Job Charnock

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Job Charnock (died 1693, Calcutta, British India) was a British trade agent who has been controversially described as the founder of Calcutta.^{[1] [2] [3]} Charnock, who was born in Lancashire, lies buried in St John’s diocesan church Calcutta.^[4]

Contents 1 Life 2 Controversy over founding of Calcutta 3 Notes 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Life

Job Charnock went out to India in 1655 or 1656, apparently not in the British East India Company's service, but he soon joined it thereafter. He was first stationed at Cossimbazar, and subsequently at Patna. In 1685 he became chief agent at Hooghly, a Portuguese trading settlement on the river of the same name. Being besieged there by the Mughal viceroy of Bengal, he put the Company's goods and servants on board his light vessels and dropped down the river 27 miles (43 km) to the village of Sutanuti, a place well chosen for the purpose of defence, which occupied the site of what is now Calcutta. It was only, however, at the third attempt that Charnock finally settled down at this spot, though as a fugitive running away from the Mughal soldiers.

He instituted a practice (adopted across British-ruled India by 1812) that sati had to be completed in the presence of an official. Such practices had been required across the Mughal empire since the time of Humayun, though they were not always enforced. Charnock was involved in reducing the incidence of sati arguably in part because ^[5] he wed a woman whom he rescued from her first husband's pyre. The official required to attend was to ensure that the widow was not under the age of 16, not pregnant, not the mother of children under three nor drugged. This implies both social and legal acceptance without those conditions, and the existence of incidences with those conditions. Of course, these officials were Indian and not British officials simply by sheer number. In 1829 the practice was banned, to be re-instated as legal after the Indian rebellion of 1857.^[6]

He was always a faithful man to the Company (?), which rated his services very highly^{[citation needed]} . He converted to Hinduism^[7] and married the Hindu widow; they had three daughters. His tomb, with its Latin epitaph, can still be seen in the graveyard of St. John's Church, which is the oldest building in Calcutta. His tombstone is made from a kind of rock named after him as Charnockite.^[8]

[edit] Controversy over founding of Calcutta

Main article: History of Kolkata

The Calcutta High Court ruling (May 16, 2003) ^[9] based on an Expert Committee Report pronounced that a "highly civilized society" and "an important trading centre" had existed on the site of Calcutta long before the first European settlers came down the Hooghly. The place then called Kalikatah was also an important religious centre due to the Kali Temple at Kalighat. The first literary reference of the city is found in Bipradas Pipilai's magnum opus Manasa Mangala which dates back to 1495. Abul Fazl's Ain-I-Akbari dating 1596 also mentions about the place. The Sabarna Roy Choudhury family was granted the Jaigirdari of Kalikatah by Emperor Jehangir in 1608. On the basis of these findings, the Court declared that Job Charnock could not be regarded as the founder of Calcutta. ^[10]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Da Almeida, Hermione. Indian Renaissance: British Romantic Art And the Prospect of India
• H.E. Busteed Echoes from Old Calcutta (Calcutta) 1908
• Bhabani Roy Choudhury Bangiya Sabarna Katha/ Kalishetra Kalikatah

[edit] External links

• Banglapedia
• Encyclopedia article on Charnock
• Charnock's article at the website of William Carey University
• Job Charnock: Banglapedia

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.