How a Traitor gave the name to an affluent neigborhood
One of my very favourite things to do is to find the naming history of cities and towns and neighbourhoods. One can learn so much history by probing on how a specific name had come about for a place, or its past names. For example, when the former US President Donald Trump had his high pitched rhetoric to raise taxes that would pay for the infamous wall with Mexico, it brought back memories of the Walltax road at Chennai (currently named as VOC Road) — which got its name after British tried to raise taxes for a wall they built to separate Georgetown from Blacktown. (It is another thing that people refused to pay the taxes for the wall).
A few days back, I was talking to one of my friends about how her neighbourhood in Kolkata got its name and this is the story I am narrating here. We will need a full focused story to discuss how the city Kolkata got its name — there are at least five versions. But for this episode of Masala History by Siva, we will restrict our narrative to the origin of a wealthy neighbourhood of Kolkata. So let’s sit on our time machines and head to 1757 CE to the city of Murshidabad in modern day West Bengal.
Even though the British East India company’s first mission to India happened in 1600, there wasn’t much progress for more than a century. The biggest breakthrough for the British East India Company came through Battle of Plassey — a eleven hour battle fought on June 23, 1757 between the forces led by Robert Clive against the last independent Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daulah. The Company’s army won a decisive victory against the Nawab, thereby bringing Bengal under their control and slowly all of India thereafter. In the battle, the East India company had a meagre force of three thousand troops, while the Nawab’s army is estimated to have fifty thousand forces supported by forty cannons and ten war elephants. And if so, how did Clive win the battle?
Obviously, by treachery and with the help of traitors. The most prominent of them was Mir Jafar Ali, the commander in chief of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah’s army. Born as Syed Mir Jafar Ali Khan Bahadur, he always had an eye to get to the throne of Bengal — by hook or crook. As early as 1747 CE, Mir Jafar Ali was shamed and demoted for his cowardice against Marathas by Alivardi Khan, the grandfather of Siraj-ud-Dauluah. When Siraj-ud-daulah became the Nawab, Mir Jafar Ali was waiting for his opportunity. And that came in the form of Col. Robert Clive.
When the independent Nawab of Bengal decided on a standoff with the British, stopping their fortifications, Robert Clive decided to take him out even before the battle by plotting and bribing — a strategy that the British East India Company would perfect and use time and again to win over the continent. Accordingly, the disgruntled Mir Jafar Ali was bribed to defect to the English side, which he did. The Bengal forces were wiped out decisively at Palashi (anglicised as Plassey) and in a couple of weeks, Siraj-ud-Daulah was captured and put to death by Mir Jafar Ali and his son.
For this act of selling out the Nawab, Mir Jafar Ali would be referred to as the Namak Haram or the traitor. Even today, the Murshidabad palace and the gate that leads to the palace of Mir Jafar Ali is called Namak Haram deorhi — meaning: the Traitors gate.
Mir Jafar Ali ascended the throne at Murshidabad as the first dependent Nawab of Bengal in July 1757. He coughed up 2 million rupees to Robert Clive as a personal bribe in addition to a lot of money paid annually to the Company for his protection. But soon, he realised this extraction would never end. So he teamed with the Dutch to stand up against the British. The English East India Company defeated the Dutch forces in Chinsurah and forced Mir Jafar Ali to abdicate in favor of his son in law Mir Qasim.
The Namak Haram had nowhere to go, given his reputation. And this is when, in 1760 CE, Mir Jafar Ali came to Calcutta and sought protection from the British East India Company. The British approved. Mir Jafar Ali picked the area in the Southern side of Calcutta, where the Royal Bengal houses of Cooch, Santosh and Burdwan had large estates. He chose a site near the modern day Judges Court Road and built his residence there. He also built a couple of more houses — the most notable one in Woodland Road called as Belvedere House.
Mir Jafar Ali continued to live in Kolkata till 1763 CE. This is when Warren Hastings, the Governor General, decided to get rid of Mir Qasim and restored Mir Jafar Ali back to being the Nawab of Bengal. Mir Jafar Ali never liked Calcutta much and wanted to get rid of his residences there as he returned to Murshidabad. So in an act of goodwill, he bequeathed his estates to Warren Hastings. Hastings lived in the Belvedere House (he had an infamous duel in it’s grounds!) and the estate houses the National library today.
The house where the traitor Mir Jafar Ali Khan Bahadur lived for three years while in exile in Calcutta was then referred to as Alipore. Since Namak Haram’s residence became a known landmark, in the course of years, the name Alipore stopped being the name of a single address, and extended to the large, affluent neighbourhood of modern day South Kolkata. Today it is one of the most expensive localities in India with the wealthiest business families and former royalty having their multi million dollar worth residences there.
#history #indianhistory #alipore #calcutta #bengal
#eastindiacompany #colonialindia #mirjafar #plassey
#clive #warrenhastings #westbengal #kolkata #traitor
#murshidabad #namakharam #namakharamdeorhi
