Your city through history
Kolkata,
through time.
Kolkata grew around settlements and trading networks on the Hooghly. Company expansion and the later transfer of the imperial capital connect its local history with larger changes in Bengal and British India.
1690 marks an episode in Company settlement, not an uncontested founding date for Kolkata. Earlier settlements existed, and the city’s history cannot be reduced to one arrival.
A timeline of Kolkata
- 1690
Charnock arrives at Sutanuti
The municipal history records Job Charnock’s arrival at Sutanuti. This date concerns the Company’s presence amid existing settlements, rather than the beginning of all urban life here.
Source: Kolkata Municipal Corporation — Municipal History
Explore 1680 CE on the map ↗Atlas context: 1680 CE is a nearby available snapshot, rather than a reconstruction of this exact event.
- 1757
Company forces retake the settlement
After Siraj-ud-Daulah’s capture of the English settlement in 1756, Company forces retook it in 1757. The Battle of Plassey later that year was a separate event in Bengal.
Source: Kolkata Municipal Corporation — Municipal History
Explore 1757 CE on the map ↗ - 1911
The capital is to move to Delhi
The Delhi Durbar announcement ended Calcutta’s role as the intended permanent imperial capital. Kolkata’s commercial and cultural history continued beyond this administrative change.
Source: Delhi Tourism — New Delhi
Explore 1911 CE on the map ↗
Another place, another story.
Mumbai
Mumbai’s colonial history follows changes in control of its island settlement and the growth of transport connections. These moments help explain how a coastal place became linked to a wider commercial hinterland.
Delhi
Delhi is a landscape of successive capitals rather than one unchanged city. Sultanate rule, the upheaval of 1857, and the imperial capital announcement of 1911 form three entry points into that urban history.
Related reading
The Battle of Plassey
Explore the 1757 confrontation in Bengal, political alliances and the Company’s later acquisition of revenue power.
August 1947Independence and Partition, 1947
Read independence and Partition together: the new dominions, boundary decisions and the human consequences of displacement.
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Read the city’s history ↗Pune
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Read the city’s history ↗Mumbai
Mumbai’s colonial history follows changes in control of its island settlement and the growth of transport connections. These moments help explain how a coastal place became linked to a wider commercial hinterland.
Read the city’s history ↗Delhi
Delhi is a landscape of successive capitals rather than one unchanged city. Sultanate rule, the upheaval of 1857, and the imperial capital announcement of 1911 form three entry points into that urban history.
Read the city’s history ↗Kolkata
Kolkata grew around settlements and trading networks on the Hooghly. Company expansion and the later transfer of the imperial capital connect its local history with larger changes in Bengal and British India.
Read the city’s history ↗