Bengaluru’s Whitefield, now known for its sprawling IT parks, multinational companies and rapidly expanding urban landscape, has a history dating back more than 140 years. Long before becoming one of the city’s major technology hubs, the neighbourhood was established as a settlement for Eurasian and Anglo-Indian communities in the late 19th century.
The historical record states, “It is named after Mr. D. S. White,” referring to the founder of an association in Madras.
Volume 24, page 387, Whitefield was established in 1882 on land granted by Mysore State, according to the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908) . An earlier Hindustan Times story published in January 2024 reported that White was the founder-president of the Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Association of South India. The earlier HT report traced this shift to 1996, when International Tech Park began operating in the area. The park was officially inaugurated on January 21, 2000 by Singapore’s then prime minister Goh Chok Tong.
Whitefield was named after David Emmanuel Starkenburgh White, who played a key role in establishing a settlement for European and Anglo-Indian families, according to the official history of Our Lady of Lourdes Church . The settlement was planned around two concentric circles, with a village green, a Protestant church, a club, residential plots and agricultural fields, according to the HT report.
