Hugli

Hugli: clock tower

Hugli, also called Hugli-Chinsurah, Hugli also spelled Hooghly, city, central West Bengal state, northeastern India. The city lies just west of the Hugli (Hooghly) River and is a major road and rail connection. Rice milling and rubber-goods manufacture are the chief industries.

Hooghly (now Hugli) was founded by the Portuguese in 1537 following the decline of Satgaon, the mercantile capital of Lower Bengal. Mughal armies expelled the Portuguese from Hooghly in 1632. Hooghly was also the first English settlement (1651) in Lower Bengal; it was abandoned in 1690 for Calcutta (now Kolkata).

Chinsurah was an important 17th-century settlement of the Dutch, who built a factory (trading station) there in 1656. In 1825 Chinsurah and other Dutch settlements were ceded to the British in exchange for holdings in Sumatra (Indonesia). Important historical buildings include a Muslim imām-baṛah (meeting place), a Portuguese church (1660), and the Sandeshwar temple.

Hooghly and Chinsurah were constituted a joint municipality in 1865. They have colleges affiliated with the University of Calcutta and the University of Burdwan. The surrounding area comprises a fertile, low-lying alluvial tract dotted with marshes and abandoned river channels and drained by the Rupnarayan and Damodar rivers. Rice, jute, sugarcane, and potatoes are the main crops; bananas and mangoes are cultivated. Hugli’s riverbank is densely populated and heavily industrialized with jute, rice, and cotton mills and rubber and chemical factories. Early European settlements include Shrirampur and Chandernagore. Pop. (2001) city, 170,206; (2011) 177,259.