Writers Building

Administrative headquarter of Govt of West Bengal

People less place

It attracts thousands of tourists from across the world, drawn to its stunning architecture and design. However, the colonial-era building has a history that’s just as interesting. While today the Writers’ (as it’s also known) houses the State Government of West Bengal, it has served multiple functions over the past centuries.

The Writers' Building, often shortened to just Writers', is the official but currently unused secretariat building of the state government of West Bengal in Kolkata, India. The 150-meter long building covers the entire northern stretch of the iconic Lal Dighi pond at the centre of historic B.B.D. Bagh, long considered as the administrative and business hub of the city.noriginally served as the principal administrative office for writers (junior clerks) of the British East India Company(EIC). Designed by Thomas Lyon in 1777, the Writers' Building has gone through a long series of extensions over the centuries. Since India's independence in 1947, it housed the office of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, cabinet ministers and other senior officials, until 4 October 2013, when a major restoration of the building was announced. The majority of government departments were subsequently moved out to a new repurposed building named Nabanna in Howrah on a temporary basis.

The Writers' Building was designed by Thomas Lyon in 1777 for the EIC, which wanted to consolidate its trading operations in India and centralize the tax operations the EIC undertook in Mughal Bengal. Over time, as British mercantile interest in India grew and the EIC defeated the Nawabs of Bengal, it was repurposed as the effective headquarters of the EIC and later the entire British Raj in the Indian subcontinent. For more than 200 years the building served as the centre of British power and claims, as the seat of government of the Bengal Presidency and later the province of Bengal. In the early part of the twentieth century, the building was the site of agitations, violence and assassination attempts during the Indian independence movement.[2] Since India's independence in 1947, it has served as the state secretariat and has been the location of turbulent politics, mob violence and police brutality. It has also become a popular metonym for the government of West Bengal, and especially the unbroken 34-year long Left Front rule in the state.