22°46′N88°22′E / 22.76°N 88.37°E /22.76; 88.37
Bankipur was an ancient village on theHugli river located in what is nowWest Bengal, north ofBarrackpore, a little north ofIshapore. It is now a suburb of Barrackpore and is not to be confused withBankipur (Khejuri), a village located on the coast (at21°46′N87°52′E / 21.76°N 87.86°E /21.76; 87.86 (Bankipur)).[1]
Bankipur was famous as the principal settlement of theOstend Company, the one great effort made by theAustrian Empire to secure a foothold inIndia. The Ostend Company was formed in 1722–1723, and with a capital of less than a million sterling founded two settlements, one at Coblom (Covelong) on theMadras coast between the British company at Madras and the Dutch one atSadras, and the other on the Hugli between the British company atCalcutta and the DutchChinsura. Both the British and Dutch were offended and in 1727, in order to obtain the European guarantee for thePragmatic Sanction, the court ofVienna resolved to sacrifice the Company and suspended its charter. It becamebankrupt in 1784 and ceased to exist in 1793. But in the meantime in 1733 the British and Dutch convinced theMughal general at Hugli to attack Bankipur. He attacked Bankipur and the garrison of only fourteen soldiers escaped and set sail for Europe. Thus imperial Austrian interests disappeared from India.[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bankipur".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 320.Cities, towns, locations and neighbourhoods inNorth 24 Parganas district,Presidency division | |||||||||
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