Bawana Fortress or Bawana Zail, also Bawana Jail and Bawana tehsil is a historic fortress at

Bawana Bawana is a census town founded by two Gaur Brahmins Kala and Thukrai in the North West district of Delhi, India. It houses the Bawana Fortress of Zail (also called Bawana Tehsil), a Zail headquarter built by the who were (chief) of Bawana Zai ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, it was built in 1860s by

Jat The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and su ...

chaudhary (chiefs) of the area who became

zaildar Zaildar was the title of the grand jagirdars (landlords) of the area, who were in charge of a Zail which was an administrative unit of group of villages during the British Indian Empire. The Settlement Officer, with the advice of the Deputy Co ...

of Bawana zail during the

British raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

.Bawana’s 19th-century fortress gets a makeover

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

, 20 Feb 2017.Bawana jail being restored

, 2017.

History

Bawana (बवाना), established in 1168, was previously called Bawani (बावनी). It received this name from the

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

language word "bawan" (52) since this area was a grouping of 52 villages, 17 in Narela, 17 in Karala, 6 in Palam and 12 directly under Bawana, with 5,200 bighas of agricultural land.Delhi traces its lost rural roots

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest se ...

, 9 Jan 2011. Revenue department records mention two people connected with its origins, "Kala" and "Thakur" who came from Bengal. The Jat people of

Taoru Taoru or Tauru is a town, near Nuh city in Nuh district in the Indian state of Haryana. History Fort Fort of Taoru, also called Taoru Fort of Raja Nahar Singh, has chambers and rooms surrounded by high walls. It is presently used as a po ...

, who initially migrated to

Mehrauli Mehrauli is a neighbourhood in South Delhi, a district of Delhi in India. It represents a constituency in the legislative assembly of Delhi. The area is close to Gurgaon and next to Vasant Kunj. History Mehrauli is one of the seven mediev ...

, settled at Bawana after spending significant time there. In due time they became influential enough to become chaudhary (chief) of the area. In 1860s Bawana became a Zail (revenue unit) with 3 other villages, Bawana, Alipur and Kanjhawala, under its authority when the British introduced the colonial

i system of revenue collection in 1860s. Jat chief, who was the

Zaildar Zaildar was the title of the grand jagirdars (landlords) of the area, who were in charge of a Zail which was an administrative unit of group of villages during the British Indian Empire. The Settlement Officer, with the advice of the Deputy Co ...

of Bawana Zail, built the Bawana Fortress in the 1860s as the headquarter of Bawana Zail. Along with Zails of Mehrauli, Dilli, and Najafgarh, Bawana was one of the four Zails within the colonial era Delhi district. Rajesh K. Agarwal, 1974
Economic and Employment Potential of Archaeological Monuments in India
Sudesh Nangia, Birla Institute of Scientific Research, Economic Research Division.1954
Gazette of India
Page 320.1921
Annual Progress Report of the Superintendent, Muhammadan and British Monuments, Northern Circle

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexand ...

, Northern Circle.1937
Administration Report
Page 21. Additional zails of Badarpur, Badli, Nangloi, Palam Zail and Shahdara Zail might have came up later.Susan Sinclair, 2012
Bibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World (2 vol. set)
p85. In the 1930-40s authorities started to use Bawana Zail Fortress as a school. Later it also served as a veterinary hospital for a short time before being used as an orphanage. During the 1996-98 rule of

Chief Minister of Delhi Sahib Singh Verma, it was turned into an office of

Patwari A Village accountant or Patwari (Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal), Talati (Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra) or Lekhpal (Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand), is an administrative government position in rural areas of the Indian subcontinent ...

, hence the zail fortress also came to be known as "Bawana Tehsil". Eventually this run down building was abandoned.

Architecture

It is a 200 square yard single story structure of

rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * "O'er the Ramparts We Watched" is a key line from "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the ...

s and

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

s built with

lakhori bricks Lakhori bricks (also Badshahi bricks, Kakaiya bricks, Lakhauri bricks) are flat, thin, red burnt-clay bricks, originating from the Indian subcontinent that became increasingly popular element of Mughal architecture during Shah Jahan, and remained s ...

and

lime mortar Lime mortar or torching is composed of lime and an aggregate such as sand, mixed with water. The ancient Egyptians were the first to use lime mortars, which they used to plaster their temples. In addition, the Egyptians also incorporated various ...

. It has a grand arched gateway that opens into an inner courtyard surrounded by corridors. In the courtyard, the extreme corner on the left has two rooms that were used as jail by the Jat zaildar to imprison those

zamidar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

s who defaulted on their

zamindari A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

land tax. Next to the jail rooms, a small staircase leads to the terrace. The terrace has one bastion on each of its four corners. These bastions served as guard posts. The courtyard had a water well to serve the occupants.

Conservation

After the Bawana fortress was abandoned around late 1990s or so, large portions of its walls, built from

, were ruined from both the out- and inside. The

collapsed. The old

water well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. T ...

dried up and its water also turned saline. It saw minor restorations in 2004 and again in 2010 for the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, ...

, though the earlier 2004 plan to convert it into a monument for the Indian independence freedom fighters did not materialise. In February 2017 major restoration by the State Archeology department of the

Government of Delhi The Government of Delhi, officially the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) is the governing body of the Union Territory of Delhi, whose urban area is the seat of the Government of India. It also governs the city or l ...

eventually commenced, using original construction material of that era, including a concrete preparation with 23 ingredients including

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

, surki (trass), jaggery, bael fruit (wood apple) pulp and urad ki daal (paste of vigna mungo pulse).

References

External links

Hindustan Times Photo feature on Bawana fortress
{{Delhi landmarks Forts in Delhi Archaeological monuments in Delhi Buildings and structures completed in the 19th century Archaeological sites in Delhi

History

Architecture

Conservation

See also

References

External links