Gokul Ghoshal

Gokul Chandra Ghoshal[1] was a native official of the East India Company who became a prominent and influential landlord by abusing his position and founded the Bhukailash Estate.[2][3][4] He and Devi Singh, Diwan of Rangpur, were part of a number of rent collectors of the East India Company who became notorious for their corruption.[5] Ghoshal had become wealthy and powerful through using his link to the East India Company.[6]

Jaynarain Ghoshal Memorial Plaque at the Joynarain Ghoshal Mausoleum in the Bhukailash Rajbati Estate, Kidderpore, Kolkata.

Career

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From 1761 to 1764, Ghoshal was the diwan of Chittagong under the East India Company.[2] He also worked as a salt merchant.[7] He was able to build a significant fortune by abusing the power of his office.[2] He served as the banian (agent) to the Governor of Chittagong (future Governor of Bengal), Harry Verelst.[8][9][10] His brother was Maharaja Krishna Chandra Ghoshal.[11] He briefly served as the diwan of 24 Parganas.[12]

Ghoshal was later given the task to revise the land settlement for revenue collection of the Sandwip Island.[2] He dispossessed a number of local zamindars and seized their land for himself.[2] He also secured significant land for his nephew, Joynarain Ghoshal.[2] He had all reclaimed land, known as Noabad Estate, would belong to his nephew, Joynarain Ghoshal, and that he had a written permission for it from Harry Verelst.[8] He also claimed that zamindars and talukdars operating Noabad Estates in Chittagong would need permission from Joynarain.[8] This was immediately challenged by the affected zamindars and talukdars and violence followed.[8] The Chittagong Council declared the written permission a forgery and as such the order illegal in 1797.[8] The land claimed until the cancellation would remain part of the estate of Joynarain.[8]

Ghoshal used a similar forgery order to try to take a portion of a zamidari estate in Rajshahi.[13] He also faced accusations of obstruction from Luis Da Costa, a Portuguese mediator settled in Bengal.[14] He had built a mansion in Kidderpore of Kolkata.[15] He also ran into conflicts with Chowdhury Abu Torab Khan, a zamindar of Sandwip, over revenue collection.[16] This would eventually led a rebellion in Sandwhip against the company and their agents.[17]

When the zamindar of Selimabad in Bakerganj (presently Barisal Division) asked for the administration's help in protecting his land from invasion by an adventurer, Ghoshal was sent.[2] He protected the estate but in payment took half of it.[2][18] His descendant, Kali Sankar Ghoshal, became a raja through the purchase of bonds of the East India Company and would build a place in Jhalokati District on the land acquired by Ghosal from the zamindar of Selimabad.[19]

References

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  1. ^ Nakazato, Nariaki (1994). Agrarian System in Eastern Bengal, C. 1870-1910. K.P. Bagchi & Company. p. 157. ISBN 978-81-7074-145-9.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Chaudhuri, B. (1983). "Agrarian Relations: Eastern India". In Kumar, Dharma; Habib, Irfan (eds.). The Cambridge Economic History of India. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-521-22802-2.
  3. ^ Experts, Disha (1 July 2021). Blissful West Bengal General Knowledge for WBPSC, WBSSC & other Competitive Exams. Disha Publications. ISBN 978-93-90711-02-4.
  4. ^ Sen, Ranjit (2000). A Stagnating City: Calcutta in the Eighteenth Century. Institute of Historical Studies. p. 122.
  5. ^ Hundred Years of Freedom Struggle, 1847-1947. Biplabi Niketan. 1989.
  6. ^ Sarkar, Jagadish Narayan (1991). Private Traders in Medieval India: British and Indian. Naya Prokash. p. 180. ISBN 978-81-85421-06-3.
  7. ^ Congress, Indian History (1979). Proceedings. Indian History Congress. p. 519.
  8. ^ a b c d e f "Noabad". Banglapedia. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  9. ^ Ludden, David (1999). An Agrarian History of South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-521-36424-9.
  10. ^ Sen, Sudipta (1998). Empire of Free Trade: The East India Company and the Making of the Colonial Marketplace. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8122-3426-8.
  11. ^ The Indian Historical Quarterly. Ramanand Vidya Bhawan. 1985. p. 157.
  12. ^ Readings in Indian History: Syed Hasan Askari Centenary Volume. Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute. 2001. p. 453.
  13. ^ Hunter, Sir William Wilson (1894). Bengal Ms. Records: A Selected List of 14,136 Letters in the Board of Revenue, Calcutta, 1782-1807, with an Historical Dissertation and Analytical Index. W. H. Allen & Company. p. 45.
  14. ^ Jarnagin, Laura (1 August 2003). Portuguese and Luso-Asian Legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511-2011, vol. 1. Flipside Digital Content Company Inc. ISBN 978-981-4517-65-2.
  15. ^ Chatterjee, Partha (8 April 2012). The Black Hole of Empire: History of a Global Practice of Power. Princeton University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-4008-4260-5.
  16. ^ Narain, Vishnu Anugrah (1959). Jonathan Duncan and Varanasi. Mukhopadhyay. pp. 6–9.
  17. ^ International Journal of Economic and Social History. Librairie Droz. p. 26.
  18. ^ Ray, Ratnalekha (1979). Change in Bengal Agrarian Society, C1760-1850. Manohar. p. 229.
  19. ^ Hunter, Sir William Wilson (1875). A Statistical Account of Bengal. Trübner & Company. pp. 223–224.
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