Bhuvan Mohan Roy

Bhuvan Mohan Roy
Raja
Chief of the Chakma Circle
Reign	7 May 1897 - 16 July 1933
Predecessor	Raja Harish Chandra Rai
Successor	Nalinaksha Roy
Born	1876 (1876) Chittagong Hill Tracts, British India
Died	1934 (aged 57–58)
Spouse	Dayamoyi Roy
Issue	Nalinaksha Roy
Father	Raja Harish Chandra Rai Bahadur

Raja Bhuvan Mohan Roy (1876–1934) was the Chief of the Chakma Circle in the Chittagong Hill Tracts from 1897 until 1933.

Biography

He was born in 1876 to Raja Harish Chandra Rai Bahadur, Chief of the Chakma Circle.[1][2] After the death of his father in 1885, the Court of Wards assumed the administration of the estate and the Chakma Circle, Bhuvan Mohan being a minor.[3]

Bhuvan Mohan Roy was installed as Chief of the Chakma Circle on 7 May 1897, in recognition of which he received the personal title of Raja.[2][4] In 1898, he established a Buddhist monastery, Sonaichari Rajvihar, at Sonaichari in what is now Rangunia Upazila.[5] Dashabal Raj Bouddha Vihar was also established under his patronage.[1] He attended the Delhi Durbar of December 1911.[2]

James Philip Mills, an Indian Civil Service officer tasked in 1926–1927 with investigating how the Bengal Government could best use the Chittagong Hill Tracts Chiefs in the administration, wrote of him:

Raja Bhuban Mohan Ray is in character both obstinate and weak ... He is unpopular with his own tribe, as Chakmas of position have told me in private conversation. His people say that he takes no interest in them, and they only regard him as a troublesome individual who takes their money ... He was always eager to talk about dignities and the smallness of his income as compared with what he deserved, but never about duties. He regards the Chakmas merely as a mine to be worked for his benefit; and his vanity is beyond belief. I can find no record that he ever on any occasion aided Government with any valuable advice ... His love of Bengali culture has antagonised the respectable and conservative elements in the tribe. He lives in Bengali style, entirely surrounded by Bengalis ... and he has married his two eldest sons to Bengali ladies, a thing unprecedented in the tribe.[6]

His son, Nalinaksha Roy, took over his duties from 16 July 1933.[7] Bhuvan Mohan Roy died in 1934.[1]

References

1. Chakma, Kabita; Hill, Glen (2016). "Politics of the Orphans of War". In D'Costa, Bina (ed.). Children and Violence: Politics of Conflict in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-316-67399-7.
2. The Imperial Coronation Durbar (Illustrated), Delhi, 1911. Vol. II. Lahore: The Imperial Publishing Co. 1913. p. 252.
3. Ishaq, Muhammad, ed. (1971). Bangladesh District Gazetteers: Chittagong Hill Tracts (PDF). Dacca: Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, Establishment Division. p. 36. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-09-21. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
4. Hutchinson, Robert Henry Sneyd (1906). An Account of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Bengal Secretariat Book Depot. p. 94.
5. Barua, Dilip Kumar; Barua, Shantu; Wakahara, Yusho; Okamoto, Kensuke (2015). Directory of Buddhist Monasteries in Bangladesh (PDF) (A Provisional ed.). Kyoto: Research Center for Buddhist Cultures in Asia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-09-21. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
6. Mey, Wolfgang (2009). J.P. Mills and the Chittagong Hill Tracts, 1926/27: Tour Diary, Reports, Photographs (PDF). Heidelberg University. pp. 15, 87–88.
7. Chowdhury, Tamina M. (2016). Indigenous Identity in South Asia: Making Claims in the Colonial Chittagong Hill Tracts. Taylor & Francis. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-317-20293-6.