The Maidan, also referred to as the Brigade Parade Ground, is the largest urban park in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a vast stretch of field that includes numerous play grounds, including the famous cricketing venue Eden Gardens, several football stadiums and the Kolkata Race Course. The Maidan is dotted with statues and architectural works, the most notable being the Victoria Memorial. Due to the freshness and greenery it provides to the metropolis, it has been referred to as the "lungs of Kolkata". The property of the Indian Army, the Maidan hosts the army's Eastern zone high command in Fort William. The Maidan stretches from the Raj Bhavan building on the Esplanade in the north to the National Library on Belvedere Road in Alipore in the south. The wide field stretches from the Hooghly River in the west to the Victoria Memorial in the east. It is a historical and cultural center of Kolkata as well as a center of leisure and entertainment for Calcuttans.
History
In 1758, one year after their decisive win in Battle of Plassey, the British East India Company commenced construction of the new Fort William in the center of the villageGobindapur. The inhabitants of the village were compensated and provided with land in Taltala, Kumartuli and Shovabazar. The fort was completed in 1773. In 1883–1884 the Maidan, along with grounds of the Indian Museum, hosted the Calcutta International Exhibition. In 1909, H.E.A. Cotton wrote, In Bengali, the maidan is called 'Garh-er maath'. 'Garh', in Bengali, means fort and its meaning literally translates to the 'fort's ground'.
Around the Maidan
, the second largest cricket stadium in the world, is in the heart of the Maidan Government House was built in 1803, the high Octerlony Monument in 1848, the museum was started in the Asiatic Society in 1814 but shifted to the present site as the Indian Museum in 1887, St. Paul's Cathedral was built between 1839 and 1847, it was consecrated in 1874, and the Victoria Memorial was erected in 1921. On Council House Street, at one corner of the Maidan, was the long-defunct Fort William College, which played a pioneering role in the development of many of the Indian languages, particularly Bengali. The cricket stadium at Eden Gardens was built in stages. Amongst the later additions are Netaji Indoor Stadium, the M.P. Birla Planetarium, Rabindra Sadan, the Academy of Fine Arts and Nandan. The metro stations bordering the Maidan as one travels from the south are Victoria, Rabindra Sadan, Maidan, Park Street and Esplanade. The Howrah Bridge is away from the Maidan, but the Vidyasagar Setu overlooks at least one corner of the Maidan and Fort William.
Statues
The Maidan was dotted with statues of British governor generals and other eminent personalities of the British Raj, including Lord Curzon, Kitchener, Roberts, Minto, Northbrook, Canning and others who had known Kolkata well. Two or three of them were erected in the first few years of Indian independence in 1947; it was not until 1983 that the last 16 were removed.
Events
Political rallies
Geoffrey Moorhouse in 1978 presents a vivid description of a Communist Party of India rally on the Maidan:
