Hugli-Chuchura - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Hugli-Chuchura is a city in the state of West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It lies on the Hooghly River, 35 km north of Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

(Calcutta). It is located in the district of Hugli

Hooghly District

Hooghly district is one of the districts of the state of West Bengal in India. It can alternatively be spelt Hoogli or Hugli. The district is named after the Hooghly River.The headquarters of the district are at Chinsura...

and is home to the district headquarters. Chuchura houses the Commissioner of the Burdwan Range. It forms a part of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority

Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority

Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority is the statutory planning and development authority for the Kolkata Metropolitan Area in the state of West Bengal, India. The organisation was previously known as Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority and still retains the previous logo...

(KMDA) region.

Etymology

Hugli-Chuchura was a municipality formed by the merging of two towns, Hugli and Chinsura, in 1865. The names are spelled in various other ways including Hooghly, Hugli, Hughli, Ugulim (in portuguese), Chinsura, Chunchura and Chinsurah.

The Grand Trunk Road

Grand Trunk Road

The Grand Trunk Road also formerly known as Uttarapatha, Shah Rah-e-Azam or Sadak-e-Azam or Badshahi Sadak is one of South Asia's oldest and longest major roads...

passes through the town. Chuchura and Hugli are two historic stations on the Howrah-Burdwan main line of the Eastern Railway

Eastern Railway (India)

The Eastern Railway is one of the 17 zones of the Indian Railways. Its headquarters is at Fairley Place, Kolkata, and comprises four divisions: Howrah, Malda, Sealdah, and Asansol. These are the financial departments and each has an assistant divisional financial manager , divisional railway...

. Ferry services on the River Hugli serves as a link with the district of North 24 Parganas.

History

The town of Hooghly-Chuchura was founded by the Portuguese

Portuguese Empire

The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...

in 1579. But, the district has thousands of years of rich heritage in the form of the great kingdom of Bhurshut

Bhurshut

Bhurshut was an ancient and medieval kingdom spread across what are now Howrah and Hooghly districts in the Indian state of West Bengal.Bhurshut kingdom grew up in the southern parts of Rarh region. It had a high concentration of Bhurisresthis, a community of traders and as such came to be called...

. The city flourished as a trading port and some religious structures were built. One such structure is a Church dedicated to a Charismatic statue of the Mother Mary brought by the Portugese. In the 17th century, political disorder struck the city and the Mughal

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

governor of Bengal

Bengal

Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

expelled the Portuguese. The statue was lost in the river by the Portugese when fleeing. The statue was later found by the local people on the bank of the river. The arrested Portuguese were taken to Delhi where a death sentence of trampling by elephans was decreed. When the emperor Shah Jahan heard this he ordered the priests released and granted a piece of land on the bank of the river Hoogly where the statue of the Mother Mary was reestablished. There a church was constructed to house the statue, which still receives pilgims today. The church was renovated in 1980s and has been declared as a basilica by the authority of Rome.

In 1656 the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

erected a factory on the site of the town. At that time Kolkata was the principal settlement in Dutch Bengal

Dutch Bengal

Bengal was a directorate of the Dutch East India Company in Bengal between 1610 until the company's liquidation in 1802. It then became a colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1825, when it was relinquished to the British according to the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. Dutch presence in the...

, used as a base for the Dutch intra-Asian opium trade.

In 1759 a British force under Colonel Forde was attacked at the Battle of Chinsurah

Battle of Chinsurah

The Battle of Chinsurah took place near Chinsurah, India on 25 November 1759 during the Seven Years' War between a force of British troops mainly of the British East India Company and a force of the Dutch East India Company which had been invited by the Nawab of Bengal Mir Jafar to help him eject...

by the garrison of Chinsura on its march to Chandernagore. In less than half an hour the Dutch attackers were entirely routed. In 1795, during the Napoleonic wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, the settlement was occupied by a British garrison. At the peace of 1814 it was restored to the Dutch. It was among the cessions in India made by the king of the Netherlands in 1825 in exchange for the British possessions in Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

.

Both Chinsurah and Hooghly played an active role in the Bengal renaissance

Bengal Renaissance

The Bengal Renaissance refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the region of Bengal in Undivided India during the period of British rule...

and the Indian independence movement

Indian independence movement

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

. "Vande Mataram

Vande Mataram

Vande Mataram is a poem from the famed novel Anandamath which was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1882. It was written in Bengali and Sanskrit....

", India's national song, was composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was a famous Bengali writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of India’s national song Vande Mataram, originally a Bengali and Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Freedom Movement...

at Joraghat in Chinsurah. Nazrul Islam's famous revolutionary songs were penned while he was imprisoned by the British in Hooghly Jail.

Transportation

Hugli Chinsurah has a total of 3 rail stations- Chinsurah (CNS), Hooghly (HGY) and Hooghly Ghat (HYG). Both Chinsurah and Hooghly railway stations are well connected to Howrah, Bandel, Burdwan, and other cities. Few passenger and express trains too stop at Chinsurah station. Hooghly Ghat station is situated just beside the Jubilee bridge. All the Bandel Naihati locals have stoppages here.

Transportation within Chinsurah mainly comprises of buses, autos, and rickshaws. The Chinsurah Bus Stand is currently under renovation. Buses from this stand go to cities such as Memari

Memari

Memari is a town and a municipality in the Bardhaman Sadar South subdivision of Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal.-Geography:Memari is located at...

, Tarakeswar

Tarakeswar

Tarakeswar is a town and a municipality in Hooghly District in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a police station in Chandannagar subdivision. Tarakeswar is a renowned place of pilgrimage and the greatest centre of the Shiva sect in West Bengal. 58 km away from Kolkata, Tarakeswar can be...

, Serampore

Serampore

Serampore is a city and a municipality in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. It is a pre-colonial town on the right bank of the Hoogli River...

, etc. Chinsurah is also linked to Naihati

Naihati

Naihati is a town and an important railway junction station on the Indian Railways network, in the district of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India.-Geography:Naihati is located at...

by ferry services.

Demographics

India census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, Hugli-Chinsurah had a population of 170,201. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Hugli-Chinsurah has an average literacy rate of 81%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 84%, and female literacy is 77%. In Hugli-Chinsurah, 8% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Temples, churches, and attractions

Mondal Bari
Temple of Shandeshwar
Ghorir More (Edwardian Clock tower)
Diocese Church
Dutch Cemetery
Armenian Church
Hooghly Imambarah
Chinsurah Maidan (maath)(ground)
Rup Nagar (maath)
Temple of Mahishmardini
District Court building
Ghats on the Ganges(130)
Anna Maria Sulivan Monument(ground)(fad center)
Kazi Nazrul Karagar (jail)
Jail khana maath (maath)(dual ground)
Bandel Church (bacillica)(ground)

Education

Hooghly-Chinsurah's biggest contribution to the Bengal renaissance was in the field of education. Some of the oldest and famous schools and colleges of the state are located here. This region is considered to be one of the most highly cultured regions of the state due to its standards of education.

Schools

Auxilium Convent School(Estd. 1951)(girls)(English)
Don Bosco School (Estd. 1978)(boys)(English)
Hooghly Collegiate School (Estd. 1812)(boys)(bangla Govt.)
Bikramnagar Haranath Nirada sundari Ghosh Vidyamaidir(H.S)(Estd. 1964)(Co-Ed)(bangla)
Hooghly Branch School (Estd. 1834)(boys)(bangla)
Deshbandhu Memorial boys High School(boys)(bangla)
Balika Bani Mandir(girls)(bangla)
Hooghly Duff High School(1849)(boys)(bangla)
Jyotish Chandra Vidyapith(girls)(bangla)
Jyotish Chandra Vidyapith(boys)(bangla)
Balika Siksha Mandir(girls)(bangla)
Hooghly Binodini Girls High School(girls)(bangla)
Deshbandhu Memorial Girls High School(girls)(bangla)
Hooghly Modern School(Co-Ed)(English)
Techno India School(Co-Ed)(English)
Abbot Shishu Hall (Estd. 1979)(Co-Ed)(English)
Elite Co-Ed school Hooghly(Co-Ed)(bangla)
Bandel Vidyamandir(Co-Ed)(bangla)
Ramkrishna high school(Co-Ed)(bangla)
Hooghly Girls high school(girls)(bangla)
balika banimondir(girls)(bangla)
Bandel St.Johns High School(boys)(bangla)
ELITE GHUTIABAZAR MALLIKBATI PAATH SHALA(Estd. 1829)(boys)(bangla)
shib chandra shom training academy (boys)(bangla)
more than 66 junior schools

Colleges

WEST BENGAL SURVEY ENGINEERING COLLAGE
Hooghly Mohsin College (Estd. 1836)
Hooghly Women's College
Hooghly Institute of Technology
Bengal School Of Technology
Techno India College (Estd.-2007)
Hooghly Engineering and Technology College
Hooghly Engineering and Technology College
Hooghly Engineering and Technology College, commonly referred to as HETC, is a leading engineering college affiliated with West Bengal University of Technology in Hooghly District, West Bengal, India.-Academics:...
Technique Polytechnic Institute
Modern Institute of Engineering & Technology
ChandanNagar Institute of Management & Technology
50+ library for study in city

Notable residents

The town was home to Jyotish Chandra Ghosh (Mastar mashay), hailed as guru by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

Subhash Chandra Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose known by name Netaji was an Indian revolutionary who led an Indian national political and military force against Britain and the Western powers during World War II. Bose was one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement and is a legendary figure in...

. Notable figures associated with the town also include Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay, and Murarimohan Mukherjee.

External links

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