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."

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

• Cantonments, Accra

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

• Abbottabad Cantonment
• Attock Cantonment
• Bannu Cantonment
• Bhawalpur Cantonment
• Chaklala Cantonment
• Clifton Cantonment, Karachi
• Dera Ismail Khan Cantonment
• Faisal Cantonment, Karachi
• Faisalabad Cantonment
• Gujranwala Cantonment
• Hyderabad Cantonment
• Jhelum Cantonment
• Kamra Cantonment
• Karachi Cantonment
• Kharian Cantonment
• Khuzdar Cantonment^[6]
• Korangi Creek Cantonment, Karachi
• Lahore Cantonment^[5]
• Walton Cantonment: Created out of the southern parts of the original Lahore Cantt., Walton, Lahore^[5]
• Loralai Cantonment
• Malir Cantonment, Karachi
• Mangla Cantonment
• Manora Cantonment, Karachi
• Mardan Cantonment
• Multan Cantonment
• Murree Cantonment
• Nowshera Cantonment
• Okara Cantonment
• Ormara Cantonment
• Pano Aqil Cantonment
• Peshawar Cantonment^[7]
• Quetta Cantonment
• Rawalpindi Cantonment
• Sanjwal Cantonment
• Sargodha Cantonment
• Shorkot Cantonment (PAF Rafiqui)
• Sialkot Cantonment
• Taxila Cantonment
• Wah Cantonment
• Zhob Cantonment

Bangladesh

• Dhaka Cantonment
• Mirpur Cantonment
• Savar Cantonment
• Chittagong Cantonemnt
• Halishahar Cantonment
• Khagrachari Cantonemnt
• Ghagra Cantonment
• Rangamati Cantonment
• Qadirabad (Natore) Cantonment
• Jessore Cantonment
• Jahanabad (Khulna) Cantonment
• Rajshahi Cantonment
• Bogra Cantonment
• Rangpur Cantontment
• Sayedpur Cantonment
• Ghatail Cantonment
• Mymensing Cantonment
• Jalalabad (Sylhet) Cantonment
• Mainamati (Comilla) Cantonment
• Zamuna satu(Tangail)cantonment

Sri Lanka

• Panagoda Cantonment

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

• Cantonments (Pakistan)
• Kaserne

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

• Cantonment Boards in India