Fort William is a
fort in
Hastings, Calcutta (
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
). It was built during the early years of the
Bengal Presidency of
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. It sits on the eastern banks of the
Hooghly River, the major distributary of the River
Ganges. One of Kolkata's most enduring
Raj
Raj or RAJ may refer to:
History
* British Raj, the 1858–1947 rule of the British Crown over India
* Company Raj, the 1757–1858 rule of the East India Company in South Asia
* Licence Raj, the Indian system of elaborate licences, regulation ...
-era edifices, it extends over an area of 70.9 hectares.
The fort was named after
King William III. In front of the Fort is the
Maidan, the largest park in the country. An internal guard room became the
Black Hole of Calcutta. Today it is the Headquarters of Eastern Command of the Indian Army.
History
There are two Fort Williams. The original fort was built in the year 1696 by the
British East India Company under the orders of
Sir John Goldsborough which took a decade to complete. The permission was granted by
Mughal Emperor
The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled ...
Aurangzeb.
Sir Charles Eyre started construction near the bank of the
Hooghly River with the South-East Bastion and the adjacent walls. It was named after
King William III in 1700.
John Beard John Beard may refer to:
* John Beard (artist) (born 1943), Welsh artist and painter
* John Beard (colonial administrator) (died 1685), Chief Agent and Governor of Bengal
* John Beard (embryologist) (1858–1924), Scottish embryologist and anatomis ...
, Eyre's successor, added the North-East Bastion in 1701, and in 1702 started the construction of the Government House (Factory, see
Factory (trading post)) at the centre of the fort. Construction ended in 1706.
The original building had two stories and projecting wings. In 1756, the
Nawab of Bengal,
Siraj Ud Daulah, attacked the Fort, temporarily conquered the city, and changed its name to Alinagar. This led the British to build a new fort in the
Maidan.
Robert Clive started rebuilding the fort in 1758, after the
Battle of Plassey (1757); construction was completed in 1781 at a cost of approximately two million pounds. The area around the Fort was cleared, and the Maidan became "the Lungs of Kolkata". It stretches for around 3 km in the north–south direction and is around 1 km wide.
[ The headquarters of the Indian Ordnance Factories was established in 1775 at Fort William.
Today, Fort William is the property of ]Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four ...
. The headquarters of Eastern Command is based there, with provisions for accommodating 10,000 army personnel. The Army guards it heavily, and civilian entry is restricted.[
Much of Fort William is unchanged, but St Peter's Church, which used to serve as a chaplaincy centre for the British citizens of Kolkata, is now a library for the troops of HQ Eastern Command.
A war memorial has been created at the entrance of the fort, and the fort also houses a museum which displays artifacts from the ]Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the
Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Dec ...
, especially those related to the battles in the Eastern sector and the Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali ...
.
First Indian Masonic lodge
In 1730, Ralph Farrwinter and other members of the East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...
opened the first Indian Masonic lodge, a short time after the creation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1713.
Presidency of Fort William
Structure
The Fort is built of brick and mortar in the shape of an irregular octagon with an area of . Five of its sides face landward, and three towards the Hooghly River. The design is that of a star fort, suited to defence against cannon firing solid shot, and dates from before the advent of explosive shells. A dry moat deep and broad surrounds the fort. The moat can be flooded but is designed as an area in which to use enfilade
Enfilade and defilade are concepts in military tactics used to describe a military formation's exposure to enemy fire. A formation or position is "in enfilade" if weapon fire can be directed along its longest axis. A unit or position is "in de ...
(or flanking) fire against any attackers reaching the walls. There are six gates: Chowringhee, Plassey, Calcutta, Water Gate, St Georges and the Treasury Gate. There are similar forts at places like Thalassery in Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...
.
Gallery
File:Fort William, Calcutta, 1735.jpg, Fort William, 1735
File:"A Perspective View of Fort William" by Jan Van Ryne, 1754.jpg, Fort William, by Jan Van Ryne, 1754
File:Fort William, Calcutta.jpg, Fort William, Calcutta, 1756
See also
* Fort William College
* Fort St. George, India
References
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Kolkata
18th century in Kolkata
Neighbourhoods in Kolkata
William
Indian Army bases
British forts
Tourist attractions in Kolkata