Background

Raj Bhavan, Kolkata, was built over 1799 and 1803.

Governor General Lord Wellesley took up residence in Government House, as it was then called, in 1803, even before the last of the artisans had vacated the mansion. Such was his impatience to live in a home worthy of a ruler of the British Empire in India. The magnificent edifice of Kolkata’s Raj Bhavan, or the Government House, was completed on January 18, 1803. Twenty-three Governors-General and, later, Viceroys lived in this house, until the capital shifted to Delhi in 1912.

In keeping with Lord Metcalfe’s imperial vision, this meticulously structured building was specially created away from the rest of the metropolis, magnificently proportioned amidst acres of formal gardens. Tall intricately patterned wrought iron gates with massive lions perched atop reiterated the same regal majestic message. The ‘plebeian’ and the ‘common man’ were to be kept out of what was the abode of the Governor General, the symbol of the power and might of the Monarch and the Throne.

The total area occupied by the Raj Bhavan is 27 acres. The Raj Bhavan building has 84,000 sq.ft of floor space. The residential suites are in the four corners of the second floor while the main suite – the Prince of Wales suite – used by visiting dignitaries, on the first floor North West. In the ground floor the central area is called the Marble Hall. The first floor central area consists of the Throne Room, Banquet Hall and the Blue Drawing and Brown Dining Rooms. On the first floor, North East corner has the Council Chamber, in which major Government decisions were made during the British rule. The second floor has the Governor’s apartments and the Ball Room.

The Government House retained this awe-instilling quality even after the departure of the last British incumbent, Sir Frederick Burrows, and the assumption of office by the first Indian Governor, the illustrious Shri C. Rajagopalachari in 1947.  But the imposing gates began to open for a steadily increasing stream of visitors from all classes.  The following Governors have held office after India’s independence (commencing from the date against their name) :-

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari   15.08.1947

Dr. Kailash Nath Katju              21.06.1948
Dr. Harendra Coomar Mookerjee   01.11.1951

Shrimati Padmaja Naidu                03.11.1956

 Shri Dharma Vira                         01.06.1967

 Shri Shanti Swarup Dhawan         19.09.1969

 Shri Anthony Lancelot Dias          21.08.1971

 Shri Tribhuvan Narayan Singh     06.11.1977

 Shri Bhairab Datt Pande                12.09.1981

 Shri Anant Prasad Sharma            10.10.1983

 Shri Uma Shankar Dikshit            01.10.1984

Professor Saiyid Nurul Hasan        12.08.1986

 Shri T. V. Rajeshwar                    02.03.1989

 Professor Saiyid Nurul Hasan       07.02.1990

 Shri K. V. Raghunatha Reddy       14.08.1993

 Dr. A. R. Kidwai                           27.04.1998

Justice Shri Shyamal Kumar Sen   18.05.1999

 Shri Viren J. Shah                        04.12.1999

 Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi          14.12.2004