Darbhanga, Allahabad

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

There is an interesting story regarding decision of Maharaja of Darbhanga to purchase this area. During British Rule, Congress Party wanted to hold their annual convention in Allahabad but they were denied permission by the Government to use any public place in Allahabad for this purpose. Thus, Maharaja of Darbhanga bought this area and allowed Congress to hold their annual convention there. The annual convention of Congress of 1892 was held on December 28th, 1892 at the extensive grounds of Lowther Castle, purchased by the then Maharaja of Darbhanga. Ref: Indian Politics Since the Mutiny by Sir Chirravoori Yajneswara Chintamani

This area was leased to Indian National Congress by Maharaja of Darbhanga to thwart the attempts by British officials to deny Indian National Congress the place to hold annual convention. The Maharaja of Darbhanga was a major supporter of Indian National Congress. ref: How India Wrought for Freedom: The story of the National Congress Told from eth Official records (1915) by Anne Besant.

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.