West Bengal

"The Civil & Military Gazette of Lahore, by no means a paper hostile to the Muslims, said apropos the Calcutta riots in its editorial in its issue of August 20, 1946 (four days after the commencement of these riots). “We have termed the jeremiads of Muslim Leaguers ‘near hysterical nonsense,’ but they represent a trend of thought and a psychological attitude which hold the utmost danger for the whole country. Words are being broadcast everyday which will make fanatics of law-abiding citizens and throw them into the same camp with the lowest of goondas.” More significantly still, this same editorial says. “Authentic reports from all parts of India describe the country as a powder-magazine, and at the moment the Muslim League is holding a torch which may send it sky-high. If the spark is applied, the present League leadership will have to shoulder responsibility for events which will not only blast for ever all hopes of Hindu-Muslim co-operation in any field, but which will ruin all chances of India’s progress for decades.”"

"Calcutta and Noakhali did not bring any condemnation from the League of these criminal attacks on minorities. Far from it-in the League Press the attempt was made to shift the responsibility, where there occurrences were admitted at all, on the Hindus."

"[The Muslim League pamphlet, urging Muslims to attend the rally in large numbers, read:] ‘Muslims must remember that it was in Ramzam that the Quran was revealed. It was in Ramzan that the permission for Jehad was granted. It was in Ramzam that the battle of Badr, the first open conflict between Islam and Heathenism (i.e., idolatry, which equates Hinduism) was fought and won by 313 Muslims; and again it was in Ramzan that 10,000 under the Holy Prophet conquered Mecca and established the kingdom of Heaven and the commonwealth of Islam in Arabia. Muslim League is fortunate that it is starting its action in this holy month.’ [While another leaflet, entitled Munajat for the Jehad, was to be read out in mosque prayers. It included the above passage and added:] ‘By the grace of God, we are ten cores (100 millions) in India but through our bad luck we have become slaves of the Hindus and the British. We are starting a Jehad in Your Name in this very month of Ramzan. Pray make us strong in body and mind—give Your helping hand in all out actions—make us victorious over the Kafers—enable us to establish the Kingdom of Islam in India and make proper sacrifices for this Jehad—by the grace of God may we build up in India the greatest Islamic kingdom in the world.’ [Another Bengali pamphlet, Mogur (Club), wrote of the auspicious holy month event:] ‘‘The day for an open fight which is the greatest desire of the Muslim nation has arrived… The Shining gates of heaven have been opened for you. Let us enter in thousands. Let us all cry out victory to Pakistan, victory to the Muslim nation and victory to the army which has declared a Jehad.’’ [The Mayor of Calcutta issue a leaflet, showing Jinnah with a sword, which read:] ‘We Muslims have had the Crown (of India) and ruled… Be ready and take your sword. Think you, Muslims, why we are under the kafirs today. The result of loving kafirs is not good. O kafir! Do not be proud. Your doom is not far and the general massacre will come. Show our glory with swords in hands and will have a special victory.’ [Still another leaflet, urging Muslims to come to the rally with their swords, added:] ‘‘We shall see who will play with us, for rivers of blood will flow. We shall have the swords in our hands and the noise of takbir (Allahu Akbar, Allah is Great). Tomorrow will be dooms day.’"

"[Justice Khosla of Lahore High Court recounts of the carnage:] ‘The streets were strewn with dead bodies and the corpses… There were stories of children having been hurled down from the roofs of houses. Young children were reported to have been boiled in oil. Others were burnt alive. Women were raped and mutilated and then murdered.’"

"[Regarding the abetment of the Bengal Muslim League government and the police in the Direct Action violence, the words of Sher-e-Bangla (Tiger of Bengal) AK Fazlul Huq, the CM of undivided Bengal (1937–43) and later briefly of East Pakistan (1954), are worth taking note here. In describing his eyewitness account of the savagery in an address to the Bengal Legislative Assembly on 19 September 1946, he said:] ‘‘It seemed …that some modern Nadir Shah had come upon Calcutta and had given up the city to rapine, plunder and pillage. Sir, each time I tried to get in touch with police officers, I was told that I was to contact the Control Room. I do not know. Sir, who was controlling the Control Room, but whenever l wanted some kind of help the reply came that my complaint has been noted and will be attended to in proper time. Then, Sir, l sometimes tried to gel into touch with high officials of Government House. I was told that none but Government servants were allowed to use the telephone to get into touch with the household of His Excellency the Governor. Police officers would not listen, the Control Office would not control, the Government House would not listen. Sir, in the^ circumstances the Great Killing went on and it is undisputed that this thing would never have happened if the police and the military had taken strong measures on Friday, the 16th, when the trouble began. Tt would have been nipped in the bud that very day, and, therefore, the conclusion is inevitable that although the police may not be responsible for the origin of disturbances, they are directly responsible for the great loss of human life, and if an impartial enquiry is held and these police officers can be spotted, my opinion is that they deserve to be hanged, drawn and quartered publicly, on charges of murder and abetment of murder."

"16th August is a blot on Bengal’s history. The day is horrifically remmembered as Direct Action Day or Great Calcutta Killings which led to the brutal killings of thousands of Bengalis. Many dead bodies kept lying on road for days to be fed by dogs & vultures even."

"The programme reminded the Muslims of what stuff they were made. “Muslims must remember that it was in Ramzan that the Quran was revealed It was in Ramzan that the permission for Jehad was granted by Allah It was in Ramzan that the battle of Badr, the first open conflict between Islam and Heathenism was fought and won by 313 Muslims, and again it was in Ramzan that 10,000 under the Holy Prophet conquered Mecca and established the kingdom of Heaven and the commonwealth of Islam in Arabia The Muslim League 1s fortunate that it is starting its action in this holy month ”... Another leaflet containing a special prayer for the crusade is worth quoting in full. “ MUNAJAT FOR THE JEHAD (To be sad at every mosque after the Jumma prayer ) It was in this month of Ramzan that the Holy Quran was revealed! It was in this month of Ramzan that 313 Muslims were victorious through the grace of God over many Kafers in the battle of Badr and the Jehad of the Muslims commenced! It was in this month that ten thousand Muslims marched to Mecca and were conquerors and thus there was the establishment of the Kingdom of Islam. By the grace of God we are ten crores in India but through bad luck we have become slaves of the Hindus and the British We are starting a Jehad in Your Name in this very month of Ramzan We promise before You that we entirely dependon You Pray make us strong in body and mind—give Your helping hand in all our actions—make us victorious over the Kafers—enable us to establish the Kingdom of Islam in India and make proper sacrifice for this Jehad—by the grace of God may we build up m India the greatest Islamic kingdom in the world. ...A Bengali pamphlet Mugur (Club) concluded with a passionate appeal “The Bombay resolution of the All India Muslim League has been broadcast. The call to revolt comes to us from the Qaid-e Azam of the Muslim leaders. Braves, this 13 what we want. This is the policy for the nation of heroes. For so long we have been acting like beggars. We are glad from the core of our hearts to hear this magnificent news. This 1s what we have been eagerly waiting for God has granted to the Muslims in the month of Ramzan what they have been clamouring for The day for an open fight which 1s the greatest desire of the Muslim nation has arrived. Come those who want to rise to heaven. Come those who are simple wanting in peace of mind and who are in distress. Those who are thieves goondas those without the strength of character and those who do not say their prayers—all come (Italics ours.) The shiming gates of heaven have been opened for you. Let us enter in thousands. Let us all cry out victory to Pakistan victory to the Muslim nation and victory to the army which has declared a Jehad. A leaflet bearing a picture of Mr Jinnah with a sword in hand said — “The sword of Islam must be shining on the heavens and will subdue all evil designs. We Muslims have had the Crown and have ruled. Do not lose heart. Be ready and take your swords Think you Muslims, why we are under the kafirs today The result of loving the kafirs 1s not good O kafir | Do not be proud and happy Your doom 1s not far and the general massacre will come We shall show our glory with swords in hands and will have%a special victory ” Another.leaflet asked the Muslims to come into the arena with their swords and change their tactics “We shall then see who will play with us, for rivers of blood will flow We shall have the swords in our hands and the noise of takbir. Tomorrow will be doom’s day”"

"As early as 6 a.m. reports began to pour into the Police Control Room. The eleven telephones, installed in two separate rooms, rang so frequently and brought forth so many tales of distress, so many calls for help and such a stream of appeals for rescue that it was impossible to keep even a brief record of the countless messages received. ... There can, how- ever, be no doubt that the criminal apathy of the police officials and the failure of those in authority to deploy the available forces to the best advantage were mainly responsible for the holocaust which followed. For two days the police were almost completely inactive or evasive. Appeals for assistance were answered with, “We have no orders.” Policemen stood watching the burning and looting of houses with calm indifference. ... The Mallick Bazaar was looted by a mob of hooligans who ran about displaying their booty with a great show of exultant joy. Police guards joined the looters in this merry-making.... For a day and a half the Muslim rioters held their own. The tide of the battle then began to turn and Hindus and Sikhs began to hit back. It was only when this change began to spell disaster for the Muslims, that military assistance was summoned."

"Reference has already been made to the forcible closing of Hindu shops as the immediate exciting cause of the disturbances. All over Calcutta Muslim crowds demanded the closure of non- Muslim shops. If the slightest resistance was offered the shop was looted and burnt. Very soon the crowds began to break open closed shops and loot them. It is significant that many Muslim shops had been marked in chalk with “Mussalman shop —Pakistan” to save them from the attentions of the mob and this circumstance was mentioned as proving a previous plan to loot all non-Muslim shops."

"A number of temples were attacked and burnt down. Among these was the Radhakrishna Temple on Cornwallis Road and the Sita Temple in College Street. The Science College and the Hindu houses in its neighbourhood were persistently attacked for several hours. ... A number of cars and lorries, marked with the Red Cross or flying Red Cross flags. were going about killing people and looting shops. The looting and killing went on continuously for forty hours in some localities and this sus- tained energy of the fanatical mobs was an astonishing feature of the riots. The streets were strewn with dead bodies and the corpses lay thus for several days giving out a foul stench. ... There were stories of children having been hurled down from the roofs of houses. Young children were reported to have been boiled in oil. Others were burnt alive. Women were raped and mutilated and then murdered."

"It is estimated that more than five thousand persons were killed and more than fifteen thousand injured, and if the hospital figures are accepted as a basis for determining the ratio of the Muslim and Hindu casualties it will be clear that the Muslims fared almost as badly the Hindus. When this circumstance came to light the Muslim League leaders and the Muslim League Press asserted vehemently that the rioting was started by the supporters of the Congress and some of them even went so far as to say that the Hindus had prepared a deeply laid plan to commit wholesale murder of Muslims on Direct Action Day in order to discredit the Muslim League. On the other hand, it was sail that the Muslims had an efficient transport and ambulance corps and all their dead and injured were taken to hospital, while Hindu dead bodies were for ‘the most part burnt or destroyed and, therefore, did not figure in the official statistics."

"The morning of 16 August witnessed the dreaded mammoth march of the League with cries of ‘Ladh ke lenge Hindusthan’ (fighting we shall take Hindusthan). At the meeting which followed under the presidentship of the premier, speaker after speaker swore death and destruction for Hindus. Jehad on the kafirs was declared and the dispersing mob let loose g veritable hell on the Hindus with murder, loot, arson, and rape on a scale reminiscent of the bygone days of barbaric Islamic invasions. The orgy continued without let or hindrance for full two days. Calcutta reeled and lay prostrate writhing in agony. Whoever was apprehended indulging in criminal acts was immediately ordered to be set free by the premier himself who sat in the police control room and directed the operations. The English Governor F. Burrows sat like a statue in his chambers, ‘seeing no evil’ and ‘hearing no evil’. The wailings of Hindus before him and the other Government authorities fell on deaf ears. The Hindus realised that their fate would be sealed unless they struck hard in self-defence....A British correspondent of Statesman, Kim Christen, wrote: ‘I have a stomach made strong by the experience of war, but war was never like this. This is not a riot. It needs a word found in mediaeval history, a fury. Yet ‘fury’ sounds spontaneous and there must have been some deliberation and organisation to see this fury on the way.’’"

""Demography of all bordering areas has been changed. Those who left India and called it 'napaak', TMC is welcoming them back for its vote bank. Rohingyas are being welcomed in West Bengal. With the arrival of Bangladeshi immigrants, Jihadi ideas have also reached the state. A minister from TMC is openly validating what is happening in the state and has gone on to say that Hindus are only migrating within the state... The situation is equally worrisome in all border districts and a little less in the interiors of the state, but such a problem exists throughout the state nevertheless," he said. "Where we are sitting right now, this place was covered in blood back in 1946, the great Calcutta killing began from here. Mamata Banerjee's government has taken us back to that time," the BJP MP said."

"Today is Direct Action Day ­Today Muslims of India dedicate their lives and all they possess to the cause of freedom ­Today let ­every Muslim swear in the name of Allah to resist aggression Direct action is now their only course ­Because they offered peace but peace was spurned They honoured their word but they ­were betrayed They claimed Liberty but ­were offered Thraldom Now Might alone can secure their Right"

"The riots in Calcutta shocked Gandhi, the nation, and the world. Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh leaders exploited the communal tensions in 1946-1947 for their own political gain. In their fervor for liberation from the Hindu majority."

"Be ready to take your swords...we shall show our glory with swords in hand and will have a special victory”"

"H.S. Suhrawardy, the Chief Minister of Bengal and a major Muslim leaguer in Calcutta, was “appalingly negligent …perhaps…even deliberately provocative” in the early stages of killing."

"jal, juochuri, mithye katha ei tin niye kalikata."

"Those places where sadness and misery abound are favoured settings for stories of ghosts and apparitions. Calcutta has countless such stories hidden in its darkness, stories that nobody wants to admit they believe but which nevertheless survive in the memory of generations as the only chronicle of the past. It is as if the people who inhabit the streets, inspired by some mysterious wisdom, relalise that the true history of Calcutta has always been written in the invisible tales of its spirits and unspoken curses.”"

"Take your map of India, and find, if you can, a more uninviting spot than Calcutta. Placed in the burning plain of Bengal, on the largest delta of the world, amidst a network of sluggish, muddy streams, in the neighbourhood of the jungles and marshes of the Sunderbands, and yet so distant from the open sea as to miss the benefits of the breeze… it unites every condition of a perfectly unhealthy situation. The place is so bad by nature that human efforts could do little to make it worse."

"But the systematic manner in which Pakistan leaders are attempting to paint the people of this country as demons out to destroy innocent Muslims, while hiding, it not defending, the horrible outrages perpetrated by members of their own community from Calcutta to Sheikhupura is nothing but an attempt to defame this country and throw dust in the eyes of the outside world regarding the crimes committed by their co-religionists. They also know, as does everyone in this country, that the Punjab disaster was but the culminating act of the tragedy which began with the unprincipled campaign of communal hated and violence which they and their party leaders had been preaching for years as the only means of securing the ambition of their heart, namely, the separation of a part of this country where they could play the role of rulers, even though at the cost of unexampled suffering and misery to their own co-religionists both in Pakistan and India."

"We do not know why Mr. Ghulam Mohammad thought it his duty to anticipate the verdict of history regarding the responsibility of Lord Mountbatten for the tragedy of the Punjab. He is reported to have stated at a Press Conference in London that when the history of the events of this dark chapter comes to be written ‘a part of the blame-would rest on Lord Mountbatten.’ He has made two specific charges. The last British Viceroy was aware of a deep laid conspiracy by the Sikhs and Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh “to throttle Pakistan by eliminating Muslim” and refused to take action. The other charge is that Lord Mountbatten forced partition too quickly. The British Commonwealth Relations Office has repudiated both charges. It has pointed out that it was the then Governor of Punjab who had proved himself to be an avowed partisan of Muslim League, and had looked on impotently while sanguinary riots organized by the Muslim League and the Muslim National Guards took place in North Punjab in March and April 1947. It may be convenient for Mr. Ghulam Mohammed to forget that what happened in August 1947, was a mere continuation of the bloody chain of reaction which was set in motion by the Muslim League at Calcutta in August 1946. In March and April 1947, Sikhs had been brutally massacred and looted and they were abused as cowards because they had not reacted at once with violence. As a matter of fact Lord Mountbatten yielded to his pro-Muslim advisers and stationed the major portion of the Punjab Boundary Force in East Punjab with the result that there was no force to check or control the terrible massacres of Hindus and Sikhs that occurred in Sheikhupura and other places. We should certainly like an impartial investigation into the events of those days and we have no doubt it will be found that while, on the Indian side, it was the spontaneous outburst of a people indignant at what they considered the weakness and the appeasement policy of their leadership, on the Muslim side, the League, the bureaucracy, the police and the army worked like Hitler’s team with the tacit if not open approval of those in charge of the Pakistan Government."

"There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that is, except having one's elbows and knees lacerated by unseen slivers of glass and discarded razor blades.”"

"Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.”"

"Calcutta's the only city I know where you are actively encouraged to stop strangers at random for a quick chat."

"For years and years, even during the time of my first visit in 1962, it has been said that Calcutta was dying, that its port was silting up, its antiquated industry declining, but Calcutta hadn't died. It hadn't done much, but it had gone on; and it had begun to appear that the prophecy has been excessive. Now it occurred to me that perhaps this was what happened when cities died. They don't die with a bang; they didn't die only when they were abandoned. Perhaps, they died like this: when everybody was suffering, when transport was so hard that working people gave up jobs they needed because the fear the suffering of the travel; When no one had clean water or air; No one could go walking. Perhaps city died when they lost amenities that cities provided, the visual excitement, the heightened sense of human possibility, and became simply places where there were too many people, and people suffered.”"

"In 1946 there were the Hindu-Muslim massacres. They marked the beginning of the end for the city. The next year India was independent, but partitioned. Bengal was divided. A large Hindu refugee population came and camped in Calcutta; and Calcutta, without a hundredth part of the resilience of Europe, never really recovered. Certain important things were in the future – the cinema of Satyajit Ray, especially – but the great days of the city, all its intellectual life, were over. And it could appear that the British-built city – its grandeur still ghostly at night – began to die when the British went away."

"Calcutta, more than New Delhi, is the British-built city of India...In the building of Calcutta, known first as the city of palaces, and later as the second city of the British Empire, the British worked with immense confidence, not adopting the styles of Indian rulers, but setting down in India adaptations of the European classical styles as emblems of a conquering civilisation. But the imperial city, over 200 years of its development also became an Indian city…To me at the end of 1962, after some months of Indian small-town and district life, Calcutta gave me the immediate feel of the metropolis, with all the visual excitement of a metropolis… Twenty-six years later the grandeur of the British-built city… could still be seen in a ghostly way, because so little had been added since independence, so little had been added since 1962… The British had built Calcutta and given it their mark. And though the circumstances were fortuitous – when the British ceased to rule, the city began to die."

"Calcutta is by far the richest city in India, even though its various problems have started to turn its richness into a collapsing wealth. It is possibly the richest city anywhere between Rome and Tokyo in terms of the money that is accumulated and represented here."

"To countless Indians, and for most people familiar with India, the singularly unique name Chowringhee immediately identifies with Calcutta. It represents the nearest equation in India to what Piccadilly is to London, Fifth Avenue to New York and the Champs Elysees to Paris. Nostalgic Londoners like to regard their Circus as the centre of the universe. Calcuttans are more reserved in their acclaim, although the fervour they display for their city is perhaps unmatched."

"The richer natives in Calcutta are imitating European manners, equipages, and buildings.…It is the universal feeling that in Calcutta, where the wealthier natives mix a good deal with Europeans, their Hindoo prejudices are fast giving way, not, I fear, to the Gospel but to English science and literature. Good however must be done by the extension of knowledge, and by a breach being made in the seven fold shield of dustoor (custom) which has so long defied improvement. We were struck when reading the observations in Saturday Evening on the Grecianising Jews how much they applied to the Anglicised Hindoos of Calcutta. European female teachers are employed as day governesses of some rich natives and I heard a very intelligent Englishman, who had been long in the country, notice the great change when respectable native ladies were seen taking a drive in an open carriage. Some Hindoo gentlemen even eat with Europeans, and at the Hindu College the youths are instructed in the English language and literature. Though they nominally continue Hindoos, they are in fact Deists. Government seminaries for the diffusion of education without any direct attempt at proselytising are established in all large stations. One lad who had been brought up at the college used frequently to come to Major Hutchinson. He was a fine, intelligent looking fellow, who seemed thirsty after information. He had a pretty correct idea of the outline of Christianity and spoke of the absurdities of Hindooism but seemed untouched at heart by either “the sinfulness of sin”, or the beauty of holiness. This lad spoke English very well, and one day brought us a composition of his own in that language, rambling essay on the advantage of science. In the Indian papers and journals there are frequent contributions from the students, generally correct as to grammar, and shewing a considerable knowledge of our standard authors, but the questions are elaborately brought in and the style is universally bad, inflated, full of false metaphor and frequently a mere caricature of Gibbon’s inversions and circumlocutions. The sensuality of Hindoo faith and practice is so gross that to them the self denying doctrines of Christianity must be peculiarly distasteful, and the daily habits of falsehood and licentiousness must almost incapacitate their minds from comprehending the Christian standard of morals."

"The vicissitudes of destiny had not completely obliterated so prestigious a heritage. Calcutta was still India’s artistic and intellectual beacon and its culture continued to be as alive and creative as ever, The hundreds of bookstalls of College Street were still laden with books – originl editions, pamphlets, great literary works, publications of every kind, in every English, as well as in the numerous Indian languages. Though the Bengalis now costituted barely half of the city’s working population, there was no doubt that Calcutta produced more writers than Paris and Rome combined, more literary reviews than London and New York, more cinemas than New Delhi, and more publishers than the rest of the country, Every evening its theatres put on several theatrical productions, countless classical concerts and recitals at which everyone, from a universally renowned sitarist like Ravi Shankar to the humblest of flute or tabla players, was united with the popular audiences before whom they performed in the same love of music."

"Thus the midday halt of Charnock – more’s the pity! - Grew a City As the fungus sprouts chaotic from its bed So it spread Chance-directed, chance-erected, laid and built On the silt Palace, byre, hovel – poverty and pride Side by side And above the packed and pestilential town Death looked down."

"The pleasant surprise that awaits the visitor to Calcutta is this: it is poor and crowded and dirty, in ways which are hard to exaggerate, but it is anything but abject. Its people are neither inert nor cringing. They work and they struggle, and as a general rule (especially as compared with ostensibly richer cities such as Bombay) they do not beg. This is the city of Tagore, of Ray and Bose and Mrinal Sen, and of a great flowering of culture and nationalism. There are films, theaters, university departments and magazines, all of a high quality. The photographs of Raghubir Singh are a testament to the vitality of the people, as well as to the beauty and variety of the architecture. Secular-leftist politics predominate, with a very strong internationalist temper: hardly unwelcome in a region so poisoned by brute religion. When I paid my own visit to the city some years ago, I immediately felt rather cheated by the anti-Calcutta propaganda put out by the Muggeridges of the world."

"Kolkata is a great city, has great food and great people. We had some problems finding the kind of old buildings we were looking for, and even handling the crowds, but on the whole it was fun shooting there."

"Even their enemies admit their courtesy, and a generous Britisher sums up his long experience by ascribing to the higher classes in Calcutta “polished manners, clearness and comprehensiveness of understanding, liberality of feeling, and independence of principle, that would have stamped them gentlemen in any country in the world.”"

"The great thoroughfare, which commencing in the extreme south, assumes the various names of Russa Road, Chowringhee Road, Bentick Street, Chitpore Road, and Barrackpore Trunk Road, forms a continuation of the Dum Dum Road and was the old line of communication between Morshedabad and Kalighat. It is said to occupy the site of the old road made by the Sabarna Roy Choudhurys, the old zemindars of Calcutta, from Barisha, where the junior branch resided, to Halisahar, beyond Barrackpore, which was the seat of the senior branch."

"The New Howrah Bridge was re-christened as the Rabindra Setu in the year 1965, in the honour of the country's first Nobel laureate Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore."

"Bullock carts formed the eight - thirteenths of the vehicular traffic (as observed on 27th of August 1906, the heaviest day's traffic observed in the port of Commissioners" 16 day's Census of the vehicular traffic across the existing bridge). The road way on the existing bridge is 48 feet wide except at the shore spans where it is only 43 feet in road ways, each 21 feet 6 inches wide. The roadway on the new bridge would be wide enough to take at least two lines of vehicular traffic and one line of trams in each direction and two roadways each 30 feet wide, giving a total width of 60 feet of road way which are quite sufficient for this purpose.... The traffic across the existing floating bridge Calcutta & Howrah is very heavy and it is obvious if the new bridge is to be on the same site as the existing bridge, then unless a temporary bridge is provided, there will be serious interruptions to the traffic while existing bridge is being moved to one side to allow the new bridge to be erected on the same site as the present bridge."

"When Calcutta was attacked by Siraj ud-Daulah in 1756, the city was too valuable to abandon and a few months later Robert Clive retook Calcutta and defeated Siraj-ud-daulah at the Battle of Plassey."

"‘Kali’ means “Kalichun” (a kind of lime produced from local snail shells) and ‘kata’ implies heaps of burnt shells. Thus, Kolkata has got its name from the manufacture of shell lime or Kalichun."

"The tradition is one of iconic crossings across the river Hooghly in the stretch of the river falling within the enlarged Kolkata metro area – Vivekananda Bridge (Bally Bridge), Rabindar Setu, (Howrah Bridge) and Vidyasagar Setu (Second Hooghly Bridge). While the mighty river forms the backdrop of the development of the region over centuries, it had also posed a challenge as regards connection to the rest of the country. It is this challenge that the continuing tradition addresses, and addresses a new with a state-of-the art, recently opened and the newly christened Nivedita Bridge."

"The red lights did not forbid, Yet the city of Calcutta stopped suddenly in its tempestuous rush; taxis and private cars; vans and tiger-crested double decker buses stopped precariously in their tracks. Those who came running and screaming from both sides of the road – porters, vendors, shopkeepers and clients – even they are now like still life on the artist’s canvas. Stunned they watch crossing from one side of the road to the other, with uncertain steps, a child, completely naked. It had rained in Chowringhee a short while ago."