Meet the Mysore Dewan who led cauvery pact team 93 years ago

AR Banerji
There are no roads or buildings named after Albion Rajkumar Banerji in Bengaluru. Nor does he figure in discussions on Bengaluru's history . Perhaps, it is a name people in this part of the world would rather forget.

Albion Rajkumar Banerji was a Dewan of Mysore. And he led the (then) Mysore Kingdom's team in the controversial Cauvery Waters Agreement with the (then) Madras Presidency in February 1924. The continuing tensions between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu trace their roots back to that agreement and to the Bengali with avowed Brahmo Samaj roots, not to mention his staunch loyalty to the British. Banerji's mother Rajkumari was the first Indian woman to visit England in 1871 AD, for which she and her husband Sasipada (a social reformer) were excommunicated from the traditional Bengali Brahmin community .

Banerji was born on October 10, 1871 in England. He graduated from the University of Calcutta and obtained a Master's Degree from Balliol College, Oxford. "He was one of the first bunch of Indians who became an Indian Civil Services (ICS) officer, breaking the Whites-only barrier in administrative service," said lawyer and history buff Siddharth Raja.

Raja has conducted extensive research on Banerji and the Cauvery Waters Agreement. "He stood sixth in the Indian Civil Service exam of 1894, chose to serve the Madras cad re and also learnt Tamil."

Banerji, Raja said, represented what the British called a `travelling dewan', a loyalist who went from one princely state to another to ensure a British hold over the kingdoms. After becoming one of the youngest Dewans of Kochi in 1907 at the age of 36, he became the councillor of Mysore under Dewan M Visvesvaraya in 1914.Kantharaja Urs took over as Dewan in 1918 but took ill frequently , which meant that Banerji was the de-facto in-charge even before he was officially offered the position in 1922.

An astute administrator, Banerji also helped Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV implement non-Brahmin reservations, encouraged legislative reforms like women's suffrage (right to vote) and introduced economic reforms. "When the original 1892 agreement was redrawn in 1924, renegotiation terms gave both Madras and Mysore the right to use surplus waters. However, the latter had to make a concession of agreeing to build the Mettur dam," explained Raja. "Though Banerji ensured that Mysore had more proportion of land irrigated with Cauvery water, people thought that he had sold Mysore down the line." The Dewan was faced with accusations that he favoured his home cadre Madras.

"Banerji was an agent of the British with allegiance only to the Empire," Raja said. After Banerji resigned in 1926, the maharaja ensured that no `outsider' was appointed Dewan. Sir Mirza Ismail succeeded him.

Banerji spent his last years in Bengaluru and was president of the Century Club between 1946 and 1947.He passed away in 1950. "Banerji was flamboyant and always at the centre of social dos," Raja said. "History, however, will always remember him as the dark void among brilliant Mysuru dewans."