The Sardari system () refers to the panchayat system used in the city of

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

(present-day

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

) from the second half of the nineteenth century. The system developed during under the

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

. In this state-recognised practice, a five-member committee was formed in each

mahalla is an Arabic word variously translated as district, Quarter (country subdivision), quarter, Ward (country subdivision), ward, or neighborhood in many parts of the Arab world, the Balkans, Western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and nearby nations. ...

of the city, consisting of local influential

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

who would take care of the minor issues of the mahalla. The chief of the mahalla committee was referred to as the

Sardar Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar (, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royal family, royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other Aristocracy (class), aristocrats. It ha ...

. The Sardar was appointed for life, and after his death, his son was usually the next Sardar. The Nawab of Dhaka used to give approval and formal recognition to the family panchayat committee.

History

Although the exact date of the introduction of the Sardari system is not known, many believe that it started during the

Mughal rule The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

and then developed during the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. The British government recognised the Sardari system after the introduction of the Nawab of Dhaka, in order to maintain the social order of the Dhaka metropolis and to maintain the Nawab's allegiance to the government. In 1876, under Nawab

Khwaja Abdul Ghani Nawab Bahadur Sir Khwaja Abdul Ghani (30 July 1813 – 24 August 1896) was the second Nawab of Dhaka and the first to assume the title of Nawab as hereditary, recognized by the British Raj. He introduced the panchayat system, gaslights, w ...

, the importance of this panchayat system increased and at that time there were a total of 12 panchayat committees in Dhaka. During the time of Nawab

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. On 30 December 1906, the All-India Muslim League was officially ...

, a further 22 committees were attached to it and the system was restructured. In 1907, Salimullah appointed his brother-in-law Khwaja Muhammad Azam as the Supervisor of all the Panchayat Committees of Dhaka. Under Azam, there were 133 sardars leading 133 committees. He wrote a book in

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

titled ''Islami Panchayet Dhaka'' in 1911. This system was in place for 80 years in Dhaka. Along with the abolishment of the

zamindari system A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

, this Sardari system was also abolished as part of the

East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950 The East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950 was a law passed by the newly formed democratic Government of East Bengal in the Dominion of Pakistan (present day Bangladesh). The bill was drafted on 31 March 1948 during the early yea ...

. Among the notable Sardars of Dhaka were Jumman Sardar, Pearu Sardar, Moti Sardar, Safar Ali Sardar, Mirza Qadir Sardar, Mawla Bakhsh Sardar, Majid Sardar and Latif Khan Sardar. 2016 marked the death of the last living Sardar of Dhaka, Akhtar Sardar.

Activities

Panchayat committees usually played a role in resolving various family, social, property inheritance and personal disputes through arbitration meetings. Different types of social ceremonies were also celebrated in this manner. Generally, any decision was followed by all parties and if anyone disobeyed, there was a system of local punishment.

References

{{Bengal Zamindars History of Dhaka Society of Dhaka

History

Activities

See also

References