KOLKATA: Can a lessee of a mass of land become the founder of a city?
Can the date of his landing in Kolkata be suddenly interpreted as the
city's birth date?
Such questions, and many more, will be asked by a host of historians - who contest the claim that August 24 should be celebrated as the city's birthday - on August 23. But the debate has already started raging among those who are preparing to celebrate the occasion on Friday.
The state government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation celebrated the tercentenary of the city in 1990. But a high court ruling had put an end to the celebration, saying that August 24 cannot be considered the birth date of the city. Though the state-backed agencies stopped commemorating the day, several private organizations followed tradition and stuck to the August 24 date.
However, there are some who contest this established notion and feel public awareness should be generated about the misconception. One such organization - Sutanati Boimela Committee - will bring together historians of repute, including Debashish Basu, to contest the claim at an event on August 23.
Job Charnock, the British trader who landed near Nimtala Ghat on August 24, 1690, was unanimously considered to be the founder of Kolkata till now. He is believed to have received lease of the three villages - Sutanuti, Gobindopur and Kalikata - from the then owner, Sabarna Ray Chowdhury.
The Sabarna Roy Chowdhury Paribar Parishad challenged the date and filed a PIL in Calcutta high court in 2001. They produced a copy of an old 1698 deed where Charnock's son-in-law, Charles Eyre, was leased out the three villages. The court formed an expert committee of historians comprising Arun Dasgupta, Barun De, Sushil Chowdhury and Naren Sinha, to look into the matter.
"We unanimously decided that Kolkata's existence is certainly older than the arrival of Job Charnock. Even Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari (1590) mentions Kollegot, which can certainly be interpreted as Kolkata. Naturally, you cannot celebrate the city's birthday on August 24. Moreover, how can a city which is a landmass that grows over time, have a birthday, at least logically?" asks Barun De. Soumitro Sreemani, another noted historian, also dismissed the birthday claim.
Incidentally, Sutanati Parishad, an NGO that celebrates many of the old anniversaries and events associated with the city, will start its Sutanati Utsav on August 24. "When our organization was formed on August 24, the city was agog with the tercentenary celebrations. However, the date was debated and disproved later, but we continued with our Sutanati Utsav, which is not necessarily a birthday celebration," said Kalyan Kumar Deb of Sutanati Parishad.
The August 23 talk has been organized at the house of Chatu Babu - Latu Babu, one of the princely houses of the city,
to add a touch of history to the event. "We will also be celebrating the birth centenary of Binoy Krishna Deb Bahadur, a pioneer in the field of education and literature. Right from the Oriental Seminary, General Assembly and Metropolitan School, he was on the committee of many institutions.
His books - Growth and Early History of Kolkata and Pancha Pushpa - are still considered to be scholarly documents on the city's early history," said Suman Bhowmick, general secretary of Sutanati Boimela Committee.
Once again it is that time of the year when a debate rages as to whether Friday, August 24, should be celebrated as the city's birthday. In 1990 both the state government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation celebrated the tercentenary of the city following the date that history books had been propagating eversince. After this hullaballoo of the tercentenary was over, a High Court ruling put an end to the matter saying that August 24 cannot be considered the birthdate of the city.
Though the state backed agencies do not celebrate the birthday of the city anymore, there are several private organisations that do, as a matter of tradition. So there are some others who contest this, feeling that public awareness should be generated about the misconception. Sutanati Boimela Committee is one such organisation, which will bring together historians of repute to contest the claim that August 24 should be celebrated as the city's birthday. They will present their case on August 23.
Job Charnock, the British trader who landed near Nimtolla Ghat on August 24, 1690, was so long considered to be the founder of Kolkata. He is supposed to have received lease of the three villages - Sutanuti, Gobindopur and Kalikata from the then owners, Sabarna Ray Chowdhury.
'Can a lessee of a mass of land become the founder of a city? Can the date of his landing in Kolkata be suddenly interpreted as the city's birthdate?" asks Debashish Basu, an expert on the history of Kolkata, who will argue the case on August 23.
The Sabarna Roy Chowdhury Paribar Parishad, challenged the date and filed a PIL at the Calcutta High Court in 2001. They produced a copy of an old 1698 deed where Charnock's son-in-law, Charles Eyre was leased out the three villages. The court formed an expert committee of historians comprising of Arun Dasgupta, Barun De, Sushil Chowdhury, Naren Sinha etc.
"We unanimously decided that Kolkata's existence is certainly older than the arrival of Job Charnock. Even Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari (1590) mentions Kollegot, which can certainly be interpreted as Kolkata. Naturally you cannot celebrate the city's birthday on August 24. Moreover, how can a city which is a landmass that grows over time, have a birthday, at least logically?" asks Barun De. Another historian who will also dismiss the birthday claim will be Soumitro Sreemani.
Incidentally, Sutanati Parishad, an NGO that celebrates many of the old anniversaries and events associated with the city, will start its Sutanati Utsav on August 24. "When we came into being on August 24, the city was agog with the tercentenary celebrations. However, later when the date was debated and disproved, we have continued with our Sutanati Utsav which is not necessarily a birthday celebration," said Kalyan Kumar Deb of Sutanati Parishad.
The talk has been organised at the house of Chatu Babu - Latu Babu, one of the princely houses of the city, to add a touch of history to the event. "We will also be celebrating the birth centenary of Binoy Krishna Deb Bahadur, who was a pioneer in the field of education and literature those days. Right from the Oriental Seminary,
General Assembly and Metropolitan School, he was on the committees of many institution. Two of his books, Growth and Early History of Kolkata and Pancha Pushpa are still considered to be documents by scholars of the city's early history," said Suman Bhowmick, general secretary of Sutanati Boimela Committee. ( साभार-टाइम्स आप इंडिया )
Such questions, and many more, will be asked by a host of historians - who contest the claim that August 24 should be celebrated as the city's birthday - on August 23. But the debate has already started raging among those who are preparing to celebrate the occasion on Friday.
The state government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation celebrated the tercentenary of the city in 1990. But a high court ruling had put an end to the celebration, saying that August 24 cannot be considered the birth date of the city. Though the state-backed agencies stopped commemorating the day, several private organizations followed tradition and stuck to the August 24 date.
However, there are some who contest this established notion and feel public awareness should be generated about the misconception. One such organization - Sutanati Boimela Committee - will bring together historians of repute, including Debashish Basu, to contest the claim at an event on August 23.
Job Charnock, the British trader who landed near Nimtala Ghat on August 24, 1690, was unanimously considered to be the founder of Kolkata till now. He is believed to have received lease of the three villages - Sutanuti, Gobindopur and Kalikata - from the then owner, Sabarna Ray Chowdhury.
The Sabarna Roy Chowdhury Paribar Parishad challenged the date and filed a PIL in Calcutta high court in 2001. They produced a copy of an old 1698 deed where Charnock's son-in-law, Charles Eyre, was leased out the three villages. The court formed an expert committee of historians comprising Arun Dasgupta, Barun De, Sushil Chowdhury and Naren Sinha, to look into the matter.
"We unanimously decided that Kolkata's existence is certainly older than the arrival of Job Charnock. Even Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari (1590) mentions Kollegot, which can certainly be interpreted as Kolkata. Naturally, you cannot celebrate the city's birthday on August 24. Moreover, how can a city which is a landmass that grows over time, have a birthday, at least logically?" asks Barun De. Soumitro Sreemani, another noted historian, also dismissed the birthday claim.
Incidentally, Sutanati Parishad, an NGO that celebrates many of the old anniversaries and events associated with the city, will start its Sutanati Utsav on August 24. "When our organization was formed on August 24, the city was agog with the tercentenary celebrations. However, the date was debated and disproved later, but we continued with our Sutanati Utsav, which is not necessarily a birthday celebration," said Kalyan Kumar Deb of Sutanati Parishad.
The August 23 talk has been organized at the house of Chatu Babu - Latu Babu, one of the princely houses of the city,
to add a touch of history to the event. "We will also be celebrating the birth centenary of Binoy Krishna Deb Bahadur, a pioneer in the field of education and literature. Right from the Oriental Seminary, General Assembly and Metropolitan School, he was on the committee of many institutions.
His books - Growth and Early History of Kolkata and Pancha Pushpa - are still considered to be scholarly documents on the city's early history," said Suman Bhowmick, general secretary of Sutanati Boimela Committee.
Once again it is that time of the year when a debate rages as to whether Friday, August 24, should be celebrated as the city's birthday. In 1990 both the state government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation celebrated the tercentenary of the city following the date that history books had been propagating eversince. After this hullaballoo of the tercentenary was over, a High Court ruling put an end to the matter saying that August 24 cannot be considered the birthdate of the city.
Though the state backed agencies do not celebrate the birthday of the city anymore, there are several private organisations that do, as a matter of tradition. So there are some others who contest this, feeling that public awareness should be generated about the misconception. Sutanati Boimela Committee is one such organisation, which will bring together historians of repute to contest the claim that August 24 should be celebrated as the city's birthday. They will present their case on August 23.
Job Charnock, the British trader who landed near Nimtolla Ghat on August 24, 1690, was so long considered to be the founder of Kolkata. He is supposed to have received lease of the three villages - Sutanuti, Gobindopur and Kalikata from the then owners, Sabarna Ray Chowdhury.
'Can a lessee of a mass of land become the founder of a city? Can the date of his landing in Kolkata be suddenly interpreted as the city's birthdate?" asks Debashish Basu, an expert on the history of Kolkata, who will argue the case on August 23.
The Sabarna Roy Chowdhury Paribar Parishad, challenged the date and filed a PIL at the Calcutta High Court in 2001. They produced a copy of an old 1698 deed where Charnock's son-in-law, Charles Eyre was leased out the three villages. The court formed an expert committee of historians comprising of Arun Dasgupta, Barun De, Sushil Chowdhury, Naren Sinha etc.
"We unanimously decided that Kolkata's existence is certainly older than the arrival of Job Charnock. Even Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari (1590) mentions Kollegot, which can certainly be interpreted as Kolkata. Naturally you cannot celebrate the city's birthday on August 24. Moreover, how can a city which is a landmass that grows over time, have a birthday, at least logically?" asks Barun De. Another historian who will also dismiss the birthday claim will be Soumitro Sreemani.
Incidentally, Sutanati Parishad, an NGO that celebrates many of the old anniversaries and events associated with the city, will start its Sutanati Utsav on August 24. "When we came into being on August 24, the city was agog with the tercentenary celebrations. However, later when the date was debated and disproved, we have continued with our Sutanati Utsav which is not necessarily a birthday celebration," said Kalyan Kumar Deb of Sutanati Parishad.
The talk has been organised at the house of Chatu Babu - Latu Babu, one of the princely houses of the city, to add a touch of history to the event. "We will also be celebrating the birth centenary of Binoy Krishna Deb Bahadur, who was a pioneer in the field of education and literature those days. Right from the Oriental Seminary,
General Assembly and Metropolitan School, he was on the committees of many institution. Two of his books, Growth and Early History of Kolkata and Pancha Pushpa are still considered to be documents by scholars of the city's early history," said Suman Bhowmick, general secretary of Sutanati Boimela Committee. ( साभार-टाइम्स आप इंडिया )
