Job’s City of Joy
The East India Company’s top agent in India was also the man who put Calcutta on the world map.
1691
James II 1685-1688 to King William III 1694-1702
The East India Company’s top agent in India was also the man who put Calcutta on the world map.
1691
James II 1685-1688 to King William III 1694-1702
Calcutta (Kolkata) in West Bengal was the capital of British India from the start of the Raj in 1857 to 1911, when King George V announced a move to Delhi. Calcutta was not the first choice location for British commercial activity in Bengal, but it proved to be the best, and that was to the credit of one man, Job Charnock.
THE East India Company’s muslin, silk and saltpetre factories in Dacca and Hooghly were reluctantly closed down in 1685, owing to burdensome regulations laid upon non-Muslims by the Nawab of Bengal, and its agents withdrew to Madras.*
The Company returned to Hooghly when conditions eased, but was once again driven out in 1686, after a foolish attempt by Sir John Child to overthrow the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb.* Job Charnock, the Company’s agent, stopped the Mughal army’s advance at Sutanuti near the mouth of the River Hooghly, but instead of fortifying Sutanuti as Job recommended, the Company made another ill-advised military manoeuvre, trying and failing to take Chittagong by force.*
Aurangzeb was wiser. Seeing his tax revenue fall without the Company’s commercial activity, he extracted an apology and then granted them Sutanuti and two neighbouring villages, Govindpur and Kalikat, as a base of operations. A delighted Job Charnock arrived there on August 24th, 1690, and immediately set about erecting a warehouse and some housing.
Bengal’s colonial merchants were not just British: At this time, Hooghly was primarily Portuguese and Dutch.
This sudden militarism was the result of the accession of King James II in 1685. The former Duke of York was a major shareholder in the Company, and turned it into a state-backed military power to protect his investment.
From Kalikat we derive Calcutta and now Kolkata; Sutanuti is now a central suburb of Calcutta; Govindpur a little higher up the river was where Fort William was erected in 1696. The three villages were held by the Sabarna Ray Chaudhury family on behalf of the Mughal Emperors; on November 10th 1698 the land was leased instead to the East India Company.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Sir John Child tried to capture Chittagong. Job Charnock was opposed. The attempt failed.