When Bengal came under the full control of the East India company, the British higher-ups lords and viceroys ruled the roost transforming Calcutta into a major trading center. With their rise and firm grip on Bengal, the Nawobs of Bengal and small rulers of other regions slowly disappeared from the scene, having lost their pelf, power and their lands. A new social order had appeared on the horizon with roots in western culture.
The Bengal, Club a social club in colonial Calcutta (Kolkata, West Bengal) was opened in 1827 as the Calcutta United Service Club. The clubhouse functioned in an old building in Esplanade West built in 1813 and its first President was Lt. Col. The Hon. J. Finch, the military secretary to Lord Combermere, Commander-in-chief of the East India Company's army. The very first roaster of the club had 141 members that included senior officers, merchants, bank directors and other officials of the EIC. The main function of the club was to provide good quality services to people who had good standing / status in the society. The services included dining, entertainment, dancing, bars, library, gymnasium, etc., in a serene, peaceful ambience to match their grace and dignity. Much emphasis was given to contemporary facilities to suit that point of time without compromising on the traditional gracefulness and the culture of the English society. Such social clubs in Calcutta never failed to offer an amiable and joyful atmosphere to their patrons. The club was the most favorite hangout for the British.
The paradox is the Bengal Club that was exclusively for the "Whites" was functioning in a building owned by the famous writer Kali Prasanna Singha. Previous occupants of the building were Lord Macaulay 1834-1838 and Gov. Gen. Lord Metcalfe , who was the President of the club for eleven long years. Bernard
Shaw once remarked, "Oh, a club is nothing. The best club in
England is the one every sensible man keeps away from".
Considered one of the first social club in the world, the Bengal club is 189 years old and had gone past innumerable historical events, including the Sepoy Mutiny - 1857, the great Bengal famine -in the early 1940s, World Wars I and II, India's independence - August 1947 and finally the partition of Bengal. The Bengal Club had its own policies and protocol in selecting and inducting new members who were subject to evaluation by a selection committee. This was to maintain the high standard of the club.
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| Present English classes. The Independent |
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In many social clubs, a member ought to be a professional and preferably a post-graduate degree holder. Members are eligible to visit other reciprocal clubs around India, as well as many parts of the world. The Club had strict formal dress regulations for its members. This Club is one of the most prestigious clubs in Calcutta serving as a bridge between the tradition of Bengal and British culture. using foresight and vision to rule a country whose ethnicity is altogether ethnicity. Once it had 1600 members on its roaster. It was popular among the elite bachelors.
The club regulations were never diluted with respect to entry of non-whites. When, once Viceroy expressed his intention to bring his learned Indian friend one Sir Rajan Mookerjee for the Christmas dinner, the club members were unhappy and, at the same time, did not want to hurt the Viceroy. It was unanimously decided to have a separate Shamiana erected to accommodate just Rajan Mookerjee who had his dinner there. This high voltage racial discrimination led Rajan and other English men to have a high-level non-racial club established to admit the British and high society Indians. Thus, the Calcutta Club came into being in 1907. Only after India's independence, Indians walked freely inside the Bengal club. On his
visit to Bombay, India in 1933, Bernard Shaw remarked on the exclusive
Yacht Club for the "Whites", "It was nothing short of snobbery to have a club exclusively reserved for the use of the white
people in a land of colored people".
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| Bernard Shaw Pinterest |
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| Bengal club, Calcutta. Old Indian Photo |
The club, despite its age, still maintains its past link with the colonists. There are big portraits of British lords who successfully took care of the colonial expansion and administration, the pretty old Nagaraj bar where the lords and biggies would have gulped down whisky and good old wine to subdue their frustration and fatigue. There are old wooden stools too. On the first floor there are grand old piano, old grandfather clock and a dinning hall, etc.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Bengal-Club-The-best-of-183-year-old-heritage-on-show/articleshow/7114669.cms
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