History of the Place
(Selections from Wikipedia)
Under District of North 24 Parganas in the state of West Bengal, is an old and famous administrative territory of India, populated by people from almost all provinces of India. The town was a military and administrative center under British rule, and was the scene of several acts of rebellion against Britain during the 19th century.
The earliest references to the Barrackpore region are found in the writings of the Greek navigators, geographers, chronicles and historians of the 1st century BC to the 3rd century A.D
The first British barrack or cantonment in India was built here in 1772, providing the town with its name. After the British crown assumed direct control of India, the sprawling Government House and the Government Estate were built in Barrackpore to provide the viceroy with a suburban residence 15 miles outside of Calcutta.
Two rebellions against British authority took place in Barrackpore in the 19th century; the first of these came in 1824, under Sepoy Binda Tiwary. In 1857, Barrackpore was the scene of an incident that some credit with starting the Indian rebellion of 1857; an Indian soldier, Mangal Pandey, attacked his British commander, and was subsequently court-martialled. His regiment was disbanded, an action which offended a number of sepoys and is considered to have contributed to the anger that fueled the rebellion
Demographics
As of 2001 India census, Barrackpur had a population of 144,331. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Barrackpur has an average literacy rate of 81%, higher than the national average of 59.5%. 8% of the population is under 6 years of age. majority of the population is Bengali and Hindu.
Heritage and culture
Barrackpore was home to a number of significant members of the Indian independence movement, many of whom have memorials in the subdivision. He has a memorial in the subdivision. Another significant leader of the movement who lived in Barrackpore is Rastraguru Surendra Nath Bandyopadhaya, who was called the father of Indian Nationalist Movement. The house of Surendranath at Monirampur of Barrackpore has now been converted to Rastraguru Surendranath Institute and Netaji Open University. Gandhi also spent time in the area, and the famous Gandhi Ghat is located on the west bank of the Hooghly. A Gandhi museum nearby has rare collection of books, articles used by Gandhi.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya, the author of India’s national song Vande Mataram, was born at Naihati, in Barrackpore subdivision. Vande Mataram is credited to him. Another noted literary figure of the post independence era, Samaresh Basu, also hailed from Naihati. His noted work ‘Ganga’ vividly depicts the life of the fishermen of the Hooghly (Ganges) rivers.
The Program
Hand bills were distributed for 2weeks before programme to every house, shops and even to passers by, explaining them Sahaja Yoga in short, its benefits, and inviting them all with family & friends at Sukanta Sadan on 27th July. As Barrackpore is a vast area, efforts were made to cover all the possible major areas as far as possible. Posters were spread on street lampposts, near by Railway stations and connecting areas.
For last three days, spreading got boosted up with announcement done on mike with the help of an auto rickshaw which was beautifully decorated with banners, posters, etc. While a group was engaged in announcement, the other group was enjoying the leaflet work.
On 27th evening the Programme started at scheduled time (5.30 p.m.) inviting Shri Ganesha with a Ganesh bhajan. Soon the hall started witnessing new seekers and also Sahajis in mass scale. More than 200 Sahajis were present there at this moment.
Seekers were presented with a 30 min Audio visual presentation on Sahaja Yoga. The presentation consisted dance and recitation on two poems of sri Rabindranah tagore. It was followed by a slide show presentation on the happening of Sahaja yoga highlighting kundalini awakening, charkas, channels and mother excerpts on the same.
The presentation was followed by Shri Mataji’s speech (15 min) and finally seekers were asked for having their self realization. Every one present in the hall felt the divine bliss on the hand and top of the head as cool and hot breeze. The process was repeated twice and thrice for those who could not feel vibrations in the first attempt.
Two days follow up programme was scheduled on (28th and 29th of July)
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