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Sarat Bose Road

Joydip Sur

Sarat Bose Road, formerly known as Lansdowne Road, originally extended from Lower Circular Road (presently Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road) to Hazra Road. The name ‘Lansdowne Road’ was added in Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s street directory in 1889 along with Entally, Beniapukur, Ballygunge and Bhawanipore.

Lansdowne Road was subsequently extended from Hazra Road to Monoharpukur Road and later further extended to Southern Avenue. The extended stretch of the road was initially known as Lansdowne Road extension. It was later renamed Lansdowne Road by Calcutta Municipal Corporation on May 17, 1939. The notification appeared in page 6 of the Calcutta Municipal Gazette dated May 20, 1939.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation at its meeting held on January 25, 1956, proposed to rename Lansdowne Road as Sarat Bose Road. The statement of proposal appeared in page 304 of the Calcutta Municipal Gazette on February 4, 1956.

Lansdowne Road was renamed Sarat Bose Road on August 31, 1956, and the new name was sanctioned through a notification dated September 5, 1956, as stated in page 468 of the Calcutta Municipal Gazette on September 18, 1956.

Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, fifth Marquis of Lansdowne
Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, the fifth Marquis of Lansdowne was a British politician and the great grandson of the British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne. He also held senior posts in both Liberal Party and Conservative Party governments.

Lord Lansdowne entered the House of Lords as a member of the Liberal Party in 1866. He served in William Gladstone’s government as a Lord of the Treasury from 1869 to 1872 and as Under-Secretary of State for War from 1872 to 1874. He was appointed Under-Secretary of State for India in 1880, and having gained experience in overseas administration, was appointed the Governor General of Canada in 1883. He served as the Viceroy of India from 1888 to 1894. The present-day town of Lansdowne, better known as Garhwal in Uttarakhand, was established in 1887 and named after him. Lansdowne Road in Kolkata was also named after him.

Sarat Chandra Bose
Sarat Chandra Bose was born to Janakinath Bose and Bibhabati Bose in Calcutta on September 6, 1889. Sarat Bose studied in Presidency College, Calcutta and went to England in 1911 to become a barrister. He began a successful career in law after returning to India, but later abandoned it to join the Indian Independence struggle. He joined the Indian National Congress and participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement. He was strongly influenced by the leadership of Chittaranjan Das, a leading Bengali nationalist.

In 1936, Bose became the president of the Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee and served as a member of the All India Congress Committee from 1936 to 1947. From 1946 to 1947, Bose lead the Congress delegation to the Central Legislative Assembly.

He strongly supported the formation of the Indian National Army by Subhas Chandra Bose and actively participated in the Quit India Movement. Following his brother’s death in 1945, Bose lead efforts to provide relief and aid to families of INA soldiers through the INA Defence and Relief Committee. In 1946, he was appointed member of the Interim Government for Works, Mines and Powers – the position of a minister in a national executive council led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and presided over by the Viceroy of India.

Fun Facts
Sarat Bose Road runs south to north almost parallel to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road and Ashutosh Mukherjee Road on the east and Ballygunge Circular Road on the west. It starts from the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium on Southern Avenue in the south and moves almost vertically up intersecting other major thoroughfares like Rashbehari Avenue and Hazra Road just up a few blocks from Ramkrishna Mission Seva Prathishthan, proceeds up north with the famous Lansdowne Market and Padmapukur on the left, and finally winds it way through Elgin Road, Diocesan High School and ends after meeting Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road at Minto Park (presently known as Bhagat Singh Udhyan).

Prominent LandmarksLansdowne Tower

  • Diocesan High School
  • Samilton Hotel
  • Hotel Pan Asia Continental
  • Hotel Gardenia
  • Padmapukur
  • Lansdowne Market
  • Ramakrishna Mission Seva Prathisthan
  • Deshapriya Park