Bastar (State)

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Bastar
1324-1948
Bastar flag
flag coat of arms
Capital Jagdalpur
Form of government Princely State
surface 35,490 km²
population 634,000 (1941)
founding 1324
resolution January 1, 1948
State religion: Hinduism.
Dynasty: Bhanja
Princely state of Bastar in The Imperial Gazetteer of India
Princely state of Bastar in The Imperial Gazetteer of India

Bastar was a princely state in the British-Indian province of Central Provinces . Its capital was the place Jagdalpur . In 1941 the country had 634,000 inhabitants and an area of ​​35,490 km².

history

According to legend, Bastar was founded in 1324 by Raja Annam Dev, a brother of the Rajas of Warangal , under the protection of the tribal goddess Danteshwari, who is honored at the annual Dussehra festival. The dynasty ruled for a total of 20 generations.

At first one came under the influence of the Marathas , then under that of the British . In 1870, the Raja Rudra Pratap Deo was forced to sign a protection treaty that provided essential controls, e.g. B. on the management of the forests, left to the Political Agent of the Chhattisgarh Division of the Central Provinces. However, as early as 1848 the British believed that the state was too poor to be incorporated into itself. Since 1888, when the Rajas was a minor, the state came under de facto direct British rule under the Court of Wards for the first time .

During the colonial period there were a number of regional rebellions, of which the Halba Rebellion (1774-79), the Tarapur Uprising (1842-54), the Meria Rebellion (1842-63), the Koi Revolt (1859) and the Muria uprising (1876) were significant. Since 1893 the American Methodist Mission has tried to convert the population. The uprising, known as Bhumkal , from February to mid-May 1910 was mainly carried out by members of the indigenous tribals . It was the largest in the history of the small country. From around 1927 the administrators planned to turn the areas inhabited by the Tribals into reservations in order to preserve their original way of life. This policy was particularly advocated by the anthropologist Verrier Elwin , who was also a civil servant.

Agents began recruiting workers for the Assam tea gardens since about 1925 . The destruction of the forests, especially by teak felling for railway sleepers, increased continuously. The number of recruits rose to 1,300 by 1946/47. From 1942 there was an army recruiting office. All of this accelerated the disintegration of the traditional social fabric. In 1941 0.1% of the population could read and write.

Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo , the last ruler, came of age shortly before India's independence in July 1947 and ascended the throne, which had been orphaned since his mother's death in 1936. He resigned the following year. The country was united with the state of Kanker in the north to form the Bastar district , which was then incorporated into the state of Madhya Pradesh .

State and finance

Traditionally, the state financed itself - here the "state" is to be equated with the Raja and his needs - as usual in the Mughal Empire : Taxes were levied, albeit with local peculiarities on the basis of the administrative structure, by civil servants or tax tenants. The land could not be sold, it was only transferred in the event of inheritance. Eviction was only possible with tax debts. Often whole villages fled from excessive tax demands, the tax farmers then gave their rights back to the Raja because they could not afford the fixed salary.

Districts called Khalsa were directly subordinate to the Raja, large parts of the land were leased to Zamindare , who appeared as small rulers of their own in their areas. Tribal villages usually collectively paid a fixed tribute. The Khalsas were administered by the Diwan , who appointed a manager for one or more sub-districts. The Negi under him administered and spoke law over several villages, in some cases they were supported by Hikmi . In some areas there was a separate tax officer, the Adkhari, who collected taxes from the village chiefs or chiefs. The civil servants were paid partly in kind and partly in kauri . The taxes in kind were stored in state warehouses. The prince issued vouchers as payment for services for the amounts that the raja's officials and household did not use. Often the state revenues from fines were higher than those from the Khalsa land tax. With the arrival of the British, the burden on the state increased. In the first half of the 19th century. the tax burden rose by up to ½. The assessment basis was “a plow”, an area that could be plowed with two draft animals, i.e. 10–12 acres . Craftsmen paid a poll tax that z. B. for weavers with an annual income of 50 Rs., About 3 Rs. The Raja should also receive 4 Anna for each tree felled. The detailed obligations were recorded in the tax register for each village. Exact cadastral data were missing until the post-colonial period.

Diwan Gopinath Kapardas, who took office in 1867, introduced a lease system in the Khalsa, mainly in the eastern part of the country, for the first time, similar to permanent settlement , in which the Malguzar levied taxes, but not a percentage, but a fixed rate to the divan. This led to arbitrary, often violent, excessive debt collection and was a major cause of the Muria uprising in 1876. The tax per plow was raised to 2 Rs. 4 A. cash in 1867, plus about 80 kg of uncrossed rice, 10 kg of legumes and about 4 lb. Fixed oil. Five years later the tax was increased to Rs. 3 and 120 kg of rice, in addition to pulses and oil. Furthermore, the farmers were obliged to do the Malguzar three days a year forced labor. The right to request was often abused and farmers were on duty for 10 days or more. Later they were also used for road construction, sometimes for up to 2 months at a time. Compulsory labor was not abolished until 1929, although this was one of the main concerns of the Bhumkal in 1910. As a substitute, special charges were levied for schools, road construction, etc. From 1932 a poll tax between 1 and 4 Anna was due for all adult men.

The fondness of the Raja Bhairam Deo for pedigree dogs and horses meant that he often left entire villages to be exploited by traders to pay his debts. From 1898 all taxes were due in cash. The associated abolition of government-owned warehouses aggravated famine in years of drought. In 1898 the Forest Department in India introduced a tax on forest products for private use, which amounted to 2 Anna per capita for farmers, double that for urban artisans. For each “plow” there were four more Anna for pasture use. Non-indigenous residents were also charged 3 Anna's firewood tax. In 1906 the approximately 246,000 residents paid Rs. 130,000 in taxes and Rs. 64,000 in dues to the Forest Department.

Judiciary

Until 1856 the judiciary was entirely in the hands of the Rajas. After the intervention, the most serious cases had to be submitted to the British Deputy Commissioner in Raipur . Appeals had to be submitted through the police chief in Jagdalpur.

In 1873 there were nine judges in the country who could decide cases up to Rs. 50. In the villages of the Tribals it was mostly the Panchayats who judged. More serious decisions were made in an absolutist manner by the raja, his brother or the divan. The Raja Bhairam Deo limited his state affairs to 2-3 hours of the evening in a relaxed atmosphere. The British were told that they would strictly follow the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure , although these only became law in the country in 1893. From around 1880 the Raja began to pass court judgments at the Ghat during his evening bath, often without even hearing the accused party. Reports from the colonial rulers of the time described the jurisprudence as “a joke”. When the state was administered directly under the Court of Wards when Rudra Pratap Deo was a minor , a “modern” police force was set up along the lines of other parts of the country, but that still left enough opportunities for corruption open. For example, the police demanded 1/20 of the harvest as a fee for investigations that were completed.

After the creation of the reserved forests by the Forest Act 1878, numerous criminal offenses related to forest use, which was part of the traditional way of life, were added. These were rigorously pursued by the British. In 1944, the anthropologist Verrier Elwin was able to establish that "every tribal violates some ban on forest use at least once a day."

The competence of the Panchayats was expanded experimentally in the 1920s. They were now allowed to negotiate caste regulations, marital disputes and 17 different minor crimes and to pronounce sentences of up to 25 Rs. Appeals were made to panchayats at the pargana level. The local police had the right to appeal and could demand that certain proceedings be tried again in regular courts. This procedure was legally established in 1932.

Ruler of Bastar

  1. Annam Dev
  2. Hamir Dev (1369-1410)
  3. Bhaitai Dev (1410-1468)
  4. Purushottam Dev (1468-1534)
    ???
  5. Pratap Raj Dev (1602–1625), married and had children, a sidelines died out in the third generation
  6. Digpal Deodorant (1680–1709)
  7. Rajpal Deo (1709–1721), descendant of one of the younger brothers of Pratap Raj Dev, married
    1. a princess of Baghela , son of Dakhin Singh;
    2. a princess from the Chandella clan , sons: Dalpat Deo and Pratap Singh.
  8. Mama (1721–1731)
  9. Rajkumar Pratap Singh (1731–1774), had seven wives. With his first, a daughter of the Raja von Kanker , Goor Sai Deo the son Rajkumar Ajmer Singh, who ruled briefly as a usurper.
  10. Daryao Deo (ruled from 1777), son of the second wife of Rajkumar Pratap Singh († approx. 1819)
  11. Mahipal Deo (ruled from 1819)
  12. Bhopal Deo (reigned 1830-1853)
  13. Bhairam Deo , reg. Aug. 27, 1853–1891, * May 21, 1839 Signed a protectorate treaty with the British in 1870 under pressure.
  14. Rudra Pratap Deo (1885-1921); reg. from January 1908; married to:
    1. Chandrakumari Devi († August 18, 1911), daughter of Fateh Singh, feudal lord of Puwayan (Punvaya). One son died 10 months old. Daughter: Prafulla Kukumari Devi;
    2. Kasumlata Devi, daughter of Sir Sudhal Deo, CIE, Raja of Bamra (Central Provinces); ⚭ February 19, 1912; † October 13, 1926 in Nainital .
  15. Prafulla Kukumari Devi († February 28, 1936 in London; ruled from 1924). The last heiress of the Chalkuya dynasty in direct line was 16 at the instigation of the British administrators Lee (CP) and Tucker (Bastar) with the syphilitic and politically unacceptable Prafulla Kumar von Mayurbhanj ; temporarily member of the Lok Sabha ; († March 5, 1959) forcibly married in January 1925. His family has been unacceptable to Orthodox Hindus since the marriage of a daughter of Keshabchandra Sen. Even so, the couple had two daughters and two sons:
    1. Kamla Devi (February 2, 1928 - January 1, 1954)
    2. Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deodorant
    3. Geeta Kumari Devi (born October 29, 1930 - December 17, 2002); married Kadamba Keshri Chandra Deo of Bonai .
    4. Vijay Chandra Bhanj Deodorant
  16. Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo (r. 1947; * June 25, 1929, † March 25, 1966 in Jagdalpur , shot by the police on the steps of his palace). In July 1961 he married Shubraj Kumari (= Vedwati ), daughter of Rao Sahib Udaya Singh of Patan , from whom he quickly estranged.

With the "voluntary" accession of the country to the Indian Union on January 1, 1948, the rule of the dynasty ended, but it continues. Under the leadership of:

  1. Vijay Chandra Bhanj Deo (* March 4, 1934, † April 12, 1970). Married to Maharani Hitendra Kumari, daughter of Thakur Surendrasinhji Karansinhji of Sayla . Children:
    1. Bharat Chandra Bhanj Deodorant
    2. Juhika Devi Bhanj Deo (†); Children:
      1. Mohit Chandra Bhanj Deodorant,
      2. Juhika Devi Bhanj Deodorant
    3. Harihar Chandra Bhanj Deodorant; Child: Suryaveer Chandra Bhanj Deo
    4. Rani Saheba Puspa Devi; Married Rajendra Chandra Deb Birabara Harichandan Mahapatra, 25th Raja Sahib of Talcher . 2 sons
  2. Bharat Chandra Bhanj Deo (* 1954; † 1996). Children:
      1. Kamal Chandra Bhanj Deodorant,
      2. Gayatri Devi Bhanj Deodorant
  3. Kamal Chandra Bhanj Deo (* 1984)

literature

  • Bastar. In: The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Volume 7: Bareilly to Berasiā. New Edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1908, pp. 121-124 .
  • George B. Malleson: An historical sketch of the native states of India. Longmans, Green & Co., London 1875, ( digitized version ).
  • Joseph E. Schwartzberg (Ed.): A historical atlas of South Asia (= Association for Asian Studies. Reference Series. 2). 2nd impression, with additional material. Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 1992, ISBN 0-19-506869-6 .
  • Nandini Sundar: Subalterns and Sovereigns. An Anthropological History of Bastar, 1854-2006. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, New Delhi et al. 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-569704-9 .

Web links

Commons : Principality of Bastar  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ middle of the 19th century. replaced by copper coins. Conversion 1862: 240 Kauri = 1 Dogani; 10 Dogani = 1 R. See: Nandini Sundar: Subalterns and Sovereigns. 2nd edition. 2008, p. 95, fn. 59.
  2. ↑ in other parts of India called thekedar
  3. ↑ Nandini Sundar: Subalterns and Sovereigns. 2nd edition. 2008, pp. 94, 123 f.
  4. ↑ Nandini Sundar: Subalterns and Sovereigns. 2nd edition. 2008, pp. 98-103.
  5. ↑ 10,000 Rs. Today (around € 175 in 2008).
  6. ↑ List of Parganas (as of 1930) in: Hiralala L. Shukla: History of the People of Bastar. A Study in Tribal Insurgency. Sharada Publishing House, Delhi 1992, ISBN 81-85616-04-3 , Appendix I.
  7. ↑ Nandini Sundar: Subalterns and Sovereigns. 2nd edition. 2008, p. 166.
  8. ^ Roper Lethbridge: The Golden Book of India. A Genealogical and Biographical Dictionary of the Ruling Princes, Chiefs, Nobles, and other Personages, titled or decorated of the Indian Empire. Macmillan and Co., London 1893, p. 63 .
  9. ↑ detailed: Hiralala L. Shukla: History of the People of Bastar. A Study in Tribal Insurgency. Sharada Publishing House, Delhi 1992, ISBN 81-85616-04-3 , pp. 314-322.
  10. ↑ different sources: here after Nandini Sundar: Subalterns and Sovereigns. 2nd edition. 2008. Hiralala L. Shukla: History of the People of Bastar. A Study in Tribal Insurgency. Sharada Publishing House, Delhi 1992, ISBN 81-85616-04-3 , gives the fathers the other way around, as the date of remarriage December 19, 1912.