Bolpur

Bolpur বোলপুর Bolpur-Santiniketan
Town
Bolpur Location in West Bengal, India
Coordinates:
Country	India
State	West Bengal
District	Birbhum
Area
• Total	13.13 km2 (5.07 sq mi)
Elevation	58 m (190 ft)
Population (2011)
• Total	80,210
Languages
• Official	Bengali, English
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Lok Sabha constituency	Bolpur
Vidhan Sabha constituency	Bolpur, Nanoor
Website	birbhum.nic.in

Bolpur-Santiniketan is a municipality and subdivision head querter in Birbhum District in the state of West Bengal, India. It is 145 km north of Kolkata and is best known for its proximity to Visva Bharati, the university set up by the Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore. Given its proximity to Santiniketan and Sriniketan, it is one of the seats of culture and education in West Bengal.

Bolpur subdivision is at the south border of Birbhum district.

Origin of the name

The name "bolpur" comes form the word "boli-pur". In Bengali "boli" means "slaughter" and "pur means "city".

History

About 150 years ago Bolpur was a small village under supur porgana. Kalikapur a known place of Bolpur was the origin of the typical village in past. There were no rail lines, no developed roads. Paddy land were seen around the village. "Lalmati" (red soil) was found everywhere. Many villages named Sian, Dihipara, Khosakdampur, Paruldanga, Goalpara, Ballavpur, Bandhgara, Surul, Supur, Raipur were the boundary line around Bolpur.

East India company established the first railway line in 1859, when the Sahebganj loopline was extended beyond the river Ajay. Bolpur railway station was established in 1860. Along with this, court, police station, sub registry office, etc., were established in old Bolpur. Then people started residing here. Christan missionaries came; they founded a church that was known as Mission compound. Paddy storage house, stationary shops, grocery shops, garment shops etc. were on the east side near Bolpur railway station. About 19 husking machines were here at that time.

Maharshi Debendranath Tagore established a centre of religious mediation in Bolpur. Rabindranath Tagore established Visva Bharati Viswavidyalaya. These were the main reasons for the huge extension, development and popularity of Bolpur.

Provincial names proved the upcoming gradual development of Bolpur. Kachharipatti is just beside court house, Trishulapatti is the commercial paddy trading centre. Kalibaroarytala was the service place for Bolpur set up by some initiative people. Netaji made a conference. Here Harisava stood against "Bramhopasana". Every week these two conferences were held in Bolpur. Bijaykrishna Ghoswami, Shivnath Shastri, Shasibhusan Basu like many wisemen gave religious advice. Beside this, prayer committee was set up.

Geography

Bolpur is in Birbhum (Siuri), West Bengal, India. Its geographical coordinates are 23° 40' 0" North, 87° 43' 0" East and its original name (with diacritics) is Bolpur.

Bolpur can become very hot in the summer months (above 40 degrees Celsius in April to July).

One of the three sub-divisions of Birbhum district is named after the town of Bolpur. The Bolpur sub-division consists of Bolpur-Sriniketan, Nanoor, Labpur and Ilambazar blocks. There are 190,393 people living in Bolpur-Sriniketan sub-division, distributed over 156 villages.

Demography

Bolpur Municipality has a total population of 80,210 (as of the 2011 census), out of which 40,468 are male and 39,742 are female. Female sex ratio of Bolpur is 982. Literacy rate of Bolpur is 86.77%.

Civic administration and political information

Bolpur municipality is divided into 19 wards. Until 2010, the Indian National Congress was in power in it. In the 2010 municipal elections, the municipality faced a hung verdict. Later, the Trinamool Congress with nine councillors, formed the board by taking the support of eight Congress councillors. Sushanta Bhakat is the Chairman of the municipal board.

Bolpur town is part of Vidhan Sabha constituency which is represented by Chandranath Sinha of Trinamool Congress. The town falls under Bolpur (Lok Sabha constituency) represented by Anupam Hazra of TMC.

External links

• Around Bolpur The Telegraph, 19 December 2004
• From Bolpur to Santiniketan