§ MR. LAIDLAWTo ask the Under-Secretary of State for India on what grounds the claims of Shamarendra Chandra Deb Barman, who was Bara Thakur of Hill Tipperah when the present Rajah ascended the Guddi, to become Jubraj according to Hindu law and custom were set aside by the Government of India.
(Answered by Mr. Buchanan.) The present Rajah of Hill Tipperah was installed in 1897, and in February, 1899, appointed his eldest son, Birendra Kishore Thakur, to be Jubraj. The Rajah's brother, named in the Question, who had been appointed Bara Thakur in 1878, appealed to the Government of Bengal, and subsequently to the Government of India, against this selection. After carefully considering the matter, the Government of Bengal came to the conclusion that the alleged existence of a custom by which the Bara Thakur (if there be one) succeeds as of right to a vacant Jubrajship, was not established by the previous history of the Hill Tipperah family. The Government of India concurred in this view, and declined to interfere with the Rajah's action in appointing his eldest son to be Jubraj, a measure which they considered to be in 1606 the public interests of the Hill Tipperah State.