Budge Budge (Bengali: Bj Bj) is a town and a municipality in South 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority.[1] Hindu evangelist Swami Vivekananda landed at Budge Budge ferry ghat in 1897 when he returned from his Chicago visit. The anniversary is still celebrated on 19 February with great zeal. The old station from where he boarded the train to Calcutta is decorated with flowers on this day. The waiting room where he rested for a while is preserved. A curious feature of this small and old town is the large number of Sikhs who live here. Budge Budge was the site where the ship Komagata Maru was allowed to land following its return from Vancouver. The ship was chartered by a group of Sikhs to challenge the exclusion laws enacted by Canada to restrict Indian immigration. Upon entry into the harbour, the ship was stopped by a British gunboat, and the passengers were placed under guard. The government of the British Raj saw the men on the Komagata Maru not only as self-confessed lawbreakers, but also as dangerous political agitators. When the ship docked at Budge Budge, the police went to arrest Baba Gurdit Singh and the 20 or so other men that they saw as leaders. He resisted arrest, a friend of his assaulted a policeman and a general riot ensued. Shots were fired and 19 of the passengers were killed. Some escaped, but the remainder were arrested and imprisoned or sent to their villages and kept under village arrest for the duration of the First World War. This incident became known as the Budge Budge Riot. Historically the oldest people of this place were the 'Haldars' who came here to guard a fort near the bank of the River Ganges. A British writer who had come with Clive around 1740-50 chronicled this event. Maniklal was the main person at the fort and his soldiers lost to Clive's troops.
