HANSI, a town of British India, in the Hissar district of the Punjab, on a branch of the Western Jumna canal. Pop. (1931) 18,356. Hansi is one of the most ancient towns in northern India, the former capital of the tract called Hariana. At the end of the i8th century it was the headquarters of the famous Irish adven turer George Thomas; from 1803 to 1857 it was a British can tonment, and it became the scene of a murderous outbreak dur ing the Mutiny. A ruined fort overlooks the town, which is a centre of local trade, with factories for ginning and pressing cotton.