Streetwise Kolkata: Butto Kristo Paul Lane, named after one of the city’s first chemists – The Indian Express

In his book Heritage Retailers of Calcutta: 1785 to 1950, author Ashish J Sanyal provides some fascinating insights into the history of this famed chemist, particularly of the shop’s earliest days. Located in the heart of the city, Butto Kristo Paul is also one of the oldest running establishments in West Bengal.

“The business was started in 1858 by his great grandfather Mr. Butto Krishna Paul, who came from a poor family in Shibpur to work in his uncle’s Ayurveda shop in Khengnaputty Lane, off Brabourne Road. Sometime during this period, Mr. Edwards, a senior official of the Bengal government, dropped his saddle bag containing gold and silver coins while riding in the area (it was open fields back then),” writes Sanyal in his book.

Located in the heart of the city, Butto Kristo Paul is also one of the oldest running establishments in West Bengal.

“Young Butto Kristo Paul found the saddle bag, quickly ran after Mr. Edwards and returned the saddlebag to him. Impressed by the young man’s honesty, they started a conversation. When Mr. Edward heard that Butto was working in an Ayurveda shop, he told him that he would help him by giving him the formula for a malaria tonic. Butto had learnt the basics of Ayurveda in his uncle’s shop and had no difficulty in preparing the mixture which he called Edward’s Tonic and which is still being sold today. Their customers from Bihar call it “battis bemari ka dawai” (a cure for thirty-five ailments),” writes Sanyal.

Soon after the business started generating a steady income, Paul expanded his shop to include various kinds of medical equipment like surgical instruments and a more diverse collection of medicines. The building where the shop presently stands was a house constructed in 1885, now a heritage structure in the city.

The building where the shop presently stands was a house constructed in 1885, now a heritage structure in the city.

In her research paper “Between the Bazaar and the Bench: Making of the Drugs Trade in Colonial India, ca. 1900–1930”, author Nandini Bhattacharya writes, “One of the largest firms in India, B. K. Paul of Calcutta, was both importer and producer of medicines; it began as a small family firm and by 1905 employed around three hundred assistants in retail outlets in Calcutta alone. For a time before World War I, B. K. Paul even enjoyed ‘the distinguished and (to a Bengali) rare honor of Viceregal patronage’ of the governor of Bengal.”

Post the First World War, Bhattacharya writes, the pharmacy expanded quite significantly, employing over 1,500 workers.

According to Bhattacharya’s paper, Paul’s pharmacy was remarkable for its time, because it “manufactured its own patent medicines, homeopathic medicines, surgical instruments and imported and distributed pharmaceutical products from Europe and North America”.

Post the First World War, Bhattacharya writes, the pharmacy expanded quite significantly, employing over 1,500 workers.

The building that houses the Butto Kristo Paul pharmacy today continues to remain in the ownership of Paul’s descendants, with the shop itself being run by family members. In his book, Sanyal references an interview with one of Paul’s descendants who run the shop. “When asked about the future of the family and the business Mr. Anup Paul told me that the founder, Mr. Butto Krishna Paul, or BKP as he was known, was a visionary and had foreseen the possibility of the family business breaking up. But it did not happen because BKP had so structured his will that the business and the family house could never be sold. ‘We cannot destroy what we have not built’ says Mr. Anup Paul. Fifteen members of the family live in their ancestral home though not all of them take an active part in the business. But they remain close and celebrate family pujas, weddings, and birthdays together,” Sanyal writes.

In the 1923 edition of the Calcutta Exhibition Official Handbook and Guide, Butto Kristo Paul finds mention: “About 60 years ago, the late Mr. Butto Kristo Paul started his business in European medicines in a tiny shop in Khongraputty Street, Calcutta.” The entry in this book indicates that the lane was called Khongraputty Street, one that went on to represent the neighbourhood at large.

In his book A History of Calcutta’s Streets, author P Thankappan Nair writes that in March 1939, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation decided to rename this street after Butto Kristo Paul, after his iconic medicine shop and house.