Tuesday 20 March 2012

Attock Name Story

Attock District original name was Attock it changes Campbellpur after the Briton Sir Colin Campbell who founded the city of Campbellpore. The name of the district was changed to Attock as of 1978 again. Attock city is the district headquarters.

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  1. CAMPBELLPUR (KAMILPUR) -------NAMING THEORIES
    Dr Abdus salam ---- salampindi@gmail.com
    Campbellpur is mentioned first time in current books / record in 1954 (1) According to Imperial Gazette of India it takes its name from Kamilpur Syedan, a small adjacent village (2,3) Campbellpur does not trace to anyone named Campbell (4). It is the English pronunciation of the local village of Kamilpur Syedan In 1857 kutcha barracks were built by Lieutenant Taylor of the Bengal Engineers at the cost of 3000 Rs for 50 European soldiers (5)Owners of village Kamilpur gifted 26 acres and sold 160 acres of land, for Campbellpore Cantt(6)
    The widely accepted view of tracing Campbellpur to Sir Colin Campbell is based on two-line sentence of George Dodd (7)
    “Wishing to obtain a healthy military station west of the Indus the brigadier in command laid the foundation of Campbellpore a station named in honor of the commander in chief “

    This naming theory is baseless because of 4 reasons.
    1) It appears that George Dodd a writer never visited India. He has no idea of location of Campbellpur. He places it west of Indus whereas Campbellpur is 10 kilometer east of Indus.
    2) First mention of Campbellpur is in record is in 1854(1).Campbell became Commander in Chief in 1857.This is very unlikely that the town was named after him in 1854 before his becoming C in C. Brigadier Colin Campbell ( Later Field Marshal) (1792-1863) fought Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1848-1849, under Sir Hugh Gough. Campbell returned home in 1853 and commanded a Brigade in Crimean War in 1854.In 1857 he was made the commander of British forces in India .He left England and reached Calcutta in August 1857
    3) This naming theory has not been shared by any other authenticated official record or independent book
    4) This theory has gained favor recently due to copy/cut and paste practice


    References
    1. General Report of the Administration of the Punjab for the Years 1849, 50 &51 -Chronicle Press Lahore 1854
    2. Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 9. Oxford [1909]
    3. Imperial Gazetteer of India ---Provincial Series (Punjab Vol. II) ---1908
    4. Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism-Benjamin Walker – 1968
    5. Nine Years on the North-west Frontier of India from 1854 to 1863 by Sir Sydney Cotton
    6. History of MES of Pakistan -- Engineer in Chief Branch GHQ Rawalpindi 1991
    7. The history of the Indian revolt by George Dodd London, Edinburgh 1859

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