Which of the following statements about the penetration of English into Bengal is/are correct? 1. Job Chamock arrived in Sutanati in August 1690 and laid the foundation of Calcutta which later became the heart of the British Indian Empire. 2. The French East India Company built a fort near the Fort William in Calcutta. Select the correct answer using the code given below:

Statement 1 is correct as Job Charnock, an agent of the British East India Company, arrived in Sutanuti on August 24, 1690, to establish a factory [1]. This settlement, along with the villages of Kalikata and Gobindapur, was later fortified and became Calcutta, the capital of the British Indian Empire until 1911 [2]. Statement 2 is incorrect because the French East India Company did not build a fort near Fort William in Calcutta. Instead, the French established their primary Bengal settlement and fortification at Chandernagore (Chandannagar) in 1690, which was located several miles upstream from the British settlement at Calcutta [2]. Fort William itself was the fortified seat of British power in Bengal, named in 1700 [3]. While other European powers like the Danes were at Serampore, the French remained centered at Chandernagore.

Sources

1. [1] Rajiv Ahir. A Brief History of Modern India (2019 ed.). SPECTRUM. > Chapter 3: Advent of the Europeans in India > Why the English Succeeded against Other European Powers > p. 57
2. [2] History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 14: The Mughal Empire > European Factories/Settlements during Mughal Rule > p. 209
3. [3] Rajiv Ahir. A Brief History of Modern India (2019 ed.). SPECTRUM. > Chapter 3: Advent of the Europeans in India > Charter of Queen Elizabeth I > p. 40