Dwarkanath Tagore
Encyclopedia
Dwarkanath Tagore (1794 – 1846), was one of the first Indian industrialists and entrepreneurs, was the founder of the Jorasanko
branch of the Tagore family
, and is notable for making substantial contributions to the Bengal Renaissance
.
His early education and upbringing was within the family house (Thakur Bari), but at age 10 in 1804 he was admitted to Sherbourne's school on the Chitpur
Road and become one of Mr.Sherbourne's favourite pupils.
On 12 December 1807, Ramlochan died leaving all his property to his adopted son Dwarkanath who was then a minor. This property consisted of zamindari estates governed by the complicated Regulations of Permanent Settlement introduced by Lord Cornwallis in 1792. The zamindari being a system with harsh penalty for default and frequent auctions of defaulters, Dwarkanath left school in 1810 at the age of 16 and apprenticed himself under a renowned barrister at Calcutta Robert Cutlar Fergusson
and shuttled between Calcutta and his estates at Behrampore and Cuttack
.
On 7 February 1811 Dwarkanath was married to Digambaridevi (then 9 years old and extremely goodlooking and devout). Dwarkanath's family fortune took a decided turn for the better once she entered his house, also bearing him one daughter and 5 sons before her death in January 1839.
. Although the pay was meagre at under Rs.500 per year, the prestige and avenues for additional income was considerable and gave Dwarkanath an intimate insight into the functioning of the government. Trevor Plowden formed a lifelong friendship with Dwarkanath. In 1827 there arose a great scandal in the Salt Revenue department centred on a dishonest Dewan, and assured of Dwarkanath's own personal integrity and character, he was requested to take over as Dewan of the Board. He did not take long to rend asunder the network of corruption which resulted in a counter petition against him to the Board accusing him of defalcation. To clear his name an enquiry was ordered which at each stage of enquiry, by the Board, by the Governor General and finally by the India Office at London cleared him unreservedly. By then Dwarkanath had had enough of Government service and resigned in June 1834 to launch into his spectacular career as a full time entrepreneur.
However Dwarkanath Tagore died "at the peak of his fortune" on the evening of Saturday 1 August 1846 at the St. George's Hotel in London during a tremendous thunderstorm the likes of which had not been seen for many years past. He was buried at Kensal Green on 5 August 1846 in a private ceremony without any religious observances. His heart which had been previously extracted was sent to Calcutta to conduct the Brahmo
rites amidst great controversy. In his obituary, The London Mail of 7 August wrote "Descended from the highest Brahmin caste of India his family can prove a long and undoubted pedigree. But it is not on account of this nobility that we now review his life but on far better grounds…However gifted, his claims rest on a higher pedestal–he was the benefactor of his country…[T]hey testified to his merits in the encouragement of every public and private undertaking likely to benefit India."
i brahmin
and an acknowledged civic leader of Kolkata
who played a pioneering role in setting up a string of commercial ventures—banking, insurance and shipping companies—in partnership with British traders. In 1828, he became the first Indian bank director. In 1829, he founded Union Bank in Calcutta. He helped found the first Anglo-Indian Managing Agency (industrial organizations that ran jute
mills, coal mines, tea plantations, etc.) Carr, Tagore and Company (even earlier, Rustomjee Cowasjee, a Parsi in Calcutta, had formed an inter-racial firm but in the early 19th century, Parsis were classified as a Near Eastern community as opposed to South Asian). Tagore's company managed huge zamindar
y estates spread across today's West Bengal and Orissa states in India, and in Bangladesh
, besides holding large stakes in new enterprises that were tapping the rich coal seams of Bengal, running tug services between Calcutta and the mouth of the river Hooghly and transplanting Chinese tea crop to the plains of Upper Assam. This company was one of those Indian private companies engaged in the opium
trade with China. Production of opium was in India and it was sold in China. When the Chinese protested, the East India company shifted the business to the proxy of certain selected Indian companies of which this was one. Tagore founded the first Indian coal mine in Runigunj. Very large schooners were engaged in shipments. This made Dwarkanath extremely rich. And there are legends about the extent of it.
A restless soul, with a firm conviction that his racial identity was not a barrier between him and other Britons as long as he remained loyal to the British Sovereign, Tagore was well-received by Queen Victoria
and many other British and European notables during his two trips to the West in the 1840s; he died in London after a brief illness. Historiographers have often been flummoxed by his inability, despite a great desire, to be honoured by the Queen with a baronetcy (his grandson, Rabindranath, received the honour but returned it following British atrocities at the Jallianwala Bagh in the Punjab, 1919).
It is widely held in Bengal that he did go entirely bankrupt by the end of his life and left only a small fraction of his earlier stature and wealth to his progeny.
Some scholars have been puzzled by the paucity of documents concerning Dwarkanath in the Tagore family collections spread over many generations. There are scanty references to him in the records of Debendranath Tagore
, his eldest son who founded the Brahmo
religion. There is absolutely no mention of Dwarkanath (except in a personal letter) in the monumental body of writings by his grandson Rabindranath
. Some say that Dwarkanath was involved in Opium & Flesh trade and which was not liked by the family. The established academic view is that Dwarkanath's concept of equating the coloniser with the colonised was found galling by his countrymen in the context of the nationalist awakening in Bengal and India, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, of which the Brahmo movement initiated was an integral part. The first Indian entrepreneur who thought globally thus remains an oddity in the country's socio-cultural history.
Jorasanko
Jorasanko is a neighbourhood in north Kolkata. It is so called because of the two wooden or bamboo bridges that spanned a small stream at this point.-History:...
branch of the Tagore family
Tagore family
The Tagore family, with over three hundred years of history, has been one of the leading families of Kolkata, and is regarded as a key influence during the Bengal Renaissance...
, and is notable for making substantial contributions to the Bengal Renaissance
Bengal Renaissance
The Bengal Renaissance refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the region of Bengal in Undivided India during the period of British rule...
.
Childhood
Dwarkanath Tagore was the second son of Rammoni Thakur (employed in the Calcutta Police) from his first wife Menaka. Menaka was the younger sister of Alakasundari, wife to Rammoni's elder brother Ramlochan, who was childless. Soon after his birth in 1794 Dwarkanath was informally adopted by Ramlochan and Alakasundari and formally adopted in 1799.His early education and upbringing was within the family house (Thakur Bari), but at age 10 in 1804 he was admitted to Sherbourne's school on the Chitpur
Chitpur
Chitpur is a neighbourhood in north Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sometimes, the entire area along Chitpur Road is referred to as Chitpur, although the various localities have distinctive names....
Road and become one of Mr.Sherbourne's favourite pupils.
On 12 December 1807, Ramlochan died leaving all his property to his adopted son Dwarkanath who was then a minor. This property consisted of zamindari estates governed by the complicated Regulations of Permanent Settlement introduced by Lord Cornwallis in 1792. The zamindari being a system with harsh penalty for default and frequent auctions of defaulters, Dwarkanath left school in 1810 at the age of 16 and apprenticed himself under a renowned barrister at Calcutta Robert Cutlar Fergusson
Robert Cutlar Fergusson
Robert Cutlar Fergusson was a Scottish lawyer and politician. He was 17th Laird of the Dumfriesshire Fergussons, seated at Craigdarroch ....
and shuttled between Calcutta and his estates at Behrampore and Cuttack
Cuttack
Cuttack is the former capital of the state of Orissa, India. It is the headquarters of Cuttack district and is located about 20 km to the north east of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. The name of the city is an anglicised form of Kataka that literally means The Fort, a reference to the...
.
On 7 February 1811 Dwarkanath was married to Digambaridevi (then 9 years old and extremely goodlooking and devout). Dwarkanath's family fortune took a decided turn for the better once she entered his house, also bearing him one daughter and 5 sons before her death in January 1839.
Dwarkanath and Zamindari
"As a zamindar Dwarkanath was mercilessly efficient and businesslike, but not generous". Dwarkanath looked upon his investment in land as investment in any other business or enterprise and claimed what he deemed a fair return. In later years Dwarkanath would appoint European managers for his estates at Sahajadpur and Behrampore. He knew that the ryots were more amenable to the disciplinary control of British managers than their Bengali counterparts. In time Dwarkanath would convert his estates to integrated commercial-industrial complexes with indigo, silk and sugar factories. In the cut throat world of zamindari politics Dwarkanath took no nonsense and gave no quarter to either European or native. His knowledge of the tenancy laws stood him in good stead. Unlike his good friend Rammohun Roy who pleaded for the rights of the poor ryots, Dwarkanath's sympathies were more one sided and tilted towards his own class.Service with the Company
In 1822 Dwarkanath, while carrying on his private ventures, took additional service in the British East India Company as Shestidar to Trevor Plowden Collector for the 24 Parganas24 Parganas
24 Parganas district is a former district of the Indian state of West Bengal. The district was split into two districts — North 24 Parganas district and South 24 Parganas district, with effect from 1 March 1986....
. Although the pay was meagre at under Rs.500 per year, the prestige and avenues for additional income was considerable and gave Dwarkanath an intimate insight into the functioning of the government. Trevor Plowden formed a lifelong friendship with Dwarkanath. In 1827 there arose a great scandal in the Salt Revenue department centred on a dishonest Dewan, and assured of Dwarkanath's own personal integrity and character, he was requested to take over as Dewan of the Board. He did not take long to rend asunder the network of corruption which resulted in a counter petition against him to the Board accusing him of defalcation. To clear his name an enquiry was ordered which at each stage of enquiry, by the Board, by the Governor General and finally by the India Office at London cleared him unreservedly. By then Dwarkanath had had enough of Government service and resigned in June 1834 to launch into his spectacular career as a full time entrepreneur.
Dabbling in Politics
Dwarkanath Tagore was of the firm conviction that at those times "the happiness of India is best secured by her connection with England". Dwarkanath was no doubt a loyalist, and a sincere one at that, but he was by no means a toady. Servility was as far from his character as was lack of generosity from his nature. He was also firm in defending the interest and sentiments of his people against European prejudices. With this in view he established on 21 March 1838 an Association for Landholders (later known as the Landholder's Society). The association was overtly a self serving political association, founded on a large and liberal basis, to admit landholders of all descriptions, Englishmen,Hindus Mussalman and Christian. What is interesting is that cut across racial and religious divides being founded along with his old rival Raja Radhakant Deb with whom he had earlier founded the Gaudiya Sabha. It was the first political association in India to ventilate in a constitutional manner the grievances of the people or a section of them that were outspoken. From this grew the British India Association, the precursor to the Indian National Congress.Death
Brahmo
A Brahmo is either an adherent of Brahmoism to the exclusion of all other religions, or a person with at least one Brahmo parent or guardian and who has never denied his faith...
rites amidst great controversy. In his obituary, The London Mail of 7 August wrote "Descended from the highest Brahmin caste of India his family can prove a long and undoubted pedigree. But it is not on account of this nobility that we now review his life but on far better grounds…However gifted, his claims rest on a higher pedestal–he was the benefactor of his country…[T]hey testified to his merits in the encouragement of every public and private undertaking likely to benefit India."
Business Life/Other Trivia
Tagore was a western-educated BengalBengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
i brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
and an acknowledged civic leader of Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
who played a pioneering role in setting up a string of commercial ventures—banking, insurance and shipping companies—in partnership with British traders. In 1828, he became the first Indian bank director. In 1829, he founded Union Bank in Calcutta. He helped found the first Anglo-Indian Managing Agency (industrial organizations that ran jute
Jute
Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which has been classified in the family Tiliaceae, or more recently in Malvaceae....
mills, coal mines, tea plantations, etc.) Carr, Tagore and Company (even earlier, Rustomjee Cowasjee, a Parsi in Calcutta, had formed an inter-racial firm but in the early 19th century, Parsis were classified as a Near Eastern community as opposed to South Asian). Tagore's company managed huge zamindar
Zamindar
A Zamindar or zemindar , was an aristocrat, typically hereditary, who held enormous tracts of land and ruled over and taxed the bhikaaris who lived on batavaslam. Over time, they took princely and royal titles such as Maharaja , Raja , Nawab , and Mirza , Chowdhury , among others...
y estates spread across today's West Bengal and Orissa states in India, and in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, besides holding large stakes in new enterprises that were tapping the rich coal seams of Bengal, running tug services between Calcutta and the mouth of the river Hooghly and transplanting Chinese tea crop to the plains of Upper Assam. This company was one of those Indian private companies engaged in the opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
trade with China. Production of opium was in India and it was sold in China. When the Chinese protested, the East India company shifted the business to the proxy of certain selected Indian companies of which this was one. Tagore founded the first Indian coal mine in Runigunj. Very large schooners were engaged in shipments. This made Dwarkanath extremely rich. And there are legends about the extent of it.
A restless soul, with a firm conviction that his racial identity was not a barrier between him and other Britons as long as he remained loyal to the British Sovereign, Tagore was well-received by Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
and many other British and European notables during his two trips to the West in the 1840s; he died in London after a brief illness. Historiographers have often been flummoxed by his inability, despite a great desire, to be honoured by the Queen with a baronetcy (his grandson, Rabindranath, received the honour but returned it following British atrocities at the Jallianwala Bagh in the Punjab, 1919).
It is widely held in Bengal that he did go entirely bankrupt by the end of his life and left only a small fraction of his earlier stature and wealth to his progeny.
Some scholars have been puzzled by the paucity of documents concerning Dwarkanath in the Tagore family collections spread over many generations. There are scanty references to him in the records of Debendranath Tagore
Debendranath Tagore
Debendranath Tagore was one of the founders in 1848 of the Brahmo Religion which today is synonymous with Brahmoism the youngest religion of India and Bangladesh....
, his eldest son who founded the Brahmo
Brahmo
A Brahmo is either an adherent of Brahmoism to the exclusion of all other religions, or a person with at least one Brahmo parent or guardian and who has never denied his faith...
religion. There is absolutely no mention of Dwarkanath (except in a personal letter) in the monumental body of writings by his grandson Rabindranath
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
. Some say that Dwarkanath was involved in Opium & Flesh trade and which was not liked by the family. The established academic view is that Dwarkanath's concept of equating the coloniser with the colonised was found galling by his countrymen in the context of the nationalist awakening in Bengal and India, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, of which the Brahmo movement initiated was an integral part. The first Indian entrepreneur who thought globally thus remains an oddity in the country's socio-cultural history.
External references and Reading
- Article on BANGLAPEDIA: Tagore, (Prince) Dwarkanath
- Blair B Kling, Partner in Empire: Dwarkanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise in Eastern India, Calcutta, 1981;
- NK Sinha, The Economic History of Bengal 1793–1848, III, Calcutta, 1984.
- Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), 1976/1998, Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, , p223, ISBN 8185626650