[citation needed] Panchanan Barma was born in 1866 in a middle-class jotedar family at Khalisamari village of Mathabhanga subdivision, in erstwhile Cooch Behar state.
[citation needed] At the dawn of the nineteenth century, caste pride was very strong among the upper-caste Hindus.
They claimed that they are originally from Kshatriya varna and they left their homeland because of the fear of annihilation by a Brahmin sage Parashurama.
They even gave up their sacred thread in order to hide their identity and took shelter in a region, named Poundradesh, which is currently the districts of Rangpur, Dinajpur, Cooch Behar, and their adjacent areas.
They also gave up the Vedic rituals followed by the Kshatriya community to hide their identity and started living with the local people.
Under the guidance of Sri Harimohon Roy Khajanchi, Rangpur Bratya Kshatriya Jatir Unnati Bidhayani Sabha was established for the development of Koch community.
District magistrate of Rangpur accepted their opinion and ordered that Rajbanshis would be permitted to refer themselves as Bratya Kshatriya.
In the meanwhile, some enthusiastic Rajbanshis started to collect history, proverbs, songs, and popular folktales to establish their Kshatriya identity on a firm footing.
However, he soon realized the rigid attitude of the upper-caste Calcutta based congress leaders and understood that they will never help him in the social developmental work.
[5][2] In the following years, newly established Kshatriya Sabhā led a strong Kshatriyaisation movement among the Rajbanshi community.
His association (samity) tried to restore the past glorious heritage of the Rajbanshi Kshatriyas and tried to develop them on the socio-economic front.
In this ceremony, Rajbanshis took Kshatriyatwa by wearing a sacred thread (upabita) in the presence of many renowned scholars who came from different parts of India such as Nabadwip, Kolkata, Kamrup, etc.
Later Kshatriya Samiti organized many sacred thread-wearing ceremonies (Milankshetras) in different districts of Bengal and Assam.
However, Panchanan appealed to Rajbanshi youths to join the battlefield with the British to show their heroism or kshatriyatwa.
British provincial governors were supposed to control the reserved subjects which include justice, police, land revenue, and irrigation.
On the other hand, elected Indian provincial ministers were supposed to control the transferred subjects which include local self-government, public health, education, agriculture, fishery, and forest.
Through his work, He emphasized the importance of women's participation in the political, social, and economical activities of the society.
Through this organization, he wanted to make the women self-dependent by providing them modern education and physical training in stick-play, wrestling, etc.
He also wrote a poem, named Dang Dhari Mao, where he encouraged youths to stand up against any wrong and injustice against women.
Because of frequent incidents of female abduction, physical training using stick and daggers became popular among the Rajbanshi women.
[5][2] He understood the misery and distress of rural poor peasants in the hand of landowners and money lenders.
He built up a financial organization, named Barma Company at Ganibandha in the Rangpur district (present-day Bangladesh).
Through this organization, he aimed to free the rural poor peasants from the exploitations by the upper-caste landowners and money lenders.
The basic aim of this company was to protect the poor peasants from the landlord and moneylenders by providing loans.
His newly established Kshatriya Bank started to provide easy credit facilities to the poor rural peasants.
This micro-credit system conducted through the Kshatriya Bank helped many rural poor peasants and provided them an opportunity to build up their own future.
In this way, he tried to free rural poor peasants from the clutches of rich upper-caste landowners and money lenders.
Under his leadership, more than three hundred well-coordinated clusters of villages (Gram Mandali) were formed in the Rangpur locality.
[14][15] On 1 December 2020, the Government of West Bengal declared school holiday on the birthday of Panchanan Barma, stating:[16] It has been decided that there will be a holiday henceforth under the order of State Government on occasion of the Birthday of Thakur Panchanan Barma which falls on 1st day of Phalgun in every Bengali Year corresponding to 13th/ 14th February