This article is contributed by Sayan Bhattacharya
Born in the laps of river Ganges and trapped inside the pristine beauty of nature, Barrackpore. It is a city that narrates the tales of the brave fighters who sacrificed their everything to make our motherland free from all burdens. Since time immortal this city has been the epitome of culture and traditionalism, every corner of this city oozes the spirit of nationalism.
Barrackpore has given birth to several brave hearts who formed the pillars of the nation’s Independence movement. Historically this city holds a ton of importance as it is the epicentre of one of the most ancient military administration centres of India. This city is the bearer of India’s oldest cantonments and police training centres. Barrackpore is one of the most-humble places on Earth. It broadens its arms to every soul that embraces its land and acknowledges its beauty. Several intellectual minds were deeply rooted in this city, Surendranath Banerjee, Mangal Pandey, Mahatma Gandhi are few to name. These renowned characters not only played significant roles in the nation’s independence but also are stalwarts in the fields of education, politics, and culture. Surendranath Banerjee was the founder of the Surendranath College in Barrackpore, an institute that has provided higher education to several individuals who wanted to achieve success in life. This city has also experienced the nerve-wracking incident of revolutionary figure Mangal Pandey who sacrificed his own life to ignite the spark of freedom in the minds of the Indians. This immortal incident of Mangal Pandey is still remembered and his statue has been built in the same garden in which he was hanged to death, the garden is now called the Mangal Pandey park.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay the creator of our national song ‘Vande Mataram’ was born in Naihati in the Barrackpore subdivision. It fills one’s heart with dignity and pride to know that the father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi was also very closely related with this city and to immortalize his name in the history of this city, the Gandhi Ghat as well as the Gandhi museum has been built in this city. The museum provides a lot of intricate details about his life and livelihood and is definitely worth paying a visit.
In ancient times, Barrackpore was largely under the control of the Britishers, and under the influence of these Britishers, several churches were built one such church is the St Bartholomew’s Cathedral (Garrison Church) which is a gothic-inspired church, the forming of this church is dated back to 1831 and this church was primarily built for worship especially for the British personnel’s and their families.
This land of purity has also experienced the death of Lady Canning the wife of Charles Canning who was the Governor-General of India. The death of Lady Canning was an incident of grief and agony for several citizens of England. It is believed that the famous delicacy of Bengal’s “Ledikeni” was named after her, as Lady Canning admired this Bengali dessert a lot and it was after her death that this desert gained much more popularity in every household of Bengal.
To feel the actual essence of this place one must try to visit this city and experience its multi-dynamic structure. This city has a lot to offer to the people of all generations, this city is the embodiment of history that has remained hidden for several years and it is the aura of this place that connects every soul and reminds all of us about our common origin.
“I’m a computer programmer. I’ve been working as a freelance software and web developer since and Content Writer 2018. I also work as a remote and Contract-based developer. Currently, I’m working with WordPress. Exploring the framework and libraries of Javascript was a great starting for me. I also work with Core PHP and MySQL, CSS backend.” – Sayan Bhattacharya