Kolkata (
Calcutta) -
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Kolkata known historically in
English as Calcutta /kælˈkʌtə/, is the capital of the
Indian state of
West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the
Hooghly river, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of
East India, while the
Port of Kolkata is India's oldest operating port as well as its sole major riverine port.
As of 2011, the city had
4.5 million residents; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately
14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in
India. As of 2008, its economic output as measured by gross domestic product ranked third among
South Asian cities, behind
Mumbai and
Delhi.[6] As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Kolkata confronts substantial urban pollution, traffic congestion, poverty, overpopulation, and other logistic and socioeconomic problems
.
In the late
17th century, the three villages that predated Kolkata were ruled by the
Nawab of Bengal under
Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the
East India Company a trading license in 1690,[7] the area was developed by the
Company into an increasingly fortified mercantile base. Nawab
Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Kolkata in 1756, and the East India Company retook it in the following year and by 1772 assumed full sovereignty. Under East India Company and later under the
British Raj, Kolkata served as the capital of India until
1911, when its perceived geographical disadvantages, combined with growing nationalism in
Bengal, led to a shift of the capital to
New Delhi. The city was the centre of the
Indian independence movement; it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics.
Following Indian independence in
1947, Kolkata—which was once the centre of modern
Indian education, science, culture, and politics—witnessed several decades of relative economic stagnation. Since the early
2000s, an economic rejuvenation has led to accelerated growth.
As a nucleus of the 19th- and early
20th-century Bengal Renaissance and a religiously and ethnically diverse centre of culture in Bengal and India, Kolkata has established local traditions in drama, art, film, theatre, and literature that have gained wide audiences. Many people from Kolkata—among them several
Nobel laureates—have contributed to the arts, the sciences, and other areas, while
Kolkata culture features idiosyncrasies that include distinctively close-knit neighbourhoods (paras) and freestyle intellectual exchanges (adda). West Bengal's share of the
Bengali film industry is based in the city, which also hosts venerable cultural institutions of national importance, such as the
Academy of Fine Arts, the
Victoria Memorial, the
Asiatic Society, the
Indian Museum, and the
National Library of India. Though home to major cricketing venues and franchises, Kolkata differs from other
Indian cities by giving importance to association football and other sports.
Culture Kolkata
==============
Kolkata is known for its literary, artistic, and revolutionary heritage; as the former capital of India, it was the birthplace of modern
Indian literary and artistic thought. Kolkata has been called the "
City of
Furious,
Creative Energy" as well as the "cultural [or literary] capital of
India". The presence of paras, which are neighbourhoods that possess a strong sense of community, is characteristic of Kolkata. Typically, each para has its own community club and, on occasion, a playing field. Residents engage in addas, or leisurely chats, that often take the form of freestyle intellectual conversation. The city has a tradition of political graffiti depicting everything from outrageous slander to witty banter and limericks, caricatures, and propaganda.
Kolkata has many buildings adorned with Indo-Islamic and Indo-Saracenic architectural motifs. Several well-maintained major buildings from the colonial period have been declared "heritage structures"; however, others are in various stages of decay.Established in
1814 as the nation's oldest museum, the Indian Museum houses large collections that showcase
Indian natural history and
Indian art.
Marble Palace is a classic example of a
European mansion that was built in the city. The Victoria Memorial, a place of interest in Kolkata, has a museum documenting the city's history.
The National Library of India is the leading public library in the country.
- published: 07 Jun 2014
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