Visit to St. John’s Church,Kolkata

On February 20 and March 2, 2023, the third-year students of the Department of English, Loreto College visited St. John’s Church, Kolkata in two separate groups under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Subhasree Basu. Constructed in the eighteenth century, the church that is located near Raj Bhavan stands today as a magnificent example of colonial architecture in the neoclassical style. The students were informed that the land on which the church was built was a gift from Maharaja Nabo Kishen Bahadur, the founder of the aristocratic Shovabazar Raj Bari. Interestingly, the church is often called the “Pathure Girja” or ‘stone church,’ a name that alludes to the stones that were stolen from the medieval ruins of Gaur by the East India Company in order to build the church.
The students had the opportunity to examine Job Charnock’s Mausoleum, which is a large, Moorish-style tomb built with stones brought from Chennai. The mausoleum contained graves with inscriptions and engravings in Latin and some, interestingly, in Parsi. The students then passed by the Rohilla War memorial, which is a cupola-like structure erected in memory of the battle between the Rohillas and the Nawab of Oudh. Before entering the church, the students also saw the memorial of Lady Canning, wife of Lord Canning, Viceroy of India. Within the church, the students closely observed a whole line of columns with Corinthian capitals. An extraordinary painting, Johann Zoffany’s reimagining of ‘The Last Supper,’ was hung on the left side of the wall. On both sides there were sculptures depicting different scenes from the Bible. The visit broadened the students’ acquaintance with Kolkata’s rich colonial history and added fresh dimensions to their study of postcolonial theory and literature.