Barasat, West Bengal, India

🇮🇳 Barasat is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of Barasat Sadar subdivision. It is close to Kolkata and a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Located in the Ganges delta, Barasat is a regional transportation hub as a rail and road junction. National Highway 12 (formerly NH 34/ Krishnanagar Road towards North Bengal), NH 112 (formerly NH 35/ Jessore Road, leading to the Bangladesh border at Petrapole), Taki Road and Barrackpore-Barasat Road (both are part of SH 2) are the main connectivity links to the city.

History The term Barasat means Avenue. Both sides of the road were planted with trees, Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of Bengal (1774-84), planted trees on both sides of the road. Pandit Haraprasad Shastri, a noted lndologist, was of the view that the name 'Barasat originated from the concept that on both sides of the road planted trees were in abundance. Other evidences are not lacking which prove that its history extends to the middle ages. Twelve members of the family of Jagat Sett, the banker of the Nawab of Bengal, lived here. Settpukur and other villages after their names are still there. Another Sett, Ramchandra, a descendant of Jagat Sett, dug out a tank near the Jessore Road to please Hastings.

Another folk-lore sheds light on the name. In persian language, 'Bara' means 'Pura' or town and 'Sat' means seven. Hence Barasat is composed of seven 'Puras'. These seven 'Puras' still exist. They are Sridharpur, Hridaypur, Hariharpur, Bonomalipur, Prasadpur, Channanpur and Nishindapur. Of course, these small sections of the bigger settlement of modern Barasat have lost their rural flavour. But antiquities speak more and provide convincing evidence about a settlement than folk-lores or proverbs reveal. The stone engraving of Lord Vishnu was obtained while digging a tank at Dakshinpara of Barasat. Chandraketugarh and "Khas" Balanda are two localities nearby, where excavation revealed specimens of the pre-historic periods. So it is not a wild guess that Barasat shares the history of old eras. At Kuberpur, a Kali temple, established by the dacoits, is still there. Those were the days when British rule and law and order were not deeply entrenched.

During the Mughal period, Barasat was under the spell of Pratapaditya's (one of the twelve "Zamindar" kings in Bengal) kingdom. His naval forces were stationed here. Sankar Chakraborty, the Commander of Navy, owing to the inaccessibility to the place, settled here after the fall of his master. His descendants are still living here.

COLONIAL PERIOD Modern Barasat is a product of the colonial British days. Calcutta was unhygienic and unattractive during the earlier British days. Barasat was unfit for healthy cultural living with little civic and cultural amenities. There was no race course, no esplanade, no hotels, no theaters, no assembly rooms and no reading rooms. But it enjoyed a bracing climate. East India Company official (Queen's Proclamation, acceding to the reign of India under direct British rules, were years away), Robert Clive, the victor of Plassey, embraced Barasat as weekend entertaining centre. Clive himself built a magnificent building at Kamardanga 8 km away from Barasat. Warren Hastings, the powerful administrator of English rule, built a country house in the northern portion of Barasat. Lord Vansitart, the Governor after Clive, built a three storied villa covering thirty 'bighas' of land in the heart of Barasat. Colonel Champion, Richard Barwell and Sir Eliza lmpay, the chief justice of Supreme Court, paid their visits to Barasat.

Wealthy Indians followed suit. Ram Chandra Sett (referred to in an earlier part), the descendant of Jagat Sett, built his house here. It is said that Raja Ram Mohan Roy built a garden in the south of Barasat. Dewan Gangagobinda of Paikpara built a garden covering an area of one hundred 'bighas' in the eastern part of the town. Thus a sleeping hamlet woke up with the light of modern day city living. The Indigo rebellion, a protest movement of the Indigo cultivators leapt into fame at Barasat (Nilgunge) and around extending towards Nadia and Jessore (now in Bangladesh). It was at Nilgunge that the first Indigo factory was set up. It was an organised rebellion by the poor farmers against the atrocities of the Indigo planters. These are matters of history. Again Titumir, a religious and peasant leader, challenged the regime of the English and their henchmen at Narkelberia, a village near Barasat.

In the earlier years of the nineteenth century, there was a college for cadets at Barasat. For this the town was called the 'Sandhurst of Bengal'. Lord Amherst himself gave away the prizes on 5 March 1803. Waves of the fight for the freedom lashed the shores of the otherwise calm and serene social life of the people of Barsat. In 1906, Rastraguru Surendranath Banerjee presided over the session of Bengal Provincial Congress at Barasat. Students responded to Boycott Movement and foreign clothes were burnt to ashes during that period. In 1939, Subhas Chandra Bose presided over a meeting here and in 1947 Mahatma Gandhi visited Barasat.

POST-INDEPENDENCE PERIOD Partition of Bengal (1947) had a telling effect on Barasat. The international border at Bangaon is a few km away. The exodus of uprooted people from Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) overran Barasat and the adjoining areas. Numerous colonies sprang up here in an unplanned manner. This changed the demographic character, land use pattern of Barasat.

Geography Barasat is located in eastern India's Ganges Delta. The Bangladesh border, at Petrapole, is 70–80 km (43–50 mi) from the city.

Its average elevation is 11 metres (36 ft). The nearest river is the Ganges, about 15 km (9.3 mi) to the west, and it is on the Gangetic plain.

Area overview The area covered in the map alongside is largely a part of the north Bidyadhari Plain. located in the lower Ganges Delta. The area is flat. It is a little raised above flood level and the highest ground borders the river channels. 54.67% of the people of the densely populated area lives in the urban areas and 45.33% lives in the rural areas.

Note: The map alongside presents some of the notable locations in the subdivision. All places marked in the map are linked in the larger full screen map.

Demographics According to the 2011 Indian census, Barasat had a total population of 278,435; 140,822 (51%) were males and 137,613 (49%) females, and 22,605 were under age six. The literacy rate was 89.62 percent of the population over age six (229,279 people). The town's population increased from 231,521 in 2001. The literacy rate that year was 76 percent, higher than the national average of 54.5 percent. Of the literate population, 52 percent were male and 48 percent female. Barasat was part of the Kolkata Urban Agglomeration in the 2011 census.

Economy Cotton weaving is Barasat's major industry, and the town is a trade centre for rice, legumes, sugarcane, potatoes, and coconuts. Now it is becoming a shopping destination with various malls including all major brands and multiplexes.

About 32,00,000 people commute daily from around the city to Barasat. Fifty-eight trains transport commuters from 24 stations in the town's Sealdah-Bangaon section and 32 trains carry commuters from 30 stations in the Seadah-Hasnabad section.

Administration Although Barasat Municipality was established on 1 April 1869, it had no independent existence until 1882. It was controlled by the magistrate office (and its magistrate), without a chairman. In 1882, Barasat Municipality was formed and a local government was created. Barasat Association, a citizen organization, donated land for the construction of municipal buildings.

Barasat is divided into 29 mouzas. There were originally four wards, later increasing to 18. After surrounding panchayats were incorporated in 1995, the number of wards increased to 32. In 2015, before the municipal election, the number of wards increased to 35. Barasat is part of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area, for which the KMDA is the statutory planning and development authority. The KMDA manages the area's infrastructure development.

The district court handles local and national cases. The Barasat police have a jurisdiction of 4.6 square km (1.8 sq mi), and serves a population of 417,663 in the Barasat municipal area. There are two police outposts (in Barasat and Badu), and a women's police station (in KNC Road, near Barasat Govt College) in the town.

Zilla Parishad (district council) The Zilla Parishad of North 24 Parganas was founded on 26 June 1986, with the north–south bifurcation of the 24 Parganas district. The highest tier of the three-tier panchayati raj system, its headquarters are at Barasat. It has six riverine panchayat samitis in the Sundarbans, which has a saline tract on one side and rich alluvial tracts of the Ichamati River basin and industrial belt of Barrackpore on the other side. Its territory extends on the east to the Bangladesh border.