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
St John's was etablished in 1858. Ronnie Johnson's website provides links to photographs.
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 pages on the Agram Cemetery (click here).
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 Cemetery. 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 are in disrepair. Admiral Dawson was helping to raise funds for this but the project has not been sanctioned by the Church authorities to date. The Admiral has produced a special booklet about the cemetery. To some extent, this cemetery is maintained and a few graves are really historical. Some of Bangalore's colonial administrators are buried herein.
Catholic cemetery
This cemetery is under the charge of the Cathedral of St Francis Xavier and is still in use. However, maintenance 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.
External links
- This India List April 2010 post is about Roman Catholic cemeteries in Bangalore.
- This India List August 2010 post, 8 September 2010 post, 22 September 2010 post, 23 September 2010 post, 6 October 2010 post and 7 November 2010 post list gravestone names from Hosur Road Cemetery, Bangalore, together with this India List post which has a link to photographs, all by Edmund Bourne.