Cantonment In India

Cantonment In India

Cantonments refer to military residential areas, which are primarily established for the Defense and Army personnel, although kept in separate boundaries; they are intermixed with civil population areas, offering peaceful and insulated living in urban areas for the military personnel.

India has 63 listed cantonments, while there are about 107 cantonments housing defense personnel spread over the country, with another 15 locations which were cantonments earlier, now absorbed by civil corporations for public living, such as Bangalore, Baroda, Hisar, Tiruchirappalli etc., majority of the Cantonments in India situated in Northern, North Western and North Eastern parts of India, apart from Delhi, the National capital, these cantonments exist in  16 other States.

Cantonments in India were established during Britishraj, right at the time East India Company, started installing its military establishments in 19th century, through a legislation as early as 1824AD, while Cantonments were established after the Plassey War, sequel to which there was Sepoy’s mutiny in 1857AD, whereas presently the Cantonment Boards managing each of  the cantonments are functioning as per the Cantonment Act of 2006.

Cantonment Boards are formed for every Cantonment residency, which takes care of all the facilities and civic amenities in respective locations, while education for the children of cantonment has  been taken up as the primary facility, besides a hospital , these Boards are administered by elected representatives coupled with nominated members from the Defense ministry, the Station Commander of the Cantonment region as the ex-officio President of the Board.

While jobs relating to basic infrastructure maintenance are managed by the Cantonment boards, like road laying, sewerage maintenance , etc besides  Electricity and water supply management, most of the Cantonment  Boards, operate Social clubs and canteens, to supply provisions and essential goods, apart from offering recreational facilities and entertainment.

Indian Government follows the British pattern in maintaining the cantonments, many of them having hardly any civil population, the Government having established 6 cantonments after Independence in 1947, although no Cantonments were added after 1960, while the lands for defense occupation in civil areas are adequately available with the Government  to establish more Cantonments

In American parlance, Cantonments are military barracks annexed to Forts , similar feature  was true in India too, although The Jhansi Fort which housed Indian Army earlier is now vacant, while Kangla Fort occupied by Assam Rifles since 1891AD has been returned to the State Government, some experts are skeptical about these changes.