address to higher political authority was `Hoojure-e-Alam'. This should not be construed as acceptance of servitude. This was style, a veneer of politeness prevalent in those days, This is surely not genuflection. Jagadananda's later activities give credence to our view. The original letter was not found in the archives but only its English translation is there. So we must not reach a conclusion by reading too much into the English epithets. Or it may be that Jagadananda realising the English were a superior power and was invincible, tried to mollify the angry English by sweet and polite words and to save his Moynachaurah from their clutch. To ward off the enemy anyhow was the admitted strategy. But still Jagadananda made a grievous mistake by judging the Nawabs of Murshidabad and the English governor general and his lower officers in the same mind frame. The Nawabs ruled according to their own individual will or whim. A show of obedience and flattery might please them. But the English government was more organised and coordinated. When their basic aim was to extend empire, they were united and spoke in unision. So, Jagadananda could not realise that his attempt to mollify a Resident and show of obedience would not cut much ice.
Moyna Garh, East Medinipur. Photo: Arindam Bhowmik
Resident Edward Baber had two aims. One was to capture Moyna fort and to catch Jagadananada, the lord of the fort, alive. After a plethora of correspondence and piles of complaints against Jagadananda, the governor's council granted his plan on 16 February, 1773. The governor (later governor general) Hastings and other members of the council put their signatures on the letter. Accordingly plan was made to capture the fort, to take up the estate, to put up an example before all, to imprison the king and send him to Calcutta. This letter written long ago is motheaten. The date stamp is blurred and wiped out. But it is certain that the date was sometime in early march, 1773. Lieutenant Robert Baillie was given the charge to carry out these plans. With a party of Sepoys Baillie proceeded under cover. The fort was captured but even after ransacking the
Moyna Garh, East Medinipur. Photo: Arindam Bhowmik
fort Raja Jagadananda could not be found. He simply vanished. It was a major disappointment for lieutenant Baillie. This is from Baillie : `My taking passession without opposition this morning at 4 o'clock, I have not been fortunate enough to lay my hands on the Raja, searched every corner of his house - Robert Baillie'. This letter is an important enough document. This letter also has its date portion torn beyond recognition. only one word `saturday' can be recognised. Following the chain of correspondece kept up by Baber it is not difficult to understand that the date would be 20 February, 1773.
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During the middle of the sixteenth century the Bahubalindras were conquerers, comfortably settled at Moynagarh. But in the later part of the eighteenth century fortune turned her face away. After two hundred and thirteen years Moynagarh submitted to aggressive forces for the second time. But where did Jagadananda go? The mystery still remains unsolved. Some say Jagadananda hid himself in a cellar built cleverly and skillfully under the ground of the Moynafort with a few of his trusted followers. According to family tradition the coronation ceremony of the son can only be performed only after the death of the father. But nobody knew how and when Jagadananda died. In his life Jagadananda twice evaded arrest, once in 1767 and the next in 1773. To frustrate the design of the enemy by evading arrest was the fitting reply to an aggressor. Whatever might be the consequence this was a part of the strategy of Jagadananda. In his last letter to george vansittart Jagadananda wrote : `In this my distressed condition you have despatched sepoys and peons. |
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To save my honour, therefore, I have set out for Calcutta'. He placed his honour above his kingdom, his wealth. He preserved his honour to the last.
Still Jagadananda was the hero of the power drama enacted more than two hundred years ago in a far away place from the seat of political power. But he is forgotten now. Spurned by fate and buffetted by misfortune this man of courage and honour was left
alone under the dust of neglect and oblivion. He was stamped by the Britishers as `rebel'. His great misfortune is that, though a very much historical figure, he has been bypassed by historians. He was a spirit of rebellion which reminds us of the great Netaji and his mysterious disappearance. perhaps this spirit of rebellion of the Bengali people started with him and ended in the establishment of Tamralipta National government in 1942. The history of Jagadananda and the spirited opposition to the designs of the British are undoubtedly enlightened episode in the bigger drama where the super forces were trying to rob the smaller forces of their rights and the smaller forces trying to defend their rights. With the time eternal as witness this struggle is going on, on the arena of the world. Like time this struggle is endless.
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But every end ends in another end. The period of Company rule comprises four generations : Jagadananda, Brajananda, Anandananda, Radhashyamananda, During Jagadananda regime it was practically beginning of the end, and the process culminated in Anandananda's time.
When hapless, pauper Anandananda made a petition to the East India Company for a monthly allowance, asked for their favour -- it meant the end of all. What a sad consequence ! There was no way of being angry; at best you could have been aggrieved a little. Though offended, there was no courage to express discontent. Today, the language of protest is totally lost; the might to resist has gone by long ago. Is this reverses of fortune the result of the cosmic game of some unseen power or force ? Or is it an unintelligible sport, which is beyond comprehension ? Still then, Ratnalekha's remarks are true to the letters : `Maina Raj family continued as a prominent, though no longer pre-dominant Zamindar in the pargana'. |
