Wajed Ali Khan Panni (also known as Chand Mian; 14 November 1871 – 25 April 1936) was a Bengali politician, educationist and the

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

of Karatia.

Early life

Panni was born into a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...

family in Karatia,

Tangail Tangail ( bn, টাঙ্গাইল, ), is a major city within the Dhaka Division in central Bangladesh. It sits on the bank of the Louhajang River, north-west of Dhaka, the nation's capital. It is considered to be the main urban area of ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

in 1871. His father, Hafez Mahmud Ali Khan Panni, belonged to the

Karatia Zamindari Karatia Zamindari ( bn, করটিয়া জমিদারী, Korotiya Zomidari) was a zamindari family based in the Tangail District of Bangladesh. History The Keratia Zamindari was founded in the early 1600s by Bayazid Khan Panni of the ...

, a wealthy landowning family in the area. Their forefathers were

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

of the Panni tribe, and had migrated from Afghanistan during the

Mughal period The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. Panni was homeschooled by private tutors and learned

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, English,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Naimuddin Muhammad Naimuddin ( bn, মোহাম্মদ নইমুদ্দীন; 1832 - 1907/1916) was a Bengali Islamic scholar, writer and journalist. He was the chief editor of the Akhbare Islamia. Early life and education Naimuddin was born ...

in translating the

Fatawa-e-Alamgiri Fatawa 'Alamgiri, also known as Al-Fatawa al-'Alamgiriyya ( ar, الفتاوى العالمگيرية) or Al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya ( ar, الفتاوى الهندية), is a 17th-century sharia based compilation on statecraft, general ethics, milita ...

into four volumes in Bengali, with his father's patronage. At the start of the 20th century, Panni ordered the digging of a canal, known as Katakhali, in order to aid communication in

. Panni aided Abu Ahmad Ghuznavi Khan, the Zamindar of Delduar, in repairing the Atia Mosque in 1909 which was founded by his ancestor, Sayeed Khan Panni. Panni helped the

Nawab of Dhaka The Nawab of Dhaka (Bengali: "ঢাকার নবাব"), originally spelt in English Nawab of Dacca, was the title of the head of largest Muslim zamindar in British Bengal and Assam, based in present-day Dhaka, Bangladesh. The title of ''na ...

Khwaja Salimullah Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur (7 June 1871 – 16 January 1915) was the fourth Nawab of Dhaka and one of the leading Muslim politicians during the British rule in India. In 1906, the Muslim League was officially founded at the educationa ...

organize the ''Muslim Education Conference'' in Karatia in 1913. He founded two schools in Karatia after the conference, ''Hafez Mahmud Ali Khan High School'', named after his father, and ''Rokeya Aliyah Madrasah'', named after his wife. He served as the head of the

Mymensingh District Mymensingh ( bn, ময়মনসিংহ) is a district in Mymensingh Division, Bangladesh, and is bordered on the north by Meghalaya, a state of India and the Garo Hills, on the south by Gazipur District, on the east by the districts of Netr ...

Khilafat movement committee and the unit of All India Congress, serving as vice-president of the

Bengal Provincial Congress Committee Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. He was jailed for his role in the

Khilafat movement The Khilafat Movement (1919–24), also known as the Caliphate movement or the Indian Muslim movement, was a pan-Islamist political protest campaign launched by Muslims of British India led by Shaukat Ali, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Hakim Ajma ...

in December 1921. Panni founded Saadat College in July 1926, named after his grandfather Saadat Ali Khan Panni, which was one of the country's first five university-colleges and the first college in rural Bengal. He was a philanthropist who spent 20 percent of his own income in charity work. As a landlord, he was known to have been fair to his

ryot Ryot (alternatives: raiyat, rait or ravat) was a general economic term used throughout India for peasant cultivators but with variations in different provinces. While zamindars were landlords, raiyats were tenants and cultivators, and served as hi ...

s/tenants and waive rent in case of natural disasters such as famine or flood. Panni also established a

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

department in his land which was engaged by 700 Islamic scholars. Panni also established the Karatia Zamindar Bari (Karatia Palace) and one of the buildings, Rokeya Manzil, was named after his wife. Panni died in 1936.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panni, Wajed Ali Khan 1871 births 1936 deaths Bengali politicians People from Tangail District Karatia Zamindari family 19th-century Bengalis 20th-century Bengalis