History of a Royal Kingdom – “DARBHANGA RAJ”

Darbhanga Raj, also known as Raj Darbhanga and the Royal Family of Darbhanga, were a family of Zamindars and rulers of territories that are now part of Mithila and Darbhanga district, Bihar, India. Their seat was at the city of Darbhanga. The estate of Darbhanga Raj was estimated to cover an area of 2,410 square miles (6,200 km²), incorporating 4,495 villages within 18 circles in Bihar and Bengal and employing over 7,500 officers to manage the estate. It was the largest zamindari in India and was the best managed estate at the time of abolition of Zamindari. The Raj Darbhanga trace their origin to Mahesh Thakur at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

North Bihar was under a state of lawlessness at the end of the empire of the Tughlaq dynasty. Tughlaq had attacked and taken control of Bihar, and from the end of the Tughlaq Empire until the establishment of the Mughal Empire in 1526 there was anarchy and chaos in Bihar. Emperor Akbar (ruled 1556–1605) realized that taxes from Mithila could only be collected if there was a Brahmin king who could ensure peace in the Mithila region. The Brahmins were dominant in the Mithila region and Mithila had Brahmin kings in the past.

Emperor Akbar summoned Rajpandit (Royal Priest) Chandrapati Thakur to Delhi from Garh Mangala (now in Madhya Pradesh) and asked him to name one of his sons who could be made caretaker and tax collector for his lands in Mithila. Chandrapati Thakur named his middle son, Mahesh Thakur, and Emperor Akbar declared Pandit Mahesh Thakur as the caretaker of Mithila on the day of Ram Navami in 1577 AD. A poet has written about this event:

Ati pavitra mangal karan, ramjanm ke din.Akbar Tushit Maheshko Tirhut Raja kaun?

Navgrah Ved Vasundhara, Shakme Akbar Shah, Pandit subudh Maheshko, kinho Mithila Raj.

(A very good omen has happened on the day of Ram Navami. Akbar asked Mahesh, "Who is King of Tirhut?" [Mahesh replied]: "Nine Planets, Vedas, and Mother Nature." Hearing this, Akbar made the wise Pandit Mahesh King of Mithila.)

The family and descendants of Mahesh Thakur gradually consolidated their power in social, agrarian, and political matters and came to be regarded as kings of Madhubani. Darbhanga became the seat of power of the Raj Darbhanga family from 1762. They also had a palace at Rajnagar Bihar situated in Madhubani district. They bought land from local people. They became known as a Khandavala family (the richest landlord). This family was not regarded as kings by the British Raj but they were allowed to use the prefix Maharaja, and later Maharajadhiraj, by the British. There is no documentation for this as it was a verbal commitment. Although the British never granted them formal status as a ruling princely state, they had all the trappings of a princely state.

For a period of twenty years (1860–1880), Darbhanga Raj was placed under Ward of Court by the British government. During this period, Darbhanga Raj was involved in litigation regarding succession. This litigation decided that the estate was impartible and succession was to be governed by primogeniture.

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.

Raj Darbhanga under Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh (1858–1898) and Maharaja Rameshwar Singh became a model estate in India. Several works pertaining to famine relief, road construction, and canal and bridge construction were carried out. Raj Darbhanga came to be known for its benevolent management. During the Bihar famine of 1873–74 Maharaj Lakshmeshwar Singh contributed Rs.300,000.00 towards relief works.

After the independence of India from British rule in 1947, the Government of India initiated several land reform actions and the Zamindari system was abolished. The fortunes of Darbhanga Raj dwindled.

The last Maharaja of Darbhanga Raj was Maharaja Bahadur Sir Kameshwar Singh, K.C.I.E. He died heirless. The remaining descendants of Raj Darbhanga have been involved in a bitter contest over inheritance and have no public recognition.

Raj Darbhanga used several insignias. One of the insignia was a Ganges river dolphin riding the waves. The second insignia was a Ganges river dolphin inside a six pointed star. The third insignia was a variation of second one with the fish curved upwards.

The Kings of Raj Darbhanga were Brahmins by caste. Mithila was a centre of knowledge from time immemorial, and the kings promoted knowledge, arts, and crafts in every possible manner. This has had a profound effect on society of Mithila. Even today, a person's social standing is considered more by his knowledge than by any wealth he has acquired.

The Maharajas of Darbhanga and Darbhanga Raj were looked upon as the embodiment of Mithila and the Maithili language by people in the region. The Maharaja was the hereditary head of Maithil Mahasabha, a writers' organisation. Maharaja and Raj Darbhanga played a prominent role in the revival of the Maithili language and its literature.

Maharaja Kameshwar Singh was a nationalist, and espoused the cause of the Hindi language along with Maithili. This caused anguish to the leaders of the Maithili movement. Maharaja Kameshwar Singh called for the people to start using Devanagari script rather than tirhuta script for writing in Maithili. Today, people write Maithili using the Devanagari script and efforts are being made to revive the Tirhuti script. In 1931, the then Maharaja of Darbhanga, Kameshwar Singh Bahadur, made an endowment of Rs. One lakh to Patna University to create a Maithili development fund. This had the desired result of a spurt in literary activities and publications, and ultimately the language came to be recognized in the field of higher education in 1937.

The views of Maharaja Kameshwar Singh did not gain popularity with the people except for the call to use the Devanagri script. He effectively became the leader of a small elite group having a pan-nationalistic agenda rather than a popular king of the masses. He lost in the general election in Bihar in 1952 despite being one of the biggest philanthropists and progressive-minded kings in pre-independence India.

A former Secretary of Maithil Mahasabha said Darbhanga Kameshwar Singh "was a great nationalist, one of the founders of Indian National Congress. Now he worked for national integration. So he removed the claim of Maithili itself and fought for Hindi. We have a script of our own, but when he established a printing press here [in Darbhanga], he established a Hindi printing press. A great contribution to national integration but a loss for Mithila.

Maharaja Kameshwar Singh published Mithila Mihir, a Maithili periodical, starting in 1908. Mithila Mihir was published by Newspaper and Publications Pvt. Ltd, by one of the companies owned by Raj Darbhanga. Publication of Mithila Mihir was continued until the 1980s and intermittently thereafter. Maharaja Kameshwar Singh made a provision in his will for its continued publication.

After Independence, a Constituent Assembly was formed to frame the constitution of India, and Maharaja Kameshwar Singh was one of its members. One of the major issues facing the Constituent Assembly was the right of property. This is illustrated in an article, "(Un) Constituting Property: The Deconstruction of the 'Right to Property' in India" by Jaivir Singh of the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. To quote a passage from the article:

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.

The Full Bench of Patna High Courts struck down the reform laws for being ultra vires and hence unconstitutional due to their being in violation of Article 14 (Right to Equality) and Article 19 (reasonableness) of the Indian Constitution.The High Courts did not go into the question of Article 31 (Right of Property, now removed from the Indian Constitution). However, this decision combined with decisions of the other High Courts was seen as reactionary and anti-reform. While the decision of the Full Bench of Patna High Court was in appeal, the Constitutional (First Amendment) Act of 1951 was introduced which excluded scrutiny by the Courts of acquisition of property by the state. The courts were excluded from entertaining writs under article 14, 19 and 31 and ousted the Court's jurisdiction to judicial review of land reform measures.

Subsequently, when the appeal in Sir Kameshwar Singh (Darbhanga) v State of Bihar was heard in the Supreme Court of India, it was held that due to the amendment the jurisdiction of the Court's review was only limited to the question of the quantum of compensation and did not affect the Court's jurisdiction to review the acquisition on the question of public purpose

This case and a few other cases resulted in the right to property being struck from the fundamental rights available to Indians. Thus, Raj Darbhanga indirectly contributed to the abolition of the right of property in India.