Raj Bhavan (West Bengal)

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Raj Bhavan (Hindi for Government House) is the the Governor's house in Kolkata, West Bengal. The structure was built in pre-Independence times (1803). Once the residence of Governor-General of India, and called the Government House, the palatial house is now the residence of the Governor of West Bengal. The present Governor of West Bengal, HE Gopalkrishna Gandhi resides in this building.

Contents 1 History 2 Structure 3 Interior 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] History

Raj Bhavan used to be the Government House in the Raj era , the seat of British imperial power.The structure was built in 1799-1803 during the tenure of Marquess Wellesley as the Governor-General of India, who is reputed to have said that "India should be governed from a palace, not from a country house." The mansion remained in use until the capital moved from Calcutta to Delhi in 1912. Thereafter, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, who had hitherto resided in Belvedere House, was upgraded to a full Governor and transferred to Government House. Now, it serves as the residence of the Governor of the Indian state of West Bengal, and is referred to by its Hindi name ("Raj Bhavan").

Throughout the British administration, the Governors-General retreated to the Viceregal Lodge at Shimla each summer to escape the heat, and the government of India moved with them.

[edit] Structure

The three-storied structure of Raj Bhavan was inspired by the Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire. Interestingly, the Kedleston Hall is the ancestral house of Marquess Curzon , who became the Viceroy of India (from 1899 to 1904) and lived in Government House exactly a century after Wellesly.

While the basic features of Kedleston such as the Palladian Front, the Dome etc. have been faithfully copied , the Government House is a much larger, three storeyed structure. Also, the Government of India evidently did not have the funding constraints that forced the Curzons to leave their house incomplete. Government House has all four wings originally conceived for Kedleston. So today, a "complete," brick built Kedleston, on a much grander scale, is located in its acres of gardens at the heart of the Kolkata business district.Raj Bhavan consists of a total area of 27 acres. The building has 84,000 sq.ft of floor space.

[edit] Interior

The residential portion is divided into 4 suites. The Prince of Wales suite in the north-west wing of the first floor is the suite where the President, Vice-President and the Prime Minister of India reside when visiting the state of West Bengal. The Wellesley suite is located on the second floor in the north-eatern wing. The Dufferin suite is on the second floor of north-west wing. The fourth suite is the Anderson suite.

Occasional public meetings by the Governor are held in the magnificent marble hall in the ground floor. The Council Chamber used to be the meeting place of Executive Council of the Governor General. The Brown Dining Room was used as the breakfast room, while the adjoining Blue Drawing Room is the room where the Governor meets guests. The Throne Room is like a Durbar where princes were welcomed and durbars held. Besides, there are the Banquet Hall and the Ball Room.

There is a gun mounted on a dragon towards the north gate. Around the main gun there are ten guns that were taken from the Chinese, in commemoration of the peace initiated by Treaty of Nanking by the Naval and Military forces of England and India under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker and of Lieutenant-General Sir Hugh Gough.

[edit] See also

• Government Houses of the British Empire

[edit] External links

• The official site
• A profile
• Some images
• Information on Raj Bhavan

Coordinates: 22.567261° N 88.347520° E

• Satelite picture by Google Maps