Calcutta is oldest major port in the country. It remains to be the capital of India till 1911 and also the main area for the British activities. Despite all these problems Kolkata is a city with a soul, and one which many residents are inordinately fond of. The Bengalis, so ready to raise arms against the British in the struggle for independence, are also the poets and artists of India. Calcutta has always been an important international trading center and port. Today teeming, bustling Calcutta is a veritable microcosm of India, in an intensely concentrated form. Some of the grandest monuments of the British Raj are to be found here, most notably the majestic Victoria Memorial. Fascinating, Bewitching, Bewildering. That's Calcutta / Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal..
History :
Kolkata is not an ancient city like Delhi, with its impressive relics of the past. In fact its largely a British creation which dates back only some 300 years and was the capital of British India till the beginning of this century. In 1690, Job Charnok, from East India Company selected Kolkata for a British trade settlement. He took the lease of the three villages- Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kolikata (Calcutta) as a trading post of British East India. The city came into limelight in 1756, when Siraj-Ud-Dawlah, the nawab of Bengal, captured the city. But the British again captured it in 1757 under Robert Clive. The first Governor-General of India, Warren Hastings made it the place of the supreme courts of justice and then the Kolkata became the capital of British India in 1772. By 1800 Kolkata had become a busy and flourishing town, the center of the cultural as well as the political and economic life of Bengal.
Cities of West Bengal
Darjeeling, Siliguri, Kolkata/Calcutta , Mirik.
Tourist attraction of Kolkata / Calcutta :
Victoria Memorial, fort William, Birla Mandir, Agni Mandir, Belur Math, Birla Planetorium, Nehru Museum, Botanical Garden, Nehru Museum, Zoological Garden, Eden Garden, Rabindra Bharti Museum.
How to get there :
By Air :
Kolkata is connected by air with Jorhat, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Ranchi, Silchar, Tezpur, Visakhapatnam, Amritsar, Delhi and Leh.
By Rail:
Kolkata is connected by rail with all major cities of the country.
By Road :
Kolkata is well connected by road with all major parts of the country.
