“Japanese magistrate” who thought maize was fantastic

Around the early 1970s, there was a narrative that circulated around Bihar that, despite differences in its origin, everyone believed to be real. While some maintained that the tragedy happened in Naugachhia, others stated that it happened in Banka. Others said that two separate but comparable occurrences had been seen in two different locations. That being said, the location is irrelevant to this story and only a detail.

In Banka (or Naugachhia), there were two well-known landowner families who were renowned for cultivating the finest corn harvest. The two families got into a fight once over a little disagreement. Standing on a large plot of ground close to their community, both families claimed ownership of the harvest. As the conflict worsened, the parties involved filed a lawsuit.

In addition to ordering both parties to avoid the contested farmland and to oppose a civil claim alleging ownership, the court issued an injunction. In order to keep the peace, the court further forbade the two families from gathering the crop and mandated the placement of an armed patrol near the cornfield. A posse consisting of four constables and one havildar was sent as a result. On the other hand, the military also needed magistrates. Sadly, however, there was not a single magistrate available to be sent to a remote community.

The government has the authority to designate anyone as a special executive magistrate for a brief period of time in order to handle such emergencies. These fake judges in Bihar were referred to as “Japani magistrates” until the 1970s, a reference to the low-quality imitations made in post-World War II Japan. And Misserji, a teacher from far-off Bhagalpur, had the good fortune to be named Banka’s (or Naugachhia’s) “Japani magistrate.”

Misserji and the five police officers set up camp in the isolated spot, distant from any stores or restaurants, for an unknown amount of time. They set up their meals and made themselves as comfortable as they could in a tent adjacent to the cornfield. They had stolen whatever veggies they could from the nearby farms and carried dry food from the city. However, Misserji was a guy well-known for his enormous appetite, girth, and love of life.

He was bored with the everyday “dal roti” and yearned for something better. And aha! He found maize! He began helping himself, along with the policeman, to the juicy bhuttas that were ripening in the contested field. A few weeks later, the cornstalks were completely devoid of cobs yet still flowed magnificently in the breeze. Although others disputed the story, it was reported that the five police officers and the “Japanese magistrate” had eaten about a thousand kg of maize in only six weeks. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not it was true. But ever then, the village’s citizens have avoided fighting over a plot of ground that is planted with corn.