Baranagar

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This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Baranagar

(Barahanagar). — Town in the Barrackpore subdivision of the District of the Twenty-four Parganas, Bengal, situated in 22 39' N. and 88° 22' E., on the east bank of the Hooghly river, 6 miles north of Calcutta. Population (1901), 25,432. Hindus number 19,581 ; MusalmanSj 5,697 ; and Christians, 142. Baranagar seems to have been originally a Portuguese settlement ; but it afterwards became the seat of a Dutch factory, and during the greater part of the eighteenth century Dutch vessels anchored here on their way up to Chinsura.

Old Dutch tiles of artistic design are still found in some of the native buildings in the neighbourhood. The town was ceded by the Dutch Government to the British in 1795, an< ^ the lands are comprised in the Government estate of Baranagar, contiguous to the Panchannagram estate. The lands are rented at Rs. 3 per Ingha (about one-third of an acre). Baranagar was formerly a favourite pleasure resort for European residents of Calcutta ; but it is now a busy industrial suburb and contains two of the largest jute-mills on the Hooghly, while large quantities of castor-oil are manufactured for export to Europe.

A municipality was constituted in 1 869, which was known for many years as the North Suburban municipality. On the formation of the Cossipore-Chitpur municipality in 1889, the name was changed to Baranagar. In 1899 the municipality was divided into two portions, of which the northern became the Kamarhati municipality. Since the partition, the average income has been Rs. 42,000 and the expen- diture Rs. 41,000. In 1903-4 the income was Rs. 43,000, including Rs. 19,000 derived from a tax on houses and lands, and Rs. 16,000 from a conservancy rate ; and the expenditure was Rs. 49,000. The Victoria high school is situated within the town.