Bondel Road and Dihi Serampore

“Bond… James Bond” The first time I heard this dialog I was very young and back then I was under the impression that the place where I used to stay had something to do with it since the name of the street was “Bondel Road”. This locality was surrounded by other streets like Iron Side Road and Mandeville Garden which had a connection with Europeans having garden houses in Ballygunge so it was safe to assume there must have been someone named Mr. Bondel who had his garden house somewhere here. The question there were two questions, first who was Mr. Bondel and second where was his house located? Little did I know back then the connection between Bondel Road and Dihi Serampore.

I searched online but that did not yield any results so one fine day while going through an old map of Calcutta which I was referring to for another blog it struck me that I needed to investigate and write about the history of the street where I stay. To be precise this is the very street that we have been living in for the past six generations so that demands some investigation.

Timeline Of Kolikata – Calcutta – Kolkata

I am not going into the details of the history of the city since this is common knowledge and if you want to know more you can easily read several books or online articles. I am just going to tell you a gist.

After East India Company got the trading rights of Bengal, they settled in Calcutta which back then consisted of three villages Sutanuti, Dihi Kalikata, and Gobindapur. All these three villages were on the east side of the Hooghly River. To the north was Sutanuti which if you compare it with today’s map would cover an area between Lalbazar on the east and the northern limit would be Chitpur.

In the present-day Dalhousie Square (B. B. D. Bag) is where Kalikata was located which later saw the hub of English settlement and the Old Fort William.

Gobindapur is where we now see the Maidaan area and the New Fort William. Beyond these three small villages, one would find native settlements.

In the year 1758 East India Company saw an opportunity to increase their share of land in Bengal by purchasing 55 villages from Mir Syed Jafar Ali Khan Bahadur (Mir Jafar) who after assassinating Siraj ud-Daulah was then the Nawab of Bengal. The English saw this as a much-needed quid pro quo for helping Mir Jafar get the Bengal throne.

All these villages were beyond the periphery of the Maratha Ditch. These 55 Mouzas or villages collectively were known as Dihi Panchannagram.

Please note that there are different views about when Dihi Panchannagram came to be a part of Calcutta by different historians. So, I am sticking to the one mentioned in the official report of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Dihi Panchannagram

These fifty-five villages or Mauzas were part of fifteen Dihis or blocks that surrounded the existing English settlements. The list is as follows: –

Dihi Sinthee = (1) Sinthee (2) Cossipur (3) Paikpara

Dihi Chitpore = (4) Chitpore (5) Tallah (6) Beerpara (7) Kalidaha

Dihi Bagzollah = (8) Dakhindarie (9) Kankooria (10) Noabad

Dihi Dakhin Paikparah = (11) Belgachya

Dihi Ooltadangah = (12) Ooltadangah (13) Bagmari (14) Gouriberh

Dihi Similiah = (15) Bahir Similiah (16) Narikeldanga

Dihi Soorah = (17) Soorah (18) Kankoorgatchi (19) Koochnan (20) Duttabad

Dihi Cooliah = (21) Mullickabad (22) Cooleah

Dihi Sealdah = (23) Sealdah (24) Baliaghata

Dihi Entally = (25) Entally (26) Pagladanga (27) Neemuckpota (28) Gobrah (29) Tangrah

Dihi Topsiah = (30) Topsea (31) Tiljulla (32) Baniapooker (33) Kareya

Dihi Serampur = (34) Chowbagah (35) Dhullunda (36) Sanpgatchee (37) Auntobad (38) Nonadanga (39) Bondel–Ooloberia (40) Beddeadanga (41) Koostea (42) Porannuggur (43) Ghoogoodanga (44) Serampur

Dihi Chukerberh = (45) Ballygunj (46) Gudshaha (47) Chuckerberh

Dihi Bhowanipur = (48) Bhowanipur (49) Neejgram

Dihi Monoharpur = (50) Beltola (51) Kalighat (52) Monoharpur (53) Moodeali (54) Shahnagar (55) Koykalee

From this list, it’s very clear that the word “Bondel” (Bondel–Ooloberia) does not belong to any European settler instead is a historic name of a village that was part of Dihi Serampur and has a direct connection with the city of Calcutta.

Dihi Serampur

Now that I had located where the name “Bondel” originated from I wanted to plot all the other villages within Dehi Serampur. Thus began my next adventure to track these places on a map. While some names can still be found on any online map by searching them on Google Maps while others have simply vanished over time. Most of the places were either renamed or amalgamated with other nearby localities thus losing their original name. Dehi Serampur also happens to have the maximum number of villages attached to it which amount to a total of eleven.

I used the old maps and then plotted the names of these villages roughly on them. Note that the spellings of these places may vary from what is displayed on the map to what was mentioned as the village name on the above list. The spellings also vary when you compare them with the names of these places as they are officially known now.

Chowbagah (Chowbagha) – This is very easy to track since it’s a vast area that still can be seen. This place is located on the eastern fringes of the city just before Bantala Leather Complex. On a side note, one can find a Chinese temple in this locality that was built recently.

Dhullunda – This was the first challenge since no place exists today with this name. Adding to the confusion was a news article regarding the restoration of the Police Training School near the race course which bears the name “Dalanda House”. The article mentions the name of this place related to the village Dhullunda which is wrong as I could see Dalanda House completely outside the periphery of Dehi Serampore.

It’s only by chance I got hold of a very old map where Dhullunda Village is positioned between Topsea and Auntobad. This is a small strip of land which is behind P. C. Chandra Gardens around Mirania Road. Many car manufacturers have set up their workshops around here along with many marble showrooms. At the moment the name “Dhullunda” has completely been erased from the maps and no place or road exists with this name any longer.

Sanpgatchee (Sapgachi) – This place still exists on the map today and is located behind (south side) of Science City. Lanes and roads will have the name Sapgachi mentioned.

Auntobad (Anandabad) – Thankfully this place also exists and is mainly now part of the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW). A narrow road connects this village with the Basanti Highway. This place mainly has large ponds and lakes with narrow strips of land having small houses which are mostly surrounded by water bodies.

One interesting point to be noted out here is the name Anandabad is an amalgamation of two words “Ananda” and “Bad”. The village on the right side of the Basanti Highway is Anandapur (“Ananda” and “Pur”). There is a common belief that historically Muslim-dominated areas were named “Bad” whereas Hindu-dominated areas had the word “Pur”. Could this village “Ananda” be a classic example of this?

Nonadanga – This place is also very much present now and is located next to Chowbagha. It’s located on the western side of Chowbagha at the back of Fortis Hospital. This place mainly consists of large water bodies which are still untouched by developers till now.

Right around here, one should not be surprised to see a locality named “Panchanna Gram” which comes under Tiljala locality. The bus stop out here is also known as Panchanna Gram bus stop. I guess a few relics from the past refuse to get forgotten with time.

Beddeadanga (Bediadanga) – This place is located on the northern side of Rash Behari Avenue opposite Kasba. There are many lanes and by-lanes with this name in this locality. The localities around this place rapidly developed with the widening of Rash Behari Avenue after Bijon Setu.

Surrounding localities around this place are known as “New Ballygunge” however logically this place is very far away from the actual Ballygunge.

Koostea (Kustia) – This place is located on the south side of Bridge No. 4 / Maa Flyover on JBS Haldane Avenue. The Sealdah – Southern section railway lines form the western boundary of this locality. A large section of migrants from East Pakistan (Bangladesh) settled here post-independence.

Porannuggur – Unfortunately this place lost its war with time and there is no existence of this place on today’s map any longer. This village originally was located between Ballygunge Phari and La Martiniere school covering the areas around Gurusaday Dutta Road and Beck Bagan.

Ghoogoodanga – Another place that does not show on the map now. However, this place was originally located around Palm Avenue and Ballygunge Park Road around the eastern side of CC&FC grounds. This place does not show on new maps or online. However, locally the name Ghoogoodanga Bazar which is the market next to Repose Nursing Home is still used to date.

Serampur – If you are travelling along CIT Road near Ladies Park then if you take the parallel road on the eastern flank then you will come across Rameshwar Shaw Road. Travel along the road and you will surely find some old house number plates with the name Dihi Seramur Road. If you see older maps of the city then you will find Serampore around the areas starting from Darga Road near Bridge No. 4 following the CIT Road to Anandapalit Crossing.

Bondel – Ooloberia

Bondel and Ooloberia are two small villages actually. Bondel was a small strip of land with Ghoogoodanga on the north and Ballygunge to the West. On the East were the villages of Koostea and Beddeadanga.

In the Calcutta Gazette of 1910, a notification was published wherein it was mentioned that land was required to construct a road around Old Ballygunge Road and Bondel Road. In most probability, it is the road that is connecting Ballygunge Phari to Gurusaday Crossing (CC&FC Grounds). Here in this notification, it is clearly mentioned as Old Ballygunge Road which lies in the village of Bondel Ooloberia which is part of Dihi Panchannagram. Back then these villages were still part of 24 Parganas as mentioned in the notification.

There were the official documents that directly point to the location of Bondel Road and its connection with Bondel Ooloberia and of course its direct connection with Dihi Panchannagram.

Bondel is now very much present and now you can see Bondel Road stretching from Ballygunge Phari on the west and Picnic Garden Road to the east. Bondel Road Flyover is stretching across the Sealdah South railway line.

Ooloberia not to be confused with Uluberia which is located in Howrah was located across a narrow strip of land running parallel to the railway line near Ballygunge station. If you see the map, it had Beddeadanga on the north, Gudshaha on the west, Rajdangah on the east, and Haltu on the south.

There is no place or road around here which is now marked as Ooloberia. So, when I plotted the old map on the current map I found it stretching from New Ballygunge around Swinhoe Lane to Kasba. Old maps point out many water bodies around this village and when you plot that on any recent map you will find some rough outlines which clearly indicate the actual location of Ooloberia village.

Now the interesting bit about how I tracked down Bondel-Ooloberia. I was searching for land records of the locality where I currently reside. I had heard from my grandmother that when her father (John Solomon) along with her grandfather (Andrew Solomon) had purchased land here it was originally owned by Muslim farmers.

When the house was built it was the only two-storied house in the whole of neighborhood as far as eyes could see. John Solomon and Andrew Solomon were devout Christians and they had built a Methodist Church (Ballygunge Church) here in 1921. Andrew Solomon was a doctor and also acted as a marriage registrar so in old records I found his name registered with these professions. John Solomon about whom I had written a blog earlier was a Chief Officer (Daroga) of the Narcotics Department attached to Calcutta Police.

An interesting historical information out here would be the considerable size of the Muslim population that once resided here. Most according to them were from Murshidabad and were indirect descendants of the Nawab. Mostly extended families of the Nawab or the various chiefs. This narrative perfectly fits in place because these small villages were once part of the Nawab kingdom and it was a common practice for the Nawab to send people across various villages to act as caretakers.

Back then the lane (para) where we stay now used to be known as Old Ballygunge 1^st Lane so all the old addresses mentioned in the records are with that address. The name Old Ballygunge 1^st Lane was replaced by Bondel Road possibly because Old Ballygunge 1^st Lane which is the road in front of Repose Nursing Home connecting to Sitala Temple was a bit far from here.

The Muslim families after selling their properties here shifted mostly around the eastern fringes of Ghoogoodanga which at the moment are slums beyond Palm Avenue.

When we were young it was a common practice to have housekeepers who would do cooking and cleaning and most of these women came from these slums. They used to narrate stories about how once their father and grandfathers used to be rich and used to have food only on silverware but over the years due to poverty all those had to be sold out to feed the family. The men in these families especially were reluctant to do any hard work and lived off the fortune of their forefathers exhausting them in their lifetime.

One such example is that of Jamela, Zubeida, Munni Bibi, etc. who used to narrate us stories of riches to rags and how they had to start working as housemaids to earn food for their families. Jamela served our family for over seventy years and was also responsible for helping my grandmother give birth to my father. Before she could reach the hospital she went into labor and she helped her to deliver.

All of them were class apart when it came to cooking. The culinary skills they used often say were from the house of nawabs. Parathas, shammi kebab, kheer, sewaiya, etc. had an unparalleled taste that no restaurants could compete with.

Ultimately what I have realized is that maps are just outlines created by man to demark territories. Fortunately, these human demarcations are never permanent and always shifting. Our locality is still known as “Christian Para”… a foundation laid down by my forefathers.

Location Of These Places on Map

I have tried my best to project an approximate location on a current map. Many of the places have shifted from their original coordinates. Also, it is to be noted that the older maps were hand-drawn thus distortion is to be expected.

Reference

Thackers Indian Directory (1933)
Thackers Indian Directory (1951)
Thackers Indian Directory (1940 – 41)
Asiatic Society
The Calcutta Gazette – 1910

Other Links

I found this books interesting as the author centers around Bondel Road
1/7 Bondel Road: An Endearing Short Story Collection by Gautam Benegal

Standard Life Assurance Building – Kolkata
General Post Office (GPO) Kolkata