Cantonment

For other uses, see Cantonment (disambiguation). See also Canton (disambiguation) and Cantonist.

A cantonment ( /kænˈtɒnmənt/, /kænˈtoʊnmənt/, or UK /kænˈtuːnmənt/) is a temporary or semi-permanent military or police quarters.[1] The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton meaning corner or district, as is the name of the Cantons of Switzerland.[2] In South Asia, the term cantonment also describes permanent military stations.[1] Cantonments can be found in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Singapore, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Nepal. In United States military parlance, a cantonment is an essentially permanent residential (i.e. barracks) section of a fort or other military installation such as Fort Hood.

The term is often abbreviated to "cantt."

Contents

Campaigning

During a campaign, cantonments are places of encampment formed by troops for a more permanent stay, or while in winter quarters.[1] For example at the start of the Waterloo campaign in 1815, while the Duke of Wellington's headquarters were in Brussels, most of his Anglo-allied army of 93,000 were cantoned to the south of Brussels.[3]

List of permanent cantonments

Ghana

British India

Many cities in the Indian subcontinent, such as Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Bangalore, Ambala, Kanpur, Bathinda, Delhi, Pune, Sialkot, Secunderabad , Trichy and Rawalpindi, Meerut was the most important and biggest cantonment in North India after headquarter Rawalpindi. It was established in 1803 and till date it has been the 2nd biggest cantonment in India. contained large cantonments of the former British Indian Army.[4] While in the 18th and 19th century cantonments in India were viewed as semi-permanent, by the turn of the 20th century they became permanent garrisons, and were further entrenched as such via the military reforms of Lord Kitchener in 1903 and the Cantonments Act of 1924.[5]

India

India currently has 63 cantonments in 17 different states, not including smaller 'sub-cantonments' in the same regional area. Majority of Indian cantonments are spread across Northern, Northwestern and Northeastern India. The British Army too was positioned for threats from across India's northern frontiers, as when the Great Game was in play in the 19th century. The vast majority of modern Indian Army cantonments date from the British era, though all have been modernized, expanded and reconfigured to suit modern warfare, training requirements and inter-service considerations. A few have, over the decades, also been dissolved and/or combined with other cantonments. Now the Cantonment Act of 2006 has come into force.

The 63 Cantonment Boards are:

  1. Agra Cantonment
  2. Ahmedabad (Gandhinagar) Cantonment
  3. Ahmednagar Cantonment, Maharashtra
  4. Ajmer Cantonment
  5. Allahabad Cantonment
  6. Almora Cantonment
  7. Ambala Cantonment
  8. Amritsar Cantonment
  9. Aurangabad Cantonment
  10. Babina Cantonment (Jhansi)
  11. Badamibagh Cantonment, Srinagar (Srinagar)
  12. Bakloh Cantonment (Chamba)
  13. Barrackpore Cantonment (Kolkata)
  14. Bareilly Cantonment
  15. Belgaum Cantonment
  16. Chakrata Cantonment (Dehradun)
  17. Dagshai Cantonment (Solan)
  18. Dalhousie Cantonment (Chamba)
  19. Danapur Cantonment (Patna)
  20. Dehradun Clement Town Cantonment (Dehradun)
  21. Dehradun New Cantonment (Dehradun)
  22. Dehu Road Cantonment (Pune)
  23. Delhi Cantonment
  24. Deolali Cantonment (Nashik)
  25. Faizabad Cantonment
  26. Fatehgarh Cantonment
  27. Ferozepur Cantonment
  28. Jabalpur Cantonment
  29. Jalandhar Cantonment
  30. Jalaphar Cantonment ((Darjeeling))
  31. Jhansi Cantonment
  32. Jodhpur Cantonment
  33. Jutogh Cantonment (Shimla)
  34. Kannur Cantonment
  35. Kamptee Cantonment (Nagpur)
  36. Kanpur Cantonment
  37. Kasauli Cantonment (Solan)
  38. Khadki Cantonment (Pune)
  39. Khasyol Cantonment (Kangra)
  40. Landour (Mussoorie) Cantonment (Mussoorie)
  41. Lansdowne Cantonment (Pauri Garhwal)
  42. Lebong Cantonment (Darjeeling)
  43. Lucknow Cantonment
  44. Mathura Cantonment
  45. Meerut Cantonment
  46. Mhow Cantonment
  47. Morar Cantonment (Gwalior)
  48. Nagrota Cantonment, Jammu (Jammu)
  49. Nainital Cantonment
  50. Nasirabad (Ajmer) Cantonment (Ajmer)
  51. Pachmarhi Cantonment
  52. Patiala Cantonment
  53. Pune Cantonment
  54. Ramgarh Cantonment
  55. Ranikhet Cantonment (Almora)
  56. Roorkee Cantonment
  57. Sagar Cantonment
  58. Secunderabad Cantonment
  59. Shahjahanpur Cantonment
  60. Shillong Cantonment
  61. St. Thomas Mount - Pallavaram Cantonment (Chennai)
  62. Subathu Cantonment (Solan)
  63. Varanasi Cantonment
  64. Wellington Cantonment (Ootty)

Former Cantonments:

  1. Udhampur Cantonment
  2. Batinda Cantonment
  3. Kapurthala Cantonment
  4. Chandimandir Cantonment (Panchkula)
  5. Hisar Cantt
  6. Jaipur Cantonment
  7. Bangalore Cantonment
  8. Hyderabad_(India) Cantonment
  9. Tiruchirappalli Cantonment (Trichy)

Pakistan

Main article: Cantonments (Pakistan)

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Afghanistan

The former Sherpur Cantonment in Kabul, Afghanistan - site of the 1879 Siege of the Sherpur Cantonment in the Second Anglo-Afghan War - is now maintained as a British Military Cemetery.

Singapore

In Singapore, the term is used to denote a Police Cantonment.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Oxford English Dictionary cantonment
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary cantonment and canton, v.
  3. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Waterloo Campaign
  4. ^ Maya, Jayapal. Meerut, The most important militory cantonment was established in 1803 and from 150 years it has been the biggest cantonment in the regiopn. Bangalore: The Story of a City. East West Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd
  5. ^ a b c Sheikh, M. O. Lahore Cantonment http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/momers_termpapers/ss153LahoreCantonment.htm&date=2009-10-26+02:56:58
  6. ^ "Military: Khuzdar Cantonment" Global Security
  7. ^ Sarhad Conservation Network Reports: Book on Peshawar Cantonment Launched
  8. ^ Singapore Police Force

External links