Sunrise in Calcutta

I came across the "Sunrise in Calcutta" picture posted in an orphan state on the Calcutta - Photographs and Memories page on Facebook. I tried to locate it and it appears that in 1893 The Werner Company, Chicago, published a volume titled Illustrated Home Book of The World's Great Nations, "Embellished with over one thousand engravings by the Most Eminent Artists" and edited by one Thomas Powell.

I wanted to share a couple of images of Calcutta from this book along with some of the writings on it. But first, let me quote a brief passage from the Preface:

The intention of the Publishers, in this volume, is to present to the readers a brief but comprehensive account of all nations, from the rudest to the highest state of civilisation; and illustrating every phase of life with Engravings exactly representing the scenes described. This work embodies in this way the results of all the great travels and explorations of recent years, in which the photograph and pencil have combined to aid in giving us correct and detailed information never before attainable.

The claim that we can now offer "correct and detailed information never before attainable" is made by every generation of technology, and yet we keep fooling ourselves. Coming to the bit on Calcutta, the Compilers say:

About two hundred and fifty years ago, the British gained a foothold in India, and now it is entirely under their rule, either as British possessions, tributaries, or protected States. Calcutta is the capital of British rule. Although Bombay and Madras have governors, yet they are under the control of the Governor General of India, the most important and lucrative position in the gift of the British Ministry. Calcutta is a magnificent city, and boasts in the possession of the largest market on the face of the globe.

By this time, of course, the New Market has been completed, but I have my doubts regarding the status claimed for it in this brief article. After a few etchings of Hindoo fakirs and suchlike - incidentally, India is clubbed in the Contents under "Hindoostan, Siam, Etc." - we find a painting of Horses bathing, and one of a Calcutta Sunrise.

Horses Bathing at Calcutta 

Our illustration represents horses bathing in the Ganges, at Calcutta, in charge of the native grooms. The animals appear to be enjoying hugely their dip in the sacred river, and the picture throughout has more life than is usual in Oriental subjects.

The next is of the sunrise. Let me first share the accompanying text.

Sunrise in Calcutta 

Calcutta at early dawn presents a strange spectacle, especially in the suburbs, such as our illustration shows, where the old narrow streets prevail, and the tall structures of brick and stone are mingled with hovels of mud and bamboo. The rich native merchant does not, like the Englishman, take a fine, airy, salubrious site for his dwelling. The surroundings are to him a matter of indifference. He escapes the din of the thoroughfare, however, for great men's houses in Eastern cities usually turn their backs upon the public thoroughfare, that home of the many. Where stores line the streets, the shopkeepers, generally fruiterers, confectioners, druggists, and cloth-dealers, close their shops at nightfall and go elsewhere, making the ground-floor perfectly dark. At night these streets are lighted by floating lights set in large pans of oil by the roadside and coloured, Chinese-like lamps. The smell is terrible, and is increased by the odor of the people, who might well assume the name given by our people to the lower classes in Central America, "Greasers", for they really grease themselves with this oil. 

The street is, to many persons, a home, who as night advances, stretch themselves on the pavement to get a scanty repose, or what is worse, sit up all night singing "La! la! la!" at the top of their voices. As morning comes the lamps and cries die out, the dull, smoky smell becomes more intense as the sun approaches the horizon, and when at last he lifts his head above it for the adoration of the Parsee, the street population of Calcutta rouse them from their lairs, a ragged, squalid crowd, such as only Easter cities possess. It is less ragged, perhaps, than it would be had its members more clothes; in the majority of cases, the garment is confined to the neighbourhood of the waist: where more is worn, it is generally in rags, and in fact, still less a covering for decency. 

As the traffic of the day will require their bed-chamber, this crowd gradually rises and disperses to its various paths of mendicity and villainy. 

Then the shopkeepers appear and open the booths or verandas, which constitute their shops, resembling our news-stands, and creeping in here, they stand ready to deal with their customers on the sidewalk. 

I love this allegation: "The street is, to many persons, a home, who as night advances, stretch themselves on the pavement to get a scanty repose, or what is worse, sit up all night singing "La! la! la!" at the top of their voices." How extremely offensive. Anyway, here's the etching, and to be honest the architecture looks quite alien to me. I wonder if the Most Eminent Artist based this on any real view of Calcutta or its Environs at all.

Sir Stuart Hogg

In addition to the image of Sir Stuart Hogg available on Wikipedia, here's another one I came across recently. I quite like this one.

Finick Bazar Street

The fact that the Fenwick Bazar Street exists was beyond doubt. I was positive that I had read it somewhere and even a plan of the New Market shows it running adjacent to the present-day compound. I thought I had a fair idea of where it is, but I just wanted some confirmation from the Street itself.

Fenwick's Bazar (I am yet to discover the origin of the name) used to be where the New Market is today. The New Market, of course, was built in 1874. We find some references to Fenwick's Bazar in reports through out the 19th century. It was probably demolished in favour of something more sanitised because, as I understand, it had acquired a reputation for being shabby and unclean. Fires in the area seem to have been quite common. The Asiatic Annual Register, for instance, notes in 1804 the incident of a Fire.

A fire, which at first excited considerable alarm, broke out on Saturday evening, in the neighbourhood of Fenwick's Bazar, Chouringhee. It originated, we here, [sic] from a bheesty, who was piping sorrow away, with a chillum of Bang; and carelessly laid the contents, after he had done, against a hut: however, before it could be subdued, upwards of one hundred straw and other houses, were reduced to ashes.

In November 1843 (I am not absolutely sure of the year) another conflagration commenced "at the bazar and huts immediately behind the Chowringhee-road. It was bounded on the South by Fenwick's buildings, on the north by the Jaun Bazar, on the west by the Ouchterlony monument, and on the east by Wellesly street." It appears that several hundred huts and houses were destroyed by this fire.

The 1828 map of Calcutta, prepared for the use of the Lottery Committee, surveyed by I. A. Schalch, with additions from the survey by Capt. J. Prinsep shows the Bazar. This is from a photograph I took of the map, which is there in the National Library:

It appears under controversial circumstances in a report in Allen's Indian Mail on February 24, 1873. It may be a reference to the area, not the market, and I am not at all certain of when the building was broken down. The New Market seems to have been inaugurated on January 1, 1874. The report may also have been from a different time, published on the said date. It appears that the Commissioner of Police at Calcutta, one Mr Wauchope, made a claim that "will seem to many a direct attack upon a pet article of our [British] moral creed." He argued against the notion that crime rates were directly related to presence of liquor shops, and indeed of liquor consumption. He furnishes a list of comparisons: Burra Bazar, which has 31 liquor shops has a lower crime rate compared to Colootollah, which has only 7. Colinga with 6, "has a criminal population as large in proportion as Fenwick Bazar with thirty-one shops of the same kind." He also claimed '[t]hat the most successful dacoit he ever knew "never tasted liquor"'. Is there a half-appreciative note in the way they say "most successful dacoit"?

A few days back, actually almost a week back, while I was waiting for an appointment with probably the only Churrack Sanyasi in town, I took it upon myself to find traces of the Street. I think it's a nice gesture to commemorate the Bazar with an underexposed street name. At first I couldn't see any of the houses or bigger shops which gave out their address as "Fenwick Bazar Street." There's a liquor shop right where the Street meets Lindsay Street, which gives the address as L. Lindsay Street. It could either mean 'lower' or 'little', and may actually be a legitimate street name also. I asked around a bit but no one seemed to know. May be it was a bad day for street name enthusiasts or the wise elderly. Closer inspection and a second semi-resigned walk revealed a couple of small shops which confessed to being located on the said street. They spelt it as 'Finick Bazar Street', which I later realized, is probably a transcription from Bengali of the pronunciation of 'Fenwick.'

Fenwick Bazar Street (facing Lindsay Street)