BARA BANKI, a town and district of British India in the Fyzabad division of the United Provinces. The town, which forms one municipality with Nawabganj, the administrative headquarters of the district, is 17 m. E. of Lucknow by railway. The population of Bara Banki alone in 1901 was 3020. There is some trade in sugar and cotton.
The district has an area of 1758 sq. m. It stretches out in a level plain interspersed with numerous jhils or marshes. In the upper part of the district the soil is sandy, while in the lower part it is clayey and produces finer crops. The principal rivers are the Gogra, forming the northern boundary, and the Gumti, flowing through the middle of the district. In 1856 it came, with the rest of Oudh, under British rule. During the Sepoy war of 1857–1858 the whole of the Bara Banki talukdars joined the mutineers, but offered no serious resistance after the capture of Lucknow. The cultivators are still, for the most part, tenants-at-will, rack-rented and debt-ridden. In 1901 the population was 1,179,323, showing an increase of 4% in the decade. The principal crops are rice, wheat, pulse and other food-grains, sugar-cane and opium. Both the bordering rivers are navigable; and the district is traversed by two lines of the Oudh and Rohilkhand railway, with branches. Trade in agricultural produce is active.