In Memoriam
A gentleman of the old school
APRIL 17 was the 80th death anniversary of Nawab Bahadur Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury, a benevolent zamindar of Dhanbari village under Tangail district. He was an outstanding socio-political figure of the then Bengal during the period covering the last two decades of the 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century.
Nawab Ali Chowdhury was born on December 29, 1863, at the house of his maternal grandfather, Muhammad Ali Khan Chowdhury, a zamindar of Natore. His father Janab Ali Chowdhury was a zamindar of Dhanbari estate in the district of Tangail. His mother's name was Rabeya Khatun Chowdhurani.
Nawab Ali Chowdhury had his education at the Rajshahi Collegiate School and St. Xavier's College of Calcutta. With proficiency in English, Urdu, Arabic and Persian languages, he started his career as an honourary magistrate of Mymensingh. But he soon gave up the job and entered public life as a municipal commissioner of Mymensingh town and a member of the District Board, Mymensingh.
Nawab Ali Chowdhury was a member of the Eastern Bengal and Assam Legislative Council from 1906 to 1911, of the Bengal Legislative Council from 1912 to 1916 and of the Indian Imperial Legislative Council from 1916 to 1920. In 1921, he returned as an elected member of the Bengal Legislative Council and became a member of the first ministry in the reformed council during 1921-1223.
He was again returned as an elected member to the second reformed council in 1923, and was appointed a minister in March 1925. In the same year he was appointed a member of the Governor's Executive Council, the office he held to his last day. He had been entrusted with several departments, such as immigration, delimitation, hajj administration, forestry, agriculture, industry, excise and registration.
During his long public life he had been connected with a large number of social, political, educational, religious and cultural associations and public bodies. He was vice-president of the All-India Muslim League, president of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League, member of the Calcutta University Senate, member of the Dhaka University Committee, among other notable posts.
He made a valuable contribution to the establishment of the University of Dhaka (1921). The university came into being under the Central Government Act No. XVIII of 1920 and it was he who piloted the Dhaka University Bill in the Indian Imperial Legislative Council.
After the establishment of the university, he played an important role in framing its rules and regulations.
He was also a noted philanthropist. In 1906, he donated Tk.35,000 for the establishment of a Muhammadan hall for residential purposes of the Muslim students of Dhaka Government College. In 1922, he gave Tk. 16,000 for awarding scholarships to the students of Islamic Studies and other departments of the University of Dhaka.
Nawab Ali Chowdhury represented the Muslims of Eastern Bengal in the Simla Deputation in 1906. He worked hard for the extension of the Muslim representation in the Provincial and Central Legislative Council (1906-1929). He resigned from the post of the president of the Bengal Presidency Muslim League in 1917 in protest against the adoption of the Lucknow Pact, 1916, because he believed that the accord had jeopardised the interests of the Muslims of Bengal.
Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury was a patron of Bangla language, literature and journalism. His notable literary works are Vernacular Education in Bengal (1900), Eid-ul-Azha (1900) and Maulud Sharif (1903). He was the editor and proprietor of the weekly Mihir-o-Sudhakar (1895). He financially helped two other newspapers -- Islam Pracharak (1891) and Pracharak (1899).
He had been conferred with the titles of Khan Bahadur in 1906, Nawab in 1911, CIE in 1918 and Nawab-Bahadur in 1924 by the British government. Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury died on Wednesday, April 17, 1929 at his residence The Eden Castle at Darjeeling at the age of sixty-six years, leaving behind his wife, two sons, two daughters and a host of relations and admirers to mourn his death. His was buried in his family graveyard in Dhanbari.
May the soul of late Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury rest in eternal peace in Heaven.