Preface to the second edition

Hameed Nizami (1915-62) and Nawa-i-Waqt
Mian Bashir Ahmad, after giving the reorganised Punjab Muslim Students’ Federation a good start, resigned the presidentship in favour of Hameed Naizmi, who had been connected with the Federation from its inception. He carried on the good work of his predecessor, but, apparently, he did not continue very long as President. The Inqilab dated 4 December 1942 contains an item of news reporting a vote of no-confidence in Hameed Nizami passed by the Working Committee of the Federation. Zahur Alam
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Shaheed became the Acting President. Hameed Nizami’s greatest contribution to the national struggle came through the newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt, which became the mouthpiece of the new generation struggling for the achievement of Pakistan.
Hameed Nizami was born on 3 October 1915 at Sangla Hill, a small railway junction not far from Lyallpur. He was a selfmade man and his early life was a great struggle. While still a student at Islamia College, Lahore, he was associated with Abdul Salam Khurshid and others in the foundation of the Punjab Muslim Students’ Federation, but after getting his degree he had to look for a career. He chose journalism. After receiving training under a scheme sponsored by the Punjab Government,, he worked for a short time in the Press Branch of the Punjab Government, which was headed at that time by Chaudhri Muhammad Husain, the friend and confident of Iqbal. He also had a spell of duty on the staff of National Congress, an Urdu daily started by Dr Satyapal, who represented the liberal wing of the provincial Congress. Sometime later he got a more congenia1 job when (in April 1944?), through the help of (Nawab) Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani, he became the manager of the Lahore office of the Orient News Agency, owned by a Muslim barrister of Patna. This gave him a steady income and also leisure for work relating to the Federation and independent journalistic activity. He also used the resources of the Orient News Agency for projection of the League point of view and for helping the cause of Pakistan.
The year 1942 was something of a landmark in the life of Hameed Nizami. Not only was he elected President of thereorganised Punjab Muslim Students’ Federation, but he was also able to convert into a weekly the newspaper with which his name is associated. The beginnings of the Nawa-i-Waqt were very modest. It started as a small-sized fortnightly. The first issue was dated 29 March 1940, i.e. it came out within a week of the passing of the historic Lahore Resolution. Its other promoters were Dr Shabbir Husain, Dr Muhammad Jamal Bhutta, Dr Muhammad Baqir-(later Principal, Oriental College) and Mr Aslam Siddiqi (later Principal Information Officer, Government of Pakistan) who all performed even minor functions in this labour of love, but the editorial responsibility was basically

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Hameed Nizami’s. For almost a year Nawa-i-Waqt carried the name of Mian Bashir Ahmad as the patron of the newspaper, and the first editorial was also written by him. The first issue contained messages not only from the Quaid-i-Azam and Ba’ba-iUrdu Maulvi Abdul Haq, but also from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Sir Abdul Qadir. The twin objectives of the journal were promotion of Urdu and popularisation of the message of Iqbal. Gradually, the second objective assumed greater importance and imperceptibly made the newspaper a doughty champion of Pakistan.
On 15 November 1942 the Nawa-i-Waqt became a weekly. Already, young men were applying pressure on Sikandar Hayat Khan and in an article in the Nawa-i-Waqt dated 25 December

1963 appears the facsimile of a letter dated 28 February 1942 from the Quaid to ”Meem Sheen” acknowledging the receipt of a press cutting containing a reiteration by Sikandar of his support to Pakistan and a pledge by some young men headed by Hameed Nizami and ”Meem Sheen” to do everything in their power for the attainment of Pakistan.

The story of how Nawa-i-Waqt became a daily has been narrated by Begum Nizami in a special issue of the paper devoted to the memory of her husband118 (25 February 1965): ””In the Punjab, the movement in favour of the Muslim League and Pakistan really started with the expulsion of Malik Khizr Hayat. On the morning following the night when Khizr Hayat was expelled from the Muslim League, the Quaid-i-Azam sent for Hameed Nizami, editor of the weekly Nawa-i-Waqt” The Quaid stated that he wanted a daily to be started from Lahore, which should be a hundred-per-cent representative of the viewpoint of the Muslim League and Pakistan Movement, and desired this newspaper should be started by Hameed Nizami. •”He communicated this decision or command within five minutes in a manner which left the editor of the Nawa-i-Waqt startled.” The latter raised the question of funds. Apparently, the Quaidi-Azam had worked out everything in advance. He asked Nizami not to worry about this and to discuss the details with the young Mamdot. The Nawab of Mamdot who was in the adjoining room told Nizami that wh.at Quaid had in view was a Company or
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Partnership with five shareholders-Mamdot, Mumtaz Daultana, Mian Bashir Ahmad, Hameed Nizami and Nizami’s nominee. The next day Nizami proposed the name of his friend Hamid Mahmud, later Managing Editor, Nawa-i-Waqt Publications, Ltd. The drafting of a deed of partnership was entrusted to Mahmud Ali Qasuri, who completed it in three or four days, but in the meanwhile Mumtaz Daultana suggested that Hameed Nizami might accept compensation for his interest and the daily should be owned by the other three shareholders. Hameed Nizami-after consulting some friends-did not agree to this, and decided to bring out the daily under his and Hamid Mahmud’s proprietorship. The daily Nawa-i-Waqt came out on 22 July 1942, with ”a prayer and a message” from the Quaid-i-Azam. When the Nawa-i-Waqt became a daily, the press in the Punjab was firmly under the Unionist control. The only honourable exception was the daily Ihsan, and one would have liked to ”be able to record something about the contribution of Malik Nur Elahi and his co-workers, but the file of the newspaper is not available and those connected with it have adopted a self-effacing attitude about their work which, however noble, does not help ”the historian. In any case, the Nawa-i-Waqt had a character of its own. It was the mouthpiece of the younger generation which had been inspired by Iqbal, its management was competent and, although it was a privately-owned newspaper, for all practical purposes it was the organ of the Muslim League. It gave full publicity to the activities of the League, kept a critical watch on what the Unionist Party was doing to bolster up the Zamindara League, etc., published poems and articles in support of the demand for Pakistan and became a powerful factor in the swing of the public opinion in the Punjab.
Hameed Nizami was barely twenty-nine when he became the editor of the daily Nawa-i-Waqt. His simple, matter-of-fact119 style indicated a cool head, and there is no doubt that he was clear-headed, methodical and shrewd. Without these qualities, he could not have made the Nawa-i-Waqt, with all its limitations {not only in the financial sphere), such a power and himself such a legend. He, early, developed a style which enabled him to •convey all that he wished to say without exposing himself to

268 ] Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan lawful punitive action. Great skill and self-control were needed to undermine the Unionist government day in and day out but gave its officers no excuse to take action against the newspaper. Hameed Nizami possessed all -this, but there are good reasons tobelieve that his cool, cautious approach only represented the upper crust of a highly intenre, emotional-and even complexpersonality. Naseem Hijazi, who. shared a house with Nizami for some time, described in an informative article three disquieting disorders, from which Nizami suffered between 1938 and 1940 and all were related to heart or nervous system. There is, no doubt, that in spite of an almost perennial smile on his lips and a seeming nonchalance, Nizami suffered from acute nervous tension which, probably, had its base in hidden-and not sohidden-conflicts.

The role of the Quaid-i-Azam in the conversion of the Nawa-iWaqt into a daily has been outlined. Nizami was a valued, active helpmate of the Quaid, but perhaps it is fair to say that he was fascinated more by Iqbal’s romantic idealism than what the Aga Khan has called Quaid’s ”cool common sense”. The attachment to Iqbal is obvious from the fact that one of the two objectives for which the Nawa-i-Waqt came into existence was propagation of Iqbal’s teachings-in fact, the early issues of the newspaper carried the inscription ”To the Memory of Hakim-ulUmmat Allama Iqbal”120-but there is also reason to believe that, at least at one stage, Nizami expressed disenchantment with, the Muslim League leadership-not excluding the Quaid-i-Azam. The recently published Makatib-i-Bahadur Yar Jang contains (at pp. 522 and 546-8) two important letters written by the Nawab in reply to letters received from Hameed Nizami in February

1944. Nizami’s own letters have not been puplished, but Nawab’s replies leave no doubt that the original letters must have contained a criticism of the League leadership and an expression of a desire to see the rise of a new leader. Out of the League leaders Liaqat AH Khan and another have been mentioned by name, but the criticism seems to have been so general and intense that the absence of a specific mention of the Quaid as an. exception is significant, as also is the desire for a ne\\ leader. Apparently, Nizami’b dissatisfaction with the League leaders,

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in February 1944 was due to their refusal to commit themselves to the establishment of an Islamic State in Pakistan and their policy of leaving this question to the chosen representatives of Pakistan. Nizami may have, ultimately, appreciated the reasons underlying the standpoint of the League leaders. His desire to see an Islamic order in Pakistan was lifelong-so was Quaid’s; only as a lawyer and a realist, he saw the, tremendous problems121 involved in the process more clearly-but in course of time, Nizami became very critical of the Jamaat-i-Islami which had all along been finding fault with the League on this point. When in

1948, Maulana Maududi gave an interview regarding jihad in Kashmir which was likely to create problems for Pakistan, Hameed Nizami wrote powerful articles criticising these views and’paved the way for penal action against Maulana by Mamdot ministry.

Hameed Nizami wrote his letters to Nawab Bahadur Yar Jang in February 1944. Two months later the bugles were blowing and the League-Unionist conflict had started. Hameed Nizami was entrusted with an important sector, and he carried -on the battle with implicit loyalty, great skill and fierce determination. The way he crossed swords with even the former critics of the Unionists like Dr Ashiq Husain Batalvi, to defend League’s current policies and personalities, may be read in Batalvi’s own words. Writing about his limited acquaintance •with Hameed Nizami, he continues to say: ”Actually in 1946, there was an occasion” for active opposition between us. I had written a number of articles against the Cabinet Mission Plan and had vehemently criticised the decision of the Muslim League. Nizami wrote vigorous articles in reply, and bitterness marked the writings on both sides. In those days, once, Mr Nizami wrote sarcastically about me in his newspaper that I was not even a member of the Muslim League. I replied, ’Yes, I am not a member of the Muslim League, and I consider it a disgrace to be a member of the League of which the leadership in the Punjab is in the hands of Mamdot and Daultana’.”122 Hameed Nizamiessentially a fighter-was in his element in the League-Unionist conflict and his role in the Punjab was more exacting and difficult than that of the Dawn in the bigger sphere of the subcon-

Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan
tinent. He played it with great distinction and, although he was. only thirty-two when the battle for Pakistan was won, he had already secured a niche in national history.
In the elections of 1946 the Muslim League opposed the Unionist Party and, thanks to the inspiring leadership of theQuaidi-Azam and solid work put in by an army of workers, won an overwhelming victory. The Muslim members of the Punjab Assembly were now in ’a position to make their contribution to the foundation of Pakistan, but owing to a coalition of the Hindus and Sikhs with a handful of Muslim Unionists, the League was kept out of the government. In fact, the Muslim League had to conduct a major province-wide agitation to keep the bureaucracy in check. These developments on the eve of Partition have been described elsewhere. It may not, however, be out of place to refer here to the tragic consequences of Khizr’s defiance of the Muslim public opinion in 1944 and-what was worse-again in

1946, when the election results had left no doubt about the position of the League. His break with the Muslim League and the manner in which the fight against trfat organisation was carried on by the bureaucracy had terrible consequences for the province, for the Muslims of the area, for the Unionist Party and for Khizr himself. It is anybody’s guess as to what would have been the future of the Punjab if an unreal situation had not been allowed to continue till practically the end of the British rule. An orderly transfer of power and even maintenance of law and order became impossible which brought endless misery to the entire population. Of course, the Muslims suffered specially, on account of division in their ranks and the fact that a handful of legislators sought to speak in the name of the community which constituted the majority of the provincial population.

The consequences for Khizr and the Unionist Party were no less disastrous. His political career came to an abrupt end and the Unionist Party was wiped out of existence. In fact, the bitterness of the League-Unionist conflict did not merely affect the course of the later events. It also cast a deep shadow on what had happened earlier. The public forgot what the Unionist leadership had done for the Muslims in general and for the rural masses in particular, during the sixteen years of Montford
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Reforms (1921-36). It also lost sight of the fact that from 1937 to’ 1944 the Unionist Party was in alliance with the Muslim. League, and that Khizr’s predecessor, Sikandar Hayat Khan, had been called a strong pillar of the Muslim League by the Quaidi-Azam himself. The memory of what happened during the three years beginning with the dismissal of Sardar Shaukat Hayat in April 1944 and ending with the resignation of Khizr Hayat Khan on 3 March 1947, overshadowed everything else.
Perhaps the most unfortunate results of the bitter LeagueUnionist conflict has been the hardening of cleavage between the urban intellectuals and the rural pragmatists in the former Punjab. A certain diversity of interests and outlook between rural and urban areas is universal. In the former Punjab this is more marked as the language most generally used in the rural areas is Punjabi, while Urdu has much greater impact in the urban areas. The fact that the leaders of the party which claimed to be the champions of rural interests adopted an indefensible position123 at a crucial moment in national history-led to the eclipse of the party. This was natural and would not cause any regret, but an unfortunate byproduct of the bitter conflict has been that the interests of the rural population have also suffered. In the areas where cleavage between the rural and urban population is not so marked, the urban intellectuals take a more active interest in the rural affairs, have an intimate understanding of their conditions, outlook and problems and with their intellectual advantages make material contribution to the rural welfare. In the former Punjab this is not noticeable. The manner in which Land Alienation Act, which saved Muslim cultivators in pre-Partition days, has been watered down, and organisations like the Co-operative Department, set up mainly for the benefit of small cultivators, have either suffered in neglect or have been diverted to the advantage of the urban areas without attracting any attention, is an index of what is happening.
Bengal
Syed Nawab AH Chowdhry. Events leading to the first partition of Bengal, its annulment and the effect of that annulment on Nawab Salimullah Khan of Dacca have been outlined earlier.

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*’The unsettling of the settled division of Bengal” meant the end of the political career of Salimullah, but the new possibilities -which had opened up before the Muslims and the Hindu-Muslim struggle over the Partition had brought forward some men who carried on the work after Salimullah. One of them who was Salimullah’s co-worker, but lived long enough to be the first Muslim minister in Bengal under Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms, was Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhry, whose grandson Muhammad Ali of Bogra was, at one time, Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Nawab Ali Chowdhry was born in December 1863 and was educated at St Xavier’s Collegiate School. His paternal home was at Dhanbari in the district of Mymensingh, but by marrying the daughter and heir of Nawab Abdus Sobhan Chowdhry of Bogra, Tie became connected with Bogra also. The first important activity of his, which we have been able to trace, relates to his prominent part in the thirteenth session of the All-India Mohammedan Educational Conference held at Calcutta in 1899. This session of the Conference, the first to be held in Bengal-thanks to all-India vision and contacts of Mohsin-ul-Mulk-was an historic occasion, inasmuch as it brought together, for the first time, the important Muslim leaders of Bengal and Northern India. Almost all the prominent Bengali leaders of the day were present. Syed Ameer Ali was the President of the Conference. Two other important local leaders, singled out for special mention in his address by the Chairman of the Reception Committee, were Nawab Ahsan Ullah (father of Nawab Salimullah) and Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhry. Important local speakers included Maulvi (later Sir) Shamsul Huda, ”Maulvi Abdullah M.A. Suharwardy” (Abdullah alMamun Suharwardy?), Z.R. Zahid (Zahid Suharwardy?), Maulvi Muniruzzaman Islamabad!, the well-known Bengali writer and journalist, and Abdul Hamid, Editor of Muslim Chronicle, Calcutta. There was a strong contingent from Northern India, including Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Sardar Muhammad Hayat Khan, K.B. Barkat Ali Khan, Allama Shibli, Maulvi Nazir Ahmed, Mian Shah Din, Mian Muhammad Shaft, Shaikh Abdul Qadir, Munshi Mahbub Alam and Sahibzada Aftab Ahmed Khan. Maulvi Shamsul Huda called the session the most important gathering of the Muslims he had witnessed during his fifteen years’
Emergence of the Muslim Majority Provinces [273
stay in Calcutta and thought that it augured well for the national progress and was indicative of far-reaching changes in the condition of the Muslims of Calcutta. At this historic session of the Educational Conference, which was perhaps second in importance only to the Dacca session of 1906 when the foundation of AllIndia Muslim League was laid, Syed Nawab Ali played a prominent role. He delivered many eloquent speeches in Urdu and the principal resolution proposing that the Aligarh College should be raised to the level of a University was moved by him in an impressive speech. Another Urdu speech of his was commended by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal who was present at one of the sittings.
Nawab Ali who recited a Bengali poem at the Calcutta Conference was appointed Secretary of the Provincial Sub-Committee which was set up to keep a watch over the elementary education of the Muslims of Bengal. Soon after the Conference Nawab Ali made his debut as an author in Bengali. In 1901 he published a book entitled Id-ul-Azha extending over some 174 pages, dealing with various aspects of the important Muslim festival. Two years later, he published a Bengali Maulood Sharif extending over some 180 pages and dealing with the birth and infancy of the Holy Prophet. He also helped Bengali journalism. He was patron of Muslim Hitaishi and also purchased a printing press for Mihr-o-Sudhakar. He gave monetary assistance to Bengali writers like Mir Musharraf Husain, Shaikh Abdul Rahim (author of Prophet’s life).
Meanwhile, he was attending to the affairs of his estate and local institutions. It is said that by his good management he increased the income of Dhanbari estate ten times. His sphere of interest widened greatly with the Partition of Bengal and the creation of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam in

1905. Next to Nawab Salimullah, he seems to have been the most active non-official in the new province and he gave vigorous expression to the Muslim point of view. A selection of the papers of (Sir) James Dunlop Smith, who was Private Secretary to Lord Minto at the time of the Simla Deputation, shows that Syed Nawab Ali was one of the first to protest vigorously when the resignation of Sir Dampfylde Fuller, the Lieutenant-Governor of

18

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Eastern Bengal and Assam, who was considered to be favourable to Muslims, was accepted by the Viceroy. In the last week of August 1906, Dunlop Smith received a copy of a letter which Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk had addressed to the Principal of the Aligarh College. In this communication Mohsin-ul-Mulk quoted from a letter of Syed Nawab Ali giving expression to a strong feeling of resentment amongst the Muslims of Bengal. Syed Nawab Ali wrote: ”Up till now the Muhammadans of Bengal have been careless. They have now begun to feel the consequences of their carelessness. If only Muhammadans of Bengal, instead of following the Government, had agitated like the Hindus and had enlisted the sympathies of the Muhammadans of the whole of India, and raised their voice up to the Parliament, they would never see these unfortunate circumstances.”124 The resignationrather, the virtual dismissal-of Lieutenant-Governor Fuller125 caused deep resentment amongst the Muslims of the new province. They held meetings at various places-at Dacca, Netrakona, Mymensingh and Noakhali-”expressing their regret and protest”. At Dacca, a ”mass meeting of 30,000 Muslims passed a resolution deploring the resignation of Fuller, and regretted that the Govei^ ment had accepted Fuller’s resignation, without regard to Muhammadan interests and had done great injustice to His Majesty’s loyal subjects.”126 Many top administrators and leading students of current affairs were also critical of the decision. Ibbetson, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, warned the Viceroy, ”I am convinced that it will be political madness to throw Fuller over.” Sir Valentine Chirol, the influential representative of The Times, was equally critical. Minto tried to defend his decision,127 but he must have realised that it was an unfortunate step which he was compelled to take and that the” Muslim opinion in Eastern Bengal was greatly perturbed. It was partly to soothe this feeling of resentment to which Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhry gave such force. ful expression that Lord Minto adopted a conciliatory approach to the demands made by the Muslim Deputation a few weeks later. As Dr Wasti, referring to the Simla Deputation, says, ”Minto and Hare [the new Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal] were thinking to find ways and means to pacify the Muslims who were agitated at Fuller’s resignation.”128 He also brings out the fact
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Emergence of the Muslim Majority Provinces [ 275
that Government action was condemned by Muslims ”throughout the country” and ”heavily attended meetings were held at almost every important town of India” including far-off places like Multan. ”The resignation of Fuller stirred up the Muslims just as the Partition and Swadeshi movement had popularised the Congress.”129
Nawab Ali Chowdhry was a prominent member of the Simla Deputation and took active130 part in the organisation of the Muslim League, which was established shortly thereafter. He was made a Nawab in 1911 and after Nawab Salimullah’s death he became the seniormost Muslim leader in East Bengal. It is worth recording that in 1916 he joined Sir Abdul Rahim in refusing to sign the Lucknow Pact,131 presumably as it did not safeguard the legitimate rights of the Muslims of Bengal. In 1918 he became the President of the Central National Mohammedan Association. At one stage he carried on a public controversy with the poet Rabindranath Tagore on the use of Persian and Arabic words in Bengali.
Nawab Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhry was the first Muslim minister to be appointed in Bengal under the MontaguChelmsford Scheme. He held this post from 3 Jaauary 1921 to

3 January 1924, and was in charge of Public Works, Excise, Agriculture and Industries. Sir Surendranath Benerjea, called ”the uncrowned king of Bengal” during the anti-Partition agitation, was his colleague in this ministry while Sir Abdul Rahim was an Executive Councillor. Nawab Ali had not received a high modern education and some Muslim leaders of Calcutta felt aggrieved at his selection, but Surendranath, who has referred to this in his autobiography, remarks with regard to Nawab Sahib’s administration of his departments that ”the Governor of the province himself has recorded an emphatic eulogy”. He also says that, although Nawab Sahib and he were previously arraigned in hostile camps during the earlier partition of Bengal, between the Nawab and his Hindu colleagues, the Personal relations were friendly and cordial. ”Only in one matter was there any marked difference and [that] despite the practical lesson afforded by our joint action as Ministers. That was in connection with the question of communal representation. The

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Nawab Sahib and Sir Abdur Rahim, Member of the Executive Council, were both its active and thoroughgoing supporters, and we, the Hindu Ministers, were as wholeheartedly opposed to it. Our Muhammadan colleagues would make no compromise.”1^ After the expiry of S>ed Nawab Ali’s term, new ministers were appointed but by then the Swarajists had entered the Assembly with a view ”to wreck the reforms” and the new ministries were shortlived. In the succession of changes which were introduced to find a stable ministry, Syed Nawab AH Chowdhry again became a minister on 14 March 1925, but he had to resign within a fortnight owing to a vote of no-confidence. He passed away on 17 April 1929. Before his death, he worked as Executive Councillor.133 He died of pneumonia at Darjeeling and his body -was brought for burial to the family home at Dhanbari.
Sir Shamsul Huda (1862-1922). Another notable from East Pakistan about whom very little is heard nowadays was Nawab Sir Shamsul Huda. He was born in 1862 in a village in Comilla district. His father Riazatullah was a classical scholar and editor of the Doorbeen, a Persian weekly started in the seventh decade of the last century. Shamsul Huda had a brilliam educational career. He graduated in Law from the Calcutta University and also passed M.A. Examination in Persian. After serving for some time as Associate Professor in Arabic and Persian at the Calcutta Madrasa, he joined the High Court Bar He became a member of the Senate of the Calcutta University in

1894 and was appointed Tagore Professor of Law in 1902. In 1899 he took active part in the Calcutta session of Mohammedan Educational Conference.

Side by side with his attention to education and law, Shamsul Huda found means for satisfying his inherited interest i’i journalism. He ”financed” the Bengali weekly Sudhakar. I-i addition he bought the Urdu Guide Press and ”financed”1-’4 The Muhammadan Observer, which was the first Engl’sh weekh in Bengal to be owned by a Muslim. He was active in the session of All-India Mohammedan Educational Conference held at Calcutta in 1899, and delivered many speeches.
In 1910 Shamsul Huda was nominated to the Indian Legislative Assembly to represent the Muslims of East Bengal. In 1912