Maharaja Rameshwar Singh with Kameshwar Singh and Visheshwar Singh
Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh
Maharaja Rameshwar Singh with Kameshwar Singh and Visheshwar Singh
Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh
Maharaniadhirani Kam Sundari, widow of the late Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh (the last Maharaja of Darbhanga Raj)
The estate of Darbhanga Raj was estimated to cover an area of 2,410 square miles (6,200 km2). It had an indigo concern in Sarahia and Bachaur in Muzaffarpur district, Pandaul in Madhubani District, and Gonswara in Purnea district. Raj Darbhanga started several companies. Newspaper & Publication Pvt. Ltd. published newspapers and periodicals such as The Indian Nation, Aryavarta, and 'Mithila Mihir. The Walford company was a chain of automobile dealterships having branches at Calcutta, Guwahati, and Imphal. The family owned Ashok Paper Mills, Pandaul Sugar Factory, Sakri Sugar Factory, and others. Darbhanga Raj contained 4,495 villages under 18 circles in Bihar and Bengal and employed over 7,500 officers to manage the estate. Darbhanga Raj was said to be the best managed estate at the time of abolition of Zamindari. The broad political impulse after independence was for the ruling Congress Party to eliminate, preferably without compensation, Zamindars – rural intermediaries, who under colonial rule had gained rights over vast tracts of land in many parts of the country, and put into effect a ‘socialist’ Industrial Policy that gave the State a major role in controlling both private (both, through the planning process and a mandate to take over concerns in the public interest) and public industry. Such moves were challenged using the property clause of the Constitution in the courts in a series of cases. For instance, prominent among such cases were - the decision of the Bihar High Court to strike down as unconstitutional the Bihar Management of Estates and Tenures Act, 1949, which was held to violate Articles 19(1)(f) and 314. This judicial threat motivated the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution, which came into being with Parliament passing the First Amendment Act (1951). By this amendment, Articles 31 A, 31 B and the Ninth Schedule were added to the Constitution. Article 31 A permitted the legislation of laws to acquire estates – a term used cover the properties of Zamindars and other categories of revenue farmers, the taking over of property by the State for a limited period either in the ‘public interest’ or to ‘secure the proper management of the property’, amalgamate properties, and extinguish or modify the rights of managers, managing agents, directors, stockholders etc. and those who have licenses or agreements to search or own minerals and oil.