Jharia Raj

Jharia Raj / Jharia Estate was a Zamindari estate inBritish India, located at Jharia in Bihar province of the Bengal Presidency.

The present Jharia house is an offshoot of Palganj in Hazaribagh and was formerly established at Katrasgarh. Even today the ancestral house cum fort of Jharia Raj family stands at Katras. As per family history, the zamindars were originally from Rewa in Central India and established their kingdom in the area around Jharia in year 1763. In 1864 the Jainagar estate was bought by the Jharia estate. The village of Katras contains the residence of the zamindar, which according to tradition was formerly the head-quarters of the Jharia Raj before this was split up into the separate houses of Katras, Jharia and Nawagarh. It became one of the richest zamindari estates of Bengal Presidency after the coal was discovered in the lands underneath and mining started in deacade of 1890 in the area.

Among the notable zamindars of Jharia Raj were, Raja Durga Prasad Singh, who inherited estate in 1850s when he was still a minor. Durga died in 1916, who was succeeded by Raja Shiva Prasad Singh. Shiva Prasad died in January 1947 and his eldest son, Shri Kali Prasad Singh became the last Raja of Zharia till the zamindari was abolished in 1952.

The major coal mining areas were in the five big estates - Jharia Raj, Nawagarh Raj, Katrasgarh Raj, Tundi Raj and Pandra Raj, which covered the entire area between the Damodar and Barakar rivers in what was then Manbhum district, which later became Dhanbad district.

The Jharia Raj area was first surveyed and mapped by T.W.H. Hughes in 1866, and in 1890 by T. H. Ward who estimated 804 million tons of good coal reserve. Earlier, in 1858 Messrs. Borrodaile and Co. had applied for a lease for the whole of Jharia estate. The Estate or Raj was at that time under the Court of Wards for a lease to mine coal in the Jharia estate was not granted. The first lease were not given before 1890. In 1895, Dhanbad, Jharia, Katras, Kusunda and Patherdih were connected by railway lines via Asansol to Calcutta and this considerably helped mining industry of this area to take off in a big scale. With the railways came the Gujarati people as an expert railway contractor with an experience of railway construction work at Thane. They met the then Raja of Jharia and purchased some land having underneath a vast wealth in the shape of coals on lease. Among, them the pioneer Indian was Khora Ramji, which was also acknowledged by British gazeeteer. By early 1900s there were several coal mines operating in Jharia coalfields belt, which was now connected to Calcutta by a train link and the Jharia Raj began to prosper with the income coming from royalties and migrant population and Jharia becoming a major coal mining hub and business center in rival to Ranigunj coal region. There was intense competition between mine owners of the major coalfields, Jharia and Raniganj and by 1907 Jharia was yielding half of India's output. One of its oldest mines was Khas Jharia owned by Khora Ramji.

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