Kolkata

Kolkata (Bangla: কলকাতা, Hindi: ??????), is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and was capital of British India until 1912. The city's name was officially changed from Calcutta to Kolkata in January 2001. Despite the new name being phonetically closer to the Bengali version, many people and organizations still refer to it as Calcutta. In Hindi, the city is referred to as Kalkatta.

History

Kolkata's history is intimately related to the British East India Company, which first arrived in 1690, and to British India, which Calcutta became the capital of India in 1772. In the nineteenth century Calcutta was the epicentre of activity in the early stages of the national movement of independence. Kolkata remained in the forefront of Indian prosperity up to independence and for some more years afterwards before the population pressure on infrastructure and political disturbances led to a gradual decline. A violent and bloody Marxist Maoist movement known as the Naxal movement (after Naxalbari, the place where it first started) in the 1970s left the city badly bruised.

Related Topics:
British East India Company - British India - India - 1772 - Marxist Maoist - Naxal - Naxalbari

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