100 yrs of Prince of Wales visit to Patna: Held durbar in Maidan, praised Guv Lord Sinha

Patna, Dec 22 (PTI) On this very day, exactly 100 years ago, the then Prince of Wales had visited Patna as part of his royal tour of India and was accorded a rousing reception at a durbar held at the historic Bankipore Maidan, with the welcome speech being read by legendary Sachchidananda Sinha, one of the architects of the modern province of Bihar.

The maiden visit of Prince Edward (later King Edward VIII) to the city on December 22-23, 1921, had taken place nearly 10 years after the creation of the new province of Bihar and Orissa with Patna as its capital, announcement for which was made by his father and King George V during the iconic 1911 Delhi Durbar.

The Prince had travelled across the Indian subcontinent from November 1921 to March 1922, arriving first in Bombay (now Mumbai) on November 17, according to his royal itinerary available in published volumes and archival records.  On the morning of December 22, 1921, he reached Patna by train and special steamer, after a brief sojourn in Nepal Terai, and was received by the then acting Governor of the province Haviland Le Mesurier at a ghat on arrival, which was heralded with a 31-gun salute.

The Prince after landing at the "Commissioner's Ghat in Patna" in the morning, drove to a grand reception durbar that was hosted in his honour at the Bankipore Maidan (now Gandhi Maidan), according to archival records.

A tastefully decorated pavillion, surrounded by a special amphitheatre erected to house guests, witnessed the historic event during which the welcome speech, on behalf of the Reception Commitee, was read by Sachchidananda Sinha, a barrister and noted personality of his time, hailed as one of the architects of modern Bihar, who invoked the ancient glory of Pataliputra (now Patna) and legacy of Mauryan emperors Chandragupta and Ashoka.

In his reply to the welcome address, the Prince of Wales said, "I am glad to have been able to visit Patna. Though your province is the youngest province in India, Patna and Rajgir are connected with the mists of ancient history and the dawn of old civilisations and empires".

Prince Edward, in his speech also had praised Lord Satyendra Prassano Sinha, famously known as Lord Sinha, who was in 1920 appointed governor of the province of Bihar and Orissa, becoming the first Indian to hold the high office during the British rule, according to archival records. Owing to ill-health, Lord Sinha had resigned from the post the following year.

"In addition to this, I am grateful to visit a province where till recently, an Indian, after a distinguished career in India and in England, and after rendering conspicuous service to the Empire in the War, held the high position of Governor," he said in his address, as quoted in 'His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales' Tour in India 1921-22' published by the then British government in Delhi in 1923.

According to an official letter dated October 22, 1921, the Executive Committee, which was set up in advance to make arrangements for the Prince of Wales' visit, had come to a conclusion that the occasion of the visit of the royal heir to the throne would be "most suitably marked by the foundation of some institution of permanent utility to the people of this province".

Two tentative suggestions were made: to "complete the scheme of a medical college at Patna" and the other one was to spend the money raised through subscription on "raising the status of the Bihar School of Engineering to that of a college", it said.

An account was opened with the Patna branch of the then Bank of Bengal, under the style of "The Prince of Wales' Visit Fund" and subscription were invited, as per the letter.  Four years after the Prince's visit, Bihar and Orissa's first medical medical college took birth in 1925 in Patna and it was named the Prince of Wales Medical College to commemorate his visit to what was then a young provincial capital.

A few decades after Independence, it was renamed to Patna Medical College and Hospital.  A huge marble plaque, bearing the old name of the college and the Prince of Wales royal crest, installed right outside the principal's office, however, tells the story of its inception and the prestige it enjoyed earlier.

However, this heritage is threatened as its iconic old buildings are proposed to be dismantled in multiple phases as part of a redevelopment project of the Bihar government.

The site of the 96-year-old college in Bankipore is not very far from the Maidan where the durbar was held exactly a century ago.

Among the invited guests at the durbar was Rai Bahadur Radha Krishna Jalan of the Quila House in Patna.

Aditya Jalan, 44, his great grandson, told PTI, "In our archives, we also have letters written to my great grandfather by a man from Bhagalpur and by persons from other places who were coming to Patna to attend the durbar. They were thanking him for arranging accommodation for them".

The man from Bhagalpur had requested R K Jalan to also let him travel with him in his conveyance to the Maidan to attend the royal function as there was a hartal under non-cooperation movement, he said.

In the afternoon on December 22, the Prince played polo and after dinner at the Government House attended an informal reception there.

On December 23, a garden party was given by the Behar Landholders Association to the Prince at the historic Hardinge Park, during his two-day visit to Patna, after which he left for Calcutta (now Kolkata).

A day ahead of the Prince's arrival in Patna, the poor were fed and blankets distributed in the city's Gulzarbagh area.

In his address at the durbar on day-one of his visit, he had recalled the royal visits paid to Patna by his father King George V in 1911 and his grandfather Edward VII in 1876, who was the then Prince of Wales.

"I know that I shall take away the most pleasant recollections of my visit to Patna, and you may count on the warm interests with which I shall always watch and follow the future history and fortunes of your Province," the Prince had said in his durbar speech delivered days ahead of Christmas in 1921. PTI KND ANB ANB