Zamindars of Bihar

Last updated

Tekari Maharaj Mitrajeet Singh, 1763 - 1840 AD.JPG
Maharaja Mitrajeet Singh of Tekari Raj
Rai Hari Prasad Lal Gaya.jpg
Rai Hariprasad Lal of Gaya
Koer Singh, watercolour on ivory, c. 1857.png
Kunwar Singh of the Jagdishpur estate
Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh, 1888.jpg
Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh of Raj Darbhanga in 1888.

The Zamindars of Bihar were the autonomous and semi-autonomous rulers and administrators of the Mughal subah of Bihar and later during British rule. The zamindars of Bihar were numerous and could be divided into small, medium and large depending on how much land they controlled. [1] Within Bihar, the zamindars had both economic and military power. Each zamindari would have their own standing army which was typically composed of their own clansmen. [2]

Contents

The majority of these zamindars usually belonged to upper-caste Hindu communities such as Rajputs, Maithil Brahmins, Bhumihars, Kayasthas or Muslims. [3] Most of the zamindars and the intermediary tenure holders were Bhumihar and Rajput, though Brahmin, Kayastha, Ahir, Bania, Kurmi and Muslim zamindars were also there. [4]

The Forward Caste Zamindars also participated in the politics of state of Bihar, and had significant presence in politics in the first few decades of independence. However, since 1970, they started losing this presence and according to DM Diwakar, former Director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, they were converted into "silent onlookers" by 2020, amidst assertion of Backward Castes and Dalits. [5] Bihar's land reform drive of 1950s led to liquidation of the large landholdings of the big landlords. In the wake of this change, many well to do peasant communities started increasing their landholdings at the cost of big Zamindars. Although, the benefits of these reforms weren't percolated down to the lowest strata of Bihar's society, the Schedule Castes, many new landlords of the post reform period hailed from groups such as Koeri, Kurmi and Yadav caste of Bihar. [6]

Relations with the Mughals

Mughal rule in Bihar was characterised as turbulent and volatile as many of the region's zamindars made continuous efforts to defy the imperial authority. [7]

The nineteenth-century British civil servant, John Beames noted about Mughal-ruled Bihar that "everyone who was powerful enough to rob the state or his neighbours, robbed to his hearts content". [8] Zamindars refusing to pay the state and gathering forces to attack neighbouring zamindars was a common practice in Bihar during this period. [8]

This attitude to authority continued into the period when the Nawabs of Bengal and Murshidabad became the nominal governors of Bihar. Although Bihar had the potential to provide a large amount of revenue and tax, records show that the Nawabs were unable to extract any money from the chiefs of Bihar until 1748. And even following this, the amount gained was very low. This was again due to the rebellious nature of the zamindars who were "continually in arms". [9]

Relations with the British

After the collapse of the Mughals, the British East India Company held sway over much of South Asia. [10] The colonial power wanted the revenue system "to be simple in its principle and uniform in its operation," but the zamindari system was so ingrained that even the early British rulers, from the grant of Dewani (1765) to the Permanent Settlement (1793), dared not challenge it fundamentally. The early British rulers did not want any "innovation" or "experimentation," even if the zamindars, taluqdars, and many estates were defaulters to the government for not paying the raised land fee. This was because such a radical measure would have violated the 'customary' rights and privilege. [11]

With the exception of a few new men here and there, the old landed nobility formed the social cornerstone of the new establishment in 1793. One could claim that the early British emperors were dependent on a customary class of upper caste aristocrats. Since the majority of zamindars involved in estate auctions were Brahmins or members of upper caste families, Hastings was against the open selling of estates and instead supported giving them a higher position in the rural power structure. The zamindars of Bihar seem to have suffered far less than the old zamindars of Bengal and Orissa, who suffered considerably. The Darbhanga Raj, the Hathwa Raj, the Tekari Raj, the Deo families in Gaya, and the Dumraon families in Shahabad were among the prominent zamindars of Bihar who enjoyed prosperity. [4]

The Brahmins owned the lands in Darbhanga and Banaili. Bhumihars held possession of Bettia, Hathwa, Madhuban, Sheohar, Tekari,, Maksudpur, Rohua Warisnagar, Chainpur Kaimur, Dharhara, Budhauli, Tajpur, Bodh Gaya, and a plethora of other places. Gidhaur, Ramnagar, Ramgarh, Biher, Kulharia, and Dumraon were Rajput estates, while Kayathas controlled two other significant zamindaris, Baghi and Surajpura. [4]

The goal behind the establishment of the revenue farms in Bengal and Bihar was to obtain the highest possible share of the net produce and then fix it for all time under the Permanent Settlement. The colonial authority began to require the zamindars in place, including those who were established as landowners for all time, to make a regular, ongoing payment. [12]

Social condition in Zamindari areas

The Permanent Settlement act by the British East India Company did not significantly alter the landholding patterns in Bihar, leaving Rajputs and Bhumihars as the major Zamindars. It curtailed some of their powers, but also took away the customary occupancy rights of the peasantry. [13]

In 1790, Saran had 1,405 proprietors and 1,799 estates. Estate numbers reached 3,611 by 1850, while proprietor numbers reached 15,152 by 1872. The Brahmins, Rajputs, and Bhumihars (referred to as Babhans in records) made up around 57% of all owners at the time of the Permanent Settlement. Six percent of the owners were from the Bania caste, followed by the Kayastha (19–23%) and Muslims (15–17%). 154 recognized proprietors who paid income directly to the government possessed 127 estates listed on the rent roll of the Bhagalpur district in 1800. [14]

The British rule enabled Rajputs to continue their dominance by cementing their entitlements related to land and tax collection. [15] Exercise of coercive power by the dominant castes [16] over the vulnerable landless labourers took various forms such as forced labour, higher rents, lower wages, social restrictions, evictions and sexual harassment. [13] : 75  Rape of women from lower caste by Rajput and Bhumihar landowners was common in the Shahabad district, [13] particularly in couple of villages of Bhojpur (modern name for Shahabad district), where sexual desire of the upper-castes was satisfied through arrogant and unrestricted access to the modesty of women belonging to Chamar and Musahar caste. [17] [18] Emerging organizations of middle peasant castes like Triveni Sangh [13] and Kisan Sabhas took up the issues of exploitation, [19] with the Naxal threat also acting as a check. [17]

Abolition and decline in political presence of Zamindars

Lalkothi palace which belonged to the Gidhaur estate Gidhaur lalkothi.jpg
Lalkothi palace which belonged to the Gidhaur estate

Following independence in 1947, there was large-scale support in Bihar for the abolition of zamindari especially among peasants, agricultural labourers and the urban middle-class who stood to gain the most from this. [20] This culminated in a large-scale movement in support of abolition led by lower-castes. The Bhumihar zamindars realised that abolition was going to occur and planned for abolition to be on their terms. [20] However, the Rajput-Kayastha zamindars strongly resisted this. Eventually, the Bihar Abolition of Zamindaris Act was passed in 1949. [20]

In the later period of time, when the abolition of Zamindari took place in Bihar and the castes like Yadav, Kurmi, Koiri and Bhumihar became the prime movers of the emerging capitalist agriculture system of central Bihar. The new semi-feudal social order brought unintended benefits for these caste groups in which the question of dignity and minimum wages came to the fore. The Green Revolution further benefited these communities. [21] Hence, in later periods, many landed Other Backward Castes also emerged as zamindars, primarily from a group called Upper Backward Castes. [22]

Prior to the independence of India, many forward caste Zamindars started taking interest in politics, and they also participated in the Quit India Movement, anticipating the end of British rule, which protected them. According to DM Diwakar, a former director of Patna’s AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, these feudal elites had significant presence in politics of the state in first few decades of the post-independence period, but they started losing this significant position in 1970s. In the first tenure of Nitish Kumar, they staged a comeback in the politics of state, but in the next tenures, they were completely marginalised and according to Diwakar, were converted into "silent onlookers" by 2020. [5]

Notable zamindari estates

Rai Stial Prasad Bahadur.jpg
Rai Stial Prasad Bahadur, an aristocratic landlord from Gaya
Surajpurazamindari.jpg
The haveli of the Kayasth Rajas of Surajpura, this was one of the largest zamindari in North Bihar. The haveli now has been converted into a government school.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zamindar</span> Indian hereditary aristocrat

A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal ruler of a zamindari. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals, Marathas and later the British had begun using it as a native synonym for "estate". The term means landowner in Persian. They were typically hereditary, and held the right to collect tax on behalf of imperial courts or for military purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kayastha</span> Community of India

Kayastha or Kayasth denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally located—the Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus of Maharashtra, the Bengali Kayasthas of Bengal and Karanas of Odisha. All of them were traditionally considered "writing castes", who had historically served the ruling powers as administrators, ministers and record-keepers.

Majhauli Raj is a town and a nagar panchayat in Deoria district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The Darbhanga Raj, also known as Raj Darbhanga and the Khandwala dynasty, was a Maithil Brahmin dynasty and the rulers of territories, not all contiguous, that were part of the Mithila region, now divided between India and Nepal.

Kushwaha is a community of the Indo-Gangetic Plain that has traditionally been involved in agriculture, including beekeeping. The term has been used to represent different sub-castes of the Kachhis, Kachhvahas, Koeris and Muraos. Under the Indian governments system of positive discrimination, the Kushwahas are classified as a "Backward" or Other backward class. The Kushwaha had worshipped Shiva and Shakta, but beginning in the 20th century, they claim descent from the Suryavansh (Solar) dynasty via Kusha, one of the twin sons of Rama and Sita. At present, it is a broad community formed by coming together of several caste groups with similar occupational backgrounds and socio-economic status, who, over the time, started inter-marrying among themselves and created all India caste network for caste solidarity. The communities which merged into this caste cluster includes Kachhi, Kachhwaha, Kushwaha, Mali, Marrar, Saini, Sonkar, Murai, Shakya, Maurya, Koeri and Panara.

Bhumihar, also locally called Bhuinhar and Babhan, is a Hindu caste mainly found in Bihar, the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bettiah Raj</span> Zamindari estate in Bihar, India

The Bettiah Raj was the second-largest zamindari in the Bettiah region of Bihar, India. It generated annual land revenue rentals of more than 2 million rupees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tekari Raj</span> Zamindari estate

The Tekari Raj was a zamindari estate of the Bhumihar community in South Bihar. They controlled 2,046 villages on their estate, which covered a 7,500 square kilometres (2,900 sq mi) area, near to the town of Gaya.

The Koeri, also referred to as Kushwaha and more recently self-described as Maurya in several parts of northern India are an Indian non-elite caste, found largely in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, whose traditional occupation was agriculture. According to Arvind Narayan Das they were horticulturist rather than agriculturists. They are also recorded as performing the work of Mahajan in credit market of rural parts of Bihar and Bengal in 1880s. Koeris have attempted Sanskritisation— as part of social resurgence. During the British rule in India, Koeris were described as "agriculturalists" along with Kurmis and other cultivating castes. They are described as a dominant caste in various opinions.

The Paswan, also known as Dusadh, are a Dalit community from eastern India. They are found mainly in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. The Urdu word Paswan means bodyguard or "one who defends". The origin of the word, per the belief of the community, lies in their participation in the battle against Siraj-ud-daulah, the Nawab of Bengal at the behest of British East India Company, after which they were rewarded with the post of Chowkidars and lathi wielding tax collector for the Zamindars. They follow certain rituals such as walking on fire to assert their valour.

The Kudmi Mahato are a tribal community in the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha of India. They are primarily agriculturalist.

Purbiya was a common term used in medieval India for Rajput and Brahmin mercenaries and soldiers from the eastern Gangetic Plain - areas corresponding to present-day western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. The Purbiyas played a significant role in the militaries of various principalities in Western India including the Marwar army as well at the Gujarat Sultanate and Malwa Sultanate.

Maharaja Fateh Bahadur Shahi was 99th Raja of Huseypur or Hathwa Raj situated in today's Gopalganj district of Bihar in India. He relentlessly pursued his objective of driving them out for nearly three decades while waging a guerilla war against the British. The British used all of their might and resources to oppose him.

Rajputs in Bihar are members of the Rajput community living in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. They traditionally formed part of the feudal elite in Bihari society. Rajputs were pressed with the Zamindari abolition and Bhoodan movement in post-independence India; along with other Forward Castes, they lost their significant position in Bihar's agrarian society, leading to the rise of Other Backward Classes (OBCs).


The House of Baghoch commonly known as Baghochia was the ruling dynasty of Hathwa Raj until 1947 when the state was abolished and merged into the newly formed Union of India. The House takes its name from Baghoch and Bharhichowra, the ancient seats of the rulers of Hathwa Raj. The name Baghauch also may have been associated with the clan from totemistic stage as the name makes reference to Bagh (Tiger) as the clans totem. Based on the totem the name of the first capital was Baghauch. They are a sub-group of the Vats gotra Bhumihar Brahmin. The founder of the dynasty was Raja Bir Sen who played an instrumental role in the invasion of the Sakyas by the Kosla Maharaj Virudhaka in 6th century BCE, and it is in the aftermath that Raja Bir Sen got part of the newly invaded country as his Raj. This makes the Baghochia dynasty one of the oldest and the longest ruling dynasty in the world and also a clan with one of the deepest genealogy.

The Backward Caste movement in Bihar can be traced back to the formation of Triveni Sangh, a caste coalition and political party, in the 1930s, which was revived after the introduction of land reforms in the 1950s aimed at removing intermediaries from agrarian society. But, this drive could not succeed in bringing long-lasting changes in the condition of lower strata of society, as they lacked political representation and economic power. The period since land reform included caste conflicts and the class struggle which eventually led to a transfer of absolute political power in the hands of Backward Castes, who had been kept away from it earlier. The class struggle succeeded the struggle of some of the Upper Backward Castes against the sacerdotal authorities for improvement in their ritual status. By the 1990s, the conflict between upper-castes and the lower-castes continued, with nearly 17 massacres taking place during this time period. But with the advent of politics of social justice and the Janata Dal in the 1990s, the lower caste became more active politically.

A dominant caste is one which preponderates numerically over other castes and also wields preponderant economic and political power. A large and powerful caste group can be more easily dominant if its position in the local caste hierarchy is not too low. The concept of dominant caste was introduced in 1959 by sociologist M. N. Srinivas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalits in Bihar</span> Post independence mobilisation of Dalits in Bihar

Dalits in Bihar are a social group composed of many Scheduled Castes, placed at the bottom of the "caste-based social order". The Dalits also include some of the erstwhile untouchable castes, who suffered various forms of oppression in the feudal-agrarian society of Bihar. Some of the Dalit castes have specific cultural practices, which differ from those of orthodox Hinduism.

References

  1. ↑ Lata Singh (2012). Popular Translations of Nationalism: Bihar, 1920-1922. Primus Books. pp. 5–7. ISBN   978-93-80607-13-9.
  2. ↑ Tahir Hussain Ansari (20 June 2019). Mughal Administration and the Zamindars of Bihar. Taylor & Francis. p. 2. ISBN   978-1-00-065152-2.
  3. ↑ Jha, Hetukar (1 October 1977). "Lower-Caste Peasants and Upper-Caste Zamindars in Bihar (1921-1925): An Analysis of Sanskritization and Contradiction between the Two Groups". The Indian Economic and Social History Review. 14 (4): 549–559. doi:10.1177/001946467701400404. S2CID   143558861 . Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 Shukla, P.K. (1996). "The Zamindars of North Bihar During the Early British Rule (1765-1793)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 57: 508–509. ISSN   2249-1937.
  5. 1 2 "Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Royal, zamindar families remain a marginal force". Hindustan Times. 23 October 2020. Archived from the original on 10 July 2022. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  6. ↑ Chetan Choithani (2023). Migration, Food Security and Development: Insights from Rural India. Cambridge University Press. p. 107. ISBN   978-1009276771. Archived from the original on 29 August 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2023. Although the end of zamindari led to a mass eviction of sharecroppers and tenant cultivators who were the actual tillers of the land, big landlords from high castes also saw their landholdings diminish. A new class of landlords belonging to the upper-middle caste groups such as Kurmi, Koeri and Yadavs- officially categorised as other backward classes in contemporary Bihar - emerged. These were mostly small and middle peasants who were able to consolidate their landholdings and position in society in the midst of zamindari reforms (Wilson, 1999; Sharma, 2005).
  7. ↑ Kumkum Chatterjee (1996). Merchants, Politics, and Society in Early Modern India: Bihar, 1733-1820. BRILL. pp. 31–32. ISBN   90-04-10303-1.
  8. 1 2 Gyan Prakash (30 October 2003). Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in Colonial India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 88–90. ISBN   978-0-521-52658-6.
  9. ↑ P. J. Marshall (2 November 2006). Bengal: The British Bridgehead: Eastern India 1740-1828. Cambridge University Press. pp. 58–60. ISBN   978-0-521-02822-6.
  10. ↑ P. J. Marshall (2 November 2006). Bengal: The British Bridgehead: Eastern India 1740-1828. Cambridge University Press. pp. 95–. ISBN   978-0-521-02822-6.
  11. ↑ Shukla, P.K. (1996). "The Zamindars of North Bihar During the Early British Rule (1765-1793)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 57: 507. ISSN   2249-1937 – via JSTOR.
  12. ↑ Shukla, P.K. (1996). "The Zamindars of North Bihar During the Early British Rule (1765-1793)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 57: 513. ISSN   2249-1937 – via JSTOR.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Vinita Damodaran (1992). Broken Promises: Popular Protest, Indian Nationalism, and the Congress Party in Bihar, 1935-1946. Oxford University Press. p. 75. ISBN   978-0-19-562979-8. The rape of lower-caste women by Rajput and Bhumihar landowners was common in Shahabad where , by the 1930s , anger and resentment against the frequent violation of women were openly expressed on the platform of the Tribeni Sangh
  14. ↑ Shukla, P.K. (1996). "The Zamindars of North Bihar During the Early British Rule (1765-1793)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 57: 512. ISSN   2249-1937.
  15. ↑ Jaffrelot, Christophe (2000). "The Rise of the Other Backward Classes in the Hindi Belt". The Journal of Asian Studies. 59 (1): 86–108. doi:10.2307/2658585. ISSN   0021-9118. JSTOR   2658585. S2CID   162845558. But the upper castes remained politically dominant in the Hindi belt also because of the pattern of land ownership that enabled them, especially the Rajputs, to consolidate their grasp over the countryside as zamindars, jagirdars, or taluqdars under the British and to retain some of their influence in spite of the efforts toward land reform after 1947.
  16. ↑ Bailey, F. G. (1960). Tribe Caste and Nation (1960). Oxford University Press. p. 258. The system works the way it does because the coercive sanctions are all in the hands of the dominant caste.
  17. 1 2 Kaushal Kishore Sharma; Prabhakar Prasad Singh; Ranjan Kumar (1994). Peasant Struggles in Bihar, 1831-1992: Spontaneity to Organisation. Centre for Peasant Studies. p. 247. ISBN   9788185078885. According to them, before the emergence of Naxalism on the scene and consequent resistance on the part of these hapless fellows, "rape of lower caste women by Rajput and Bhumihar landlords used to cause so much anguish among the lower cates, who, owing to their hapless situation, could not dare oppose them. In their own words, "within the social constraints , the suppressed sexual hunger of the predominant castes often found unrestricted outlet among the poor, lower caste of Bhojpur-notably Chamars and Mushars.
  18. ↑ Fernando Franco (2002). Pain and Awakening: The Dynamics of Dalit Identity in Bihar, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Indian Social Institute. p. 52. ISBN   9788187218463. Even as late as the 1970s , the rape of lower caste women by Rajputs and Bhumihars had almost become a tradition , " an accepted social evil , a fate which many bore unquestioningly " , in parts of central Bihar
  19. ↑ Kelkar, Govind (1989). "Women and Land Rights Movements". Case Studies on Strengthening Co-ordination Between Non-governmental Organizations and Government Agencies in Promoting Social Development. United Nations (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific). Sec. "Kisan Sabha and Kisan Samiti: Peasant Movemnts and Women (India)", pp.  72–73.
  20. 1 2 3 Mitra Subrata K; Bhattacharyya Harihar (27 February 2018). Politics And Governance In Indian States: Bihar, West Bengal And Tripura. World Scientific Publishing Company. pp. 155–158. ISBN   978-981-320-824-7.
  21. ↑ Kumar, Ashwani (2008). Community Warriors: State, Peasants and Caste Armies in Bihar. Anthem Press. p. 94. ISBN   978-1-84331-709-8.
  22. ↑ The National Geographical Journal of India. National Geographical Society of India. 1975.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.