Modern History

Loss of political power did not alter Kolkata's economic control, and the British continued to pump money out of India through Kolkata trading companies and banks until well after WWII. The partition of India in 1947 devastated Kolkata. Bengal was one of the main areas with a mixed Hindu and Muslim population, so the dividing line was drawn through the middle of the state. Kolkata became an industrial city and port without a hinterland, while across the border, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) became a hinterland with nowhere to process or export its produce.

Although partition was less brutal here than in the Punjab, Kolkata was inundated with tens of thousands of refugees fleeing from East Bengal. The massive influx of refugees and the departure of the British, combined with India's postwar population explosion, took its toll on Kolkata, both economically and socially. The city became a 20th-century horror story, at least in the eyes of the Western media, who focused obsessively on the poverty and the work of Mother Teresa and her missionary nuns in the slums. In 1971 the India-Pakistan conflict and the creation of Bangladesh led to another flood of refugees into Kolkata, putting yet more strain on the city and its resources.