Parbati Sankar Roy Choudhury (Rai Parvatisankara Chaudhuri), (1853–1918) was the

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

of Teota (now in

Manikganj District Manikganj ( bn, মানিকগঞ্জ ) is a district in central Bangladesh. It is a part of the Dhaka Division, In 1845 AD it was at first declared as a sub-division. It was at first, under Faridpur district (Faridpur Zila) then it was in ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

) and a philanthropic landholder.

Early life

Choudhury was born in 1853, and was the elder son of Joy Sankar Choudhuri of the Teota zamindars, who were one of the well-known zamindars of Bengal. Their ancestral surname was Dasgupta (Dash-sharma). He studied at the Hindu School, Kolkata but never completed his education as he was managing the zamidari estate.

Career

Sankar was an active member of the

British Indian Association British Indian Association was a political organization in the 19th century in India. Its rival was the Indian National Association. History British Indian Association was established on 29 October 1851 in Kolkata, India with Radhakanta Deb as ...

, the

Indian Association Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

, the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

, and the

Dacca Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

district board. He was also one of the founders of the Indian Industrial Association, which was set up to promote the material and economic development of the region. As part of the

economic reconstruction Economic reconstruction is a process for creating a proactive vision of economic change. The most basic idea is that problems in the economy, such as deindustrialization, environmental decay, outsourcing, industrial incompetence, poverty and ...

programme, Parbati Sankar attempted to make use of the material raw resources available within the Teota zamindari (in Goalondo, Faridpur and elsewhere). His name is also associated with the formulation of a concrete and detailed plan (1890s) of extension of the railways to Manikganj, linking it up with the town of Dacca on the east and the river port of Goalando on the west. Sankar is best remembered, however, for pioneering the 'dharmagola' system of co-operative grain banking, intended to alleviate scarcity and resulting

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...

. He founded the grain banks with his cousin Raja Shyama Sankar Ray. 'Dharmagolas' or grain banks were established at various places within the Teota Estate and elsewhere in Dinajpur and the system was a success. These grain banks were registered as formal co-operative societies in the second decade of the 20th century. Parbati Sankar wrote a number of articles in which he not only outlined the basic features of the 'dharmagola' system, but also clearly brought out its many virtues and advantages. He spoke on the "Indebtedness of the Bengal peasantry" at an annual session of the Congress (INC) in the early 1900s. He was a member of the Dhaka District Board. He had attempted to convince the British colonial administration of the importance creating a rail line from Dhaka to

Manikganj Manikganj is a district situated in Dhaka Division, Bangladesh. Manikganj is one of the green and pollution free towns in Bangladesh. The recent urbanization and highway built joining Dhaka and Shingair Upazilla has given it an outstanding road ...

unsuccessfully.

Death

Sankar was honoured with the

Kaisar-i-Hind Medal The Kaisar-i-Hind Medal for Public Service in India was a medal awarded by the Emperor/Empress of India between 1900 and 1947, to "any person without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex ... who shall have distinguished himself (o ...

in 1912. He died in Calcutta in 1918.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhury, Parbati Sankar Roy 1918 deaths 1853 births Bengali Hindus Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal 19th-century Indian philanthropists