Maidan (Kolkata)

The Maidan (literally, open field), also referred to as the Brigade Parade Ground, is the largest urban park in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a vast stretch of field that includes numerous play grounds, including the famous cricketing venue Eden Gardens, several football stadiums and the Kolkata Race Course. The Maidan is dotted with statues and architectural works, the most notable being the Victoria Memorial. Due to the freshness and greenery it provides to the metropolis, it has been referred to as the "lungs of Kolkata". The property of the Indian Army, the Maidan hosts the army's Eastern zone high command in Fort William. The Maidan stretches from the Raj Bhavan building on the Esplanade in the north to the National Library on Belvedere Road in Alipore in the south. The wide field stretches from the Hooghly River in the west to the Victoria Memorial in the east. It is a historical and cultural center of Kolkata as well as a center of leisure and entertainment for Calcuttans.

History

In 1758, one year after their decisive win in Battle of Plassey, the British East India Company commenced construction of the new Fort William in the center of the village Gobindapur. The inhabitants of the village were compensated and provided with land in Taltala, Kumartuli and Shovabazar. The fort was completed in 1773.

The tiger-haunted jungle which cut off the village of Chowringhee from the river was cleared, and gave way to the wide grassy stretch of the Maidan of which Calcutta is so proud. The formation of this airy expanse and the filling up of the creek which had cut off the settlement in the south, led the European inhabitants to gradually forsake the narrow limits of the old palisades. The movement towards Chowringhee had already been noticeable as early as 1746.

In 1883–1884 the Maidan, along with grounds of the Indian Museum, hosted the Calcutta International Exhibition.

In 1909, H.E.A. Cotton wrote,

The great Maidan presents a most refreshing appearance to the eye, the heavy night dew, even in the hot season, keeping the grass green. Many of the fine trees with which it was once studded were blown down in the cyclone of 1864. But they have not been allowed to remain without successors, and the handsome avenues across the Maidan still constitute the chief glory of Calcutta. Dotting the wide expanse are a number of fine tanks, from which the inhabitants were content in former days to obtain their water-supply.

In Bengali, the maidan is called 'Garh-er maath'. 'Garh', in Bengali, means fort and its meaning literally translates to the 'fort's ground'.

Gallery

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  Grand field day on the ground, 1847

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  A view of Calcutta from Fort William (c. 1807)

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  A view of the mansions, including Government House, that lined the north side of the Maidan

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  Kolkata skyline from the Maidan

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  A view of the Victoria Memorial's facade at dusk

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  Octerlony Monument (renamed Shaheed Minar)

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  The Raj Bhavan in the northern part of the Maidan

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  Eden Gardens, the second largest cricket stadium in the world, is in the heart of the Maidan

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  The Birla Planetarium in Kolkata with a statue of Indira Gandhi in the foreground and St. Paul's Cathedral in the background

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  Statue of Gostho Pal at Maidan

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  The King Edward VII Arch near the Victoria Memorial]]

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  Ground of the Calcutta Cricket Club, 15th Jan'y. 1861 H.M. 68th L.I. from Rangoon, versus the Calcutta Cricket Club, a lithograph after a watercolour by Percy Carpenter, depicting Calcutta Cricket Club, with the Maidan in the background

Around the Maidan

The oldest road on the Maidan is the Course, extending from the 'Cocked hat' in the north to the Khidirpur bridge. The 'broad gravelled walk' on the west side of that portion is the Red Road, constructed in 1820. To the south of the fort is the Ellenborough Course, meant for horse exercises, and towards the east is the Race Course, started in 1819. That was the scenario a century back.

Government House was built in 1803, the 48-metre (157 ft) high Octerlony Monument in 1848, the museum was started in the Asiatic Society in 1814 but shifted to the present site as the Indian Museum in 1887, St. Paul's Cathedral was built between 1839 and 1847, it was consecrated in 1874, and the Victoria Memorial was erected in 1921. On Council House Street, at one corner of the Maidan, was the long-defunct Fort William College, which played a pioneering role in the development of many of the Indian languages, particularly Bengali.

The cricket stadium at Eden Gardens was built in stages. Amongst the later additions are Netaji Indoor Stadium, the M. P. Birla Planetarium, Rabindra Sadan, the Academy of Fine Arts and Nandan. The metro stations bordering the Maidan as one travels from the south are Victoria (under construction), Rabindra Sadan, Maidan, Park Street and Esplanade.

The Howrah Bridge is away from the Maidan, but the Vidyasagar Setu (Second Hooghly Bridge) overlooks at least one corner of the Maidan and Fort William.

Statues

The Maidan was dotted with statues of British governor generals and other eminent personalities of the British Raj, including Lord Curzon, Kitchener, Roberts, Minto, Northbrook, Canning and others who had known Kolkata well. Two or three of them were erected in the first few years of Indian independence in 1947; it was not until 1983 that the last 16 were removed.

Events

Political rallies

Geoffrey Moorhouse in 1978 presents a vivid description of a Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) rally on the Maidan:

They generally start about tea time, they rarely finish before nine o’clock… they are masterly exhibitions of organisation… The platform is high so that everyone on it will be visible at a great distance, and it is large enough to accommodate twenty or thirty… it is illuminated with spotlights, it flutters with red flags, and it has huge red backcloth upon which Lenin is straining resolutely forward from a thicket of banners. Everything is perfectly under control… as they sit there upon the ground, row after attentive row of them, a brigade of young women to the fore… distantly across the Maidan people have climbed trees and others are packed standing on top of the Esplanade tram shelters… there must be a hundred thousand here altogether… the leaders come through the guard of honour to the platform…it is only when Promode Dasgupta and Hare Krishna Konar are having their say… theirs is the oratory that sends men delirious with dreams, that can set a rabble to a march of destruction… when the speeches are done, the leaders begin to sing the Internationale… all over the crowd torches are swiftly lit and held high in flaring salute…

Book fair controversy

In 2005, The Statesman, a leading Kolkata newspaper wrote,

The Kolkata Book Fair may well have had its last outing on the Maidan… In recent years, almost every part of the Maidan has been used to host all manners of melas and fairs. This, obviously, can't continue… Our courts of justice are now taking cognizance. The military too has woken up to its environmental responsibility. Even business houses have apparently become concerned. At this rate, it might seem the lungs of Kolkata, and of the people who inhabit it, still have some hope.

The Maidan, c. 1905

A horse-drawn carriage, used for rides around the Maidan

Life on the Maidan

The Mohun Bagan ground in the Maidan

Life on Maidan

The world's oldest hockey tournament, Beighton Cup, was instituted in 1895 and is usually held on the Mohun Bagan ground in the Maidan. For the Indian Football Association, the Maidan has been the nerve centre.

Police district

Maidan police station is part of the South division of Kolkata Police.

Tollygunge Women's police station has jurisdiction over all the police districts in the South Division, i.e. Park Street, Shakespeare Sarani, Alipore, Hastings, Maidan, Bhowanipore, Kalighat, Tollygunge, Charu Market, New Alipur and Chetla.