About the Temple

Bengali settlement in Delhi began when Calcutta and Delhi were first linked by rail in 1864; after the capital shifted to New Delhi in 1911, government employees — from the Post and Telegraph Department, the Government of India Press, the Accountant General of Central Revenues, and the Railways — settled first in Timarpur, and from 1924 in new government housing near Gole Market. Many later moved to Karol Bagh and WEA, and eventually South Delhi, after retirement. In 1954 an association was formed for refugees from the then East Bengal, displaced by the Partition of India and the associated Partition of Bengal in 1947. A group of government officers from the former East Pakistan, led by figures including Chandra Kumar Mukherjee, Subodh Gopal Basumallik, Bimal Bhusan Chakraborty and the then Chief Election Commissioner Shyamaprasanna Sen Verma, migrated to Delhi and lobbied for a residential colony. In 1967, 218 acres of barren, rocky land were assigned for what is now Chittaranjan Park. Applicants had to show proof of refugee status and of already living and working in the capital; on this basis 2,147 people received plots, initially on a 99-year lease, later converted to freehold ownership. The East Pakistan Displaced Persons' Association (EPDP), registered in 1960, played the key role in allotment and welfare, and remains the colony's apex Residents' Welfare Association today. The original layout held roughly two thousand plots across eleven blocks, A to K, along with a number of markets and cultural spaces. In the 1990s, 714 displaced families who had not been able to meet the earlier deadline were accommodated, giving rise to the newer blocks M, N, O, K-1, K-2, Pocket 40 (Navapalli), Pocket 52 (Dakhinpalli) and Pocket-K. The colony's main thoroughfare is Bipin Chandra Pal Marg. Notable institutions that grew up over the years include a branch of the Raisina Bengali School, the Kali Mandir (also called the Shiv Mandir), Bangiya Samaj, the Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Memorial, the Bipin Chandra Pal Memorial Trust, Purbashree Mahila Samity, Aparajita Mahila Samity, and Shri Shri Lokenath Ashram. The colony was founded with plots going exclusively to migrants from East Bengal, but over time its demographics have become a little more pan-Indian, though it continues to attract Bengali families in particular. With an estimated 2,000 Bengali families, it has emerged as a "mini Kolkata" in the capital; most residents are eminent ex-government servants, scholars, professors, teachers and other professionals. The explosive growth of South Delhi property prices, and the aging of the original allottees, is gradually diversifying the neighbourhood.

Established: 1954

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Chittaranjan Park (CR Park), New Delhi — 110019

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