Streetwise Kolkata: How Entally became a part of the city
Once a neighbourhood largely populated by disadvantaged communities, Entally, which got its name from the ‘hintal’ or date palm that grew on tidal land, has become more cosmopolitan today.
5 min read
Although in its early years, Entally formed what were then the suburbs of Calcutta, that entirely changed as the city grew and expanded, sweeping over and incorporating new villages and towns into its limits. (Express Photo by Neha Banka) The neighbourhood of Entally in central Kolkata came to be a part of the growing metropolis when in 1717, the British East India Company rented 38 villages near the city from Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar. In 1758, the Company purchased 17 villages, in addition to the 38 that it had previously rented, from Nawab Mir Jafar, the first dependent Nawab of Bengal.
These were all incorporated into what formed the outer fringes of the developing city and were called ‘Dihi Panchannagram’, which means ‘55 villages’. These villages lay outside the Maratha Ditch, and this ditch, approximately 5 kilometres long, was excavated in 1742 in a perimeter around the city of Calcutta, to protect the British from the Maratha invasion that never came. The Maratha Ditch was entirely funded by taxes paid by Indians.
The present name of the neighbourhood is a derivative of ‘Hintally’, historian P Thankappan Nair writes in his book ‘A History of Calcutta’s Streets’, where the term ‘hintal’ referred to a species of date palm that grew abundantly on tidal land. (Express Photo by Neha Banka)
Although in its early years, Entally formed what were then the suburbs of Calcutta, that entirely changed as the city grew and expanded, sweeping over and incorporating new villages and towns into its limits.
The present name of the neighbourhood is a derivative of ‘Hintally’, historian P Thankappan Nair writes in his book ‘A History of Calcutta’s Streets’, where the term ‘hintal’ referred to a species of date palm that grew abundantly on tidal land.
The Entally market, still housed inside the old colonial structure that developed around it in its early days, has retained some of its original form and is among one of the oldest bazaars in the city. (Express Photo by Neha Banka)
In his book ‘Calcutta: Old and New’, historian H E A Cotton refers to Entally as an “extensive district intersected with numerous torturous roads and lanes. It contains a large number of European residences, some of them fine buildings in extensive grounds. But the amenities of local life are not improved by the proximity of a number of necessary but not attractive civic institutions. Here are the Municipal Foundry…Workshops, the Municipal Slaughter-houses and the Pumping Station of the Drainage Works, where the whole sewage of the city is pumped into a high level sewer and conveyed to the Salt Water Lakes where an open channel conveys it to within reach of tidal influence.”
In his other book ‘The Growth and Development of Old Calcutta, in Calcutta, the Living City’, Nair gives some insight into Cotton’s entries referencing the many civic institutions in this neighbourhood that started in the 1800s.
Cotton’s writings mention the presence of several European residences in this neighbourhood, which may also be a reason why several institutions grew around it to cater to its residents. (Express Photo by Neha Banka)
Nair writes that in the nineteenth century, the neighbourhood of Entally became a site for the setting up of several factories because of the low cost of land here, in part because the neighbourhood was considered to be the outer fringes of the city. According to Nair’s writings, several of these institutions survived up to the 1990s.
Cotton’s writings mention the presence of several European residences in this neighbourhood, which may also be a reason why several institutions grew around it to cater to its residents. Here, the Loreto Convent Entally is among the oldest institutions still surviving. Established in 1843 by an English Catholic nun Mary Ward, the school started as an institution to impart education to wealthy British and Indian girls.
Mother Teresa was associated with this school for close to a decade in various roles between 1937-1946 when she left the institution to start the Missionaries of Charity. Just a five-minute drive away is Entally Academy, a primary school founded in 1915, housed in the same structure where it was founded.
Entally Academy is a primary school founded in 1915, housed in the same structure where it was founded. (Express Photo by Neha Banka)
The Entally market, still housed inside the old colonial structure that developed around it in its early days, has retained some of its original form and is among one of the oldest bazaars in the city.
In his book ‘The Growth and Development of Old Calcutta, in Calcutta, the Living City’, Nair writes that Entally became a neighbourhood largely populated by socio-economically disadvantaged communities because of the presence of slaughterhouses here. The Europeans, however, who had massive bungalow homes, kept to themselves, and were centred largely away near the Entally post office. In addition to these groups, Nair writes that several Chinese families also lived here because of the neighbourhood’s proximity to Tangra, where most of the city’s tanneries were located.
Like most of Kolkata, change is coming to Entally too. Only a handful of old colonial buildings remain. The neighbourhood has become more cosmopolitan as well; the segregation that once meant that only disadvantaged communities lived here, does not exist in the same form any more. There is also no sign of the date palm trees that once gave the neighbourhood its name.
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