Located just 6km south-west of Bolpur in Birbhum, Raipur is today a relatively nondescript sleepy village on the banks of the Ajay river. But it was once home to a magnificent palace, the decaying remains of which can still be visited and explored today.
The Palace of Raipur, also known as Raipur Rajbari, Jomidari, or Lord Sinha Palace is testament to the wealth and power of the Sinha family dynasty, who’s influence spread far and wide, extending far beyond the limits of Bengal on to the global stage. At it’s zenith this palace had three wings incorporating an incredible 120 rooms, covering a plot of land of over 80,000 square meters (20 acres).
The Sinha family migrated from Ayodha to Raipur in the 15th century, and over time their business acumen resulted in them becoming an important family in the region, culminating in them becoming Zamindars of Raipur. At one time the majority of Birbhum and nearby areas belonged to the Sinha family. When Maharshi Debendranath Tagore sat under a Chatim tree to meditate and discovered unparalleled peace, he decided to buy the land around the miraculous tree. It is rumored among the locals that Maharshi bought this land for one rupee from Bhuban Mohan Singha (Sinha), the then Zamindar of Raipur. He subsequently opened a guest house named Shantiniketan (abode of peace) which became the now well-known university town of the same name.
But it is another subsequent zamindar born in the very same palace in 1863, better known as Lord Sinha or First Baron Sinha, Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, who made remarkable history for the country under colonial rule.
24 March 1863 – 4 March 1928
A whole-plate glass negative portrait of Satyendra Prasanna Sinha taken by Bassano Ltd, dated 20 May 1920, now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Having studied law in England when he was just 17, Satyendra Prasanna Sinha returned to Calcutta in 1886 where he joined the City College as a lecturer in law and also practised as a barrister. He was appointed as the Standing Counsel to the Government of India in 1903 and then as the Advocate General of Bengal (twice, in 1907-1909 and 1915-1917), being the first Indian to ever occupy the post. Following this he become the first Indian member at the Viceroy’s Executive Council, a cabinet consisting of five members heading revenue, military, law, finance and home. In 1915, Sinha was Knighted for his services to the Empire.
In 1917 Sinha returned to England to serve as assistant to the then Secretary of India (Edwin Montago), in the same year he received the freedom of the City of London. He represented India in the special war conferences of 1917 and 1918 along with the 1919 Paris Peace Conference which was responsible for dealing with the peace terms at the end of World War I. He was also one of the signatories for the Treaty of Versailles, signed between the victorious Allied powers and Germany.
He subsequently became the Under Secretary of State for India and received his peerage becoming known as Lord Sinha or 1st Baron Sinha of Raipur. Until 1977, Satyendra Sinha was the only Indian to be a peer and have a seat in the House of Lords in the British Parliament. Unlike other Indian peers that were to follow, Sinha’s peerage was the only hereditary one.
Lord Sinha made many notable contributions and had many firsts for an Indian abroad. His contribution bought him many accolades and much fanfare, and he was widely celebrated and respected in his own time. The University of Bombay awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Law, and although Sinha was never made Governor-General of India, he was appointed as the Governor of Bihar and Orissa, a post he held until 1921, shorty after his return to India in 1920.
But the demands of this work both abroad and in Calcutta resulted in the Raipur Rajbari becoming an inaccessible place of residence, a situation that persisted to an even greater magnitude with the passing generations.
From the winter of 1921 at the age of 57 there was a decline in Sinha’s health. In November he was bedridden in Calcutta with “mental prostration”. The following month, he resigned from his Governorship due to poor health. Sinha did, however, recover enough to allow him to move around the city. But he was injured in 1923, when he was hit by a tram while crossing a street in Calcutta. In 1926, he was appointed as a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, another first for an Indian.
On 3rd March 1928, Lord Sinha arrived in Berhampore (in present-day Murshidabad district) with his wife, to visit one of his sons, who was a district judge. Two days later, he was discovered dead in his bed by his son. According to a report in Gloucester Citizen newspaper, Lord Sinha’s estate at the time of his death was worth £223,600, which after adjusting for inflation would be equal to a staggering £14 Million in today’s terms!
Satyendra Prasanna Sinha had four sons, and the eldest, Arun Kumar, succeeded him as Lord Arun Kumar Sinha, 2nd Baron Sinha. He would, however, have some trouble taking his seat in the House of Lords. According to the rules of the time, when a hereditary peer wanted to claim his seat, he would have to prove his claim by producing his parent’s marriage certificate as well as his own birth certificate.
Back when Satyendra Prasanna Sinha had got married in rural Bengal, neither marriages nor births were mandatorily recorded, and so Arun Kumar possessed neither of the mandatory documents. Arun petitioned the King in December 1936, but it would be a long fight of 11 years after which he was finally permitted to take his seat in the House of Lords, when the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords ruled in his favour.
The newspapers of the time were much more silent about Arun Kumar than they were about his father, probably because by the time he entered the House of Lords, it was 1939 and World War II had broken out.
The zamindari system finally ended in 1951, and with different branches of the Sinha family all subsequently migrating to various different locations, the maintenance of this vast property was a near impossible task. The Rajbari of Raipur was finally considered abandoned in the 1970s.
Locals say the last member of the Sinha family living in the Palace removed all the teak beams and sold them, rendering the house uninhabitable. Any building materials of use were subsequently robbed by locals and thieves and also sold off, leaving a decaying shell at the mercy of the elements.
The Raipur Rajbari is one of possibly hundreds of zamindari mansions in Bengal which are crumbling for want of maintenance. While the havelis of Rajasthan have been transformed into grand hotels and homestays, bringing in tourist dollars, in Bengal only a handful of these old and stately homes have been likewise transformed.
Over time as nature reclaimed the ruined mansion, stories of underground dungeons, secret passageways, and various hauntings started to emerge. The palace developed it’s own mysterious aura resulting in it being chosen as a location for a number of films; most notably the 1984 film “Khandar” (meaning “Ruins”) starring Naseerundin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Pankaj Kapoor, and the 2012 Bengali film “Jekhane Bhooter Bhoy’ (meaning “where it is to fear spirits”).
The current 6th Lord Baron Sinha is Arup Kumar Sinha (b. 1966), a computer specialist currently based in Munich, Germany. He was born in Ranchi (Jharkhand) but has lived in Britain for most of his adult life, and has now staked his claim as a Peer with the Crown Office.
Despite all the decay surrounding the Rajbari, it is not all bad news. In 2011, a less dilapidated part of the mansion was donated to an NGO called the Nayantara Memorial Charitable Trust that works for the upliftment of the down and destitute communities, along with the Santhal community of Birbhum. This part of the Rajbari is now renovated and running activities regularly, having lit rooms and inhabiting humans, doing good for the community once again.
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