Shams-ud-Daulah, Nawab

Shams-ud-Daulah, Nawab Naib-Nazim of Dhaka from 1822 to 1831 and earlier a revolutionary leader who made a grand trans-regional plan to overthrow the British colonial rule. Nawab Shams-ud-Daulah was one of the three grandsons of Naib Nazim Hashmat Jung (nawab of Dhaka during 1781-1788) by one of his daughters. Their father was Meer Murtuza, an Arab. Having died childless, Hashmat Jung's second grandson, Nusrat Jung, succeeded him as nawab in 1788. He also died childless in 1822. Under the circumstances, the colonial government recognised his brother Shams-ud-Daulah as the nawab of Dhaka, though previously Shams-ud-Daulah was tried for 'treason' and sentenced to jail in Calcutta for life.

Nawab Shams-ud-Daulah was well versed in English, which he is said to have learned from his English secretary, Mr. Lee. It is gathered from William Hickey and Bishop Heber that Shams-ud-Daulah had good command over European history and English classical literature. He could never reconcile himself with the colonial rule. He made 'treasonable' correspondences with all the hostile princes of India, including Tipu Sultan of Mysore and King Zaman Shah of Afghanistan, and also with the disaffected zamindars of Bengal and Behar and thus' 'plot' a general uprising against the British rule while Zaman Shah would attack India from the north western front.

Shams-ud-Daulah's revolutionary plan got transpired through an extraordinary incident. Wajir Ali of Oudh, who was earlier deposed, was living in Beneres as an exile. On 14 January 1799, Wajir Ali and his men killed the British Resident Cherry and the European armed sentries guarding him and fled away to jungle of Oudh to join a large force awaiting there for him. But as bad luck would have him and his co-revolutionaries, he left behind in his house a bag, which contained all the letters on the projected uprising passed between him and Shams-ud-Daulah. Having got all the details of his secret plan the colonial government arrested him in Dhaka. He, along with many others, was tried in Calcutta and sentenced to jail for a life term. However, subsequently, on the entreaties of his loyal brother Nawab Nusrut Jung, Shams-ud-Daulah was released, but only to live within the limits of Dhaka under the constant British surveillance. Disgruntled Shams-ud-Daulah agreed to sit on the hollow 'gadi' or throne of the nawab of Dhaka after the death of his brother, Nawab Nusrut Jung, in 1822.

Frustrated and impoverished, Shams-ud-Daula steeply declined in health since he became the nawab and died in 1831. [Sirajul Islam]

Bibliography Nandalal Chatterjee, 'Shams-ud-Daulah's intrigues against the English', in Bengal Past and Present, vol. 53, January-June 1937; Reginal Heber, Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, 1824-25, vol. 1, London 1873; Memoirs of William Hickey, ed. by Alfred Spencer, vol. IV,1950; James Taylor, A Sketch of the Topography and Statistics of Dacca, Calcutta 1840.