Hastings House — the colonial haunting of Alipore, Kolkata

Hastings House in the Alipore area of Kolkata is one of the oldest buildings in the region, constructed in the late 18th century during the period of Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of British India. The house served as a residence for senior British officials and has witnessed over two centuries of colonial and post-colonial Indian history. The building is reportedly haunted by British colonial figures — apparitions in Raj-era clothing have been described by security guards and visitors. Some report hearing English conversation in the rooms, the clinking of glasses as though a colonial-era reception is underway, and footsteps on the upper floors when the building is closed. One persistent report describes a British officer in uniform standing at a window, looking out over what was once the manicured grounds of colonial Calcutta. Hastings House's haunting represents a specifically postcolonial form of supernatural encounter — the ghosts of the colonizers remaining in the buildings they constructed, long after the empire that built them has dissolved. Alipore, once the administrative heart of British Bengal, retains its colonial architecture amid the chaotic vitality of modern Kolkata.