 ...
, 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 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 ...
.
History
On Lt. Col. Mark Wood's map of 1784, the portion of the eastward road from
Lal Bazar
Lal Bazar is a locality in the municipal committee of Srinagar in the Indian administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It comes under the Zadibal constituency of the Srinagar Legislative Assembly. Lal Bazar is a well known posh ar ...
to what was known for a long time as Circular Road - which ran along the filled-in
Mahratta Ditch and is now
Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road - was shown as Boytaconnah Street, which received its name from the Baithakkana, or "resting place", where merchants formed and dispersed their caravans, sheltered by an old
banyan tree (called a
peepul tree
''Ficus religiosa'' or sacred fig is a species of fig native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is also known as the bodhi tree, pippala tree, peepul tree, peepal tree, pipal tree ...
in Cotton), at the road's eastern extremity.
[ Cotton, H.E.A., ''Calcutta Old and New'', 1909/1980, pp. 285–286, General Printers and Publishers Pvt. Ltd.]
Bow Bazar Street has been renamed
Bepin Behari Ganguly Street (named after
Bipin Behari Ganguli (1887–1954), revolutionary leader, who spent about 24 years in British Indian jails, later joining the
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
movement). However, the locality continues to be called Bow Bazar. In keeping with the neighbourhood's earliest name, a road stretching from B.B. Ganguly Street to
MG Road is called Baithakkhana Road, as well as the market along the road at the easternmost part of B.B. Ganguly Street being called Baithakkhana Bazar.
At the cross roads where Lal Bazar, Bow Bazar,
Chitpore Road and Bentinck Street meet was the place of execution, where the pillory was.
In 1888, one of the 25 newly organized police section houses was located in Bowbazar.
Geography
Police district
Bowbazar police station is part of the
Central division of
Kolkata Police
The Kolkata Police Force (KPF) is one of the two presidency police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal. Kolkata Police has the task of policing the metropolitan area (apart from Bidhannagar and New Town, which are served by the Bidhannaga ...
. It is located at 13, Kapalitoalla Lane, Kolkata-700012.
Taltala Women police station covers all police districts under the jurisdiction of the Central division, i.e. Bowbazar, Burrabazar, Girish Park, Hare Street, Jorasanko, Muchipara, New Market, Taltala and Posta.
Red light district
Bowbazar has a
red-light district where about 12,000
prostitutes work.
Transport
Bowbazar is in the administrative and commercial heart of the city.
Road
Chittaranjan Avenue (C.R. Avenue) and
College Street-Nirmal Chandra Street pass through the area from north to south.
Bepin Behari Ganguly Street (B.B. Ganguly Street) and Dr. Lalit Banerjee Sarani-Khirode Vidya Binode Avenue (New CIT Road) pass through the area from east to west. Many buses ply along these roads.
Train
Sealdah Station
Sealdah (station code:SDAH) is one of India's major railway terminals serving the city of Kolkata. The other main railway stations in the Kolkata metropolitan region are , , and Santragachi. Sealdah Railway station is the busiest railway stat ...
and
B.B.D Bag railway station are the nearest railway stations of Bowbazar.
Economy
There are, as well, shops dealing in wooden furniture, musical instruments, shoes, seasonal fruits, fresh vegetables and meat, etc.
US-Bangla Airlines
US-Bangla Airlines ( bn, ইউএস বাংলা এয়ারলাইন্স) is a privately owned Bangladeshi airline headquartered in Dhaka and based at Shahjalal International Airport under the umbrella companies of US-Bangla Group ...
has its India offices in Bowbazar.
Bowbazar bomb blast incident
Mohammad Rashid Khan, a
satta don,
bombed Bowbazar on 16 March 1993, which killed 69 people. He and five of his associates were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Culture
Banga Natyalay, in nearby
Pathuriaghata
Pathuriaghata is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata in Kolkata district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is one of the oldest residential areas in what was Sutanuti. Once the abode of the Bengali rich, the neighbourhood and its surrounding ...
, was the first theatre to print admission cards in
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
.
Traditionally, musical soirées were held in the large private houses of old Kolkata; but there also were some humbler houses that had similar soirées, amongst the latter being the Bowbazar home of a musical family, the Borals. The music maestro Jadu Bhatt, who gave musical lessons to the Tagores, died in Babu Ram Sil Lane, at the abode of the Adhikaris, which is also referred to as the Jhulan Bari. A festival of
Indian classical music is still held there each year during Lord Krishna's festival of
Jhulan Purnima
Jhulan Purnima or Jhulan Yatra is a Hindu festival and is dedicated to Hindu god Radha Krishna. It is celebrated in the month of Shraavana, which usually falls in the period of July-August. This festival is known for its spectacular display o ...
.
[ ]
Very old sweet shops, associated with the memories of Iswarchandra Vidyasagar and Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, still exist in Bowbazar.
Gallery
File:Bowbazar Shiv Mandir in College St, Kolkata.jpg, Bowbazar Shiv Mandir
File:Ghanteswar Mahadev Mandir - Bowbazar Street - Kolkata 2013-03-03 5219.JPG, Ghanteshwar Mahadev Mandir
Image:Kolkata Bowbazar 3.jpg, St. Francis Xavier Church
Image:Firingi Kalibari in Bowbazar, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.jpg, Firinghi Kalibari of Anthony Kabial fame
File:Carey Baptist Church - Bowbazar Street - Kolkata 2013-03-03 5229.jpg, Carey Baptist Church
File:CSPCA - Animal Hospital - Bowbazar Street - Kolkata 2013-03-03 5226.jpg, CSPCA - Animal Hospital
File:Bhim Chandra Nag sweet shop at Bowbazar, Kolkata, WB.jpg, Bhim Chandra Nag, the prestigious sweet shop in Kolkata, set up by Paran Chandra Nag in 1826.
File:Kolkata Bowbazar 4.jpg, Statue of Bipin Behari Ganguli
File:Loreto Day School, a Catholic girl's school, at 65, BB Ganguly Street, Bowbazar, Kolkata, West Bengal 700012.jpg, Loreto Day School, a Roman Catholic girl's school, at Bowbazar.
File:Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration.jpg, Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration entrance
File:Yogayog Bhawan 1.jpg, Yogayog Bhawan (headquarters of the West Bengal wing of India Post
India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings ...
), Chittaranjan Avenue, Bowbazar.
See also
*
Bowbazar (Vidhan Sabha constituency)
References
External links
Photos of Parsi Temple, Metcalfe Street (Bandook Gali)Photos of Chinese Temple, Tiretta BazarPhotos of Chinese New Year
{{Kolkata neighbourhoods
Neighbourhoods in Kolkata
Culture of West Bengal
Red-light districts in India