Hungama
Noun; Persian
tumult, riot, uproar, confusion, disorder
Bengalis in general, at least the educated upper and
upper middle classes of the capital city of Calcutta (Kolkata) pride themselves
on being liberal and permissive. Inter-caste, and even interreligious
marriages, that can cause uproar in the rest of India, especially in what is
referred to as India’s cow-belt, are fairly common in Calcutta. To a large
extent, this liberal outlook is the result of the Bengali renaissance, led by
such stalwarts as Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar and Raja Ram Mohan Roy. 30 years of
atheist, communist rule in the post-independence period, have also ensured that
caste plays no part in politics. But of course, it wasn’t always this way. In
the early 19th century, Hindu society, even in Calcutta, exposed
constantly to Western influence, was notoriously conservative and it is during
this period that one of the city’s biggest scandals happened. Known as the
Kaliprasadi Hungama, the scandal connects several of Calcutta’s biggest
families, and places of worship belonging to multiple faiths, including
Calcutta’s most famous Hindu temple – Kalighat.
THE FAMILIES
In the 10th century Purushottam Dutta of
Kannauj moved to Bally in Bengal, at the invitation of Adisur, the King of Bengal.
12 generations and 400 years later, his descendant Tekari Dutta moved from
Bally to Andul in Howrah. Tekari received the title Chaudhury, probably from Ghiasuddin
Azam Shah, the 3rd Sultan of Bengal from the Ilyas Shahi Dynasty, and
thus they became the Dutta Chaudhury family of Andul. One of the descendants of
this family, Gobinda Sharan Dutta Chaudhury, moved to a place called Badar Rasa
in Kolkata, which apparently came to be known as Gobindapur after him. From
there, a descendant by the name of Jagat Ram Dutta moved to an area called
Hatkhola, near modern day Jorabagan, and thus the Hatkhola Dutta family was
established. In the late 18th century, until his death in 1787, the
head of the family was Madan Mohan Dutta.
Approximately 1 mile northeast of Hatkhola stands the Shobhabazar
Rajbari, established by Raja Nabakrishna Deb. Beginning as a humble “munshi” to
Warren Hastings in 1750, Nabakrishna had risen to become the East India
Company’s most trusted local agent, manipulating and negotiating them to a
position of power and assisting them in their toppling of Bengal’s Nawab, the
young and impetuous Siraj-ud-Daulah. Naturally, his efforts were suitably
rewarded and the fabulously rich Nabakrishna, began a tradition of ostentatious
Durga Pujas in his palatial home, which has since expanded into a city-wide
cultural extravaganza. His grandson, Radhakanta Deb was one of leading members
of Calcutta’s Hindu community in the 19th century. His family’s
power and wealth allowed him to exert huge influence among the city’s Hindus
and he controlled “a powerful constellation of conservative members” among the
city’s elite, that was a force to be reckoned with.
Approximately 9 ½ miles southwest of Shovabazar Rajbari
was the residence of the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family in modern day Behala. In
16th century India, a certain Panchanan Gangopadhyay served in the
cavalry of Mughal Emperor Humayun. He constructed for himself a massive palace
in a place called Halisahar in present day North 24 Parganas district. From
here the family spread all over southern Bengal. Among the descendants of his
family was Lakshmikanta Gangopadhyay, who obtained a vast “jagirdari” from Raja
Man Singh, trusted general of Mughal Emperor Akbar, in 1608. Along with the
jagirdari, came the title of Roy Choudhury which his descendants use as their
surname to this day. In 1717, it was this family that signed over the villages
of Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kalikata to the East India Company, thus
establishing the modern day city of Calcutta or Kolkata.
 |
| Shobhabazar Rajbari during Durga Puja in 2016. Wikimedia Commons/Indrajit Das |
THE SCANDAL
The trouble with writing about the Kaliprasadi Hungama is
that there are almost no primary sources available, no eyewitness accounts.
Copies of newspapers in which accounts of the scandal appeared, such as Ishwar
Chandra Gupta’s Sambad Prabhakar, have not been preserved. Neither are there
any texts from the period. As such we must depend on Calcutta’s chroniclers,
such as Prankrishna Dutta and Radharaman Mitra, who can both be notoriously
unreliable and do not follow standard practices such as quoting sources. Prankrishna
himself is responsible for a mistake that has been replicated by many others
writing about the incident. He writes about Churamani Dutta, with whom
Nabakrishna had a viciously competitive relationship, and how, even when he was
on his deathbed, he chose to spite Nabakrishna by going out in a big procession
singing a song that pointed to how Churamoni’s death was a more auspicious one,
since he was going to the banks of the Ganges to die, while Nabakrishna had
died at home. Prankrishna mistakenly identifies Churamoni as Kaliprasad’s
father – a mistake he acknowledges in later editions. But the incident, though
unrelated, serves to illustrate two things - first, the spiteful and
competitive nature of the relationship between the elite of Calcutta in those
days, and second, the date of Nabakrishna’s death, 22nd November,
1797. The date is an important marker, because while there are no records of
exactly when the Kaliprasadi Hungama began, it was sometime between 22nd
November 1797 and 1801, the year construction of the Kalighat temple started.
Kaliprasad Dutta was a descendant of the Hatkhola Dutta
family, although the family tree identifies him as living in Kalighat, not
Hatkhola. He was the first cousin once removed, of Madan Mohan Dutta. According
to available texts, Kaliprasad is said to have had a mistress by the name of
Anar or Anaro Bibi. She is variously identified as being a “mogul”, a Muslim
and a “baiji”. While Muslim she certainly was, whether or not she was what
Bengalis call a “baiji” may be somewhat difficult to prove. It was common for
the so-called “Babus” of Kolkata frequent the homes of baijis –
singer-dancer-courtesans, who often came from North India, from places such as
Lucknow, from where they had picked up both dance, music and charming courtly
manners. But in this case, Kaliprasad had taken things one step further. He had
brought over Anaro to his Beliaghata house and was living there with her. He
had also taken to wearing Muslim-style clothes and worst of all had adopted
their diet (meaning he was eating beef, forbidden for Hindus). Who was this
Anaro Bibi? Her waqf deed from 1833 identifies her as “Bibi Fazlunnesa”,
daughter of Khairuddin Khan and granddaughter of Mulla Hayat Khan, who were
both residents of Jamnagar in the 24 Parganas district of undivided Bengal,
although Radharaman says her family was from Lucknow. She is said to have had a
sister by the name of Anjuman Ara Begum, but apart from that, the fact that she
was extraordinarily beautiful and a Shia Muslim, no other details about her are
known.
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| Bibi Anaro's tomb, inside her Imambara in Beniapukur |
The fact that a man from a respectable Hindu family was
living with a Muslim woman, and had gone so far as to forsake his religion’s
customs and dietary restrictions, caused a sensation in the Calcutta Hindu
society of the time. The scandal was mentioned in Bengali papers and
influential Hindus called for a social boycott of Kaliprasad. A song was
written about the incident as well, beginning with the lines “Gyalo gyalo gyalo
Hinduani” (there goes Hinduism). Kaliprasad would probably not have been
affected by the whole thing, if it hadn’t been for the death of his mother.
While Kaliprasad may not have cared for religion, as a son, his deceased
mother’s “Śrāddha” ceremony would have to be conducted by him. For this
ceremony, the presence of large number of Brahmins was necessary. However,
Radhakanta Deb, Nabakrishna’s son and successor, was now the leader of
conservative Hindu clique of the city. Because Brahmins survived on grants and
donations from him and others like him, he wielded enormous influence.
Radhakanta issued orders that none who expected favours from him, was to attend
the Śrāddha of the wayward Kaliprasad.
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| The gate of Kaliprasad's garden house in Belighata is all that survives. Now the Directorate of Commercial Taxes. Wikimeida Commons/Amitabha Gupta |
THE RESOLUTION
Unless the Śrāddha ceremony is conducted, Hindus believe,
the deceased person’s soul shall not ascend into heaven. Even today, many
atheists who were born into Hindu families, perform the Śrāddha rituals even
though they have forsaken the religion, either out of sentiment or out of peer
and societal pressure. Back in the day, not conducting a Śrāddha would have
been unthinkable. But where would Brahmins be found? In desperation, Kaliprasad
approached business magnate Ramdulal Sarkar. Beginning life in conditions of
abject poverty, Ramdulal’s luck had changed when his grandmother had been
employed as a cook in the Hatkhola Dutta family. Seeing promise in the young
boy, Madan Mohan gave him an education and employed him in his business. The
hardworking and intelligent Ramdulal rapidly rose through the ranks, eventually
starting his own business with his former master’s blessings. He would go on to
become the first Bengali millionaire, competing with European traders in
Calcutta’s docks.
But even at the height of his career, Ramdulal did not
forget his employer’s kindness. When Kaliprasad approached him, Ramdulal
assured him that as long as there was money in his coffers, Kaliprasad had
nothing to worry about. Since opposition was coming from the Shobhabazar
Rajbari, Ramdulal approached their biggest rivals – the Sabarna Roy Choudhury
family. The head of the family at this time was the wily old Santosh Roy
Choudhury, who assured Ramdulal that he would be present for the Śrāddha with
Brahmins who were in his sphere of influence. The ceremony was conducted with
great pomp, and in the end it was only a few members of the Dutta family
themselves who objected and stayed away.
 |
| All that remains of the Aatchala Bari of Sabarna Roychowdhurys. Wikimedia Commons/Biswarup Ganguly |
THE AFTERMATH
It is customary at the end of a religious ceremony to
offer gifts to the Brahmins who attended. To this end, Kaliprasad offered the
astronomical sum of 25,000 rupees, but they would not accept. The concern was
that people would construe it to be a bribe. Instead Santosh Roy Choudhury
suggested that the money be used for some religious purpose. The money
ultimately came to be used in the construction of the Kalighat Kali Temple. Of
the 30,000 rupees that was spent building the present temple structure, 25,000
came from Kaliprasad’s donation. Santosh Roy Choudhury would not live to see
the temple completed, however. It was finished in 1809 and that temple
structure remains standing to this day.
 |
| Kalighat Kali Temple. Although much modified, the Aatchala structure from 1809 remains intact. |
A report in the Bengali newspaper Samachar Darpan of 5th
April 1834 mentions a certain prominent Bengali Hindu who had converted to
Islam and taken the name of Izzat Ali Khan to marry a certain Anaro Bibi. Izzat
Ali Khan was, in all likelihood, Kaliprasad. In the course of writing his book,
Prankrishna Dutta met a lady from the Hatkhola Basu family who remembered
attending Kaliprasad’s mother’s Śrāddha. According to her, Kaliprasad spent the
final years of his life in the temple complex as a sort of penance. Whether or
not his penance was sincere, or he was merely doing it for re-admittance into
Hindu society is difficult to say, but he certainly did not forget to provide
for his former paramour.
Kaliprasad left his Beliaghata house, where he lived with
Anaro, to her in his will. Anaro would outlive Kaliprasad and after his death,
she would remarry. Her second husband was Munshi Amir, who owned Munshibazar,
which still stands in Beliaghata to this day. It must have been one of Munshi
Amir’s successors who sold the garden house in Beliaghata to the Maharaja of
“Vizianagaram” (Vijaynagar). From there the property ended up in the hands of
the Government of West Bengal and today, the site is home to the Directorate of
Commercial Taxes, which locals refer to simply as “Beliaghata Sale Tax”. The
building unfortunately has been demolished, but the magnificent gateway still
remains standing.
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| Bibi Anaro's Imambara in Beniapukur |
In 1833, Anaro Bibi established an Imambara in the
Beniapukur area of Kolkata. The Imambara remains standing and is spectacularly
well-maintained. In the main hall, inside an enclosure Anaro Bibi is buried. Within
the premises of the Imambara is said to be a well that miraculously fills up
with water on the 14th of 15th of the month of Muharram, and many people
collect that water believing it to be holy. At the time he was researching for
his book “Kolikata Darpan” Radharaman had seen a marble plaque on the exterior
wall of the Imambara which detailed Anaro Bibi’s life story, but that plaque is
long since gone, and with it one of the most fascinating stories of old
Calcutta has also all but vanished from public memory.
- By Deepanjan Ghosh
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For their help with this article, I thank journalist
Gautam Basumallick, founder of Heritage Walk Calcutta, Tathagata Neogi, blogger Amitabha Gupta, Wikipedian Bodhisattwa Mondal and Sarbajit Mitra.
SOURCES
Chattopadhyay, Swati - Representing Calcutta (Routledge,
2006)
Dutta Chaudhury, Dhruba - Zamindar Dutta Chaudhury Family
of Andul
Mitra, Radharaman – Kolikata Darpan Vol. 1 (Subarnarekha,
1980)
Mukhopadhyay, Harisadhan – Kolikata Sekaler O Ekaler
(P.M. Bagchi & Co., 1915)
Dutta, Prankrishna – Kolikatar Itibritta (Pustak Bipani,
1981)
Basu, Rajnarayan – Sekal Aar Ekal (Kalikinkar
Chakraborty, 1874)
Bysack, Gaur Das - Kalighat and Calcutta (The Calcutta
Review, Vol. 92, 1891)
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