Kolkata’s Fort William renamed as ‘Vijay Durg’

The Indian Army has renamed Fort William, the headquarters of the Eastern Command, as ‘Vijay Durg’, confirmed Wing Commander Himanshu Tiwari, Chief Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Defence, Kolkata. Along with this, Kitchener House has been renamed ‘Manekshaw House’, and the South Gate (St George’s Gate) is now ‘Shivaji Gate’. Other structures inside Fort William have also been renamed.

Fort William, spread over 177.42 acres, was constructed by the British East India Company between 1758 and 1781 after the original Fort William (built in 1696) was attacked and taken over by Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Bengal, in 1757. The new fort was designed with octagonal ramparts, a dry moat, and 497 cannons along the walls to counter artillery attacks of that era. It had eight gates, three facing the Hooghly River and five overlooking what was then called the Glacis, an open defensive area that is now part of the Kolkata Maidan. Despite its extensive defenses, the fort was never attacked after its construction.

Kitchener House, originally built in 1771 as a blockhouse for the Fort Assault Company, was repurposed in 1784 as the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army. It was later named after Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, who served as Commander-in-Chief of India from 1902 to 1909. The building was also used as a prison for Lt Gen AAK Niazi, the Pakistan Army officer who surrendered with 93,000 troops in Dhaka on December 16, 1971, following Pakistan’s defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War. The structure has now been renamed Manekshaw House in honor of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, who was India’s Chief of Army Staff during the war.

The renaming of St George’s Gate to ‘Shivaji Gate’ is linked to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Vijaydurg Fort, which was built in 1193 by the Shilahara dynasty and later fortified by Shivaji in 1653. Vijaydurg Fort, located on the Sindhudurg coast in Maharashtra, was a key Maratha naval base and played a crucial role in Shivaji’s maritime strategy against European and Mughal forces.