Cantonment Board Barrackpore, Ministry of Defence, Govt of India

Lord Wellesly who became the 'Captain General and Commanding in Chief of all the forces of the Crown in the East Indies' in the year 1800 started beautification of Barrackpore and it got glorified immensely under him. The first was the establishment of Lat Bagan, literally translated as the 'Viceregal Garden'. In its green and shady park besides the Hooghly River, Barrackpore was as close to an En

glish country house as possible, yet it had all the magic of India. The second event was the Sepoy Mutiny that took place in 1824. As a result of this Mutiny, native Sepoys under the leadership of Bindce Tiwary famously called as Bindi Baba, Sepoy of 47 infantry rebelled on the order of British to move to Chittagong and on to Rangoon. Barrackpore was virtually under the control of 47 Native Infantry led by Sepoy Bindce Tiwary for 2 days and thereafter the rebellion was crushed with great force by the British. All the rebels were mercilessly massacred. The third event happens to be the most prominent and tipped to had started first was of Indian Independence in 1857, when the first shot against British was fired by Sepoy Mangal Pandey on 29 March at Barrackpore. The thread of social events running through these periods is best left to the imagination of oneself since this mutiny of 1857 has had a tranquil existence. The Cantonment Board takes care of the civic administration of the Cantonment and it was erstwhile called as Cantonment authority. The Cantonment authority was functioning form 1765 and several old records presently available since 1870 are under the safe custody of the Cantonment Board. Certain important documents have also been made available on this website. In subsequent paragraphs the rich heritage and historical importance of Barrackpore Cantonment elaborating the events associated with it are available. Barrackpore Cantonment has transcended over the passage of time. Though only its modern history has come to the forefront there are also records to suggest that this place was a hub of commercial and political activities since the Gupta era.