Bareilly is a city in Bareilly district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is among the largest metropolises in Western Uttar Pradesh and is the centre of the Bareilly division as well as the historical region of Rohilkhand. The city lies in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, about 252 kilometres (157 mi) north west of the state capital, Lucknow, and 250 kilometres (155 mi) east of the national capital, New Delhi. With a population of 898,167 in 2011, it is the eighth most populous city in the state, seventeenth in northern India and fifty-fourth in India. It is located on the bank of Ramganga River and is the site of the Ramganga Barrage built for canal irrigation.

The earliest settlement in what is now Bareilly was established in 1537 by Jagat Singh Katehriya who named it ‘Bans-Bareli’ after his two sons Bansaldev and Bareldev. The town came under the rule of Mughals in 1569 and had become the capital of a local pargana by 1596. The foundation of the modern city of Bareilly was laid by Mughal governor Mukrand Rai in 1657, and in 1658, it became the seat of the governor of Budaun.

The weakening of Mughal Empire lead to the rise of the Kingdom of Rohilkhand, of which Bareilly was a major centre. The city came under the control of Oudh State in 1774 after the fall of Rohillas in the First Rohilla War and was then ceded to the British East India Company by the Nawab of Oudh in 1801. A Military station was established in 1811 to the south of the city, where a fort was constructed in 1816. Bareilly was freed by the rebels during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and remained independent under the rule of Khan Bahadur Khan until it was re-annexed by the British in 1858.

Since India began liberalising its economy, Bareilly has experienced rapid growth. Commerce has diversified with mall culture, although the area’s rural economy remains agrarian, handicraft (zari-zardosi embroidery work on cloth material), bamboo and cane furniture. The city is equidistant from New Delhi (national capital) and Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. This makes Bareilly a nodal point between two major cities of India.

Bareilly was a flourishing cotton centre in early nineteenth century. There were about 20,000 looms in the city in 1802, with a production value of Rs 30,00,000 per year. Robert Glyn, the then Magistrate of Bareilly asked Ghulam Yahya to write an account of “craftsmen, the names of tools of manufacture and production and their dress and manners”.

The most popular trades in and around Bareilly during the 1820s were manufacturing glass, jewellery, glass and lac bangles and gold and silver thread, crimping, bean drying, wire drawing, charpoy weaving, keeping a grocer’s shop and selling kebabs.