Located
at the corner of Park Street (now Mother Teresa Sarani) and Lower
Circular Road (now A.J.C Bose Road) is the South Park Street Cemetery,
known to many as “the great cemetery”. One of the largest colonial cemeteries
of its kind, it is today one of the many tourist attractions of Calcutta (Kolkata).
The South Park Street Cemetery replaced the St. John’s Church graveyard as the
principal burial ground of Calcutta and the road leading to it, which is today
called Park Street, was originally known as Burial Ground Road. It is perhaps
difficult to imagine that this part of the city was a jungle back then. Clive
hunted tigers in what is today Free School Street. Indeed, so far away was this
from the main city, that the Bishop who had to be present for the burial, had
to be paid a special allowance so he could maintain a carriage and horses. The
reasons behind siting a cemetery so far away from town are not difficult to
understand. Calcutta was a malarial swamp, and in an era where there was no
understanding of tropical disease, poor hygiene and poorer diet, the mortality
rate was shockingly high. The monsoons were particularly bad, and every year at
the end of the rainy season, feasts would be organised by those left living to
give thanks to God. In such a scenario, repeated reminders of death in the form
of funeral processions were thought of as undesirable.
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| Graves in the South Park Street Cemetery |
