Bamna Upazila: History
The area now comprising Bamna Upazila was part of the Chandradwip kingdom and thereafter Pargana Buzurg-Umedpur, which was gifted to Buzurg Umed Khan by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The pargana's largest taluq was the uninhabited Ramna-Bamna Taluq. In the 17th century, attempts were made to cultivate it in a few places. Due to the oppression of Magh and Portuguese pirates, no settlement was established. After the arrival of the East India Company in the middle of the 18th century, salt began to be cultivated in the region, and the taluq was leased to Sadashiva Majumdar, and later the Armenian merchant Khwaja Michael. During the time of the Thomson Partition in 1792, Ramna-Bamna was still a part of the Sundarbans.
In 1795, Ramna-Bamna was occupied by Safizuddin Jamadar, son of Muhammad Idrak of Durgapasha and brother of Zamindar Sidam Chowdhury of Gyanpara. Safizuddin, also known as Safi Mahmud Chowdhury, was a peyada of the East India Company salt-houses in Chechri and Amua who had been promoted to a jamadar. By 1809, with the assistance of the English merchants, Jamadar secured a seven-year revenue settlement for the Ramna-Bamna estate at an annual rent of 1,165 takas. The taluq consisted of 43 villages on the banks of the Bishkhali River. He began to permanently settle in Bamna, and the Saheb Bari Bazaar is named after the Chowdhury Taluqdars of Bamna. He had two sons: Hosenuddin Chowdhury and Nasruddin (Nayebuddin) Chowdhury. Hosenuddin inherited the zamindari estate from his father and is credited with constructing the Rangmahal Chan Pukur (where the Bamna hospital is now located). Khondkar Munshi Samiruddin served as his naib and is considered to be the founder of the Khondkar family in Bamna. Hosenuddin Chowdhury had a son and three daughters: Afsaruddin, Fakhrunnesa, Azizunnesa, and Asmatunnesa.
Mir Sarwar Jan (d. 1914), an heir of the Syeds of Malidia, settled in Bamna after marrying Azizunnesa Chowdhurani. Upon her premature death, he married her widowed elder sister, Fakhrunnesa Chowdhurani, thereby securing proprietary rights over a substantial portion of the Ramna-Bamna estate and emerging as a rival to his brother-in-law Taluqdar Afsaruddin Chowdhury. When Afsaruddin's sole son, Fakhruddin Chowdhury, was still a minor, Sarwar Jan was appointed guardian. After Fakhruddin attained maturity, a prolonged legal battle ensued, culminating in a landmark ruling by His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council in London, which formally declared Fakhruddin an adult at the age of thirty-six. By then, Fakhruddin had married the sister of Sir Kazi Golam Mohiuddin Faroqui and established his residence in Alekanda, Barisal. Fakhruddin (Nabalak Saheb) was childless and devoted himself to the philanthropic management of an orphanage, with the talukdari transferring over to the newly settled Syed family of Bamna. Sarwar Jan was succeeded by his son Zamindar Syed Abi Muhammad Ahsan (d. 1951), who constructed the Hasina Manzil on Nazimuddin Road, Dacca, which he named after his wife. Ahsan was succeeded by his son, Zamindar Syed Najmul Ahsan, under whom the zamindari was abolished under the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950.
Bamna Upazila was initially part of the Mathbaria thana of Pirojpur subdivision established in 1871. In 1913, greater Mathbaria thana was partitioned, with its eastern portion (consisting of four unions) forming the Bamna Thana. …