Twelve Men of Bengal in the Nineteenth Century/Maharaja Durga Charan Law
Maharaja Durga Charan Law
MAHARAJA DURGA CHARAN LAW
C.I.E.
1822—1902
Among Indian merchant princes in Bengal the name of Maharaja Durga Charan Law takes high rank. The firm started by his father was one of the first Indian firms to conduct business on English lines, and its wonderful success from its first small beginnings is one of the most typical signs of the awakening of Bengal in the nineteenth century.
The ancestors of the Law family lived, at the earliest period of which definite knowledge of them is obtainable, at Barsul, now a small village in the District of Burdwan. In those days it was a place of considerable importance, containing the residences of several wealthy families who only deserted it on account of the inroads of the Mahrattas during the early years of the eighteenth century. Rajib Lachan Law, the grandfather of the Maharaja, left the village for this reason, and came to reside at Chinsura which was then a Dutch settlement. How long the family continued to reside here and when the firm of Prawn Kissen Law was first established in Calcutta cannot now be definitely ascertained. It must, however, have been early in the nineteenth century, since the firm had already obtained prominence by the time that the future Maharaja first joined it as an assistant in 1839. Durga Charan was the eldest son of Prawn Kissen Law, the original founder of the firm which is still after nearly a century known by his name. Prawn Kissen was one of the pioneers of the Indian commercial world. Almost all the European Companies which had found their way to India had come in the first instance solely in pursuit of trade and during their first years of commercial activity no Indian firm had ventured to compete with them on their own lines. But as the English gradually emerged triumphantly from the long struggle of the eighteenth century and trade was ceasing to be the first object of the Company, more open conditions prevailed, and it became possible for Indian firms to enter into competition with the English merchants by adopting their methods and standards of business. The Indian community, however, was at first slow to take advantage of the opportunity and to Prawn Kissen Law belongs the credit of being among the first to see the great possibilities that were opening out before his fellow-countrymen in the way of trade and commerce under the new reign of peace, order and security. His firm, one of the first to compete seriously with European firms was also one of the most successful, placing him and his descendants among the front rank of Indian merchant princes.
Durga Charan Law was born on the 23rd of November 1822 at Chinsura. Receiving his early training at the Hindu College, which was started in 1817, through the exertions of David Hare, Ram Mohan Roy and others, was then the principal college in Bengal. From the first he was destined by his father to succeed him as head of the firm which he had founded and which already gave promise of its ultimate remarkable success. Leaving college while still in his seventeenth year Durga Charan was at once inducted into his father's office to be initiated into mercantile affairs. With true wisdom, Prawn Kissen insisted that his son should begin at the lowest rung of the ladder as an assistant, learning every detail of the business and working his way up through the various offices until he was fitted by experience to take the lead. Durga Charan at once exhibited business capacities that delighted his father's heart and promised well for the future of the firm which was yearly growing in importance. Rapidly mastering the routine of the office, he showed the greatest application and an eager desire to acquire a sound knowledge of business principles, and to such effect did he apply himself that on his father's death in 1853, he was fully competent to undertake the entire management of the firm. With him in the business were associated his two younger brothers Sham Charan Law and Joy Govind Law, and with their help during the years that followed he succeeded in greatly extending the operations of the firm. Its transactions were on an immense scale. In almost all kinds of imports it had dealings, huge quantities of piece goods, yarns, prints, umbrellas, woollen goods, iron, copper, corrugated iron sheets, paints, asphalts and cements passing through its hands every year. Among its exports were, wheat, cotton, tea, indigo, hides, musk, sugar, molasses, linseed and poppy seed, with occasional shipments of opium to Hongkong. The firm had agents in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow while in Calcutta it acted as banian to no fewer than ten European firms. Such was the enormous, business over which Durga Charan Law exercised for nearly half a century personal and complete control. From the outset of his career Durga Charan had shown not only industry and business capacity but a high sense of commercial integrity and honour. It was this reputation which the firm early acquired that enabled it to win the respect and inspire the confidence of the Indian and European communities alike. As its head and as the moving spirit that directed its policy and its great undertakings, Durga Charan Law came rapidly into prominence in Calcutta life. He was consulted by all classes, not only on commercial matters, but, so great were his interests, on all the social and political questions of the day. Government was not slow to recognise his ability and his usefulness in the public service. He was the first Indian to be appointed a Port Commissioner of Calcutta, and the many other honours and distinctions of all kinds that came to him in rapid succession showed the esteem in which he was held by all classes of the community. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the town of Calcutta and an Honorary Presidency Magistrate early in his career, while later came the honour of nomination to the Bengal Legislative Council. He was also elected a member of the Senate of the Calcutta University and held office as Sheriff of Calcutta, being appointed a member of the Supreme Legislative Council in 1882. In the same year he sat on the Commission appointed for the reduction of the Public Debt while two years later came the first titular honour, that of the Companionship of the Order of the Indian Empire, conferred upon him by Government in recognition of the services he had rendered. On the occasion of the Jubilee of the Queen-Empress the title of Raja was bestowed upon him. In the following year he was again appointed a member of the Supreme Legislative Council and in 1891 he was created a Maharaja. These high honours and offices show not only in what high esteem Durga Gharan Law was held but the varied interests and activities which he contrived to combine with the management of a large and successful business.
His charities were unbounded. Possessed of immense wealth he was always ready to place it at the disposal of every good cause. In support of education and in the relief of suffering his purse was always open. To the Calcutta University he gave the handsome donation of fifty thousand rupees to form a fund for the creation of scholarships in various schools and colleges throughout Bengal. To the District Charitable Association and the Suvarna Banik Charitable Association of which he was President, his subscriptions at various times amounted to large sums. He was a Governor of the Mayo Hospital to which he also largely contributed, one of the Wards being named after him in memory to his liberal endowments. His private charities were very numerous, a large number of schools and hospitals throughout his extensive estates being entirely maintained by him. In Calcutta he took a prominent part in all the great charitable and philanthropic movements of the day, no scheme of public utility failing to receive his hearty sympathy and financial support.
The Maharaja was one of the largest landholders in Bengal. He possessed estates in several districts and in all of them he proved a model landlord, firm and businesslike and heartily solicitous of the welfare of his tenants. Many of his estates he personally acquired at auction and saved from ruin, placing them by capable management on a sound and stable basis. The history of some of these estates furnishes a romantic record of the advancement of civilisation in Bengal. Among those acquired by the Maharaja none is of greater interest than the estate of Morrelgunj in the Sundarband, that immense tract of river and forest at the head of the Bay of Bengal which so long defied all reclamation. Great efforts had at various times been made to bring it under cultivation. Not only had individuals set forth into the unknown wilds of these immense forest tracks in the hope of reclaiming them and deriving from them wealth and fortune, but Government had itself attempted the Herculean task. Hitherto, however, the difficulties had always proved insuperable. Labour had all to be imported and when at length the labourers had been safely conveyed there at much expense, it had been found difficult to prevail upon them to stay. The land being everywhere lowlying and malarious, fever was prevalent while the loneliness of the life, and the fear of wild animals which constantly carried off the ryots as they cut down the jungle, induced them to escape at the earliest possible moment. So far the Sundarbans had proved nothing but the graves of men and of all their hopes of fortune. None had succeeded in the fight with nature and tamed its rampant luxuriance to any great extent the dull routine of cultivation. But in one corner of the vast area it was reserved for an English family to do, what others had failed to do, and by sheer force of character and energy to clear the splendid estate which was eventually to pass into the hands of Maharaja Durga Charan Law.
The Sundarbans had been divided by Government into lots with a view to reclamation and Lords I, II, III and IV had been settled with one Babu Kalinath Roy of Taki for a period of 99 years, the only stipulation being that he should bring under cultivation a certain portion of the land within a fixed period. In spite of his efforts he had been unable to overcome the initial difficulties of cultivation in the Sundarbans and only 800 bighas had been reclaimed on the expiry of the time allowed. Government therefore issued a fresh notice to resettle the remaining portion of the Lots. An English woman, a widow named Mrs. Morrel, came forward offering to take settlement in the name of her three sons, and in 1857 Government settled the Lots with them for a period of 99 years. The three brothers Robert, who had been a Captain in a British Regiment, William and Henry at once set out from Calcutta to undertake personally the work of cultivation, old Mrs. Morrel in spite of her advanced age accompanying them. Arriving after a seven days' journey in country boats, they fixed upon the most suitable site for their head-quarters. There was then nothing but impenetrable forest, and the Morrels and the men they had brought with them, were forced to live in their boats until sufficient space had been cleared whereon to erect temporary shelters. It was a splendid position that they selected where Morelgunj now stands, the anchorage in the broad river that washes its banks being so commodious that the place was later on declared a port in the hope that the largest steamers might visit it. For themselves the Morrels constructed a fine house with large gardens close by the river bank, while a splendid avenue was opened out parallel with the river, and leading to the bazaar which quickly sprang up with a thriving mart, as the limits of cultivation extended. Within ten years no less than four thousand bighas had been cleared and as rumours of the extraordinary fertility of the newly cleared soil reached the neighbouring districts, hundreds of ryots hastened to the spot and eagerly took up land to clear and cultivate. It was not long before practically the whole of the four lots was reclaimed, a large portion of them by the Morrels themselves, the remainder by Talukdars to whom they had given leases. With the success of his enterprise apparently assured, Robert Morrel took settlement of other adjoining lands from government until his estate reached to the sea extended over an immense area. Far away from the magisterial head-quarters at Khulna, which was then a subdivision of Jessore, and cut off from easy access by a network of rivers and impenetrable jungle, the Morrels were wellnigh independent of outside interference in their control of the large and flourishing tract which they had brought into existence.
How largely the prosperity of Morelgunj was due to the tact and energy of Robert Morrel himself was seen as soon as his presence was withdrawn. His health had been seriously impaired by his great exertions in bringing the estate under cultivation and he finally decided to retire to England, leaving his brothers and an agent in charge of his affairs. Troubles which threatened to undo all the good work he had done speedily occurred after his departure. A dispute arose between his agent and a neighbouring Zemindar which not only brought the former into trouble with the authorities but involved the estate in long and costly litigation in the Courts. More unfortunate still many of the tenants who had been attracted by the fertility of the soil were frightened away by these disputes, which had more than once led to bloodshed. Hearing of these unfortunate occurrences Robert Morrel, in spite of ill health, returned to Morelgunj. There he found that affairs had indeed been going badly in his absence. Many of the tenants had abandoned their holdings and much of the land which he had brought under cultivation was lying fallow, and in places rapidly falling back again into jungle. With characteristic energy he set to work to regain, lost ground and to put things once more upon a satisfactory footing, but in the midst of his labours he died at Barisal on the 13th of May 1869. An obelisk erected at Morrelgunj by his tenants testifies how great was the affection and respect that he inspired. After his death the estate soon became insolvent and his brother was forced to mortgage Lots I, II, III to Maharaja Durga Charan Law who quickly saw the great possibilities the estate offered if judiciously and econominally managed. Here was an immense tract of feritle land already under cultivation with all the initial difficulties of labour and reclamation overcome. The Morrels, carried away by the initial success of their enterprise, had launched out into many unnecessary entravagances and the Maharaja with his keen business instinct only awaited the opportunity of getting possession of the estate to reduce it to order and make of it a splendid property. Unable to satisfy his creditors, William, the last survivor of the three brothers, was finally forced to sell the whole estate in 1878 and in the following year Durga Charan Law purchased all four Lots. Under his management Morrelgunj soon entered upon another period of prosperity. Under a capable manager he introduced order and control, greatly developing the properties, making roads, excavating tanks, cutting canals, establishing hats, building schools and establishing a charitable Dispensary. Practically everything in Morrelgunj is still done by the Maharaja's sons. The Dispensary and the schools are still maintained entirely at their expense, while their tenants look to them for almost all their needs. It possesses a thriving hât, and though cut off by land from other parts of the District by a network of rivers, it is on the main steamer route from Calcutta to Eastern Bengal and Assam. It was fortunate for Morrelgunj that it fell into the hands of so just and capable a Zemindar as Maharaja Durga Charan Law.
For some years before his death, failing health prevented the Maharaja from taking his accustomed active part in public affairs. He never, however, lost his keen interest in all the current questions of the day and to the end he was consulted and his opinion sought on a variety of subjects by all classes of the community. A man of few words, he was never hasty in giving his opinion, but once given that opinion seldom proved wrong. His judgment consequently met with universal respect. He had a horror of falsehood or deceit in any shape or form, and in the mercantile world his name was always synonymous with honesty and straightforward dealing. Though the strictness of his principles gave him a somewhat severe mein, those who knew him were quick to realise that under a harsh exterior he had a heart of gold. The Maharaja died at the great age of eighty years in 1902, one of the wealthiest and most respected merchant princes of Bengal.