By : Satyaki Paul
The date August 01 marks the 175th death anniversary of Prince Dwarkanath Tagore (also colloquially known as Dwarkanath Thakur in Bengali). He was considered as the first medici due to the prominence of political and cultural renditions as similar to that of the Italian medici family. He was a renowned industrialist, writer and even a poet of his times.
Prince DwarkanathTagore (1794-1846) is considered as the founder of the great Tagore family of Jorasanko, Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta). The stalwarts from the same time periodbestowed the title of prince on him because he had been to Britain where he was first described as a prince by the people coming in contact with him and also because his lifestyle in Kolkata was demarcated by princely grandeur and social stimulus. He was married to Digambari Devi (she was only 9 years old then). All together, they had one daughterand five sons (the ones who livedthrough infancy are Debendranath [1817-1905], Girindranath[1820-54], Bhupendranath[1826-39], Nagendranath[1829-58]).
He is the father of DevendranathTagore and grandfather of Rabindranath Tagore, and he was one of those banias and mutsuddis (middlemen/agents and officers of European traders) who made the first generation of the Bengali industrialists and socio-political activists. The first person of the Thakurs to leave their parental home in Jessore and join the rank of banias to the Europeans was one Panchanan, who worked with the French as a bania in the late 17th century.
Dwarkanath began his early life as an apprentice to the British advocate Robert Gutlar Fergusson wherein he studied the laws of the permanent settlement (implemented by Lord Cornwallis) and also the laws and procedures of the supreme court of Calcutta, sadr and zila courts.In due course, he started his legal career very successfully in 1815. Later, he started expanding the modest zamindari estate that he inherited from his father, Ramlochan. In 1830,Dwarkanath bought in auction Kaligram zamindari in Rajshahi district and Shahazadpur in Pabna district in 1834. His zamindari had many partners and co-purchasers. But Dwarkanath held four large estates; Berhampur, Pandua, Kaligram and Shahazadpur.
The most significant aspect of Dwarkanath’s zamindari supervision was that he looked at it in a professional manner, not feudally (thereby obliterating serfdom), as was the normal habit of those daysequal zamindars. He engaged several European experts to manage his estates. He made his fortune from his lucrative business as a serestadar (1828) and later diwan, under the Board of Customs, Salt and Opium. He served for twelve years as a diwan. Furthermore, he joined credit market as a moneylender to salt manufacturers and others, a practice that was construed by his equals as complete bribe in camouflage. This was done under the banner of “Carr, Tagore and Company”. Nonetheless, in due course he was accused officially of the alleged traffic, but in the absence of concrete evidence the court acquitted him with honour. In addition to moneylending, he had laid out capital in export trade with a famous farm, Mackintosh & Company. He had shares in Union Bank when it was established in 1829. All these including zamindari control were followedtogether with his service with the Company’s commercial department.
In 1835, the British Raj honoured Dwarkanath with the post of Justice of the Peace, a honourary position newly unlockedfor Indians. By 1840s, he stood at the zenith of his entrepreneurial life. He had investments in shipping, export trade, insurance, banking, coal mine, indigo, urban real estates and in zamindari estates. He engaged several European managers to look after his concerns. After some encouragementfrom his European and Indian friends, Dwarkanath Tagore resolved to visit Britain like his friend and philosopher raja rammohunroy. On 9 January, 1842 he boarded his own steamer, the India, for Suez. His European physician Dr MacGowan, his nephew Chandra Mohan Chatterjee, his assistantParamanandaMoitra, three male-servants, and a Muslim cookconvoyed him. After reaching London, the British PM Robert Peel; President of board of control Lord Fitzgerald; Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, and Queen Victoria received him. He spent June 23, 1842 with the Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, reviewing troops. On July 8, 1842 he was invited to a dinner with Queen Victoria. On October 15, 1842 Dwarkanath left England for Paris, where he was received by the French king Louis-Philippe at St Cloud on October 28, 1842. He returned to Kolkata in December 1842. The business recession of the early 1840s and his newly self-learnt princely régime led to the downfall of his business empire and made him a defaulter to numerousindividuals and businesses. The debts accrued until his death were so huge that it took his son, Devendranath Thakur, almost all his life to make the family free from such debt-related impediments. It was not only Dwarkanath, whose businesses went red in the hard days of early 1840s, but also many others like him were ruined due to the depression.Dwarkanath Tagore died on the evening of August 1, 1846 at the St. George’s Hotel in London. Later, he was buried at the Kensal Green Cemetery wherein a stone tomb was also laid in his honour. In conclusion, it can be said that Prince Dwarkanath was justly the creation of the depression of 1830-33, and later fell preyto it in the 1840s. But his highest success lies in a different place of his. His practices of association in trade and commerce with the Europeans had recognizedexamples, but never before a Bengali had received suchcredit from them as an equal partner. He had shattered that norm and became an equal ‘partner in empire’ by his own influence.