Ballygunge

Ballygunge
Locality in Kolkata (Calcutta)
Ballygunge Circular Road
Country  India
State West Bengal
City Kolkata
District Kolkata district
Kolkata Suburban Railway Ballygunge Junction
Metro Line 1 Kalighat metro station
Metro Line 6 Hemanta Mukherjee metro station under construction
Municipal Corporation Kolkata Municipal Corporation
KMC wards 65, 68, 69, 84, 85, 86, 90
Population
 • Total For population see linked KMC ward pages
Time zone UTC+5:30 (IST)
Area code(s) +91 33
Lok Sabha constituency Kolkata Dakshin
Vidhan Sabha constituency Ballygunge, Rashbehari

Ballygunge is a locality of south Kolkata, in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India.

Along with Alipore, Ballygunge features amongst the top two most wealthy neighbourhoods of Kolkata and also boasts of being one of the most affluent localities in the entire nation.

History

The East India Company obtained from the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar, in 1717, the right to rent from 38 villages surrounding their settlement. Of these 5 lay across the Hooghly in what is now Howrah district. The remaining 33 villages were on the Calcutta side. After the fall of Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, it purchased these villages in 1758 from Mir Jafar, and reorganised them. These villages were known en-bloc as Dihi Panchannagram and Ballygunge was one of them. It was considered to be a suburb beyond the limits of the Maratha Ditch. Beltala was a village in Dihi Mohanpur (later Monoharpukur).[1][2][3]

Ballygunge grew up around a market for sand (bali in Bengali) and had garden-houses of 18th century Europeans. Amongst the prominent residents were George Mandeville, the zamindar/ collector, and Colonel Gilbert Ironside, a friend of Warren Hastings. In 1840, Emily Eden called Ballugunge 'our Eltham or Lewisham'. It also emerged as a citadel of the educated Bengali middle class after the suburban railway opened up the area.[4]

In 1888, Ballygunge and Tollygunge had a combined thana (police station).[4]

Entally, Manicktala, Beliaghata, Ultadanga, Chitpur, Cossipore, parts of Beniapukur, Ballygunge, Watganj and Ekbalpur, and parts of Garden Reach and Tollygunge were added to Kolkata Municipal Corporation in 1888. Garden Reach was later taken out.[5]

When the Bengal Renaissance started taking roots in 19th century Calcutta, it was initially limited to the predominantly Hindu 'Indian town' stretching north and north-east from the fringes of Burrabazar, with a somewhat later extension south and south-east of the 'European town' to Bhowanipore, and some decades later to Ballygunge, which was then developing as a suburb.[6]

In the first half of the 20th century, “in the milieu of relative urban prosperity... Calcutta’s rich citizens – those connected with jute, coal, tea, other industries, trade, money-lending and rentier income from urban property – did fabulously well for themselves.” Large chunks of Ballygunge, Sunny Park, Rainey Park and Southern Avenue were developed during the 1930s and 1940s. Many of the mansions in Ballygunge, Bhowanipore and Alipore were built by the city’s Bengali and new Marwari elite who wanted to move from the “dirtier sections of north Calcutta to the more fashionable areas in the south”.[7]

People from Ballygunge

Geography

Location

Ballygunge is flanked by Park Circus in the north, Kasba and the Eastern Railway south suburban line in the east, Dhakuria and the Lakes (now called Rabindra Sarobar) in the south, and the localities of Bhowanipore and Lansdowne in the west. The postal code of Ballygunge area is Kolkata 700 019.

Police districts

The following police stations in the Ballygunge area, which are part of the South-east division of Kolkata Police, cover four police districts in the area:[8]

Ballygunge police station, located at 38/1 Beltala Road, Kolkata-700 020, has jurisdiction over the police district which is bordered in the north by Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road from its junction with Sarat Bose Road then along Gurusaday Road to its junction with Old Ballygunge Road. in the east by Old Ballygunge Road to its junction with Hazra Road, in the south by Hazra Road from its junction with Old Ballygunge Road up to its junction with Sarat Bose Road, and in the west by Sarat Bose Road from its junction with Hazra Road up to its junction with Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road.

Gariahat police station, located at 2, Dover Lane, Kolkata-700025, has jurisdiction over the police district which is bordered in the north by Hazra Road from its crossing with Panditia Road up to its crossing with Gariahat Road then along Bondel Road up to its crossing with the railway track of the Eastern Railway Southern Section, in the east by the railway line from Bondel Road gate to Kankulia Road, in the south by Kankulia Road up to its crossing with Gariahat Road then along Purna Das Road up to its crossing with Panditia Road, and in the west by Panditia Road from its crossing with Purna Das Road up to its crossing with Hazra Road.

Lake police station, located at 18, Gariahat Road South, Kolkata-700068, has jurisdiction over the police district which is bordered in the north by Hazra Road from its junction with Sarat Bose Road up to its junction with Panditia Road, thence by Panditia Road, Purna Das Road from its junction with Panditia Road to Gariahat Road, then by Kankulia Road from Gariahat Road to the Eastern Railway line, in the east, starting from the point where southern limit of Kankulia Road meets the eastern limit of Eastern Railway, thence southward along the eastern boundary of the Eastern Railway line up to the point where it meets southern boundary of Bye Pass Connector (towards Anwar Shah Road), in the south from the eastern limit of the Eastern Railway line, thence westward along the southern limit of Bye Pass Connector and Anwar Shah Road up to its crossing with the eastern limit of Dr Deodhar Rahman Road, and in the west by Dr. Deodhar Rahman Road from its junction with Prince Anwar Shah Road up to the Eastern Railway line, thence by the Eastern Railway line up to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road, thence by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road up to its junction with Abdul Rasul Avenue, thence by Abdul Rasul Avenue, Sarat Chatterjee Avenue up to its junction with Meghnad Saha Sarani (old Southern Avenue), thence by Meghnad Saha Sarani (old Southern Avenue) up to its junction with Sarat Bose Road, thence by Sarat Bose Road up to its crossing with Hazra Road.

Rabindra Sarobar police station is a new police station being set up in the Rabindra Sarobar area.[9][10]

Karaya Women police station, has jurisdiction over all police districts under the jurisdiction of the South-east division, i.e. Topsia, Beniapukur, Ballygunge, Gariahat, Lake, Karaya, Rabindra Sarobar and Tiljala.[8]

Economy

Residential property

As of 2018, the price of residential property in Ballygunge is amongst the neighbourhoods with high prices in Kolkata, and the price has more than doubled in the last decade.[11]

Gariahat Market

Gariahat market, spread along Rashbehari Avenue, Gariahat Road and the lanes in the area, is one of the largest and busiest markets in Kolkata. The shops sell an enormous variety of saris, clothes, jewellery, electronic goods, furniture and what not. The makeshift shops along the footpaths, popular as hawkers, sell everything one needs in the home – crockery, cutlery, decorative items and utilities. It has numerous eateries (see Wikivoyage, linked on this page, for details) and street food joints. Modern malls have also come up.[12]Gariahat market is the place to understand how serious Kolkatans are about the fish they love to eat. They come from all over Kolkata and crowd into Gariahat’s fish market, particulalrly in the morning hours, and they have their choice, ranging from the large Katla and Chital to the small Mourala and Punti.[13]

Education

Ballygunge is home to some of the following educational institutions in Kolkata:

  1. Army Public School, Kolkata, Ballygunge Maidan Camp
  2. Kendriya Vidyalaya Ballygunge, Kolkata, Ballygunge Maidan Camp
  3. Ballygunge Government High School, Beltala
  4. Basanti Devi College, 147B Rash Behari Avenue, Kolkata
  5. Jagadbandhu Institution, 25, Fern Road, Kolkata.
  6. Kamala Girls' High School, Lake Road (Kavi Bharati Sarani)
  7. Modern High School for Girls, Syed Amir Ali Avenue
  8. Patha Bhavan, Swinhoe Street, Ekdalia Road, Palm Avenue, Ballygunge Place and Merlin Park
  9. South Point School, Mandeville Gardens ane Ballygunge Place
  10. St. Lawrence High School, Ballygunge Circular Road

References

  1. ↑ "District Census Handbook Kolkata, Census of India 2011, Series 20, Part XII A" (PDF). Pages 6-10: The History. Directorate of Census Operations, West Bengal. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  2. ↑ Cotton, H.E.A., Calcutta Old and New, first published 1909/reprint 1980, pages 103-4 and 221, General Printers and Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
  3. ↑ Nair, P.Thankappan, The Growth and Development of Old Calcutta, in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol. I, pp. 14-15, Edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Oxford University Press, 1995 edition.
  4. 1 2 Nair, P.Thankappan, The Growth and Development of Old Calcutta, in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol. I, pp. 15-20, Edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Oxford University Press, 1995 edition.
  5. ↑ Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, Wealth and Work in Calcutta, 1860-1921, in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol. I, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, p. 213, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-563696-3.
  6. ↑ Sarkar, Sumit, "Calcutta and the 'Bengal Renaissance'", in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol. I, p. 100, Edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Oxford University Press, 1995 edition.
  7. ↑ Goswami, Omkar, “Calcutta’s Economy 1918-1970 The Fall from Grace”, “Calcutta, The Living City” Vol II, Edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Page 93, First published 1990, 2005 edition, ISBN 019 563697
  8. 1 2 "Kolkata Police". South-east Division. KP. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  9. ↑ "Police station for Sarobar". The Telegraph, 18 February 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  10. ↑ "Kolkata likely to get nine new police stations soon". The Times of India, 20 November 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  11. ↑ "Property Rates in Kolkata". magicbricks. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "Gariahat Market of Kolkata – A Shopaholics Dream Come True". Kolkata oh! Calcutta. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  13. ↑ "Conduct a new tour". Gariahat Fish Market. The Telegraph, 16 September 2007. Retrieved 5 March 2018.

Kolkata/South travel guide from Wikivoyage

External video
Gariahat Shopping (video with Hindi commentary)

Coordinates: 22°32′N 88°22′E / 22.533°N 88.367°E / 22.533; 88.367

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