Panchanan Barma

Thakur Panchanan (14 February 1866 – 9 September 1935), also known as Panchanan Barma or Panchanan Sarkar, was an Indian jotedar landlord, founder of Barma Company and social reformer in the erstwhile princely state of Cooch Behar, British Raj. He established an organisation called the Kshatriya Sabhā for the Rajbongshi people to Brahminise their practices for social upliftment and the improvement of their caste status. He received recognition and honors from the British administration after he aided them in recruitment during World War I by encouraging Rajbongshi youths to join the army to show their Kshatriya valor and was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly. In modern times, he is sometimes incorrectly thought of as a "ruler" or "king".

Early life and education Panchanan Barma was born on 14 February 1866 in a middle-class jotedar family at Khalisamari village of Mathabhanga subdivision, in erstwhile Cooch Behar state. He was the son of Khoshal Sarkar (father) and Champala Sarkar (mother). His father sent him to a Middle-English high school, named Mathabhanga High School for education. After passing Middle English examination from the Mathabhanga High School, he took admission into the Jenkins High School for further education and passed the High English examination. He completed his graduation in 1893 from the Victoria College (present Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College) --then affiliated to the University of Calcutta, with a honours in Sanskrit. Later he completed his MA in Sanskrit (postgraduation degree) and LL.B (Bachelor of Laws) degree in 1897 and 1900 respectively from the University of Calcutta.

He was the first M.A. and LL.B in the Rajbanshi community of not only the state of Cooch Behar but of the whole North Bengal, Assam, and Bihar.

Work Barma company He built up a financial organization, named Barma Company at Ganibandha in the Rangpur district (present-day Bangladesh) with the claim that their basic aim was to protect the poor peasants from the landlord and moneylenders by providing loans at better interest rates. It was renamed Kshatriya Bank in 1920–21.

During 1921–23, he established an organization, named Nari Raksha Upasamiti, for the protection of women. Through this organization, he wanted to make the women self-dependent by providing them modern education and physical training in stick-play, wrestling, etc.

After passing the Law examination, Panchanan started practising law at the Rangpur court in 1901. At that time, law was a thriving business in India and Rangpur was one of the major centres for Law. However, he noticed that most of his fellow lawyers were from the upper-caste Hindu community, almost no one from the backward-class community. He faced many insults in his workplace because of his backward class Rajbanshi background. One day, he went to the court by taking his fellow upper-caste lawyer's toga (lawyer's gown) mistakenly. When he understood his mistake, he went to return it to the lawyer. The lawyer refused to accept that toga, stating I hate to use a toga used by a lower-class Rajbanshi. He was seriously hurt by the behaviour of his fellow lawyer. With this event, he understood the ground reality of the casteist Hindu society of that time. He also understood the social status of his own Rajbanshi community in the Hindu society of that time. At that time, many marginalized and backward communities of India started to form their own associations to protect the interest of their own community. He also then worried for his own Rajbanshi community and wanted to develop his community. In the census of 1901, again Rajbanshis were included in the same caste category of the Koch community and had not been given the Kshatriya status. He now took up the leadership of Rajbanshis. Under his leadership, Rajbanshis started a vigorous Kshatriyaisation movement with new enthusiasm for social justice.

British support and entry in electoral politics When the first world war began in 1914, the British government appealed to Indians to join the war. No Indian national leaders of that time came forward to help the British government for this purpose. However, Panchanan appealed to Rajbanshi youths to join the battlefield with the British to show their heroism or kshatriyatwa. The British government aimed to introduce self-governing institutions gradually in British India. Dual-mode of provincial governance- named as Reserved and Transferred, was also introduced under this act. British provincial governors were supposed to control the reserved subjects which include justice, police, land revenue, and irrigation. On the other hand, elected Indian provincial ministers were supposed to control the transferred subjects which include local self-government, public health, education, agriculture, fishery, and forest. For the purpose of rural development, the Union Board was established under this Act. Right of Voting was also granted to Indians who paid a certain minimum amount of taxes to the government. Many people from the backward Rajbanshi and Muslim communities also won the Right of Voting. He used his Khatriya Samiti as a political platform for political protest. Seeing his rise in the Indian political scenario, national leaders became worried. In the general election of 1920, he won a landslide victory from Rangpur. He was inducted into the Bengal Legislative Assembly after winning the general election. He now used his political power as well as Kshatriya Samiti to improve the life of the backward communities. On 1 December 2020, the Government of West Bengal declared school holiday on the birthday of Panchanan Barma, stating: