Just beside a kiosk for the guards on the southern front of the Writers’ Building, a simple obelisk painted in white will definitely attract a curious mind. With heads of lions adorning the either sides of the base, a plaque in the middle indicates that the little memorial was erected

Have you ever noticed a memorial monument standing midst the cages of the birds and the animals of the Calcutta Zoological Gardens? Do you have any idea about the man to whose memory it was erected? Let us try to find it out. Carl Louis Schwendler was born on the 18th

The first Anglo-Afgan war was fought between the East India Company and The Afghans between 1838 and1841. During 1837, the political situation in Afghanistan under the leadership of Dost Mohammad Khan was not very steady. They lost their second capital of Peshawar to the Sikh Empire and wanted British support

Due to reasons best known to them, initially the British rulers in colonial India were reluctant to recruit the Bengalis in the army. But finally, on the 7th August, 1916, when the colonial government announced recruitment for a Bengali Double Company, the people of Bengal responded enthusiastically. Many notable leaders

The Rohillas were originated from the Pashtu roots of the mountainous regions of Afghanistan and comprised of many warmonger tribes and sub-tribes of Pathans. Thousands of them were inducted in the Mughal army by Emperor Aurangzeb to fight and subdue the Rajputs. Slowly and steadily they took control of a

As a result of the British indifference to local Bengali authority, Siraj ud-Daulah organized his army, captured Calcutta from the British in June 1756, and siege their Fort. After two days of fighting, Governor Roger Drake felt that, it is impossible to withstand the attack and on June 19th, he

Literally, a Cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or persons whose mortal remains are elsewhere. There are three monuments in Calcutta, to honour the Indian soldiers who died in the First World War. The most prominent among these is the Glorious Dead Cenotaph,

The Ochterlony Monument, popularly known as ‘Monument’, is a prominent and iconic landmark of Calcutta. It was designed by J. P. Parker and erected by Burn & Company in 1828, on the north-eastern side of Calcutta Maidan. The Monument was dedicated to the memory of Major-general Sir David Ochterlony, a

After the death of Daulat Rao in 1827, Jankoji Rao II succeeded the throne of Gwalior, but he passed away soon, in the month of February 1843. Since he left the world without leaving an heir, Bhagirath Shinde was adopted and he succeeded the throne in 1843, at the tender

The Lascars were actually the seamen or militia men of India origin, who used to serve the British ships under ‘Lascar agreement’. The said agreements gave more power to the ship owners, so that the Lascars could be transferred from one ship to another and they could retain the Lascars