Khwaja Abdul Ghani

Nawab Khwaja Abdul Ghani (30 July 1813 – 24 August 1896) was the second Nawab of Dhaka and the first of his family to hold the Nawab title as hereditary, recognised by the British Raj. ^{1 2} He inherited his father Khwaja Alimullah's estate in 1846 as its sole trustee (mutawalli) and enlarged it until the family stood at the height of its wealth and influence; he built Ahsan Manzil as the Nawabs' seat, and brought gas lighting, piped water, the panchayat system of neighbourhood councils, a zoological garden and the first newspaper to Dhaka. He was famed as an arbiter of disputes and for charity on a large scale, from Dhaka to Mecca. ¹

A polyglot in Bengali, Urdu, English, Arabic and Persian, he was a patron of Urdu and Persian literature, of theatre and of music in Dhaka, and kept close relations with all of the city's communities. ¹

Abdul Ghani was born at Begum Bazaar, Dhaka, on 30 July 1813, the second son of Khwaja Alimullah, who had consolidated the family estate and become its first Nawab; his mother was Zinat Begum. ^{1 2} Banglapedia records that Alimullah came to Dhaka from Kashmir via Uttar Pradesh in search of success and grew rich buying landed estates in the vigorous new land market of the early nineteenth century, while the English article, following Muhammad Mojlum Khan, traces the family's origin to Persia. ^{2 1} From his father — who died in 1854 according to Banglapedia — he inherited, among other properties, the French trading post (kuthi) at Kumartuli bought by Alimullah in 1830 and the Shahbag garden bought in 1840. ^{1 2}

He learnt Arabic and Persian at home and English at Dhaka Collegiate School, where he was in the very first batch of students; his mother tongue was Urdu and he also became proficient in Bengali. ^{1 2}

In 1846 his father executed a waqfnama making him mutawalli of all the family properties as an indivisible waqf: sole administrator of the estate, sole representative and spokesman of the family, responsible for distributing its income as allowances and for choosing his own successor. ^{1 2} He had four wives and, besides his successor, ten other children and twenty-one known grandchildren; the successor, Khwaja Ahsanullah, was his second son by his first wife Ismatunnesa. ¹

During the revolt of 1857 Abdul Ghani stood with the British, placed all his elephants, boats, horses and carriages at their disposal, and explained his position in words preserved by Buckland (1901): "My presence in the station at this critical moment inspires my countrymen with hope and confidence in the British Government and prevents the evil-doers from carrying out their wicked designs." Banglapedia adds that after the revolt he pressed the British Army to grant the sepoys amnesty, or at least to minimise their punishment. ^{1 2}

His offices and titles followed: member of Dhaka municipality from its inception and its commissioner in 1864 in the English article's dated list; honorary magistrate (Banglapedia dates the magistracy to 1861, the English list to 1866); member of the Bengal Legislative Council in 1866 and of the Governor General's Legislative Council in 1867. ^{1 2} In 1869 he settled a violent Shia–Sunni riot in Dhaka by arbitration; people brought him their disputes instead of going to the expensive courts, trusting his skill and credibility, and as president of the panchayat system he maintained social order through the mahalla leaders to whom he gave turbans. ^{1 2}

He was decorated Companion of the Star of India (CSI) in 1871, vested with the title Nawab in 1875, granted seven mounted guards (Turuk Sawars) in 1876, saw the title made hereditary in 1877, was made Knight Commander of the Star of India (KCSI) in 1886 and received the title Nawab Bahadur in 1892. ¹ He stood on good terms with Viceroys Lord Northbrook and Lord Dufferin, both of whom he received as guests in the new palace. ¹

Ahsan Manzil. Between 1859 and 1872 he engaged the European firm Martin & Company to develop the Kumartuli kuthi and rebuild it into one of Dhaka's finest landmarks; renamed Ahsan Manzil after his son and successor Ahsanullah, it became the family's seat of power, and in its Rang Mahal hall he entertained Lords Northbrook and Dufferin. ^{1 2}

Shahbag. He restored the old Mughal garden Bag-e-Badshahi and renamed it Shahbag, expanding it by land purchases to 26.5 hectares by 1876–1877, building its garden house from 1873, and founding there a zoo, annual agricultural and industrial fairs, New Year celebrations and the Boli Khela wrestling. ¹

Public works. He built Dhaka's water works at his own expense for about Rs 250,000 — Lord Northbrook laid its foundation stone on 6 August 1874 — introduced gaslights in the city's streets, was the first donor to the Buckland Bund embankment that protected Dhaka from flooding and extended it westward in the 1870s, and laid out the Dilkusha garden house in 1866 for his son Ahsanullah. ¹ He founded a Langarkhana asylum for the destitute in 1866, a high school at Kumartuli in 1863 that later became Khwaja Salimullah College, the Abdul Ghani High School at Jamurki in Tangail, and funded with Rs 25,000 the first female ward of Mitford Hospital, Dhaka's first hospital. ¹

Charity. The English article's donation list is long: Rs 35,000 for the Buckland Bund; Rs 20,000 for renovating Hoseni Dalan — the Shia centre of Dhaka, whose renewal he funded, the article says, "though he was a Sunni himself"; Rs 40,000 for renovating the Nahr-i-Zubaida at Mecca; Rs 10,000 for the road to the tomb of Shah Ali Baghdadi; and sums for famine, flood, earthquake and war relief from Ireland and Lancashire to Iran, France and Italy. Banglapedia adds that many people performed the Hajj with his financial help and that the Lady Dufferin Relief Fund received regular grants from him. ^{1 2}

Press and the arts. He was one of the proprietors (1856–1858) of the Weekly Dhaka News, the first English newspaper from Dhaka, printed at the city's first press. He patronised the baijee dancing girls, who performed at the Rang Mahal of Ahsan Manzil, at Shahbag and at Dilkusha, and in 1876 he invited a Bombay theatre troupe whose two Hindi plays featured three sisters as actresses — the first female performers on Dhaka's stages. ¹

He died at Ahsan Manzil, Dhaka, on Monday 24 August 1896, and was succeeded by his son Ahsanullah; the English article gives his burial as the Kartalab Khan Mosque, Banglapedia as the family graveyard at Begum Bazaar, where that mosque stands. ^{1 2 3}

This section sets out different positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum.

The sources present him as a loyalist of the Raj, and his own words of 1857 justify the stance as keeping his countrymen's confidence and preventing disorder in the city; Banglapedia's account adds the counterweight that he afterwards sought amnesty for the defeated sepoys. ^{1 2}

Banglapedia describes him as "intensely a religious man" whose charity reached the Nahr-i-Zubaida at Mecca and the financing of others' Hajj, and holds that by supporting female artistes in the theatre he "proved that he was liberal and free from prejudice"; it also notes his observance of Muharram occasions and his competitions for poets and singers. ^{2 1} The English article records his close relations with Dhaka's Hindu, Armenian and European communities and his reputation as a fine arbiter of conflicts. ¹

His own school is named by the English article alone — its infobox gives his religion as Sunni Islam and its text says he patronised the Shia centre "though he was a Sunni himself". Because that is a single source family, and Banglapedia and the Arabic article name no school for him, the faith field in his data record remains unknown with that single attestation stated in the note. ^{1 2}

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.