- Bengali:
- Kalikata
- Formerly:
- Calcutta
Kolkata
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Where is Kolkata located?
Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal state, India, and was formerly the capital of British India from 1772 to 1911. As one of India’s largest cities, Kolkata is a major port located on the east bank of the Hugli (Hooghly) River, a channel of the Ganges (Ganga) River, roughly 96 miles (154 km) inland from the Bay of Bengal.
Kolkata’s location was chosen for its easily defensible position and favorable trading location despite the swampy riverbank. The metropolitan area is confined to a strip 3 to 5 miles (5 to 8 km) wide on either side of the river due to the topography.
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What is Kolkata's role in India?
Kolkata holds a vital position in India as a preeminent economic, cultural, and intellectual center. Its economy is rooted in manufacturing, finance, and trade, with a major port handling a significant portion of the country’s foreign exchange. Kolkata is also a hub for printing, publishing, and newspaper circulation.
Culturally, Kolkata is considered India's most important center and the birthplace of Indian nationalism and modern literary and artistic thought. The city stimulates cultural life through diverse organizations and is a center of traditional and contemporary music and dance.
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Which river flows by Kolkata?
The Hooghly River flows by Kolkata. This river is an arm of the Ganges (Ganga) River, providing access to Kolkata from the Bay of Bengal. The Hooghly River is formed by the joining of the Bhagirathi and Jalangi rivers at Nabadwip. From there, it flows south for about 160 miles to the Bay of Bengal, running through a heavily industrialized area.
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What languages are commonly spoken in Kolkata?
In Kolkata, the dominant language spoken is Bengali. However, because it is a cosmopolitan city, a variety of other languages are also spoken, including Urdu, Odia, Tamil, and Punjabi. Additionally, a colloquial language known as Hindustani serves as a lingua franca in Kolkata and other industrial cities, with its lexicon drawing from Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, and Persian.
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What are some famous cultural landmarks in Kolkata?
Kolkata, a vital cultural center in India, showcases a blend of Eastern and Western influences through its landmarks. The Victoria Memorial, a white marble building with sprawling gardens, combines British and Mughal architectural elements. The Indian Museum, the Asia-Pacific region's oldest and largest museum, features a neoclassical design and houses a vast collection of artifacts representing India's heritage. Kolkata is home to many parks and open spaces, such as the Maidan and Eden Gardens. The city's architecture includes buildings like the Nakhoda Mosque, Birla Planetarium, and the Shaheed Minar, each reflecting diverse cultural styles.
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How has Kolkata contributed to art, literature, or science in India?
Kolkata is a vital cultural center in India and the birthplace of Indian nationalism, modern Indian literary, and artistic thought. The blending of Eastern and Western influences has fostered numerous organizations that contribute to Kolkata’s cultural life.
The city saw the dawn of a mid-19th-century literary movement that sparked a cultural renaissance throughout India. Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, enriched the city's cultural life through his creativity in poetry, music, drama, and painting.
Kolkata is also a hub for traditional and contemporary music and dance. The city has been a pioneering center of motion-picture production in India. Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, avant-garde film directors, achieved international acclaim.
Kolkata has research institutions such as the Indian Statistical Institute, the Bose Institute (natural science), and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
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News •
Kolkata, city, capital of West Bengal state, and former capital (1772–1911) of British India. It is one of India’s largest cities and one of its major ports. The city is centred on the east bank of the Hugli (Hooghly) River, once the main channel of the Ganges (Ganga) River, about 96 miles (154 km) upstream from the head of the Bay of Bengal; there the port city developed as a point of transshipment from water to land and from river to sea. A city of commerce, transport, and manufacture, Kolkata is the dominant urban centre of eastern India.
The city’s former name, Calcutta, is an Anglicized version of the Bengali name Kalikata. According to some, Kalikata is derived from the Bengali word Kalikshetra, meaning “Ground of (the goddess) Kali.” Some say the city’s name derives from the location of its original settlement on the bank of a canal (khal). A third opinion traces it to the Bengali words for lime (calcium oxide; kali) and burnt shell (kata), since the area was noted for the manufacture of shell lime. In 2001 the government of West Bengal officially changed the name of the city to Kolkata. Area city, 40 square miles (104 square km); urban agglom., 533 square miles (1,380 square km). Pop. (2011) 4,486,679; urban agglom., 14,057,991.
Character of the city
Fashioned by the colonial British in the manner of a grand European capital—yet now set in one of the poorest and most overpopulated regions of India—Kolkata has grown into a city of sharp contrasts and contradictions. Kolkata has had to assimilate strong European influences and overcome the limitations of its colonial legacy in order to find its own unique identity. In the process it created an amalgam of East and West that found its expression in the life and works of the 19th-century Bengali elite and its most noteworthy figure, the poet and mystic Rabindranath Tagore.
This large and vibrant Indian city thrives amid seemingly insurmountable economic, social, and political problems. Its citizens exhibit a great joie de vivre that is demonstrated in a penchant for art and culture and a high level of intellectual vitality and political awareness. Crowds throng to Kolkata’s book fairs, art exhibitions, and concerts, and there is a lively trading of polemics on walls, which has led to Kolkata being dubbed the “city of posters.”
Yet for all of Kolkata’s vitality, many of the city’s residents live in some of the worst conditions, far removed from the cultural milieu. The city’s energy nevertheless penetrates even to the poorest areas, as a large number of Kolkatans sincerely support the efforts of those who minister to the underprivileged. In short, Kolkata remains an enigma to many Indians as well as to foreigners. It continues to puzzle newcomers and to arouse an abiding nostalgia in the minds of those who have lived there.
Landscape
City site
The location of the city appears to have been originally selected partly because of its easily defensible position and partly because of its favourable trading location. The low, swampy, hot, and humid riverbank otherwise has little to recommend it. Its maximum elevation is about 30 feet (9 metres) above sea level. Eastward from the river the land slopes away to marshes and swamplands. Similar topography on the west bank of the river has confined the metropolitan area largely to a strip 3 to 5 miles (5 to 8 km) wide on either bank of the river. Reclamation of the Salt Lake area on the northeastern fringe of the city, however, demonstrated that the spatial expansion of the city is feasible, and further reclamation projects have been undertaken to the east, south, and west of the central area.
Suburbs of Kolkata include Haora (Howrah) on the west bank, Baranagar to the north, South Dum Dum to the northeast, Behala to the south, and Garden Reach in the southwest. The whole urban complex is held together by close socioeconomic ties.
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Climate
Kolkata has a subtropical climate with a seasonal regime of monsoons (rain-bearing winds). It is warm year-round, with average high temperatures ranging from about 80 °F (27 °C) in December and January to nearly 100 °F (38 °C) in April and May. The average annual rainfall is about 64 inches (1,625 mm). Most of this falls from June to September, the period of the monsoon. These months are very humid and sometimes sultry. During October and November the rainfall dwindles. The winter months, from about the end of November to the end of February, are pleasant and rainless; fogs and mists occasionally reduce visibility in the early morning hours at this season, as also do thick blankets of smog in the evenings. The atmospheric pollution has greatly increased since the early 1950s. Factories, motor vehicles, and thermal-generating stations, which burn coal, are primary causes of this pollution, but monsoon winds act as cleansing agents by bringing in fresh air masses and also hastening the removal of water pollution.