Viewers drink in the beauty of the Ganga from the Strand. Picture by Biswarup Dutta

The mind automatically switches to sepia mode at the Strand in Chandernagore.

Seen through the frame of old trees and the wide promenade, which is unperturbed, almost, by contemporary attempts at “beautification”, the Ganga looks the river it does in 19th-century paintings of Calcutta, when ladies and gentlemen could take a leisurely stroll by its side.

Grand wainscoted buildings, such as the French Institut standing on its eight tall columns, now a museum, and Patalbari, which sends its pebbled garden down into the waters and was a favourite haunt of Tagore, overlook the river.

Off the Strand is the church, once the centre of French life and culture. Although people enter and exit several of the buildings continuously, for among them are the town’s most important offices, the structures seem to have attained a certain immunity from time.

Or are they perhaps holding their breath and waiting for the marching army of new concrete to swoop down on them? Like the British did once?

From the very points on both sides where the Strand ends, new construction piles up — one… two… three-storey buildings, purple, green, chemical pink, occasionally white, not sepia at all — and threatens to descend on the old buildings and choke them.

Chandernagore is clearly schizophrenic. Its built heritage from its French past —the French East India Company bought 942 hectares in 1688 from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb — is preserved in a panel on the Strand. The rest of it is real estate boom — modern Chandernagore, headquarters of a subdivision of Hooghly district, with GT Road running through it as the main thoroughfare, could be mistaken for neighbouring Chinsurah (a onetime Dutch colony), except that it has cleaner roads and is famous for its Jagaddhatri Puja.

French Chandernagore was famous for its clean wide roads, but when modern Chandernagore came up, they became narrow, then turned into gullies.

The town, about 30km from Calcutta, is proud of its history but its life is elsewhere.

The Clock Tower on the Strand. Picture by Biswarup Dutta

When the property boom started in the mid-1980s, says Provat Dey, he had left his jute industry job of 22 years to join the construction business. Hardly any empty plots are left now. In prosperous Barabazar, a cottah sells for Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

“A large number of people have settled in the new flats in Chandernagore,” says Dey. He has moved into a flat of his construction near Bhadreswar, where he proudly maintains a rooftop garden with imported grass.

“The newcomers are from Durgapur, Asansol, Burdwan. They come because of the advantage of communication — the Chandernagore and Bhadreswar railway stations — and also because of the English-medium schools,” says Dey.

The Church-run schools are another of Chandernagore’s proud legacies, the most prominent of them being St Joseph’s Convent for girls, established in 1861, which too stands on the Strand.

Parish priest Father Ambrose says he doesn’t know how many English schools the town has — there are so many.

“But because of the demand for English-medium schools, the vernacular schools under the Church are converting to English medium. St Anthony’s, a Bengali-medium school for girls, has switched to English and to the ICSE system. St Thomas, for boys, will change from next session,” he says.

But “development” perhaps stops there. There is no shopping mall in sight, only a Mega Bazaar. Several private banks have set up shop, though, but Dey still doesn’t use an ATM card.

Neither do his two college-going daughters. Dipti and Priti, second and third-year students of Chandannagar College, which too stands on the Strand, have mobile phones (everyone has one from Class VIII, says their father) and a computer at home but not Internet. They are not on Facebook, which they say is not very popular among their friends. Both sisters want to be teachers.

Chandernagore is not very “connected”, and it likes it that way. “We are moving in back gear,” says Dey.

He is proud of the Jagaddhatri Puja too. The pujas are growing in number; at last count there were 200. He is proud of the illumination, growing bigger and better.

Dey calls Chandernagore “development city”, though mainly for its property boom. For the family, the town has changed for the better. “In the flat, water is no problem unlike our previous home in the same locality,” says Mandira, Provat’s wife.

Even water wouldn’t have been a problem if it were not for Trinamul, alleges Amiya Das, CPM mayor of Chandernagore corporation. The Left rules the corporation, having won 23 of the 33 wards. This is Das’s sixth — and third consecutive — term as mayor.

A Rs 62-crore water project with overhead and underground reservoirs, which would have been operational by now and solved the town’s problems, has been stalled by Trinamul, he complains.

The mayor claims Mamata Banerjee’s party has damaged Chandernagore in another way. “When Tata started the factory in Singur (about 14km away), there was huge interest from industry in the land around Chandernagore.”

It dropped, literally, the day after the Tatas pulled out of Singur.

Das dismisses the “winds of change”. Instead he speaks of performance and a snazzy future: a flyover will link Delhi Road with GT Road, water-transport will connect Chandernagore with Calcutta.

Near his office, originally French-made, stands the Sacred Heart Church, founded by Augustinian monks in 1688 and the fulcrum of French life and culture once.

Not a Frenchman is to be seen now, of course. But the stained-glass decorations and paintings on the walls, imported from Italy in the 18th century, glow like new despite the dust caking them.

The back wall has fallen into disrepair. One of the Christ statues, a recent installation, stands under an avalanche of plastic foliage dotted with plastic roses. At the Institut museum, the only impressive exhibit turns out to be former town governor Dupleix’s bed, an immense four-poster with a stand to mount it. Among the other exhibits is a copy of the Mona Lisa — under the category “French painters”.

Not too far away, Nrityagopal Smritimandir, a heritage auditorium and library built in European style, is in ruins. It just about manages to hold itself up, supported by its tall columns.

Not too far away, again, an old French residence has been converted into a hotel with plastic chairs. Unlicensed liquor is being sold in a curtained-off room. Couples who will not make eye contact are making a beeline for it.

Rabindra Bhavan is a sore point with many. Its electrical maintenance has been given over to a private party that has raised the charges.

Change can be for good or bad; it can be frightening too. It can mean a slow decline and forgetfulness. Only time can tell.

Chandernagore

Why the name: Maybe from (a) Chander Nagar, after a crescent-shaped bend in the Ganga; (b) chandan (sandalwood), supposed to have been exported from the town; (c) Chandir Nagar, after a Chandi temple; (d) Chand Sadagar, the legendary merchant and father of Lakhindar, who had visited nearby Saptagram port which was destroyed in the 16th century

Area: 22sqkm

Population: 1.62 lakh (2001); Could be 2 lakh now

How to get there: Catch a train from Howrah or a bus

History: Former French colony, founded in 1688. Reached its height as Bengal’s chief European trade centre during Joseph Francois Dupleix’s reign as governor. Suffered British onslaught through 18th and 19th centuries; by 1900 lost importance as trade hub

Corporation: Should have been a municipality but awarded corporation status after all candidates withdrew nomination on eve of first municipal polls following independence from the French in 1950. Residents wanted a corporation befitting the town’s status

Politics: The Left has run the corporation for three straight terms; so it would be a prize catch for Trinamul if it wins

Famous for: French colonial heritage

Famous residents: Revolutionary leaders Rashbehari Bose, Kanailal Dutta

Landmark: (Old) Along the Strand: Chandannagar College, Sacred Heart Church, Institut de Chandernagor, St Joseph’s Convent, Patalbari; elsewhere: Nrityagopal Smritimandir, the Christian Cemetery. (New) Rabindra Bhavan