Current Time in Naihāti, India

Naihati stands on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River in the state of West Bengal in eastern India, about forty kilometres north of Kolkata. It belongs to the North 24 Parganas district and lies in the middle of the long industrial corridor that stretches along both banks of the river, a landscape of mills, ghats, temples and closely built neighbourhoods. Across the water are the towns of Hooghly, Chinsurah and Bandel, linked to Naihati by the old Jubilee Bridge and by a newer road crossing.

Around two hundred and twenty thousand people live in the municipality, part of a continuous urban belt that runs for many kilometres along the river. Jute has been the traditional industry, and mills established under British rule still operate nearby, joined over time by engineering works, chemical plants, paper and textile factories. Many residents commute to Kolkata for work in offices, trade and services, and the town also functions as a market centre for the surrounding countryside, where rice, vegetables and fish are produced.

The area has been settled for centuries, and its riverside temples and bathing ghats reflect a long religious tradition. Its modern importance dates from the nineteenth century, when the East Indian Railway reached the town and industry followed the line up the river. Naihati is best known, however, as the birthplace of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, born in the neighbourhood of Kanthalpara in 1838, the novelist who created the modern Bengali novel and wrote the song Vande Mataram, which became the anthem of the Indian independence movement. His family home has been preserved as Bankim Bhavan, a museum and research centre holding his manuscripts and belongings, and the town takes considerable pride in the connection.

The most famous event in the local calendar is the Boro Maa Kali Puja, celebrated at a temple where an unusually tall image of the goddess is worshipped. The festival attracts enormous crowds from across West Bengal and beyond, and the temple, rebuilt in recent years in marble and stone, has become a place of pilgrimage throughout the year. Other landmarks include the riverside ghats where evening prayers are held, several old zamindar houses, and the crossing to Bandel, where one of the oldest Christian churches in the country stands. Durga Puja in autumn transforms the streets with lights and elaborate pavilions, and local clubs compete to build the most inventive displays.

Everyday life is Bengali in language and culture, centred on family, festivals, football, sweets and fish. Schools with long histories, a government college and institutions in nearby Barrackpore and Kalyani serve students, with the universities of Kolkata within commuting distance. Naihati is an important railway junction on the Sealdah main line, with frequent electric trains to the city and connections towards Bandel and the north, supplemented by buses, ferries across the river and cycle rickshaws in the lanes.

Naihati is important as a historic river town of Bengal, a centre of literary heritage and a lively industrial community on the outskirts of Kolkata.