Kolkata :

Two red wild flowers were what the city had on offer for Job Charnock on Monday, the day that marked the 325th birth anniversary of his landing in Kolkata.

Nobody knows who the kind-hearted soul was who made it a point to pay homage to the founder of the city (though the high court had quashed the claim in 2003), but unknowingly he turned out to be an exception in a city that has forgotten the day for good.

Till 2003, Charnock was considered as the founder of Kolkata. Programmes were organized at the grave to mark the historic landing, which was even considered as the birthday of Kolkata. In 1990, the tercentenary of the city was celebrated on this day with global fanfare. But post the court order, the celebrations turned muted and headed for a slow death. And on Monday, Charnock’s grave inside St John’s Church near Dalhousie Square lay as non-descript as it has been lying for years now.

The grave is certainly older than the church since Charnock died in 1692, two years after he had landed on the eastern bank of Hooghly and discovered a cluster of prosperous villages that he thought would help him set up trade for the British East India Company. It’s another matter that other European traders had already set foot in different parts of what is now known as the Hooghly district, but there is no denying that this chance decision by Charnock was to change the fate of Kolkata and the entire country.

“Despite the controversy, there is no denying the importance of the day. Had he not done that, Plassey would not have happened in 1757 and the entire history of India would have been different. The day should definitely be specially remembered,” said historian Arun Bandopadhyay, president of the Society for Preservation of Calcutta that was set up by historian Nisith Ranjan Ray. Ray, along with historian Barun De, was among those who had argued the case in favour of Charnock in 2003.

St John’s Church, too, is sad with the neglect. “Apart from maintaining the grave as a heritage structure, what else can we do? The day has a great symbolic importance and the city should come forward to observe it. The structures with which we identify the city were mostly built by the British, can we deny that? Would all this have happened had Job Charnock landed somewhere else?” said priest of the church, Pradip Nanda.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee agreed that the KMC did not do anything to commemorate the day. “Actually there is a controversy related to whether the day is actually the city’s birthday since the court has quashed that claim, but yes, Job Charnock can be certainly celebrated for his contribution and we will collaborate with St John’s Church from next year,” Chatterjee promised.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN / August 25th, 2017