Jalpaiguri is a town in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the
headquarters of Jalpaiguri district, and the divisional headquarters of
the North Bengal region.
History
Jalpaiguri was initially founded as a trading centre, as the origins of
its name suggests. The name Jalpaiguri may come from the Bhutanese term
je-le-pe-go-ri, which means 'a place where warm clothes are bought and
sold'. Others attribute the name to the more common Bengali term jôlpai
"olive" and thus the name meaning "town of olives".
For some time, the town was capital of the Raikats of Baikunthapur. The
town was part of the Duars area of the old Kamarupa and later the
Bhutanese kingdoms, which was later annexed by the British in 1864.
They divided the captured area into two parts and merged the eastern
half into the Goalpara district (now in Assam) and converted the
western half into a new district of Western Duars and then in 1869, it
was reorganised and renamed to Jalpaiguri, with Jalpaiguri town
becoming the district headquarters.
The town saw its main boom period during the late 19th and early 20th
century, when the British found the region north-east of the town
(called the Dooars region), near the foothills of the Bhutan hills very
suitable for tea cultivation. Within a very small period the area was
dotted with thousands of tea gardens, with Jalpaiguri town becoming the
port-of-call for all going to those gardens. People flocked to the town
to lay their hands on a part of the lucrative tea-trade. This resulted
in the cosmopolitan nature of the town, with people from many parts of
the country settling there. Business boomed and the town established
itself as the premier commercial and cultural hub of the northern
Bengal region. It also helped that the town was well connected with
Kolkata (then Calcutta), as it lay on the main Railway link between
Calcutta and Darjeeling (via the Hardinge Bridge and Parbatipur
junction, now in Bangladesh).
The British had their own little spots in and around the town. The
Jalpaiguri Club, the Race Course (now defunct), the beautiful bungalows
along the banks of the Teesta and the Karala and the defunct airport at
Panga, close to the town, bear testimony to this fact
It is amazing how Jalpaiguri still retained most of its colonial
character even fifty-plus years after independence. The core town
possibly resembles more or less the same as it was during the end o
the British rule. A walk along the Teesta beside the stately bungalows,
built by the British, now housing the Government officials, would evoke
the same feelings. A visit to the beautiful parks and gardens along the
banks of the Karala gives peace to the strained city-dweller. This is
colonial Bengal in all its glory.
