South Dum Dum

In the 17th century, Dutch merchants established a residence in Baranagar, making it a significant business hub at the time and the centre of the jute industry. It has become a major industrial centre for the manufacture of agricultural and industrial machinery, chemicals, castor oil, several jute products, matches, and numerous cotton-processing companies. The British Raj had a major arsenal at Dum Dum which manufactured, among other things, expanding bullets which are still sometimes called "dum-dum bullets". They were later banned in warfare by the Hague Convention as being too inhumane. Dum Dum, along with Barrackpore, was a major centre of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. It was rumoured that the paper cartridges provided to Indian soldiers were laced with pig lard or cow fat, resulting in the revolt of the soldiers in Dum Dum Cantonment. However, the military importance of the suburbs declined by the late 1920s, when Dum Dum Cantonment became a civilian municipality.