Ranas hunt for ancestral treasures
BY SURENDRA PHUYAL
NEW DELHI, Feb 24 - Several descendents of the Ranas are dusting off old documents from their 'sanduks' and shelves and are arriving in India for treasure hunting. Like the descendent of Chandra Shumsher [1901-1929] who hunted shares, debentures and assets worth nearly Indian Rs 10 million five years ago, most of them are succeeding too.
Dating back to the reign of the East India Company that ended in 1947, influential Nepali rulers, governors, their relatives, 'Bhai-bhardars' had invested millions and millions of rupees -- in shares, debentures, bank accounts and prime assets such as real estate and properties -- in India. And many of them, documents obtained by the Post reveal, have succeeded in reclaiming valuable assets and properties.
The Chandra Shumsher offspring [who wants to remain anonymous], for instance, started the treasure hunt in 1995. It all started after the a Delhi assets tracer, Jiwan Lal, found annual reports of several Indian companies -- more than half of them cease to exist today -- at his Jawalakhel residence. An enquiry was held with 24 companies that existed and "19 companies confirmed that the [Rana's] shares were still there," says the young Rana.
He's not alone. The offspring of Bir Shumsher [1885-1901] became successful in reclaiming shares and "back dividends" from 40 out of the 60 companies in India, following of course, the labyrinthine process of succession. That starts with the acquisition of a succession certificate from the high court in the area.
And it's definitely worth it. In all, the Bir Shumsher descendent reclaimed 12 million Indian rupees from the companies' shares and dividends. "After selling all his shares, today he's living happily in Kathmandu," say Jiwan Lal. "He's leading a luxurious life like many of his forefathers."
Since 1994, Jiwan Lal's firm has already helped nearly a dozen Nepalis -- most of them descendents of Rana Prime Ministers [who ruled Nepal between 1846 -1950] or their close aides such as Shahs, Thapas, Acharyas, Dixits, Joshis, Manandhars and Shresthas -- reclaim treasures "illegally siphoned away" by their rich and (in)famous forefathers.
Consider these historical facts:
*Around 1850, the 'Great Rana Prime Minister' Junga Bahadur Rana established a national treasury and deposited Rs 110 million. That treasury was indiscriminately exploited. His successor Chandra Shamsher extracted 45 million rupees on two separate occasions. Bhim Shamsher [1829-1932] exploited part of that. Later, Juddha Shamsher [1932-1945] collected a large sum of donations following the 1934 earthquake - again to exploit.
*Around that time, the wage of an unskilled laborer was just Rs 0.02 and that of an artist was Rs 0.48.
*Chandra Shamser had offered Rs 800,000 in cash, silver equivalent to Rs 2.5 million, cardamom equivalent to the sum of Rs 40,000, tea leaves equivalent to 84,699 pounds, 2 hundred jackets, 12 long coats and 220 saal trees to the British rulers around the time of World War I.
*A portion of loan was however returned after World War I [1914-1918] during Chandra Shumser's reign. After that secret deal, Chandra Shumsher distributed Rs. 90,000,000 in pure silver to each of his 9 sons, and a separate amount ranging from 20 to 40 million 'silver rupees' to each of his four surviving brothers.
*The last Rana Prime Minister Mohan Shamsher migrated to Bangalore in South India, where his palatial bungalow has been turned into a museum today. Rana Prince-turned Nepali Congress leaders Subarna Shamsher and Mahavir Shamsher inherited prime properties in Kolkata. They also owned India's first private airline, Himalayan Aviation, around the 1940s. The aircraft were also used to distribute pamphlets before 1950.
Historians (Pramod SJB Rana, Dhundi Raj Bhandari, M.P. Shrestha) conclude that the Ranas and their 'Bhai-bhardars' made investments in India because much of what they owned was ill-gotten. Things started changing after democracy came to Nepal in 1950 [Falgun 7, when King Tribhuvan returned home ending his brief exile in India]. Even so their legacy remains.
And the investors were far-sighted, too. "The Chandra Shamsher offspring, for example, continues to boast an 1852 East Indian Company debenture certificate with a face value of IRS 5,000," says Jiwan Lal. "Recently, somebody at the London Auction House offered IRS 800,000 for that, but he didn't sell it."
Currently, Jiwan Lal's firm is studying some old documents produced by a Rana and a Shrestha family, respectively. The first one -- a register, dated April 1958 -- talks about a sum total investment of IRS 169,130 in several pre-1947 Indian jute mills and tea estates. The second one -- a note book believed to have been maintained in the early 1950s -- talks about clearance of IRS 426,000 plus as tax and penalty to the Indian government.
"If this guy paid so much tax way back in the '50s he could have been a multi-billionare by now," he says, seated in his north Delhi home-cum-office. But the problem is this: much of such ancient properties and investments in India have been nationalized by the post-1947 governments.
The third most interesting bounty-hunting success story involved a Juddha Shumsher offspring from one of his house-maids-turned wife, or the "C" grade Rana. He acquired nearly Indian 8 million rupees. "He's in Kathmandu these days happy and spending time playing Bridge."
Posted on Kantipur Server: 2006-02-23 20:32:30 (Server Time)
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