B. B. D. Bagh

Writers' Building from across Lal Dighi in B.B.D.Bag

B.B.D. Bag (Bengali: বি.বি.ডি.বাগ়), formerly called Dalhousie Square, is the shortened version for Benoy-Badal-Dinesh Bag (Bengali: বিনয়-বাদল-দীনেশ বাগ়). It is the seat of power of the state government, as well as the central business district in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Origin of name

B.B.D. stands for three young Indian independence activists - Benoy, Badal and Dinesh, who on 8 December 1930 shot dead the Inspector General of Prisons, N.S. Simpson, in the balconies of Writers' building of the then Dalhousie square. Previously the square had been named after Lord Dalhousie, Governor General of India from 1847 to 1856. At different times it has been called ‘The Green before the Fort’ or Tank Square.^[1]|

As we enter the town, very expansive square opens before us, with a large expanse of water in the middle, for public use… the square itself is composed of magnificent houses which render Calcutta not only the handsomest town in Asia but one of the finest in the world. One side of the square consists of a range of buildings occupied by persons in civil employments under the Company, such as writers in public offices.^[2]

L. de Grandpre
A Voyage in the Indian Ocean and to Bengal (1803)

Geography

The B.B.D. Bagh area is located near the Hooghly river in the western part of the central Kolkata and is a square built around the old Lal Dighi tank. The old fort built by the British was around where the General Post Office now is. The area was in the heart of Kalikata or the White Town in old Calcutta.

Significance

B. B. D. Bagh continues to be like the 'heart' of Kolkata and many famous buildings housing important businesses and banks are located here. The Writer's Building-secretariat of West Bengal government, Royal Exchange (a one-time residence of Robert Clive and now the office of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry), General Post Office (G.P.O.) of Kolkata, Telephone Bhawan, St. John's Church are all situated around the square. The place is locally known as the Office Para - meaning the locality of offices. A large part of the daily commuters to Kolkata from the neighbourhood area comes here for livelihood. The square is famous for the cheap food vendors that sell ready foods throughout the day to the office-babus , all the clerks and officers that work in the offices. However, in the night, the place becomes eerily silent as there are hardly any residential buildings in the district.

The St. John's Church's yard has the Mausoleum of Job Charnock. The building is supposedly the oldest piece of masonry in Calcutta.B.B.D.Bagh also has statue of famous philanthropist Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh of Darbhanga(1858 -1898) sculpted by Edward Onslow Ford.

Preservation

The Dalhousie Square was included in the 2004 and 2006 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund (WMF) due to "decades of neglect".^[3] After this listing the international financial services company American Express provided funding through WMF for the square's preservation.

References

1. ^ Cotton, H.E.A., Calcutta Old and New, 1909/1980, p 268-9, General Printers and Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
2. ^ Quoted by Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi, Traders and Trades in Old Calcutta, in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol I, pp. 156-160, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195636961.
3. ^ World Monuments Fund - Dalhousie Square

Gallery

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  Dalhousie Square(BBD Bagh), Calcutta in 1910.

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  Statues of Benoy, Badal and Dinesh in front of Writers' Building.

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  General Post Office and Reserve Bank of India building from across Lal Dighi

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  The southern side of BBD Bagh.

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  Dome of GPO from across Lal Dighi

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  Statue of Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh

See also

Coordinates: 22°34′19″N 88°20′56″E / 22.572°N 88.349°E / 22.572; 88.349