History of Barrackpore

Dr. Harihar Seth in his book “Ancient History of Calcutta” held that Job Charnok first established a market and a Bungalow and the place was named as “Chanok”. But subsequently this notion has been proved to be wrong. It is true that ancient name of Barrackpore was “Chanok” The name Barrackpore has also no relation with the military barracks in the cantonment area. Some held that the name “Chanok” was given after the name of great “Chanakya”, the minister of Chandragupta Mouriya, who was the founder of the Mouriya empire in the third Century BC.

Recent discovery of a Buddha statue at the heart of the city has dated the existence of “Chanak” to the fourth Century AD. In later dates “Chanak” village found its place in the “Chand Sadagar’s” trade voyage in the tenth Century AD. In 1945 Biprdas Piplai wrote the ballad in the name of “Manasar Vasan” depicting “Chand Sadagar’s trade voyage in the tenth century BC and gave a vivid description of all the villages on both the banks of the River Ganga. Among those villages “Chanak” village also found its place.

At the early period of Mughal reign Sher Sah defeated Humayun, the son of Babar the founder of the Mughal dynasty and established his reign over India. He was famous for introduction of good system of administration and benevolent works. In one of his ‘Formans’ (dictates) the name of the village “Chanakya” in Bengal has been noticed. 

During Mughal period possibly during the reign of Akbar the Great, “Chanak” village was named as “Barbakpur”. In the book “Aine-e-Akbari “ written at the time of Akbar, Barbakpur was mentioned with the villages of Jafarpur, Babanpur, Murgimahal, Chapparmahal etc. In and around 1711, employees of East India Company misspelt “Barbakpur” as “Barakpur”. The Military cantonment of British rulers was established in 1770-71 and it will be entirely wrong if the name of Barrackpore is related with the Military Barracks.

The following are the list of names of the chairman who has enlightened the Barrackpore Municipality since its inception.

Sl No	Name of the Chairman of Barrackpore Municipality	Period
1	Moulvi Syed Ahmed	01.04.1916	04.07.1919
2	Mr. T.W. Dear	05.07.1919	01.10.1920
3	Rai Sahib B.C. Chatterjee	02.10.1920	22.09.1922
4	Mr. V. James	23.09.1922	18.09.1925
5	Babu Sashi Bhusan Ghose	19.09.1925	02.08.1929
6	Khan Saheb Moulvi Syed Moshfequs Sabeheen	03.08.1929	18.11.1931
7	Babu S.K. Mukherjee	18.11.1931	11.11.1934
8	Babu Manmatha Nath Sadhukhan	12.11.1934	30.08.1938
9	Mr. Archibald Fairfoul	31.08.1938	10.07.1939
10	Mr. Hemanta Kumar Mukherjee	19.07.1939	18.05.1943
11	Babu Satya Prasad Das	19.05.1943	10.06.1944
12	Babu Pares Nath Sen	17.06.1944	06.08.1947
13	Mr. G.C. Bhattacharyya	06.08.1947	13.02.1948
14	Panchu Gopal Sadhukhan	14.02.1948	02.05.1952
15	Panchu Gopal Sadhukhan	03.05.1952	19.01.1954
16	Hemanta Kumar Mukherjee	19.01.1954	31.03.1958
17	Sri. Sunil Kumar Bhattacharyya	01.04.1958	30.03.1963
18	Administrator Rule	01.04.1963	20.06.1964
19	Makhan Lal Dasgupta	21.06.1964	21.08.1965
20	Gouri Charan Bhattacharya	21.08.1965	07.10.1969
21	Sri Dhirendra Chandra Roy	08.10.1969	29.01.1972
22	Administrator Rule	30.01.1972	05.07.1977
23	Sri Dhirendra Chandra Roy	06.07.1977	09.07.1981
24	Sri Dhirendra Chandra Roy	10.07.1981	22.01.1986
25	Sri Bijan Kumar Sadhukhan	28.01.1986	18.07.1986
26	Sri Dilip Samaddar	19.07.1986	01.07.1990
27	Sri Dilip Samaddar	02.07.1990	27.11.1993
28	Dr. Salil Kumar Banerjee	01.12.1993	27.06.1995
29	Dr. Salil Kumar Banerjee	28.06.1995	28.06.2000
30	Dr. Salil Kumar Banerjee	29.06.2000	25.07.2004
31	Sri Mahadeb Ghosh	06.08.2004	24.06.2005
32	Sri Bijali Kanti Mitra	25.06.2005	22.06.2010
33	Sri Uttam Das	23.06.2010	18.05.2015
34	Sri Uttam Das	19.05.2015	Till Date