Roads to be renamed after Krishna Bose and St Francis Xavier
The names of two streets in Kolkata, given to them by the British rulers during the colonial era, are going to be replaced with those of an institution and a prominent person of the city.
Short Street in central Kolkata is set to be renamed after the 16th-century missionary St Francis Xavier and Rowland Row in the southern part of the city will be renamed after the politician, educator and author Krishna Bose.
The KMC Roads Renaming Committee has proposed the change in names.
Short Street, running parallel to Park Street and passing by St Xavier’s Collegiate School, will take the name of St Francis Xavier Street.
Rowland Row, connecting Sarat Bose Road (from the point of the latter on which it also meets Elgin Road, or Lala Lajpat Rai Sarani, as it’s now called, on which Netaji Bhawan is located) to the junction of Ballygunge Circular Road and Gurusaday Dutta Road, will be called Krishna Bose Sarani.
St Francis Xavier was the founder of the Society of Jesus and established the first Jesuit school in Goa, christened St. Paul’s College. During the 19th century, the Jesuits started establishing numerous institutions across India, with St Xavier’s College in Kolkata among the prominent ones.
Krishna Bose served as a three-term parliamentarian from the Trinamool Congress, representing the Jadavpur constituency. She taught at the South City College for over four decades, and served as the principal of Sivanath Sashtri College for eight years.
Daughter of Indian freedom fighter Charuchandra Chowdhury and niece of academician Nirad C Chowdhury, she was married to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s nephew and Sarat Chandra Bose’s son Dr. Sisir Kumar Bose. Krishna Bose passed away in 2020.
