Chandernagore

Chandannagar চন্দননগর Chandernagor (French); Chandernagore (English)
City of Kolkata Metropolitan Region
Chandernagore Strand Park
Chandannagar
Coordinates: 22°52′N 88°23′E / 22.87°N 88.38°E / 22.87; 88.38Coordinates: 22°52′N 88°23′E / 22.87°N 88.38°E / 22.87; 88.38
Country	India
State	West Bengal
District	Hooghly
Metropolitan Region	Kolkata
Area
• Total	19 km2 (7 sq mi)
Elevation	9 m (30 ft)
Population (2014)
• Total	166,867
• Density	8,800/km2 (23,000/sq mi)
Languages
• Official	Bengali, English
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN	712136, 712137
Telephone code	033
Lok Sabha constituency	Hooghly
Vidhan Sabha constituency	Chandannagar
Website	http://heritagechandernagore.com/

Chandannagar, formerly spelled as Chandernagore, is a Corporation city and former French colony located about 35 kilometers (22 mi) north of Kolkata, in West Bengal, India. It is headquarter of a subdivision of same name in Hooghly District. It is one of the 7 municipal corporations in West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. Located on the Hooghly River, the city has been able to maintain a unique identity different from all other cities and abide by her own characteristics. The total area is 19 square kilometers (7.3 sq mi), and had a population of 166,867 at the 2011 Census. Chandannagar is connected to Kolkata by railway, roadways and Hooghly river and it takes about an hour to reach there by car.

The name Chandannagar is possibly derived from the shape of the bank of the river Ganges which is bent like a half moon (in Bengali, Chand means moon and Nagar implies city). Some local people say that once, the place was the major hub of the trade of Sandal (Bengali-chandan). In some old documents the spelling of Chandannagar was Chandernagore which probably came from Chandra Nagar. To mention, Chandra is the Bengali of Moon. One more reason behind the name is, in Chandernagore there is a temple of Goddess 'Chandi'. So it might come from there. But earlier people knew the place by the name Farasdangaor "Francedonmgi" as it was a French colony (Bengali: Farasi means French, danga means land).

Chandannagar was established as a French colony in 1673, when the French obtained permission from Ibrahim Khan, the Nawab of Bengal, to establish a trading post on the right bank of the Hughli River. Bengal was then a province of the Mughal Empire. It became a permanent French settlement in 1688, and in 1730 Joseph François Dupleix was appointed governor of the city, during whose administration more than two thousand brick houses were erected in the town and a considerable maritime trade was carried on. For a time, Chandannagar was the main center for European commerce in Bengal.