Welcome to Kolkata, the city of joy. Kolkata – former capital of India. Now the city is the capital of Indian state West Bengal. The former name of Kolkata was Calcutta. The city took her birth on August 24, 1690. The English East India Company selected the place for a trade settlement. In 1698, the East India Company bought three villages (Sutanuti, Kalikata and Gobindapur) from a local landlord family of Sabarna Roy Choudhury. The next year, the company began developing the city as a Presidency City. In 1727, as per the order of King George I, a civil court was set up in the city. The Calcutta Municipal corporation (recently renamed as Kolkata Municipal Corporation) was formed and the city had its first mayor. . So 24th August, 1960 was being known as the Birth Day of the City. But The Calcutta High Court recently ruled (May 16, 2003) that Job Charnock, the Englishman generally believed to be the founder of the Calcutta is not the founder of the city and that hence Calcutta has no birthday.

In 1772 Kolkata was converted into the capital of British India. A contemporary description refers to the splendid sloth and languid debauchery of European society, when great men rode about in State coaches, with a dozen servants running before and behind them to bawl out their titles. It was during this period that the marshes surrounding the city were drained and the government area was laid out along the banks of the Hooghly River. The Governor General of British India between 1797-1805 was Richard Wellesley, who was largely responsible for the growth of the city and its public architecture which changed the description of Kolkata as the City of Palaces. Miss Emily Eden (the sister of the Governor General. Eden Gardens was named on her), in 1836 wrote of Calcutta: "Depend upon it, Calcutta is the finest place in the world. I know there are towns with far larger and grander buildings; but then they are not half so clean, and new, and beautiful, as this bride-like city. I have been standing on the roof of the house the last half-hour for air, and, as it was midnight, had an opportunity of seeing all the gay company - returning from an entertainment at the government-house; and I assure you I never witnessed any thing that could compare with the splendour exhibited."