Town Survey Report, Part X-B, Series-23, West Bengal
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CENSUS OF INDIA 1981 WEST BENGAL SERIES-23 'pART X-B TOWN SURVEY REPORT UTT ARPARA-KOTRUNG Investigation and Drafting GOUR CHANDRA BAGCHI Editing and Supervision SUKUMAR SINHA TOWN SURVEY REPORT UTTARPARA-KOTRUNG Assistance in Investigation Sri Samarendra Nath Mondal and Tabulation: Assistant Compiler Preparation of Map : Sri Subir Kumar Chatterjee Draughtsman Photography : Sri Manas Kumar Mitra Comput~r Preparation of cover-design : Sri Birendra Nath Mullick Senior Artist FOREWORD Apart from the decennial enumeration of population, the Indian Census is steeped in the tradition of undertaking a variety of studies of topical interest. In fact, the publications brought out in connection with the earlier censuses contained veritable mines of information on racial, cultural, linguistic and a number of other aspects of life of the people of this country. With the advent of freedom, however, the scope and dimension of these special studies had to be restructured in a manner that would provide the basic feedbacks on the processes of development taking place in different spheres of life of the people especially under planned development. Thus, in connection with the 1961 Census, a massive programme was launched inter-alia to conduct socio-economic survey of about 500 villages selected from different parts of the country. The main objective of this study was to know the way of life of the people living in Indian villages which accounted for 82 per cent of the total population as per the 1961 Census. There was, however,. an imperative need to extend the area of the study to urban centres as well, to provide a complete coverage of the people living in diverse socia-economic conditions. It was with this objective in view, ancillary studies on towns were launched as part of the social studies programme in connection with the 1971 Census. The programme of social studies taken up in connection with the 1971 Census, was continued without any major change at the 1981 Census as well. A study on traditional rural based handicrafts was, however, added as a new item under the social study projects of the 1981 Census. For the conduct of urban study, 64 small and medium towns were selected from different parts of the country following the criteria such as (a) size, (b) demographic features, (c) functiona' characteristics, (d) specific industry or occupation dominating the (viI) economy, (e) location, (f) concentration of different castes and communities, and (g) other social and 'cultural phenomenon like temple town, health resort etc. The researcn design, 'tools for data collection and formats for data tabulation and report writing required for urban studies were originally formulated by Dr. B.K. Roy Burman, the then Deputy Registrar Generw, Social Studies \ Division. His successor, Dr. N. G. -Nag took considerable pains to revise all the formats to make them more comprel1ensi'le. Dr. K.P. Ittaman, the present Deputy Registrar General heading Social--Studies.. Divisi~~ ~oordinated these studies at different levels as well as rendered necessary guidance to the Directorates of Census Operations for their successful consummation. Shri M.'K. Jain, Senior Research Officer and Smt. Suman Prashar Assistant Director with the able assistance of an Investigator, Smt. Ranu Sabharwal and her colleagues did a commendable job in scrutinising the reports and communicating the comments thereon to the Directorates. I am grateful to all of them. The present report is the out-come of a study on Uttarpara - Kotrung town undertaken by the Directorate of Census Operations, West Bengal. I am indebted to Shri Sukumar Sinha. Joint Director and his colleagues in the Census Directorate for their painstaking efforts in bringing out this report. The 1st of June, 1988 V.S. VERMA New Delhi Registrar General, India (viii) PREFACE 'The realist, if he is an artist, will endeavour not to show us a commonplace photograph of life, but to give us a presentment of it which-shall be more complete, more striking, more cogent than reality itself. To tell everything is out of the question; it should require at least a volume for each day to enumerate the endless insignificant incidents which crowd our existence. A- choice must be made -" Guy De Maupassant And the river Hugli runs into the Bay of Bengal, softly flowing by, as if like "liquid 'istory", The historic highway I the Grand Trunk Road which 'e~ended for 1,000 kos from Sonargaon in Eastern Bengal to the Indus' during the reign of Sher Shah still survives as the witness. of the rise and fall of many kings and dynasties and the birth and death of many principalities and as the silent recorder of the ballad on the basis of retreating hoofs of the trotting horsemen. The railway lines provided the arteries to the transport through which the life-blood of industry has been flowing for more than hundred years. Even though 'the iron rail has been called a stake which pierced through the heart of the village community and slowly drained its life blood away, it was also a pile driven into the marsh of a static community upon which a new and forward-looking society could be founded', Uttarpara-Kotrung situated on the river Hugli with one of the efficient means of mass transport, the waterway, was already seeded with one of the most effective factors stimulating urban growth. It is a universally historic phenomenon that the growth of cities and towns has taken place on river-banks not by accident. The rise of the towns along the river Hugli is contemporaneous with improved navigation and the advent and settlement of the European traders. The (ix) Portuguese had established their settlements in Hugli, the Danes in Serampore, the Dutch at Chinsurah, the French at Chandernagore and the English at Sutanuti (later known as Calcutta). All these settlements except Calcutta were situated on the western bank of the river Hugli and all of them later flourished as towns. The ~commencement of traffic along the Grand Trunk Road from Calcutta to Delhi through Uttarpara-Kotrung in 1839 not only widened the province of transportation and made -the- movement of goods possible, even though in bullock wagons, but also made it feasible for the rural settlements in Uttarpara-Kotrung to get access to distant specialities, social, economic, cultural, commercial and intellectual. ThuS, the mobilisation of goods and services for rapid transportation and distribution with the help of waterway and the arterial road serving as the chief means of transportation and communication ushered in the age of market economy and also of the capitalist urban economy. The advent of the railways was undoubtedly decisive for economic development in India in general and in the region around Calcutta in particular. The railroad was instrumental in paving the way for the systematic development of the jute, the coal and the iron industries. It also initiated a new phase in capital import and reorganised traqe and commerce in new lines-along which the people acquired a new mobility and opportunity to organise themselves in building up a new society. Against this backdrop one finds the founder of Uttarpara-Kotrung, Ratneswar Roy Chowdhury being haunted by the new spirit of the imperialist marauders. Tethered to an old ideology and more concerned with social and aesthetic norms of his time, he settled down in Uttarpara to maintain a traditional, devout, religious life, far from the interference of the British trading class. Ratneswar had transplanted a multi-ethnic traditional self-sufficient village republic with all functional occupational castes in Uttarpara. Presumably, he wanted to delay the twilight over the seemingly invulnerable ancient Indian village which, he believed, would not succumb in future to the 'political and economic measures of a new type of political regime historically never experienced before and of the commercial and industrial forces of modern capitalism'. He dreamt of the inviolability of the self-sufficient village in his new sanctuary in Uttarpara. But history moved dialectically. (xl Later, Joykrishna Mukherjee I an illustrious member of the Zemindar family of Uttarpara, assured of a colossal fortune and with sway over a large territory I dedicated himself to the task of modernising an archetypal Bengal village, moving much ahead of his times. Revered as the architect of modern Uttarpara, Joykrishna Mukherjee representing the intellectual elite of his period was cognisant 01 his inherited religion and theology and had knowledge of his country's history and culture, its architectural treasures, its literature and philsophy, music and drama and its creative arts and crafts. But at the same time he stressed on a break with tradition, eradication of superstitious beliefs and illogical reasoning. His ideals of modernisation included improved institutions and attitudes, liberation from reliance on static customs, preparedness for a change, energetic enterprise, acceptance of responsibility of the community, willingness to take a long view and implant democracy at the grass-roots in the form of a local self-government and cooperation. The intellectual ferment in Joykrishna Mukherjee's mental world was the driving force behind the establishment of several modern institutions in Uttarpara like a government High School in 1846, a charitable dispensary in 1851, a public library in 1859 and a municipality in 1865. In 1887 Uttarpara had seen the foundation of a college, in 1906 the railway station at Uttarpara started functioning, in 1919 supply of filtered drinking water was introduced, in 1926 Uttarpara had its road lights electrified, in 1931 Willingdon Briage (Vivekananda Setu) connected Uttarpara with Baranagar across the river Hugli, the construction of the Hind Motor Company in 1948-49 in the adjacent village Makhla not only opened up opportunities of employment to the residents of the town but also added a new dimension to its growth and development and the electrification of the railways shortened the journey to Calcutta and Haara and made commutation from Uttarpara-Kotrung to and from the latter twa cities and other towns easier.