Bangalore Cemeteries

Information on some of the cemeteries in and around Bangalore.

St John's Church

132 St John's Church Road, Cleveland Town Post Box 544, Bangalore 560 005

ph.572 805

Established 1858. Has some graves in the churchyard.

Old Protestant or Agram Cemetery

Police Reserve Lines Richmond Road, Bangalore This cemetery is under the control of the ASC Officers' Mess and permission from them is needed to enter the cemetery. There are Protestant graves from 1813 to 1867. When I last visited it in 1994, it was extraordinarily overgrown, even by Indian standards. However, since then, Admiral Dawson has done a fantastic job cleaning it up and documenting it. Ronnie Johnson has created a database of the headstones in this cemetery. For photos of the Agram cemetery, visit Ronnie's page on the Agram Cemetery.[1]

Hosur Road, Bangalore

Protestant Cemeteries

These cemeteries are split into two parts : on the left (as you face them from Hosur Road) is Cemetery No.1 and it is the continuation of the Agram Cemtery. It has graves from 1869 to 1917. On the right is Cemetery No.2 and it has graves from 1917 onwards. The cemeteries are maintained by St Mark's Cathedral.

Hosur Road Catholic Cemetery

Adjacent to Protestant Cemeteries This is currently being used and is under the care of St. Patrick's Church. This cemetery is maintained fairly well, and a database from 1838 onwards has been created by Ronnie Johnson. There is a cemetery for Indian Christians at the back road which is reached from Hosur around Protestant Cemetery No.1

Richmond Road, Bangalore

Church of the Sacred Heart

This Roman Catholic church formerly had many old graves. However, most of them were bulldozed and there is now no trace of any headstones. The only exceptions are the graves of the Paris Foreign Mission priests and the grave of one girl. These were moved by the Bishop into the Priests' Section.

Fort Cemetery

This cemetery was for both Protestants and Catholics who fell when taking the Fort in 1791. The cemetery has also been bulldozed and no trace of any gravestone remains. No records remain of this cemetery.

Mysore Road, Bangalore

Twentieth-Century Cemeteries

There are Protestant and Catholic cemeteries here, dating back to 1926. They are not well kept. The Catholic cemetery is in the care of Christ Church, Briand's Square.

Kalpalli

Protestant Cemetery

This cemetery is under the charge of St John's Chruch. The entrance and chapel needs to be repaired otherwise it will fall into ruins. Admiral Dawson was helping to raise funds for this but the project has not been sanctioned by the Church authorities to date. He has done a special booklet on the cemetery. To some extent, this cemetery is maintained and a few graves are really historical, and some of Bangalore's colonial administrators are buried there.

Catholic cemetery

This cemetery is under the charge of the Cathedral of St Francis Xavier and is still in use. However, maintainence is very poor as it covers several congregations and nobody is willing to pay for its upkeep. When it rains, deep furrows are made and stones moved. Burial registers are kept at the Cathedral, but they do not give grave locations.