Nawazish Ali Khan Qizilbash (Sir Roper Lethbridge, 1900)

Nawazish Ali Khan Qizilbash

NAWAZISH ALI KHAN, Sir, K.C.I.E. (of Nawabganj), Aliabad, Nawab; b. 1828. The title was conferred on May 21, 1866, as a personal distinction, in recognition of his position, and of the great public services of his distinguished father, the Nawab Ali Raza Khan Bahadur, and of himself. Belongs to a Quazilbash or Kazilbash family of high rank in Afghanistan; descended from Sardar Ali Khan, who came from the province of Sherwan on the west coast of the Caspian Sea, with Nadir Shah, when the latter invaded India. On his return Sardar Ali Khan was appointed Governor of Kandahar. He obtained the district of Hazara, north of Kandahar, on the accession of Ahmad Shah Durani, whom he accompanied in his last invasion of India, and by whose instigation he was assassinated. His son, Hidayat Khan, accompanied Shah Zaman to Lahore in 1797. When the British army brought back Shah Shuja to Kabul in 1839, Hidayat Khan’s son, Ali Raza Khan, who was living on his estate, was appointed Chief Agent of the Commissariat Department. During the disasters that followed he remained faithful to British interests; and it was mainly by his aid that the British prisoners were ultimately enabled to make their escape and join the relieving army of General Pollock. He accompanied the British forces to India on the evacuation of Afghanistan; and his estate was confiscated by Muhammad Akbar Khan, in consequence of which he received a British pension. During the Sutlej campaign he joined the British camp with his brothers and 60 horsemen of his tribe; and during the rebellion of 1848-49 furnished 100 horsemen for active service. In 1857 Ali Raza Khan voluntarily raised a troop of horse and sent it to Delhi at his own expense, mortgaging for the purpose his house and property at Lahore; this troop formed part of Hodson’s Horse, and served with conspicuous gallantry throughout the Mutiny campaigns. Lieutenant-Colonel H.H. Daly, when commandant of Hodson’s Horse, wrote of him in February 1859: “He has served throughout the war, and on all occasions has been conspicuous for chivalric valour... His gallantry has won for him the First Class of the Order of Merit... A braver soldier never took the field.” As a reward he received a large grant of lands in Oudh, with the title of Nawab conferred in 1864; and this, on his death in 1866, was continued to his son, the Nawab Nawazish Ali Khan. The family have also received a grant of lands in Lahore district in the Punjab. The Nawab was made an Honorary Assistant Commissioner of the Punjab on January 1, 1877, on the occasion of the Proclamation of Her Most Gracious Majesty as Empress of India, and he was for some time a Member of the Imperial Legislative Council of India. On June 1, 1888, he was created a Knight Commander of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire. He has taken a prominent part in the foundation of the Punjab University, and in all important works of public utility or benevolence in that Province. Residences: Bahraich, Oudh; and Lahore, Punjab.

Sir Roper Lethbridge, The golden book of India, a genealogical and biographical dictionary of the ruling princes, chiefs, nobles, and other personages, titled or decorated, of the Indian empire. — London, 1900, p. 221.