British historian Philip Davies had once said of the Hooghly river that it is not just one Indian river, but belongs to the world

 

When ancient Greek mathematician and geographer Ptolemy was drawing up his map of the world in the 2nd century AD, he took care to mark the powerful kingdom he called ‘Gangaridae’ on the banks of the Hooghly. From the ancient port of Tamralipti (Tamluk) at the rivermouth, Bengal conducted a thriving maritime trade across the Indian Ocean region. When Tamralipti fell victim to over siltation in the 8th century, the trade moved to Saptagram (Satgaon), nearly 200 km upstream where the Saraswati and Jamuna flowed into the Hooghly.  Satgaon remained a flourishing trade hub until the 16th century, when a combination of politics and geography gave birth to the British city of Calcutta.

 

Thousands of years before Europeans set foot in Bengal, Bengal was engaged in international trade which  catalysed the growth of European enclaves in India. River Hooghly was the main source of navigation and settlements came up in the present day Hooghly District. Besides this, there was the ‘Badshahi Sadak’ or the Grand Trunk Road.

 

The Portuguese settled in Bandel and were closely followed by the Dutch in Chinsurah, Danish in Serampore and the French in Chandernagar, which was an 80 km stretch along the  river’s western banks.  A British military base came up in Barrackpore.  Batanagar another colonial town was established to start the first shoe factory in India by Czechoslovak industrialist Tomáš Baťa. This town bears an uncanny resemblance to East Tilbury in UK where the Bata Factory is located.

 

These settlors shared power, yielded their territories or sold them following the politics not only here in India but also in Europe.   Post the Napoleonic wars the British occupied both Chandernagore and Chinsurah. Territories were exchanged. Chinsurah for British-occupied possessions in Sumatra. Chandernagore was taken over in 1754, returned to France in 1816. And was governed as part of French India until 1950, ceding the city to India in  1951 and in 1954 it became a part of  West Bengal.

 

To fortify their positions they maintained armies and these towns have their share of barracks and cannons as remnants of their geopolitical aspirations.  Around 1740, the VOC (the Dutch equivalent of the East India Company) built Fort Gustavus here, named after the Governor-General. Today, the only surviving feature is its artillery wall, which is a part of the building of the Hooghly Madrasah that was erected a century later.  Barrackpore was planned by Robert Clive, the first governor-general of the British East India Company, and developed as a cantonment for British troops in 1765.

 

The names of these towns are informative of origin and intent. Barrackpore was for Barracks. The word Bandel means ‘mast’ in Portuguese. The Bandel Church compound houses a mast, which was gifted by a Portuguese ship captain, after his ship was damaged in a storm in Hooghly. The name Chandernagore  possibly derived from the shape of the bank of the river Ganges which is bent like a half moon (in Bengali, Chand means moon and Nagar implies city). Earlier it was known as Farasdangaor “Francedonmgi” as it was a French colony (Bengali: Farasi means French, danga means land). Serampore was once known by its Danish moniker Fredericksnagore, in honour of the King Frederick V of Denmark.

 

The long term  occupants of any place obviously try to create an eco-system for their comfort and convenience. A home away from home.  The Europeans took over a town and rebuilt it according to their preferred habitats back home. They developed sewage systems, underground drains and channels.  The town of Chinsurah grew under the influence of the Dutch who preferred brick houses and narrow streets and  Chandernagore is a live example of its past glory, the largest concentration of colonial buildings here is along the Hooghly and is known as The Strand, a beautiful promenade.  In Barrackpore,  Marquess Wellesley created a designated summer home for governor-generals, landscaped the gardens, added an aviary, a menagerie and a theatre.

 

They built fabulous Churches, their places of worship with domed chapels and exquisite stained glass. The Portuguese built the first Christian church in Bengal in 1599, and this was declared a Basilica after the fabled interplay of  the forced conversions, Mughal wrath and a saviour born. The statue came to be known as “Our Lady of the Happy Voyage”.  In Chandannagar, The Sacred Heart church marks the beauty of the architecture during the French period. Centred around the magnificent St. Olav’s Church, Frederiksnagore developed into an elegant township.

 

The Graveyards have a history of their own to tell with famous people / stalwarts buried who helped shape the region.  In Chandannagar one can find the tomb of Dupleix, the founding father of French Chandannagar and also the one of pioneering meteorologists Henry “Storm” Piddington, who is mentioned in Amitav Ghosh’s novel The Hungry Tide. At Chinsurah a  famous structure is the Tomb of Susanna Anna Marina, who is believed to have had seven husbands and also the inspiration behind Ruskin Bond’s famous novel Susanna’s Seven Husbands.

 

There was a resurgence of capitalism, import-export, trade, commerce, manufacturing and the social dempgraphics of this region changed substantially. There was a  development of industries such as jute, paper, weaving centres. The settlors also created a class of trading middlemen, such as agents, banias, mutsuddis, and stevedores. Another notable source of their income was the Hoondi business. To facilitate municipal administrative and judicial work, Courts were set up, metalled roads were laid and significantly  the commercial town of Serampore was transformed into an industrial one due to the laying of the railway line from Howrah to Burdwan in 1854. India”s first paper mill at Battala, set up by Marshman, which was powered by a steam engine.

 

The Bengali language adopted words such as almari (almirah), chaabi (key), janala (window), balti (bucket), even saya (petticoat), alkatra (tar), saban (soap) which are all Portuguese in origin. In Chandernagore  French was the language of all communication and till date it is taught in schools as a second language.

 

Missionaries who  came for the purpose of preaching Christianity, dedicated themselves to the service of ailing and distressed people, spreading education, social reforms and social reconstruction.  Danish missionary Carey who became famous as the father of Bengali prose along with Ward and Marshman, began the Serampore Mission Press and published the first Bengali translation of the Bible. They also launched the “Friends of India” newspaper, the predecessor of The Statesman. Carey. The Mission Press published three books the Bengali translation of the Bible, Hitopadesh and Kathopakathan. In Barrackpore the menagerie and aviary were the first attempts at a systematic study of zoology in the world. When the London zoo was being planned around 1947 officials came down to Barrackpore to inspect the menagerie.

 

The Portuguese introduced a variety of fruits and vegetables  from potato, tomato and green chillies, to corn, papaya, pineapple and guava. They taught the locals the art of making cheese, the omnipresent chhana or cottage cheese .Curdled milk frowned upon by upper caste Bengalis became a rage as traditional modaks or sweetmakers of Hooghly mastered this art to create a range of sweetmeats — sandesh, rasogolla and chamcham.

 

The Europeans adapted the areas to suit their lifestyles, built grand structures, peppered the local language and food with their own idioms. Some of the elements of  the intangible heritage  have been culturally integrated and have become part of the local tradition, be it cuisine, language or aesthetics.

 

The prime attraction of Chinsurah is the British built clock tower that was built in honour of Edward VII. Keeping vigil! For centuries, Bengal has drawn people from different parts of the world. The land was enriched by these visitors. There are several elements in Bengali society that have been culturally assimilated through centuries. It’s like the layering of sediments in the river — the sediments of history.”