Jorabagan 4.32

Jorabagan is a neighbourhood in north Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal. As a neighbourhood, it covers a small area but its importance is primarily because of the police station and the assembly constituency.EtymologyJorabagan, meaning ‘a pair of gardens’ in Bengali, was so named because the road through it led to the garden houses of Gobindram Mitter and Umichand.HistoryJorabagan is part of old Sutanuti. It is in this neighbourhood that Job Charnock made his famous landing at Sutanuti ghat in 1690. Mohunton’s ghat between Beniatola and Sobhabazar ghats lurks the forgotten traditional landing place. There was a large tree under which Job Charnock is believed to have rested.The Sabarna Roy Choudhury Paribar Parishad, and nine other intellectuals of the city filed a public interest litigation before the Kolkata High Court in 2001 demanding a probe into the matter whether Job Charnock can be regarded as the founder of Kolkata. The Court, upon an Expert Committee finding, declared that Job Charnock cannot be regarded as the founder of the city.GeographyNimtala ghat in the neighbourhood is the burning ghat where Hindus cremate their dead. Amongst the more renowned people cremated there was Rabindranath Tagore and the place is marked with a memorial structure. Nimtala ghat now has an electric crematorium.