The real founder of the Narail zamindari was an influential Hindu named Kalishankar Roy. His father’s name was Ruparam Roy. Ruparam Dutta married the second daughter of Krishna Ram Mitra of the famous Guatali Mitra family. Ruparam Dutta was the father of three sons named Nandakishore, Kalishankar, and Ramanidhi.
At a young age, Ruparam took employment under the Natore royal government. Gradually gaining trust, he worked as the government’s lawyer at the Murshidabad Nawab’s court. In this way, he amassed considerable wealth. One day, Natore’s zamindar Rani Bhabani sent Ruparam Roy as their lawyer to the Nawab’s court in Murshidabad. By the grace of Natore’s Rani Bhabani, Ruparam Roy bought the Aladatpur estate in Narail. In this estate, he built a homestead in a place called Narail. A short distance from the homestead, on the bank of the Chitra river, Ruparam Roy built a market. The market became known as Rupganj Bazaar after Ruparam’s name. Even today, this market is famous as the city’s main commercial center.
Among Ruparam Roy’s three sons, Kalishankar Roy entered the Natore royal court at a very young age along with his father. Like his father, he was appointed as an employee of the Natore royal government at a young age. This Kalishankar was the true founder of the Narail zamindari. Kalishankar Roy was a man of strong physique and a shrewd individual. In his character there was no sense of judging right and wrong to achieve success. He was adept at accomplishing tasks by cunning.
This is echoed in Westland’s report :
“Kalisankar was a man of wonderful energy and ability in business - my regard for truth compels me to say it - he was perfectly unscrupulous.”
In accomplishing tasks, he did not judge right or wrong.
In 1793, when the Governor-General of India Lord Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement, at that time huge arrears of revenue accumulated on the vast zamindari of Natore. Because of the revenue burden, the zamindari began to be auctioned off in parts. At that time, the cunning Kalishankar and some employees abused the trust of the Natore zamindars and began to purchase the zamindari areas of the Natore kingdom in auctions, in their own names and benami. The parganas were Telihati, Binodanpur, Rupapat, Toraf Kalia, Toraf Dariapur, and other small tomigati mahals. In the Narail mouza, Kalishankar Roy built large buildings, several ponds, a theatre, and a grand palace on the small homestead of his father.
Kalishankar formed a large lathiyal (stick-fighter) force to increase his power, influence, and prestige. Most of those who joined this lathiyal force were from the lower-caste Hindu Namasudra community. Whenever there was a need to use force somewhere, this lathiyal force was used. Many times, this lathiyal force would loot traders’ boats laden with goods.
During the time of Jessore’s first judge-magistrate Henkel Saheb (1784 AD), loot cases were filed against Kalishankar and his elder brother Nandakishore. Possibly out of anger over business debts, Kalishankar looted a boat full of goods. Henkel Saheb labeled him as a dacoit and submitted a report to the government. Some sepoys under the leadership of Kutubullah Sardar were sent to capture Kalishankar. A skirmish ensued with 1500 lathiyals. In the battle, 2 were killed and 15 including Kutubullah were injured. The second time, when the Saheb sent additional forces, Nandakumar was captured but Kalishankar fled. At first, he hid in Natore and later in Kolkata. After many days, he was finally arrested in Kolkata with great difficulty and then brought to Murali. In the trial of the daroga, he was acquitted.
If Kalishankar heard of any cow slaughter in his zamindari area, he would immediately have the person captured by his lathiyal force and brutally tortured. No one could walk wearing shoes or carrying an umbrella on the road in front of his house. This Kalishankar was the true founding patriarch of the Narail zamindari.
In 1870, at the age of 70, Kalishankar traveled to Gaya and Kashi to prepare for religious pilgrimage and death. In Kashi, pilgrims were always troubled by miscreants. He could not tolerate this sight. Through various tricks and schemes, he had the oppressors punished by royal decree and made the Kashi area free of disturbance. To this day, the residents of Kashi remember Kalishankar Roy’s name for restoring peace to Kashi. Kalishankar passed away in 1834 at the sacred Kashi at the age of 85.
Kalishankar had two sons, Ramnarayan and Joy Narayan. Before going to Gaya-Kashi, he handed over all his property to his two sons. After Kalishankar went to Kashi, within a few years both sons died. Ramnarayan died in 1817 and Joy Narayan in 1822. Ramnarayan, the elder son of Kalishankar, had three sons — Ramratan, Harnath, and Radhacharan. The younger son Joy Narayan had two sons — Durgadas Roy and Gurudas Roy. All three sons of Ramnarayan were illustrious men.
Durgadas Roy and Gurudas Roy settled in a village called Hatbariya on the bank of the Chitra river, two miles south of Narail, and managed the zamindari in equal shares. The descendants of Ramnarayan continued to reside in Narail. Hence, the Narail zamindars and the descendants of Joy Narayan were known as the ‘Hatbariya zamindars.’
The post office of Rupganj Bazaar in Narail town was established in the name of Ramratan, the eldest son of Ramnarayan. From that era, it has been known as ‘Ratanganj’ post office. Even today, the name of this post office has not changed. During zamindar Ramratan Roy’s tenure, the Naldi pargana and Datia pargana of Khulna district were incorporated. At this time, English indigo planters established indigo factories in Jessore and Kushtia regions for indigo cultivation.
Finding indigo cultivation profitable, zamindar Ramratan Roy also started this business. He set up many indigo factories and also purchased some factories from the English indigo planters. Ramratan had a very communal mindset. His lathiyal force would brutally oppress those farmers who showed reluctance to cultivate indigo.
He inflicted relatively more torture on Muslim farmers than on the Hindu Namasudra community. Although Ramratan Roy was communal and tyrannical, he was charitable in the field of education. Zamindar Ramratan Roy established an English high school in the name of then Empress of India, Queen Victoria, which is presently known as Narail Government Victoria Collegiate High School, bearing his memory. Centered on this school, an intermediate college was established in 1886 under the same name. The college is the second oldest under Rajshahi University and one of the oldest in the Khulna and Barisal divisions.
Ratan Babu established a charitable dispensary. Ratan Babu’s son Kaliprasanna was extremely devout and religious. Rai Bahadur Harnath Babu’s grandson Kiran Chandra was adorned with the title ‘Rai Bahadur’ by the Governor-General. His nephew Bhabendra Chandra was highly educated and a philanthropist. Radhacharan Babu’s son Jogendranath Roy was an educated and intelligent zamindar. His eldest son Jatindranath Roy passed the Indian Civil Service examination from England with great distinction and served for many years as a magistrate.
After zamindar Ramratan Roy’s death, his middle brother Rai Bahadur Harnath assumed control of the zamindari. The paved road we use today from Narail to Jessore was first largely funded by him for its construction.
In 1786, Jashore was recognized as a district. At that time, the Jessore district consisted of the entire present-day Jessore, Khulna, India’s Bongaon district, and parts of Kushtia and Faridpur. In 1793, the Naldi pargana and eastern parts of Faridpur district like Kashiani, Muksudpur, Kotalipara, Boalmari, Gopalganj were part of Jessore district. In 1842, Khulna was turned into a subdivision of Jessore. At that time, Abhaynagar thana and Kalia thana were under Khulna subdivision. In 1861, during the Indigo Revolt, the Narail subdivision was established. Because of the zamindars of Narail, the subdivision was named Narail and its headquarters was established in Narail. For setting up the subdivision headquarters, sites were first considered in Gopalganj, then Bhatiapara, Kalna, Lohagara, Naldi, and finally settled in Mahishkhola mouza of the present district town.
The Narail Zamindar house was a vast area with many magnificent palaces, a theatre stage, worship pavilions, revenue offices, guest houses, temporary resting places for famous courtesans, and numerous ponds and tanks. It is learned from historical investigation that there was no other zamindar’s house as large in all of then East Bengal. After Pakistan was created on a two-nation basis in 1947, the zamindars left this country and moved to Kolkata, India. Around 1950 and 1952, some of the zamindars came from Kolkata for a short time but did not return thereafter.
From the creation of Pakistan, due to long neglect, the old palaces fell into dilapidation and various items were stolen and destroyed. After independence in 1971, a camp of the Rakhibahini formed by the then Awami League government was established here. Besides, for a long time, government revenue department employees used the mansion as residence. Around 1985, the vast mansion of the zamindar house was sold by the government in auction for only five lakh taka. Today, except for a temple in front of the zamindar house, there remains no other memory. A government child welfare center has been established here. Additionally, a district police line has been set up on nearly 10 acres of land of the zamindar house. The ponds of the zamindar house still stand as witnesses of history. Various service communities required for the zamindars, such as bearers (palanquin carriers), masons, lathiyals or dhalis, priests for worship, and slave communities for different kinds of service, lived in villages to the south and west of the zamindar house.
The descendants of these communities have changed their professions and many are now engaged in other professions after getting an education. With the change of time, the symbols of the zamindars’ wealth and opulence — the vast zamindari and beautiful palace mansions — have vanished. But the people of Narail have not forgotten the memories of the zamindars’ oppression.
