Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo

Pravir, King of Bastar (Pravir Chandra Bhanj Dev 25 June 1929 – 25 March 1966) was the first Odia ruler and 20th Maharaja of Bastar state [1][2][3] who was shot in 1966 for championing the cause of his subjects. He fought for rights of the tribal people. He represented the Jagdalpur Vidhan Sabha constituency in the undivided Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly following the general election of 1957.[4]

He was the last ruler of Bastar state which was established by a branch of Kakatiya dynasty.The Kakatiya dynasty adopted Dev or Deo surname in line with other feudal kings of Odisha ruled under Gajapati Kingdom in medieval period.The Bastar region was part of greater Kalinga kingdom and an extenstion of Trikalinga. He was born on 25 June 1929 and was educated at Rajkumar College, Raipur. He succeeded to throne on 28 October 1936. He was married to Rajkumari Shubhraj Kumari of Patan, Rajasthan daughter of Raj Rishi Rao Saheb Udaya Singhji and Rani Trilokya Raj Lakshmi of Patan on 4th July 1961.

He was immensely popular among his people, as he took up the cause of the local tribal people, and provided political leadership against exploitation of natural resources of the region, and corruption in land reforms. On 25 March 1966 he was killed in police firing at the steps of his own palace at Jagdalpur along with many of his tribal followers.[5][6] The official death toll was twelve including the king, with twenty wounded; the police had fired sixty one rounds. The district magistrate was reported as stating that Pravir Chandra was leading armed adivasis against the police, who fired in self-defence.[6]