A zamindar or zemindar was an aristocrat, typically hereditary, who held enormous tracts of land and held control over his peasants, from whom the zamindars reserved the right to collect tax (often for military purposes). Over time, they took princely and royal titles such as Maharaja (Great King), Raja (King), Nawab (Lord), Mirza (Prince) Chowdhury (Lord), and many others.

Although zamindars were considered to be equivalent to lords and barons in some cases they were also seen as independent, sovereign Princes.

Often zamindars were Indian princes who lost their sovereignty due to British Rule (see: Madras Zamindari). For example, the Sivaganga Zamindari and Ramnad Zamindari were the lesser and greater Kingdom of Marava ruled by the Royal family till the 1800, ever since then they were the Zamindars of Marava.

There is no clear distinction between royal zamindars, such as Raja Venkata Ranga Rao, or merely aristocratic zamindars. Many Kings were former zamindars, such as the Royal House of Benares; conversely many new zamindars were old Kings. As a result, there is some confusion about the Indian Kingdoms about who is a King and who is a zamindar, as there were as many as 568 kingdoms and according to some other sources, 572 princely states in India before independence. During the Mughal Empire, zamindars belonged to the nobility and formed the ruling class. Emperor Akbar granted them mansabs and their ancestral domains were treated as jagirs.

Banda Singh Bahadur (Punjabi: ਬੰਦਾ ਸਿੰਘ ਬਹਾਦਰ)(1670–1716) aka Laxman Das was a Sikh Military Commander and martyr. He became part of struggle against the Mughal Empire in the early 18th century, after meeting Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Gobind Singh gave him the new name of Banda Singh Bahadur. He is best known for the sack of the Mughal provincial capital, Sirhind, and is revered as one of the most hallowed martyrs of the Khalsa.

His agrarian uprising against the Mughal administration in Punjab was a critical event in the development of the Dal Khalsa and the Sikh Misls, which eventually led to Ranjit Singh capturing Lahore in 1799 and establishing the Sikh Kingdom of the Punjab^{[citation needed]}.

After establishing his authority in Punjab, Banda Singh Bahadur abolished the zamindari system, and granted property rights to the tillers of the land^{[citation needed]}.

There are different views regarding origin of Banda Singh Bahadur:

Rama Prabha is an Indian actress who has performed primarily in Telugu language films. She acted in almost 1000 films. She was credited as a character artist who shared screen space with all generation superstars. Her career spans more than four decades and is still continuing.

She formed a noted pair on Telugu screen during 1970s and 1980s with yesteryears comedian Raja Babu.

Uttam Kumar (3 September 1926 – 24 July 1980) is one of the most famous names of Indian Bengali Cinema. Born Arun Kumar Chatterjee in 1926 at Ahiritola, North Calcutta he is widely known as Uttam Kumar and Mahanayak (The great hero). He remains as much of a cultural icon as he had been in his lifetime. A versatile actor, director, producer, singer and music director, his multifaceted talent earned him much acclaim and adulation.

Uttam Kumar was born in Kolkata in the home of his maternal uncle at Ahiritola, while his ancestral house is on Girish Mukherjee Road, Bhowanipore, Kolkata. After his schooling in South Suburban School (Main), he went for higher studies in Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration, a college affiliated to the University of Calcutta. He could not, however, complete his studies and started working at the Kolkata Port as a clerk. During this period, he acted in amateur theatre groups. His prodigious joint family had its own theatre group, the Suhrid Samaj, which staged many amateur shows.