Bawana Fortress or Bawana Zail, also Bawana Jail and Bawana tehsil is a historic fortress at Bawana in Delhi in India, it was built in 1860s by Jat chaudhary (chiefs) of the area who became zaildar of Bawana zail during the British raj.
Bawana (बवाना), established in 1168,[1] was previously called Bawani (बावनी).[3] It received this name from the Hindi language word 'bawan' (52) since this area was a grouping of 52 villages, 17 in Narela, 17 in Karala, 6 in Palam and 12 directly under Bawana, with 5,200 bighas of agricultural land.[3][1] Revenue department records mention two people connected with its origins, 'Kala' and 'Thakur' who came from Bengal.[3] The Jat people of Taoru, who initially migrated to Mehrauli, settled at Bawana after spending significant time there. In due time they became influential enough to become chaudhary (chief) of the area. In 1860s Bawana became a Zail (revenue unit) with 3 other villages, Bawana, Alipur and Kanjhawala, under its authority when the British introduced the colonial zaildari system of revenue collection in 1860s. Jat chief, who was the Zaildar of Bawana Zail, built the Bawana Fortress in the 1860s as the headquarter of Bawana Zail. Along with Zails of Mehrauli, Dilli, and Najafgarh, Bawana was one of the four Zails within the colonial era Delhi district.[1][2][4][5][6][7] Additional zails of Badarpur, Badli, Nangloi, Palam Zail and Shahdara Zail might have came up later.[8]

In the 1930-40s authorities started to use Bawana Zail Fortress as a school. Later it also served as a veterinary hospital for a short time before being used as an orphanage. During the 1996-98 rule of Jat Chief Minister of Delhi Sahib Singh Verma, it was turned into an office of Patwari, hence the zail fortress also came to be known as 'Bawana Tehsil'. Eventually this run down building was abandoned.[1][2]
'बवाना, कंझौला और अलीपुर की जेलों से, 1,231 पुरुष महान युद्ध ( प्रथम विश्व युद्ध , 191.