Khulna is a post Industrial River city, located in one of the largest river delta’s in the world at high elevation of natural levee of west side of the Rupsa and Bhairab riverbeds. The History there shows that there is a link between Calcutta and Khulna through railway and water, where commercial and trade were established by the British colonial era. Railway used for transportation of Jute, rice, tobacco, sugar cane, wood, and other raw materials produced along the river front.
After division of India in 1947, Bangladesh become independent in 1971, no more effort was made in terms of infrastructure to overcome the conditions of the link between the two cities due to political misunderstanding. Currently the boarder of India and Bangladesh doesn’t allow any access neither by river nor railway.
The existing river kabadak could save for transportation purposes and be a link between Khulna and Calcutta.
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UNDERSTANDING THE HISTORICAL AND POTENTIAL LINKS BETWEEN KOLKATA AND KHULNA
(GROWTH OF URBAN HABITATIONS IN THE RURAL SETTING, BANGLADESH
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO KHULNA REGION
INTRODUCTION :
At present Kolkata and Khulna are two cities situated in two different countries India and Bangladesh. However, the two cities maintained close historical and cultural relations from earlier to 1947, the year in which India was divided into two countries, India and Pakistan. There are ample reasons for this close relations. We explain here some of these reasons.
GEOGRAPHICAL :
As per location, both the cities are located in places ideal (at a distance from the rough sea, accessible for the country boats) for the growth of harbor. Sirajuddowla, the last Nawab of Bangla, Bihar and Orissa established his capital at Murshidabad, which could be accessed from the mouth of Hoogly river (quite often mentioned as Ganga) through a long route of snaking rivers. The British established their capital at Kolkata, which was quite near to the mouth of the river. Another entry inside the land of Bengal through sea route was through the mouth of Meghna, which got importance because of the existence of the sea-port at Chittagong. The destination of this route was up to Kotalipara, Dhaka, Sonargaon (this is extinct now, it is not the present Panam nagar) and beyond. After the flourishing of Kolkata after 1757, country boats endeavored to reach Kolkata with passengers and goods and one important route was through Khulna.
Before the occupation by the British East India Company the present site of Kolkata was nothing but three obscure villages, Sutanati, Gobindapur and …….. At that time Khulna (with adjacent Bagerhat) region was famous for being the abode of Ulugh Khan e Jahan (Khan Jahan Ali), the Mughal Subedar who later became famous as religious saint. Earlier to this, there was a Buddhist monastery in this place.
TRADING :
One of the profitable businesses of the British Company (and later government) was export of jute. Since Khulna was connected by rivers and canals with the jute-growing regions, it turned to an important place for jute trading. At that time transport of bulky goods were done mainly through boats, where the British introduced ‘steamer service’. At this stage a number of Jute processing industries ( producing hessian cloth and gunny bag) and Jute baling pres (for producing bales of jute staples) were established near Kolkata on the banks of river Hoogly and Ichhamati. Raw jute, purchased in Khulna was carried to the processing mills near Kolkata and this trend of business established close business relation between the two places.
Business relation enforced good transport through water was later extended to other sectors also. Landlord Maharshi Devendranath (father of Rabindra Nath Tapore) purchased one seat of zamindari at Fultala, a few miles north of Khulna and Tagore married in this village.
CULTURAL :
Almost all of the Zaminders had their luxurious house at Kolkata. In 1905 Bengal was partitioned at which the Zaminders living in Kolkata and having zamindari in East Bengal were afraid of their intention. At this stage they started patronizing one stream of armed and …. Fight against the British. The two Bengals were reunited in 1911. The rebellion conducted from Kolkata city were at times challenged by the British government and their local agents. At this stage, various rebel leaders from Kolkata used to come to this region for taking shelter. In course of time Khulna turned to a good place for culture of rebellion against the ruling British. Mahatma Gandhi, the legendary figure of Indian liberation war visited Khulna and addressed the people in a park, that was named Gandhi park. It was later named “Hadis Park”. Chhabi Biswas, the legendary celebrity of Indian cinema visited Khulna and participated in a drama-show in Society cinema, behind Hadis park.
RAILWAY LINE TO KHULNA :
In order to facilitate movement of passenger and cargo the British extended two branches up to Khulna (in 1905) and Goalundo. Both these places became famous for jute trading. After these extensions of rail lines there happened easy movement of people and cargo, the business and cultural relation grew stronger and transmigration of people was enhanced. At this stage rich businessmen from Khulna started making investment in Kolkata and men with less capital came to Khulna for business.
DURING PAKISTAN PERIOD (1947-1971) :
After the independence of India in 1947, some of the Hindus were scared to live in the Muslim country “Pakistan” and migrated to India. On the other hand Muslims including Biharis from India came to this place to take the natural scope. At this stage the previous chain of Jute export to Kolkata was disrupted. A number of affluent Pakistanis came to fill the gap. With loan from Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation they established jute mills and presses. Jute was now exported to Karachi through Chalna and then Mongla port.
AFTER LIBERSTION (1971) :
After 1971, the above system also was broken when the affluent Pakistanis fled to Pakistan. The government of Bangladesh brought the abandoned jute mills and endeavored to run those. They appointed bureaucrats as administrators of the nationalized jute mills.
In the above lines we have endeavored to show the close historical, business and cultural relations that existed between Kolkata till the British period (i.e. up to 1947), then how the business relation along with railway transport was disrupted during Pakistan period (1947-’71) and the same has partly revived during Bangladesh period (1971 to date) with the establishment of road communication (railway communication is still to be established), establishment of the regional umbrella SAARC (South Asian Regional Cooperation).
HISTORICAL :
CULTURAL :
BUSINESS :
CONCLUSION :
beepe So, lthe t few a othe e bailing ffrom on that was and Khulna was the the place was used by the Budd , as a place however , KHULNA : Khulna is situated by the bank of the river, Bhairab. During British period Kolkata, the first capital was the most prosperous city in this region. People from entire Bengal used to maintain business relation with this city mostly through river boats, where the short-cut route was through the rivers and canals of the Sundarbans. Exporting jute from India was one of the prominent businesses of the British. They established a number of Jute mills (for making gunny bags and hessian clothes) and Jute baling press (for pressing jute staples into bales of about 1/15th volume) on the bank of the river Ichhamati (Bashirhat district) of India. Processed jute (gunny bag, hessian and bales) were exported to U.K. from Kolkata port. At this time Khulna was an important place for trading raw jute. After the British monarchy took over India in 1858, some private companies (e.g. Flotila) introduced steamers in between various port cities. Khulna, the renowned port for jute naturally got importance. The steamers used to take the raw jute to the processing mills at Ichhamati and Kolkata. In 1853, during the reign of Lord Dalhousie railway service was introduced and one branch was extended to Jessore in 1862. Now passengers from North and South Bengal assembled near Jessore to go to Kolkata, but it was of no use for jute business because there was no large river near Jessore. The British government extended two branches of the rail lines, one up to Goalando and the other, up to Khulna in 1905. So, passengers and raw jute from north Bengal could now reach Kolkata through Goalando and those from the South Bengal through Khulna. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, communication with Kolkata was disrupted. At this stage some rich men from west Pakistani came to control jute business in Khulna. In order to connect Khulna with Karachi port through the sea the Khulna Shipyard was established in 1957. Sea going ships started coming to first Khulna port and then to Chalna, where from Jute was exported to Karachi and outside world. In addition to numerous Jute warehouses, 7 Jute bailing press and 12 Jute industries were established in Daulatpur area. After liberation these mills were nationalized by the Bangladesh government. The Khulna Newsprint Industry, the only newsprint industry of Bangladesh was established on the bank of Bhairab river 1959. Khulna hardboard factory was established in 1966.
The British administration established a subdivision in Khulna in 1842. The office buildings and residences of the British officers were established along the river bank for the cause of scenic beauty and ease of movement through water. Thus the development on the south bank of Bhairab river starting from the east may be taken to be : Jute mills and bailing press, Jahaj ghat (platform handling cargo to rail station), Boro bazaar (big market for wholesale and retail business), Rupsa ferry ghat, Dockyard, office and residences constructed during British regime, extension of the city along Khulna Satkhira road etc. Thus Khulna city achieved a linear configuration first following the river bank and then, Khulna –Satkhira road. As of 1908, the two important roads from Khulna were, (i) Khulna to Rajghat (17 miles) on the North and (ii) Daulatpur to Satkhira (33 miles) in the West. Both the roads acted as the major urban corridor and with growth of habitations on both sides. On the west of the city there lies extremely low land (known as Beel Dakatia). The recent construction of Rupsha bridge (Length 1.36 KM. Width : 16.48 M. Opened on 21st May, 2005) has opened up the scope of its extension on the East side. Also the proposed KDA master plan has made ample use of this scope.
CONCLUSION :
As days are going on the reserve of knowledge and experience is on increase. Naturally it is expected that the prudent city planners and urban designers would be able to create the best cities. In Bangladesh our experiences say, they are creating worse and still worse cities, which may be evident from increasing pollution, deprivation (in one of their endeavor to make Dhaka cleaner, they drove away the pollution-prone baby-taxis to smaller cities such that those can pollute these cities), hazards, pains, cost and time required for in transportation etc.
The nature and types of problems faced by a developing country like Bangladesh definitely varies from those of the developing countries. It may happen so that the problems are getting more complex day by day. But it is also true that as days are going on the storehouse of knowledge and experiences are also on increase and this storehouse of knowledge lies within the reach of the experts. In such a reality it is unfortunate to learn that the “solutions given by the experts make the lives of the city dwellers increasingly worse”. It is time for all, specially the institutions engaged in imparting education in the fields of Planning, Urban Design and Habitations to take up the matter seriously and to prove their worth.
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PROF. BIJON B. SARMA, HEAD ARCHITECTURE DISCIPLINE, KHULNA UNIVERSITY.
I would like the students to have a glance at it.
Prof. Bijon B. Sarma
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