Bhowanipur

Bhowanipore (also Bhowanipur; ) is a neighbourhood of South Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

History

In 1717, the East India Company obtained the right to rent from 38 villages surrounding their settlement from the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar. Of these, 5 lay across the Hooghly in what is now Howrah district. The remaining 33 villages were on the Calcutta side. After the fall of Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, it purchased these villages in 1758 from Mir Jafar, and reorganised them. These villages were known en-bloc as ''Dihi Panchannagram'' and Bhowanipore was one of them. It was considered to be a suburb beyond the limits of the Maratha Ditch.

Bhowanipore existed as a ''dihi'' in 1765 and also absorbed a part of Dihi Chakraberia. The construction of Harish Mukherjee Road and Lansdowne Road (now Sarat Bose Road) and the extension of Hazra Road to Kalighat, opened up the area at the beginning of the 20th century.Nair, P.Thankappan, ''The Growth and Development of Old Calcutta'', in ''Calcutta, the Living City'', Vol. I, pp. 15,18-19, Edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Oxford University Press, 1995 edition. Artisans played a role in developing the neighbourhood and making it a populous native place. The ''kansaris'' (braziers), the ''shankharis'' (conch workers) and the ''telis'' (oil pressers); all had their ''paras''. The goods were sold in ''pattis''. Along with these artisans, Indian lawyers flocked to Bhowanipore, as the Sadr Diwani Adalat, the highest appellate court in those days, had shifted to the old Military Hospital Building here, and the District Judge's court was in Alipore.

In 1888, one of the 25 newly organized police section houses was located in Bhowanipore.

When the Bengal Renaissance started taking roots in 19th century Calcutta, it was initially limited to the predominantly Hindu 'Indian town' stretching north and north-east from the fringes of Burrabazar, with a somewhat later extension to south and south-east of the 'European town' to Bhowanipore, and some decades later to Ballygunge, which was then developing as a suburb.

In the first half of the 20th century, “in the milieu of relative urban prosperity... Calcutta’s rich citizens – those connected with jute, coal, tea, other industries, trade, money-lending and rentier income from urban property – did fabulously well for themselves.” Many of the mansions in Ballygunge, Bhowanipore and Alipore were built by the city's Bengali and the new Marwari elite who wanted to move from the “dirtier sections of north Calcutta to the more fashionable areas in the south”.

Again, it was in the first half of the 20th century that with the implementation of the Area Improvement Programme of Calcutta Improvement Trust Bhowanipore, an old residential suburb was upgraded to modern standards of town planning.

Notable residents

* Mamta Banerjee - CM of West Bengal
*Bijon Bhattacharya, eminent theatre artist, director and famous Bengali play writer, also the husband of eminent international award-winning social worker and writer Smt.Mahasweta Devi

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