Darbhanga, Allahabad

Darbhanga is a locality/township of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. This colony was formerly owned by the Royal family of Darbhanga. That is the reason of this colony being known as Darbhanga. It still has Darbhanga House and Darbhanga Castle in the Colony. This area was earlier known as Lowther estate an Lowther Castle earlier.

This colony lies adjacent to Motilal Nehru Medical College.

History of Darbhanga Colony

A fact forgotton about Darbhanga Colony is that this area played important role in Independence movement of India. The Fourth and Eighth annual convention of Indian National Congress was held here.

The Indian National Congress was set to meet in Allahabad in 1888. However, British official under Sir Auckland Colvin, had made up their mind not to allow the annual convention to be held in Allahabad and denied permission to Indian National Congress to use any public place in Allahabad for holding convention. The then Maharaja of Darbhanga, Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh, purchased a large property known as Lowther Castle and allowed Indian National Congress to hold its convention there. This property was renamed as Darbhanga Castle. Again, in the year 1892, the annual convention of Indian National Congress was held in Darbhanga Castle.^[1][2] The annual convention of Congress of 1892 was held on December 28, 1892 at the extensive grounds of Darbhanga Castle, now known as Darbhanga Colony. ^[3]

Later Darbhanga Castle (the residential building of Maharaja when visiting Allahabad, originally called Lowther Castle) was donated to Government of India after independence and Darbhanga House was constructed.

Miscellaneous Information

There are lots of famous back alleys in this area including "Chumrauti" and "Bengali Tolla" which display a lot of the socioeconomic disparities of a typical North Indian town.

1. ^ The Congress – First Twenty Years; Page 38 and 39
2. ^ How India Wrought for Freedom: The story of the National Congress Told from the Official records (1915) by Anne Besant.
3. ^ Indian Politics Since the Mutiny by Sir Chirravoori Yajneswara Chintamani