The East India Company obtained from the Mughal emperorFarrukhsiyar, in 1717, the right to rent from 38 villages surrounding their settlement. Of these 5 lay across the Hooghly in what is now Howrah district. The remaining 33 villages were on the Calcutta side. After the fall of Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, it purchased these villages in 1758 from Mir Jafar and reorganised them. These villages were known en-bloc as Dihi Panchannagram and Narkeldanga was one of them. It was considered to be a suburb beyond the limits of the Maratha Ditch.[1][2][3]
Ultadanga Women police station covers all police districts under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Suburban division i.e. Beliaghata, Entally, Maniktala, Narkeldanga, Ultadanga, Tangra and Phoolbagan.[4]
Culture
The first Indian attempt, after Gerasim Lebedev’s pioneering efforts, to stage plays in Kolkata was made at Narkeldanga. In 1832, Prasanna Kumar Tagore built a makeshift auditorium in his house in Narkeldanga and staged some English plays. The efforts were followed up by others.[5]
There is a Jewish cemetery at Narkeldanga. The first burial was in 1812. Till 1947, there was a flourishing Jewish community in Kolkata, but in 2015, only 20 were left.[6][7][8]
^Cotton, H. E. A., Calcutta Old and New, first published 1909/reprint 1980, pp. 103-4 and 221, General Printers and Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
^Nair, P. Thankappan, The Growth and Development of Old Calcutta, in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol. I, pp. 14-15, Edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Oxford University Press, 1995 edition.
^Raha, Kironmaoy, Calcutta Theatre 1835-1944, in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol I, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, pp 58-59, Oxford University Press, ISBN0-19-563696-1.
