THE ZAMINDAR HIS ATROCITIES AND HIS CHARITY

The hospital I worked in  and the adjacent government hospital covered a huge area.Imagine a big government hospital with several buildings,a large deep pond and an adjacent hospital with a about 200 beds and housing the residences of doctors,nursing staff,quarters for the menial staff etc,etc.This vast area was actually donated by a Zamindar, name not to be mentioned. Shall we call him Raja babu from now?

Zamindar comes from a persian word "Zamin" meaning land and "dar " meaning holder.So a zamindar was someone aristrocratic like a king and his subjects were farmers mainly who had to pay "kar" or tax either in form of money or as grains.The poor farmers were tortured if they could not pay or even killed and their land confiscated.Even if the farmers and their children remained hungry their grains were forcibly taken away. Besides this they owned huge tracts of land and were very rich.With the advent of the British rule,they were given titles like "Raja"or "Maharaja".

ZAMINDAR

One such Zamindar was Raja babu. He owned huge tracts of land .And he donated most of it to the government before dying.To atone his crimes ,to wash off all the atrocious crimes he committed in his life time.I came to know about this accidentally when I went to attend a function in a "Lal bari" or red house. The function was held on the grounds,but the house consisted of a huge hall and rooms upstairs for the zamindar and his guests.This was not a proper house like the zamindar bari (zamindar house)

A TYPICAL ZAMINDAR BARI

But this Lal bari was different.It essentially was a place for the zamindar to entertain his guests and himself.There were and still are huge Belgian mirrors covering wall to wall. Once you go in you can see the mirrors and imagine the mattresses and cushions all around with nautch girls dancing in the middle.The nautch girls were accommodated a separate building near the zamindar palace.I later on learnt that the sweeper's quarters in our hospital used to accommodate the nautch girls.

Mattress with cushions to rest on 

But either the nautch girls/dancers   are forced to join the profession by circumstances or some come to the profession willingly.

Raja babu and his friends had other vices too. Which was cruel and absolutely heinous.Almost daily beautiful young ladies from all over the state, some wives,some daughters all belonging to good families were kidnapped and brought to Raja babu's "Jalshagarh"as his entertainment hall was called,by his reliable henchmen.

Very horrible things happened almost every night after that.The poor ladies were not only gang raped,they were  pushed into a dungeon leading deep down,after that and left to die a horrible death..And some were killed and drowned in a huge pond in front of the building.

 When I went there I actually saw the entrance to the dungeon which is covered up with junk now.I learnt that several hundreds of female skeletons were discovered there when it became government property.

DUNGEON

Also several female skeletons were recovered from the huge pond in front of the palace complex which houses a hospital now and still the ruins of the old palace building can be seen.

RUINS OF A ZAMINDAR BARI

This heinous rapist and murderer donated much of his property to the government which is used for noble causes now.But that surely will not be an atonement for the most abominable crimes he committed.Since his crimes far outweigh his charity. 

I came to know of these things  because I attended that function in the grounds of that Jalshagarh which has seen so many atrocities and murders.My heart bled for those innocent,poor ladies.Had I not been there I will still be ignorant of all these facts. Because people have forgotten.Only when someone visits the place,they talk about it.And they forget everything after that. Human brain is so fickle.It prefers to forget nasty things and prefers to get on with life.

But I can never forget the ghastly dungeon and tale of the innocent women.