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Kolkata district (formerly known as Calcutta district) is a district 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 ...
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 ...
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 four ...
, headquartered in
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 ...
.


History

Long before the British came to India, the ''
zamindar A zamindar (Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...
i'' (land lordship) of all lands from Barisha to Halisahar, in what is now mostly in the Kolkata (formerly called ''Kali Kshetra'', Land of Goddess Kali) area, were acquired by the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family from the
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 ...
Jahangir Nur-ud-Din Muhammad Salim (30 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was the fourth Mughal Emperor, who ruled from 1605 until he died in 1627. He was named after the Indian Sufi saint, Salim Chishti. Ea ...
. With the decline of the once flourishing Saptagram port, traders and businessmen, such as the Basaks, the Sheths and others, started venturing southwards and settled in or developed places such as Gobindapur. They set up a cotton and yarn market at Sutanuti. Chitpur was a weaving centre and Baranagar was another textile centre. Kalighat was a pilgrimage centre. Across the Hooghly, there were places such as Salkia and
Betor Betore ( bn, বেতড়) was a major trading centre, the location being around present Shibpur in Howrah district in the Indian state of West Bengal. In addition to the three recognised hamlets, Sutanuti, Gobindapur and Kalikata around wh ...
. Kalikata was a lesser known place. While both Sutanuti and Gobindapur appear on old maps like Thomas Bowrey's of 1687 and George Herron's of 1690, Kalikata, situated between the two, is not depicted. However, one variant of the name, ‘Kalkata’, is mentioned in
Abul Fazal Abul is an Arabic masculine given name. It may refer to: * Abul Kalam Azad * Abul A'la Maududi * Abul Khair (disambiguation), several people * Abul Abbas (disambiguation), several people * Abul Hasan * Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi * Abu'l-Fazl ibn ...
’s '' Ain-i-Akbari'' (1596).Cotton, H.E.A., ''Calcutta Old and New'', 1909/1980, pages 1, 11, General Printers and Publishers Pvt. Ltd. At that time it was recorded as a revenue district of Sirkar Satgaon. In 1698,
Charles Eyre Sir Charles Eyre (died 1729) was an administrator of the British East India Company and founder of Fort William, Calcutta. He was a President of Fort William. Career While in office, Eyre started work on Fort William, Calcutta in 1696. On 1 ...
, son-in-law of the early colonial administrator,
Job Charnock Job Charnock (; –1692/1693) was an English administrator with the East India Company. He is commonly regarded as the founder of the city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta); however, this view is challenged, and in 2003 the Calcutta High Court dec ...
, acquired the ''zemindari'' rights of Gobindapur, Kalikata and Sutanuti from the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family. Subsequent to the fall of Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent
Nawab of Bengal The Nawab of Bengal ( bn, বাংলার নবাব) was the hereditary ruler of Bengal Subah in Mughal India. In the early 18th-century, the Nawab of Bengal was the ''de facto'' independent ruler of the three regions of Bengal, Bihar, ...
, the English purchased 55 villages in 1758 from Mir Jafar. These villages were known en-bloc as '' Dihi Panchannagram''. After the Treaty of Allahabad, 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 ...
was granted ''Diwani'' rights (the right to collect taxes), in 1765, in the eastern province of Bengal-Bihar-Odisha. In 1772, Kolkata became the capital of East India Company's territories, and in 1793, the English took full control of the city and the province. Development of Kolkata's infrastructure started and in the early 19th century, the marshes surrounding the city were drained. In the 19th century, Kolkata was the epicentre of the epoch-changing socio-cultural movement, the Bengal Renaissance. The 20th century unfolded historical events in Kolkata – the Swadeshi movement, the first partition of Bengal along communal lines, shifting of the national capital from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911 – and Kolkata emerged as an important hub of the independence movement. With the experience and memories of the
Bengal famine of 1943 The Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine in the Bengal province of British India (present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal and eastern India) during World War II. An estimated 0.8 to 3.8 million Bengalis perished, out of a population of 60.3 millio ...
, the Great Calcutta Killings, the final partition of Bengal, and independence of the country, Kolkata moved on to a new era of challenges, with millions of
refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.
pouring in from neighbouring East Pakistan (later Bangladesh). Before partition of Bengal, Kolkata had offered education and job opportunities to the people from East Bengal. Kolkata had taken in about a quarter of a million East Bengali migrants long before partition. After partition of Bengal, the number of refugees moving in from East Bengal were so high that large stretches of rural or semi urban habitation were transformed into towns, the density of population, particularly in areas with high refugee population, jumped by leaps. The outer limits of Kolkata were extended. The entire process of urbanisation was hastened. In the fifties 25% of the population of Metropolitan Kolkata were refugees. In 1975, a CMDA report suggested that there were 1,104 squatter colonies in West Bengal, out of which 510 were in Calcutta Metropolitan District. In 1981, a refugee rehabilitation committee set up by the state government put the figures for refugees in the state at 8 million. The break up for Kolkata is not available. The central government had decided that 25 March 1971 was the cut off date for entry of refugees from former East Pakistan into India and so, all those coming in after that date are either immigrants or infiltrators – there were no more refugees, at least officially/legally. The socio-economic conditions that led to the growth of Kolkata, were urbanising a much larger territory. Right form the 16th century, a number of townships, based on trade and commerce, had sprung up along both banks of the Hooghly. None of these townships withered away as Kolkata gained supremacy, rather they got integrated with the core of the city. In 1951, census operations in West Bengal first recognised a continuous industrial area stretching from Bansberia to Uluberia on the west bank of the Hooghly, and from
Kalyani Kalyani may refer to: Film and television * ''Kalyani'' (1940 film), a Hindi film * ''Kalyani'' (1952 film), a Tamil film * ''Kalyani'' (1971 film), a Kannada film * ''Kalyani'' (1979 film), a Telugu film * ''Kalyani'' (1983 film), an Oriya ...
to Budge Budge on the east bank. It was ultimately recognised as the Kolkata urban agglomeration, with the city as its core.Chakraborty, Satyesh C., "The Growth of Calcutta in the Twentieth Century", in “Calcutta, The Living City” Vol II, Edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Pages 4–6, First published 1990, 2005 edition, Kolkata has always been a city of migrants. They are the people who have made the city so large. In the first half of the 20th century the largest group of migrants were the working-class people from Bihar. After 1947, they were overtaken in numbers by the refugees from East Pakistan. A comparatively lesser number of people from the surrounding areas have migrated to the city, because a huge population commutes to the city for work and returns to their villages. They are not counted in the census data for Kolkata. The promise of a better quality of life may have been an initial attraction for the migrants, but bulk of the poorer sections soon realized that poverty in Kolkata was as severe and dehumanising as in the villages they left behind. However, many of them found opportunities of income in the urban economy. Some of them managed a place in industry, because of the preferential treatment they got as a result of people in their community vouching for them. A 1976 survey revealed that the proportion of workers from outside West Bengal were 71% in the jute industry, 58% in textile mills and 73% in iron and steel units. The
Chamars Chamar is a Dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna ...
from the Hindi heartland, many of whom work in the leather industry, have been here for more than a century. As per the 1951 census, only 33.2% of Kolkata's inhabitants were city-born. The rest, including a small group of foreigners, were migrants. 12.3% came from elsewhere in West Bengal, 26.3% from other states in India and 29.6% were refugees from East Pakistan. This brings us on to another aspect of the city. The slum population has grown at a much faster rate than the total city population, thereby indicating a growing ratio of the impoverished working population of the city. "Geographically, Calcutta is in a unique position vis-à-vis the whole of eastern India. The growth and prosperity of the region must involve Calcutta. How it will grow… is the great question to be answered."
P. Thankappan Nair Parameswaran Thankappan Nair is an Indian scientist, independent researcher, historian and Malayali author based in Kolkata, India, who has written extensively on the history of Calcutta in the English language. He has published 61 books, with ...
writes, “The six square miles within the Maratha Ditch (the original core of Calcutta) thus came to have the world’s highest density of population in that age. It was a heterogeneous population, sinking differences of caste, creed and colour under the sheer compulsion to interact and survive together. The compulsion has grown stronger ever since, as has the spirit it fostered. Hence Calcutta did not disintegrate when the capital was shifted to New Delhi in 1912. It has kept growing and living by the ever-renewed confidence and vitality of its inherent human forces.”


Geography

Kolkata district lies between 22.037’ and 22.030’ North latitude and 88.023’ and 88.018’ East longitude. It occupies the east bank of the Hooghly in the lower Ganges Delta. The alluvial plain has an average elevation of 6.4 metres (17 feet) above mean sea level. A large part of the district comprises land reclaimed from
wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
. The existing East Kolkata Wetlands has been designated a “wetland of international importance” by the
Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on W ...
. Kolkata district is bounded by the North 24 Parganas district on the north and on the east, South 24 Parganas district on the south and
Howrah district Howrah district (, ) is a district of the West Bengal state in eastern India. Howrah district is one of the highly urbanized area of West Bengal. The urbanised sectors gradually increase the slum populations. Howrah is the third smallest distric ...
, across the Hooghly, on the west. In terms of area, it is the smallest amongst all the districts of West Bengal but has the highest density of population. It is the only district in the state with cent percent urban population. It has the lowest Scheduled Caste (5.38%) and
Scheduled Tribe The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...
(0.24%) population in the state. Kolkata district is the only district in the state with a negative growth rate (−1.7%) for the 2001–2011 decade. Kolkata district has the second highest literacy rate (86.3%) in the state. Kolkata metropolitan area, extending over an area of 1851.41 km2, is one of the six metropolitan areas in India. It includes the entire
Kolkata Municipal Corporation Kolkata Municipal Corporation (abbreviated KMC; also Calcutta Municipal Corporation) is the local government of the Indian city of Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal. This civic administrative body administers an area of . Its motto, ...
area. The Kolkata district collector is responsible for several citizen centric services which are neither being provided by the KMC nor Kolkata Police.


Demographics

According to the 2011 census Kolkata district has a
population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using ...
of 4,496,694, roughly equal to the nation of
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
or the US state of
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...
. This gives it a ranking of 35th in India (out of a total of
640 Year 640 (Roman numerals, DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...
). The district has a population density of . Its
population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...
over the decade 2001–2011 was −1.88%. Kolkata has a
sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species de ...
of 899
females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females a ...
for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 87.14%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 5.38% and 0.24% of the population respectively.


Religion

The small minorities were Jains, who numbered 21,178 and formed 0.5% of the population.
Sikhs Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...
numbered 13,849 and formed 0.3% of the population.
Buddhists Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and g ...
numbered 4,771 and formed 0.1% of the population. Persons following other religions numbered 1,452. Persons not stating religion numbered 48,982 and formed 1.1% of the population. The proportion of Hindus in Kolkata district decreased from 83.9% in 1961 to 76.5% in 2011. During the same period Muslims increased from 12.8% to 20.6%.


Languages

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 ...
is the most spoken language, with 61.45% of the population. Another 22.19% speak
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
and 13.04%
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
. Odia, Gujarati,
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
, Marwari and
Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...
are also spoken by more than 10,000 people. The proportion of persons having Bengali as a mother tongue in Kolkata district decreased from 63.8% in 1961 to 59.9% in 1971 to 58.5% in 1981 and then increased to 63.6% in 1991, but again dropped to 62.0% in 2001 and dropped further to 61.5% in 2011. The proportion of persons having Hindi as mother tongue increased from 19.3% in 1961 to 23.2% in 1971, but then started declining to 22.2% in 1981, 20.9% in 1991 and 20.3% in 2001, but rose to 22.2% in 2011. The proportion of persons having Urdu as mother tongue has increased from 9.0% in 1961 to 13.6% in 2001 but decreased to 13.0% in 2011. The proportion of persons having English as mother tongue has dwindled from 1.0% in 1961 to 0.2% in 2001 and now only 8,900 people speak English as mother tongue, mainly Anglo-Indians.


Economy


Livelihood

As per the 2011 census, Kolkata district has 1,795,740 total workers (main and marginal) forming 39.93% of the district population. The remaining population of 2,700,954 (60.07%) belongs to the non-workers category. While amongst the males 59.93% are total workers and 40.07% are non-workers, amongst the females 17.91% are total workers and 82.09% are non-workers. 94.61% of the total workers in urban Kolkata earn their livelihood as ''other workers'', followed by 3.81% as ''household workers''. Only 0.89% of total workers are engaged as ''cultivators'' and 0.69% are engaged as ''agricultural labourers''. The type of workers that come under the category of “other workers” include all government servants, municipal employees, teachers, factory workers, plantation workers, those engaged in trade, commerce, business, transport, banking, mining, construction, political or social work, priests, entertainment artists, and so on.


Infrastructure

Power supply: In 1895, the Government of Bengal passed the Calcutta Electric Lighting Act and in 1897 Kilburn & Co., as agents of The Indian Electric Company Limited, secured the license for electric lighting in Kolkata. The company soon changed its name to Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation. It commissioned the first thermal power plant in India, at Emambagh Lane, near Prinsep Ghat, in 1899. The switching over from horse-drawn carriages to electricity by Calcutta Tramways Company in 1902, provided further impetus to the rise in power consumption. The years of power shortage in the 1970s and 1980s, have been left behind. Now, CESC serves 2.8 million consumers. Total electric consumption in Kolkata district has gone up from 6,424 million KWH in 2006–07 to 8,135 million KWH in 2010–11. Water supply: Newspaper reports, quoting KMC officials, say that in 2013 water demand from KMC was 290 million gallons per day and on an average, it supplied 300 mgd. 94 per cent of the city is supplied piped water, almost all of it free. The city is serviced by a 5,000 km network of pipes. As per KMC, it has 5 water treatment plants at Palta, Watgunge, Jorabagan, Dhapa and Garden Reach. There are reports that officially 15% of Kolkata's core water supply comes from ground water, in reality 25–30% of water used in households is ground water. Roads: An estimated 6% of Kolkata's area is under roads, whereas a standard modern city demands 25–30% of the area be under roads. ''Pucca'' (surfaced) road construction started in Kolkata only after 1839, and pavements were provided along the main roads only to facilitate erection of gas lights. In 2010–11 KMC maintained 1,909 km of roads (1,670 km surfaced and 239 km unsurfaced). In 2011, the number of registered motor vehicles (including two and three wheelers) on the roads of Kolkata was 687,918. Drainage: Kolkata district was traditionally drained by two channels and various minor water ways. Human efforts tried to supplement the natural system. William Tolly tried to develop an eastward drainage-cum-communication channel by excavating the almost dead bed of the Adi Ganga. The 27 km long Tolly's Nullah was completed in 1777. The Lake Channel was cut through the Salt Lake later on. Some of the other channels were; Beliaghata Canal (1800), Circular Canal from Entally to Hooghly river (1820), Bhangor Khal (1897–98) and the 16 km long Krishnapur Khal, a navigational channel connecting Kolkata with Nona-Gang-Kulti Gang in South 24 Parganas (1910). Since 1742 the Bidyadhari served as an outlet for the drainage of the city, but with deterioration of the Jamuna, Bidyadhari lost much of its fresh water flow. Dr. Birendranath Dey renovated and revived the Bidyadhari in 1943. Kolkata was pioneer in introducing the underground drainage system in 1878. There are 88 km of man-entry big sewers and 92 km of non-man entry brick sewers. Eco system: Kolkata is a highly polluted district. According to an Institute of Ecological Exploration Report, in 1984, there are only 21 trees per km in Kolkata, far below the standard mark of 100 trees per km. The per capita open space at 20 feet2 is too low. With these handicaps, the smoke from vehicles and industrial units, coupled with winter fogs, create a polluted environment. Noise pollution levels are also high. The noise tolerance level of average human beings is 60–65 decibels. The noise pollution levels in some areas are as follows: Binay–Badal–Dinesh Bag 80 – 85 dB, Esplanade 70 – 84 dB, Park Street 78 – 81 dB, Gariahat 80 – 82 dB and Shyambazar 80 – 82 dB. Spread over 12,500 hectares the East Kolkata Wetlands play a very vital role in maintaining the ecological balance in the neighbourhood of Kolkata. KMC dumps 2,600 tons of solid waste daily. In addition liquid
sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...
, toxic effluents and polluted air are recycled into clean air, fresh water, organic nutrients and a daily supply of fresh fish and green vegetables for Kolkata kitchens. The surrounding countryside continues its subsistence living with the help of this eco-system.


Industry

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 ...
secured the license for trading in Bengal from the
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 Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...
. In the absence of road and air transport, in those days, water transport flourished and a
port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...
was established at Kolkata. The first telegraph line was installed as early as 1839. A pioneering pharmaceutical company, Bengal Chemical & Pharmaceutical Works was established in 1893. The
film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre ...
, based in Tollygunge, also had an early start. The first silent Bengali feature film, '' Bilwamangal'', was produced in 1919 and the first Bengali talkie, ''
Jamai Shashthi ''Jamai Shashthi'' ( bn, জামাই ষষ্ঠী English: Son-in-law day) is a 1931 Bengali short film directed by Amar Choudhury and produced by Madan Theatre Limited. It is a milestone of Bengali cinema as it was the first Bengali ...
'', was released in 1931. There were other sectors which had an early start and were subsequently followed up. Kolkata district had 1,012 registered factories in 2010. The three most important goods manufactured in Kolkata district in 2009 were: engineering goods, leather products and rubber products. Trade and Commerce: While there were only a handful of Marwaris in Kolkata's trade and commerce towards the end of the 18th century, they came in larger numbers with the turn of the century and particularly after opening of the railways (1860) and dominated Kolkata's economy. During the 1830s some of the best-known Marwari families, well established in business, were the Singhanias, the Sarafs, the Kotharis and the Bagris. By the turn of the century more Marwari families were in the business limelight: the Poddars, the Mundhras, the Dalmias, the Dugars, the Jalans, the Jhunjhunwalas, the Jaipurias, the Rampurias and the Birlas. Burrabazar became a stronghold of Marwari businessmen from the middle of the 19th century but their operations remained subservient to British business interests. Business opportunities during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
transformed the Marwaris from a trading community to entrepreneurs and they started challenging the British economically. They gained entry into British economic strongholds like the jute and cotton industries. After
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, as the British left India, the Marwaris acquired most of their business interests. With political ‘delinquency’ prevailing in Kolkata from the sixties many Marwaris, particularly the elite, started looking for greener pastures elsewhere. The Marwaris “could not stop incorrigible Calcutta from getting poorer; Calcutta, in turn, could not stop them from getting richer.”


Electoral constituencies

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-pas ...
(parliamentary) and
Vidhan Sabha The State Legislative Assembly, or Vidhan Sabha, or also Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in the states and union territories of India. In the 28 states and 3 union territories with a unicameral state legislature, it is the sole legislativ ...
(state assembly) constituencies covering Kolkata district are as follows:


See also

* Kolkata Metropolitan Area *
Districts of West Bengal The Himalayas lies in the north of West Bengal and the Bay of Bengal is at the south. Between them, the river Ganga flows eastwards and its main distributary, the Hooghly River, flows south to reach the Bay of Bengal. The Siliguri Corridor, whic ...
*
Mumbai City district Mumbai City district is a district of Maharashtra in Konkan Division. As a city district, it has no headquarters or subdivisions. It, along with the Mumbai Suburban District, makes up the metropolis of Mumbai. This area is called the "Island Ci ...
* Chennai district *
National Capital Territory of Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...


References


External links


Map of the Kolkata district
at MapsofIndia {{DEFAULTSORT:Kolkata District Districts of West Bengal Minority Concentrated Districts in India