 Summary of this article
- Murshidabad, once a glittering global trade hub, is now one of West Bengal's poorest districts, with broken roads, missing teachers, and despair.
- Nearly 4.5 lakh of 27 lakh deleted voters are from Muslim-majority Murshidabad, raising fears of mass disenfranchisement ahead of May 4 results.
- The BJP pushes ghuspetia and CAA, while TMC treads carefully; development failures and communal polarisation define a state in search of revival.
The Bhagirathi, flowing hesitatingly between the banks of Azimganj and Jiaganj in Murshidabad, pale and placid at this time of the year with a few fireflies twinkling on its banks, would be witness to the slow decay of a once glittering city. Folklore has it that Murshidabad with its precious stones and fine silk had five per cent of the world trade in the 18th century and was more alluring than London. Jagat Seth, an enterprising and shrewd financier, first to the nawabs of the region and later switching sides to the British, is said to have been the richest man on earth in the mid-1700s. |
