Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deodorant

Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo ( Hindi : प्रवीर चन्द्र भंज देव , Pravīr Candra Bhañj Dev ; * June 25, 1929 ; † March 25, 1966 in Jagdalpur ), was the twentieth and last "ruling" Raja of the central Indian princely state of Bastar .

Life

Pravir Chandra was the second child of his mother, Rani Prafulla Kumari, who died in London in 1936 during an appendectomy. He had an older sister Kamla († 1954), a younger Geeta († 2002) and a brother Vijay Chandra, whose son Bharat Chandra Bhanj Deo now heads the house. The British colonial rulers had forced his syphilitic father Prafulla Kumar on the 16-year-old Rani as a husband when they ruled the country directly after the death of Rudra Pratap Deo († 1921) when she was a minor.

Youth and education

The family lived in England while Prafulla Kumar studied anthropology at Cambridge . Having displayed nationalist tendencies in a student magazine, the Government of India forbade his return to Bastar. The children were placed under state guardianship and grew up separately under the breeding of English governesses . Pravir Chandra is described as a hysterical, sensitive child. A psychologist in Calcutta recommended treating his anxiety attacks, which are believed to have been caused by his father's cruelty. The contact with his subjects was limited to appearances at the annual Dussehra meeting , at which he was assigned a certain ritual function as high priest.

He left the Rajkumar College of Raipur ( Kanker ) in 1940 after a nervous breakdown. After that, he attended Daly College of Indore with no problem. During the subsequent course at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun , he showed himself weak and listless, so that he broke off the two-year stay, outwardly to take control of his country as an 18-year-old.

Term of office

Since Bhairam Deo had been forced to sign a treaty with the British in 1870, the country had been under the control of the Commissioner of the Central Provinces and Berar for all practical purposes . The control of the colonial rulers increased during the three reigns because of minors. Pravir Chandra came now, one month before Indian independence, in July 1947 to "absolute rule".

The New Delhi government understandably viewed him with suspicion. This was intensified by the plan to lease a large part of the land for mining purposes to Hyderabad, which was giving birth to itself at the time . The Raja finally resigned in December 1947, like all his colleagues in the Central Provinces and Orissa , and agreed to join the Indian Union. Initially, he was awarded a pension of Rs. 200,000 . The country was united with Kanker to form the Bastar district . It was part of the Raipur Division and had seven members of the state parliament and one member of the Lok Sabha .

In 1951 he turned to tantric practices. As he was still mistrusted in Delhi, he was declared mentally ill on the basis of his youthful diagnosis in 1953 and his fortune placed under administration by the government of Madhya Pradesh .

Until 1966

His popularity with the people increased when he attributed the prevailing drought to the administration by the Court of Wards in 1955 and celebrated a fire sacrifice. Bastar's population grew by 27.7% until 1961, largely due to foreign immigration, and by almost 30% in the following decade. The exploitation of forest wealth and natural resources increased rapidly. This led to unrest among the predominantly indigenous population ( tribals ).

In 1955, Pravir Chandra founded the Adivasi Kisan Mazdoor Sangh, which was committed to protecting the traditional way of life. In order to limit his influence, the Congress Party decided to co-opt him and put him up for the general election in 1957 as a candidate. Even so, his fortune was not released. In 1960 he founded the local Adivasi Seva Dal party, whose activists opposed the central government and many of whom were soon arrested. The former Raja was taken into protective custody on February 11, 1961 under the Preventive Detention Act (1950) and detained in Narsinghgarh Prison .

From March 28, the troubled people organized several large demonstrations. On March 31, 13 people were killed when police fired into the crowd, and 59 people were charged with rioting. Calm returned after his release in April. In July he married Shubraj Kumari (= Vedwati). Pravir Chandra returned to his palace on August 3rd. He soon resumed his agitation. Various incidents have occurred with the police. The administration of his property was lifted on July 25, 1963. He estranged himself from his wife until 1965.

In the famine year of 1965/6 there was an uprising. This time the porters were mainly women who distrusted the central government to distribute the compulsory grain levy fairly. They glorified the "good old days" of the monarchy and called for restoration. Pravir Chandra fueled this movement during the Dusserah celebrations, and a number of incidents occurred.

On March 25, 1966, on market day in the capital, there was a crowd and a demonstration by tribals, some of whom were armed with bows and arrows. The police chief prohibited the gathering, which the Raja watched on the steps in front of the palace. The fire on those fleeing towards the palace opened around 12:45 p.m. Pravir Chandra also fell in the hail of bullets.

The siege of the palace continued until the following morning, with 220 arrests. The police report said thirteen were killed, including one police officer and 30 wounded, including 10 police officers. Eyewitnesses speak of at least 20 dead who were hauled away by truck at night and thrown into the river. Two investigations in the next two years could not fully explain the processes.

In the following years, several people claimed to be the reincarnation of Pravir Chandra. Most successful was “Baba” Bihari Das from 1971 onwards. In 1974 he set up an ashram at Chapka and was active in politics for the Congress, which soon co-opted him. He was imprisoned for 1½ years during the Indian Emergency , but remained active until the 1990s.

literature

• Barbara N. Ramusack: The Indian Princes and Their States . Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-26727-7
• Sundar, Nandini: Subalterns and Sovereigns . 2nd Edition. New Delhi / Oxford 2007, ISBN 0-19-569704-9 , chap. 7th