Bahadur Ghazi

'Bahadur Ghazi' zamindar of Bhawal and one of the bara-bhuiyans of Bengal. He belonged to the renowned Ghazi family, which had originally settled at Chaura on the western bank of the Lakhya, about a mile north of Kaliganj in Ghazipur district. Bahadur Gazi was the son and successor of the renowned bhuyan Fazl Ghazi and ninth in descent from Pahlwan Shah who came to Bhawal for preaching Islam and settled there about the beginning of the fourteenth century. Pahlwan Shah';s son Karforma Sahib was also a saintly person who acquired the pargana of Bhawal as fief through a sanad of the emperor of Delhi.

Bahadur Ghazi maintained close relation with the imperial court of Delhi during the time of Emperor akbar. As a token of allegiance, Bahadur Ghazi sent to the Emperor as gift 35 war-boats of local variety manufactured at a cost of 48,379 rupees. An imperial sanad reveals that Emperor Akbar confirmed Bahadur Ghazi in the zamindari of Bhawal.

Bahadur Ghazi was a close associate of musa khan Masnad-i-Ala. He possessed a large number of war-boats with which he took a prominent part in Musa Khan';s struggle against the Mughals, and tendered submission only after the final defeat of his chief (1611). In the last encounter of Musa Khan with the Mughals Bahadur Ghazi was posted with 200 war-boats at Chaura. After his defeat in the hands of the imperial general Abdul Wahid, Bahadur Ghazi along with the imperial general met Subahdarislam khan chisti at Jahangirnagar and tendered his submission. Bahadur Ghazi was courteously received by the subahdar who spared his zamindari but appropriated his war-boats to be annexed to the imperial fleet. Bahadur Ghazi as a vassal zamindar served in the train of the imperialists in their campaigns and took active part in the expedition against pratapaditya of Jessore (1611-12) and in their conquest of Kamrupa (1613).

Bahadur Ghazi along with Mahmud Khan, brother of Musa Khan, was actively involved in the conspiracy organised by anwar khan, zamindar of Baniachang, to capture or kill the leading mansabdars at the imperial camp at Hasanpur in cooperation with Khwaja Usman, and imprison Subahdar Islam Khan at Dhaka. The secret activities of Bahadur Ghazi were soon detected and the whole conspiracy was divulged. Bahadur Ghazi was put in fetters and kept under strict surveillance. [Muazzam Hussain Khan] [Khan, Muazzam Hussain Principal (retd), Gazaria Government College, Munshiganj]