Mosques in Kolkata refers to mosques in the city of Kolkata (earlier known as Calcutta), in India.
Kolkata is the capital city of West Bengal, a state in the eastern part of India. The city is more than 300 years old (as Kolkata) and was the capital of British India till early 1911. Kolkata hosts many churches, temples and mosques, along with other religious places. Muslims have been settling in Calcutta since the early 19th century, but the pace was accelerated from the 1860s onwards, mainly due to the harsh economic conditions in Bihar and the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.
There are nearly 450 mosques (known as “masjid” in Urdu and Bengali) in Kolkata (from Ward 1 to Ward 141). Density is highest in the wards in the central part of the city, where the density of the Muslim population is higher. The most famous is the Nakhoda Masjid, on Zakariya Street and Rabindra Sarani crossing near Burrabazar, which was built in 1926. There are many beautiful and old mosques.
Other famous and large mosques in Kolkata include the Tipu Sultan Mosque; the Rajabazar Barri Masjid; the Colootolla Chhoti Masjid; the Ahl-e-Hadees Masjid on Marquis Lane near Alimuddin Street; the Habib-ul-Masaajid on Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, the Masjid-e-Mohammadi in Park Circus; the Jumma Masjid in Mullickbazar, the Lal Masjid in Colootolla; and the Karbala Masjid in Metiabruz, which is Shia in orientation, while the rest all follow the Sunni faith.
Like all growing cities, space is a problem in Kolkata. To accommodate the growing population, most of the mosques are expanding vertically. The structures are also getting changed from old style to new style, and the way of construction is changing.
In 1942, the last mosque was built in Kolkata (in Entally). The majority of the mosques were built between 1910 and 1940. Therefore most of the mosques in the city were built by the pre-partition Muslim population.
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