Preface to the second edition

He was a member of the Bengal Legislative Council from

1924 and became the provincial Education Minister in 1929. In this capacity he was responsible for successfully piloting the Bengal Rural Primary Education Bill in 1930. It involved some additional taxation and setting up of a provincial Board to control the primary education, and was vehemently opposed by the Hindu members. Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din’s Hindu colleague, who held the portfolio of Local Self-Government, resigned on the plea that the Bill was sought to be passed on communal lines. Khwaja Sahib made ”a fighting speech” repudiating the suggestion that a communal issue was involved and alleging that there was ”a strong group of influential members in the House opposed to the Bill who challenged me, threatened me and even made tempting offers guaranteeing the Ministry from all attacks”. The Bill was passed on 25 August 1930, when the majority of the elected Hindu members had walked out.

Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din continued as Education Minister till

1934, and thereafter he became an Executive Councillor. In that capacity he piloted two important bills designed to improve the lot of Bengal peasantry-the Agricultural Debtors’ Bill and the Bengal Rural Development Bill. Referring to Khwaja Nazim-udDin, Sir Robert Reid, who later became Governor of Assam and held charge of Bengal for brief intervals, says in Years of Change : Bengal and Assam (p. 77): ”Khwaja Sir Nazimuddin. ... An attractive character, he brought to the Council a steady level-

288 ] Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan
headed outlook, though in time he became more communallyminded, as was inevitable.” Elsewhere, he calls him ”a moderating influence” (p. 120).
Fazl-ul-Haq, who had not been associated with the Bengal Government after 1924, continued to practise at Calcutta. He had a large number of Hindu friends, and in many periods during his long public career he joined hands with the Congress and Hindu groups in pro\incial or municipal politics. In 1935-6 he was the first Muslim Mayor of Calcutta. When elections were held under the Government of India Act of 1935, he organised a Krishak-Proja (Peasant-Tenant) Party with a full-blooded radical programme of economic reconstruction of the province, abolition of Zamindari and measures for removal of political discontent, through release of detenues, internees and political prisoners. Possibly, he wished to adopt, with modifications necessary for Bengal, the poli:y adopted by Fazl-i-Husain in the Punjab. Even otherwise, his interest in the rural masses was genuine, and he was not closely associated with the big landlords with whom Fazl-i-Husain joined hands in the Punjab. With his Krishak-Proja Party whose candidates included Abu Husain Sarkar, Yusuf Ali Chowdhury (Mohan Mian), Humayun Kabir, Syed Nusher Ali, Shams-ud-Din Ahmed, Khan Bhadur Fazl-ul-Karim, Maulana Shamsul Huda, Ashraf-ud-Din Ahmed Chowdhury and Khan Bahadur Hashim Ali Khan, Fazl-ul-Haq undertook in 1936 to oppose the Muslim League party. The latter group had started as the United Muslim Party with Nawab Khwaja Habibullah of Dacca as its leader, and Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy as ”the driving force,” but, according to Hasan Ispahani, decided to merge with the Muslim League, owing to the success of a ’’plan”157 evolved by him and Khwaja Noor-ud-Din, the founder of The Morning News. Fazlul-Haq achieved considerable success. He defeated, in a straight fight, Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din by a big margin of about 10,000 votes. The results of the provincial elections displayed an old trend of Bengal politics noticed even by the Simon Commission -the emergence of several small discordant parties and groups instead of the overwhelming success of one party. In the Bengal Assembly of 1937, the Congress had gained 60 seats, including 17 for the scheduled castes, the Muslim League gained 40, the
Emergence of the Muslim Majority Provinces [ 289
Krishak-Proja Party obtained 35. There were 25 Europeans, 41 independent Muslims, 23 independent scheduled caste members, and 14 independent caste Hindus. With this composition of the Assembly, only a coalition cabinet could provide a stable government.
Coalition Cabinet (1937-41). Accordingly a coalition ministry came into office with representatives of the Krishak-Proja Party, the Muslim League and some Hindus. Fazl-ul-Haq became the Chief Minister on 1 April 1937 and continued to hold this position (at the head of two different coalitions) for almost six years. On the formation of the first coalition, the relationship between the Krishak-Proja Party and the Muslim League improved, and Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din, who was elected from a seat vacated by H.S. Suhrawardy,158 became the Home Minister. When the Congress refused to take genuine Muslim representatives in Provincial Governments, and there was widespread dissatisfaction amongst Muslims, Fazl-ul-Haq attended the Lucknow session of the All-India Muslim League (September 1937) and announced, like Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan and Sir Saad Ullah of Assam, that members belonging to his Party would join the Muslim League. Thereafter, he toured extensively within and beyond the province in support of the League. The four and a half years of Fazl-ul-Haq’s chief ministership in the League-Krishak-Proja Party Coalition form the high water-mark of his career as well as •of Muslim political power in modern undivided Bengal. The coalition cabinet included all the stalwarts of Muslim Bengal-Fazlul-Haq, Nazim-ud-Din and Suhrawardy.
With regard to the new spirit which was generated in Muslim Bengal during the heyday of first Fazl-ul-Haq ministry (1937-41), .a recent writer says, ”The Muslim Bengal cabinet raised high hopes among the common man and Muslims became confident and sure of themselves. They began to lose their inferiority complex and looked upon Hindus as equals. The speeches and retorts in the Assembly delivered by A.K. Fazl-ul-Haq and Suhrawardy were superior to those of the great Hindu leaders of Congress and Mahasabha. By their vigour and knowledge, their sharpness and intelligence, their oratorical power and organisational ability, by their hard work and calibre, they built
19

290 ] Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan

up their supremacy over the Hindu members in the House.” The new life amongst the Muslims was not confined to the Assembly chamber. It was visible in all fields of human activity-political organisation, literature, art, journalism, even sports.1-9 The Muslim League was becoming a powerful living organisation and infused a new life and confidence in the community. The appearance of Kazi Nazrul on the literary horizon marked the end of an era in Bengali literature which had been dominated by the Hindus for nearly a century. And he was not alone. Poets Jasimud-Din and Ghulam Mustafa, representing different traditions, were other noteworthy poets of the day. In the field of fine arts, Zain-ul-Abidin shot into prominence with his masterly pictures of the Bengal famine. In music, Abbas-ud-Din Ahmed, a singer with a very melodious voice, went all over Bengal popularising Murshidi, Marfati and Bhatiali songs. Things Islamic which were considered taboo at one time gained acceptance among all classes of the population and songs of the rural area, mostly Islamic in content, began to appeal even to sophisticated audiences.160 In the field of sports a new day dawned, when the Muhammadan Sporting Club began to defeat the redoubtable Mohan Bagan and the European football teams.
The rise of the new Muslim press contributed to this renaissance. Calcutta had had some important Muslim journals even during the nineteenth century, but they were weeklies or monthlies, and represented small sections of the community. In 1936 the daily Azad was started by Maulana Akram Khan,161 a veteran Khilafat leader who was publishing the journal Muhammadi in Bengali and had, at one time, published the daily Zamana in Urdu. The Star of India had been started by A.K. Ghaznavi and The Morning News, which later became daily, by Khwaja Noorud-Din. Altaf Husain who was chosen by the Quaid-i-Azam to edit Dawn, the mouthpiece of the All-India Muslim League during the struggle for Pakistan, was, at that time, an officer of the Education Department, but he was making regular pseudonymous contributions to The Statesmen which attracted attention on account of their vigour and pungency.
In the Coalition Ministry, Fazl-ul-Haq himself took up the Education portfolio. He had early realised that education was
Emergence of the Muslim Majority Provinces
[291
the key to the uplift of the Muslim community and his two lifeinterests were education and welfare of rural masses. Even when he was briefly the Minister for Education in 1924, he had created a separate Directorate for Muslim Education in Bengal and appointed Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah as the Additional Director of Public Instruction to look after the work. He also tried to help the establishment of the Islamia College, Calcutta, which in iater years was to provide so many workers for the Pakistan Movement, and created Muslim Educational Fund for grant of scholarships to deserving Muslim students-but at that time his tenure was brief and his authority limited. In 1937 he was the Chief Minister and was entering on a long spell of high office. Now he could make a bigger contribution, and this may be seen by the number of new institutions which were meant to benefit the Muslims-Eden Girls College, Dacca, Lady Braborne (Girls) College, Calcutta, Agricultural College, Tezgaon (Dacca), Fazlul-Haq Muslim Hall, Dacca, Fazl-ul-Haq College, Chakur, Barisal. He even tried to clip the wings of the Calcutta University, which was a closed Hindu preserve, and, in fact, the principal instrument of Hindu renaissance and intellectual domination in Bengal. It was a huge, unwieldy organisation and controlled even Entrance and Intermediate Examinations. Thus its influence over higher education was much greater than that of the Education Minister and his department. An identical problem in the Punjab had been solved through the setting up of a Secondary Education Board, which was made responsible for conducting pre-graduation examinations. Fazl-ul Haq thought that he could try the same remedy in Bengal but he was mistaken. His biographer says, ”The entire Hindu community of Bengal, forgetting their party difference and jealousy, stood like a rock against the Secondary Education Bill. Bengal was never so much stirred after the Partition movement of 1905 as she was over this bill.” A savant like Sir P.C. Roy presided over the Protest Conference which was held at Calcutta in December 1940 and was attended by about 10,000 delegates from all over Bengal. At that time Rabindranath Tagore was old and ailing, but even he lent the prestige of his name and support to the Protest Movement. The message which he sent to the Conference, ended with the words:

”My age and health prevent me from taking part in public affairs, but the danger which menaces the cultural existence of our province has touched me profoundly and I cannot help sending these few words even from my sick-bed.” There were other demonstrations also and Fazl-ul-Haq had to withdraw the bill. His government was more fortunate with the Calcutta Municipal Amendment Act which curtailed the power and influence of the Calcutta Corporation.162 Fazl-ul Haq’s government had many achievements in the rural sphere to its credit. It passed the Moneylenders’ Act and Bengal Tenancy Amendment Act for amelioration of the condition of the peasants and appointed the Floud Commission to examine the land revenue system and to report on the desirability or otherwise of the abolition of Zamindari. The Commission recommended the latter course and paved the way for this momentous step which was taken after Independence in East Pakistan and West Bengal. 163

Not less important than these measures was the decision of the Coalition Government (taken on the lines of a similar decision of the Punjab Government) for reservation of 50% of vacancies in government service filled by direct recruitment, for Muslims.
From 1937 to 1941 Fazl-ul-Haq also took prominent part in Muslim League activities outside Bengal and moved the famous Lahore Resolution of 1940, but partly the personal rivalries within the province and partly his own temperament brought him in conflict with the Quaid-i-Azam. The problem of the relationship between regional political parties and a national organisation is not an easy one in initial stages of political development. It is particularly difficult when the regional parties have contested elections and, as was the case in the Punjab and Bengal, come into power after defeating the nominees of the national organisation. So far as Fazl-ul-Haq was concerned, things came to a head on a comparatively minor point. In 1941 a Defence Council was formed by the Government of India, on which the League Premiers of Bengal, the Punjab and Assam were nominated. The Quaid-i-Azam and the Working Committee of the Muslim League, who did not approve of a formal association of the League Premiers with the war effort at the national level without some agreement with the Government on the League demands, asked
Emergence of the Muslim Majority Provinces [ 293
the three Premiers to resign their seats. All of them complied with the resolution of the Working Committee but Fazl-ul-Haq did this under protest, and to show his annoyance resigned his membership of the League Working Committee. Fazl-ul-Haq’s stand, however, was not shared by some of his colleagues-particularly Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din and Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy -and the Bengal Leaguers organised demonstrations against him. There was a temporary truce, but when the Legislature met again at the end of November 1941, it was learnt that a new ”Progressive Coalition Party” had been formed. On this, the Muslim colleagues of Fazl-ul-Haq resigned. Thereafter, he accepted the leadership of the new party, while his opponents formed a new Muslim League party, with Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din as its head. On 12 December 1941, Fazl-ul-Haq formed a new Ministry in coalition with non-Muslim members. His cabinet included nine members, of whom five, including the Premier, were Muslims and four Hindus. Two Hindu members were from the Forward Bloc, one represented the scheduled castes and the fourth holding the key Finance portfolio was Dr Shyamaprasad Mukerjee, a militant leader of Hindu Mahasabha, who later founded Jana Sangh. This was a singularly unfortunate step and has been, with justification, severely criticised by Hasan Ispahani. The defence offered by Fazl-ul-Haq’s biographer (pp. 112, etc.) is hardly convincing. It has to be admitted that Fazl-ul-Haq, in spite of his great services and splendid gifts, was capable of very rash action at times. Fazl-ul-Haq’s new ministry was able to cornmand a majority in the Assembly, but the by-elections showed its total loss of support so far as the Bengal Muslims were concerned. Soon Dr Mukerjee got into difficulties with the Governor -largely on account of the action he wanted against N.M. Khan, District Magistrate of Midnapur164-and resigned in November

1942. This was a period of great anxiety as Japanese troops had reached very near the borders of Bengal and Fazl-ul-Haq had differences with the Governor over administrative measures necessary for war work. On 28 March 1943 he resigned.

When Fazl-ul-Haq came in open conflict with the Muslim League, he was expelled from the organisation on 11 December

1941 and a ban was imposed on his re-admission. He, now,

294 ] Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan
started a vigorous campaign against the League and the Quaid, and in the 1946 elections his Krishak-Proja Party opposed the Muslim League. He himself was elected from two constituencies, but all his prominent followers, like Abu Husain Sarkar, Ashrafud-Din Ahmed Chowdhry and Humayun Kabir, were defeated and the party could win only four seats. In September 1946 Fazlul-Haq applied for re-admission in the Muslim League, assuring complete adherence to its discipline, and the Quaid-i-Azam, who never harboured personal grudge and must have been mindful of Fazl-ul-Haq’s past services, lifted the ban on 8 September 1946. When Maulana Akram Khan resigned the presidentship of the Provincial Muslim League shortly after this, Fazl-ul-Haq offered himself as a candidate-in opposition to Abul Hashem-but Maulana withdrew his resignation. After the Partition, Fazl-ulHaq stayed on in Calcutta for some years and after his migration to East Pakistan was appointed Advocate-General. He, later, resigned this post to take part in active politics and was one of the three principal leaders of the Jugto Front which signally defeated the Muslim League in 1954. These developments, however, relate to the period which is not dealt with in this volume.
After Fazl-ul-Haq’s resignation as chief minister, Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din, who had been Leader of Opposition from 1941 to

1943, formed a Ministry on 24 April 1943. Other prominent Muslim members of the Cabinet were Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Finance Minister, Maulvi Tamiz-ud-Din Khan, the Education Minister, and Khwaja Shahab-ud-Din. The parliamentary secretaries who gained prominence later included Muhammad Ali of Bogra (later Prime Minister of Pakistan), Fazlur Rahman (later Education Minister, Government of Pakistan) and Tafazzal Ali (later a Minister in Pakistan).

Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy. A Government headed by a staunch Muslim Leaguer was firmly in the saddle in Bengal by the end of April 1943. When elections, which were to decide the fate of the subcontinent, were held at the end of 1945, the Muslim League vastly improved its position and won i 13 out of 119 Muslim seats. This success was due to the general popularity of the Muslim League, but the great organising ability of Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy, who had emerged as the strong man of Nazim-ud-
(p. 294,
H. S. SUHRAWARDY

Emergence of the Muslim Majority Provinces [ 29 S
Din Cabinet, was also an important factor. It did not, therefore, surprise anyone when the parliamentary party elected, as its leader, Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy instead of Khwaja Nazimud-Din.
The new Premier, who presided over the destinies of Bengal during a fateful period, belonged to a family which has produced many public men of note. His maternal grandfather was the wellknown educationist and poet, Maulana Ubaid Ullah Ubaidi Suhrawardy (1834-86), who was a friend of Syed Ahmed Khan and was, for many years, Superintendent of the Dacca Madrasah, where he was buried after his death. Other prominent members of the family were Ubaidi’s daughter (and Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy’s mother), Khujista Akhtar Banu Begum, a wellknown Urdu writer and a pioneer in girls’ education, and Ubaidi’s two sons, Sir Abdullah Suhrawardy and Sir Hasan Suhrawardy.
(Sir) Abdullah al-Mamun Suhrawardy (1882-1935) was among those young men who, during their student days, in England, organised the Pan-Islamic Society at London. He was ifs first Secretary. In 1905, he brought out a beautiful little book, The Sayings of Muhammad, which has been repubhshed in ”The Wisdom of the East” Series. After return from England, he acted as Principal of the Islamia College, Lahore, but later returned to Bengal. He joined the Calcutta University as Professor and Examiner of Law and Arabic. He also took part in politics and was, at one time or another, member of the Bengal Legislative Council or the Central Legislative Assembly. His important political contribution was the Note of Dissent which he wrote in 1928-along with Sir Zulfiqar Ali Khan of Lahore-as member of the Indian Central Committee appointed to assist the Simon Commission. He belonged to what Ram Gopal calls ”the Lahore School of the Muslim League” and in his Note of Dissent vigorously urged the case for safeguarding the interests of Muslims as a separate entity. In his Note, he also ”evinced interest in seeking statutory provision for separate representation for the depressed classes in the Legislature”. Dr Abdullah Suhrawardy died on 14 January 1935.
Shaheed’s father (Zuhad Rahim Zahid, later known as Zahid Suhrawardy) had quite a chequered career. After passing his M.A., LL.B. from Calcutta University, he started legal practice

296 ] Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan

first as Pleader in the District Court of 24-Parganas and later as Vakil of the Calcutta High Court. Quite late in life (according to one account, at the time when his sons Shahid and Shaheed went abroad for higher studies) he went to England to qualify for the bar. He passed the examination with distinction, winning many prizes. On return he commenced practice in the Calcutta High Court, and \\as very successful. Later he was appointed judge of the Calcutta High Court, and was knighted on his retirement from the bench. He died in 1949.
Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy was born at Midnapur in 1893, and was educated at Calcutta Madrasah, St Xavier College, and Oxford University. He began public life by his election to the Calcutta Corporation, where his ability attracted the attention of the political bosses. He entered politics on the side of the Swarajist leader C.R. Das, and was Deputy Mayor of Calcutta Corporation when C.R. Das was the Mayor. Apart from his gifts as an able orator, he prepared a solid base for his political work by organising Bengal National Chamber of Labour, and gaining the support of a major portion of Calcutta labour. He entered Bengal Legislative Council in 1924 after the Swarajists had adopted the Council-entry programme. When C.R. Das was disowned by the Hindus and Hindu-Muslim relations deteriorated, Shaheed drifted away from the Swarajist party. Forthright and hard-hitting as ever, he now vigorously put forward the Muslim point of view. When at the meeting of the Khilafat Committee held at Calcutta in December 1928, the ”Bengal group led by Maulana Akram Khan, Ashraf-ud-Din Chowdhry and Fazl-ul-Haq, were in favour of compromise with the Congress, the new Kliilafat Committee of Calcutta, with Shaheed Suhrawardy leading it, was against any compromise with the Congress on the reservation for the majority in respect of Punjab Muslims.”165
Suhrawardy had been attracted to the Khilafat Movement under the influence of his maternal uncle, Abdullah al-Mamun Suhrawardy, who had organised-with Iqbal and others-the Pan-Islamic Society in London in 1905. He became the Secretary of the Calcutta (Bengal) Khilafat Committee and used the organisation as a platform for mobilising public opinion in support of the Muslim point of view to which his uncle had given expression
Emergence of the Muslim Majority Provinces
[297
in his Note of Dissent, and which his father-in-law, Sir Abdul Rahim, had eloquently put forth in his Presidential Address to the All-India Muslim League in 1925. In August \93Q,6 Shaheed Suhrawardy was Chairman of the Reception Committee of the Calcutta Khilafat Conference, which was presided over by Maulana Shaukat Ali. Shaheed’s printed address is a detailed criticism of the failure of Simon Commission to appreciate the Muslim point of view in framing its recommendations and contained an exhortation to the people to see that the Muslim demands ’-’are pressed with all the power of the Muslim Community behind them at the Round Table Conference”.
Suhrawardy had started mobilising Muslim public opinion even earlier but for this his principal platform was the Bengal Muslim Conference. This Conference met as the Bengal Muslim All-Parties Conference on 23 December 1928. Suhrawardy was the chairman of the Reception Committee and his address was a detailed criticism of the Nehru Report. The library of the Research Society of Pakistan contains two other printed addresses, delivered by Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy as Chairman of the Reception Committee. They were delivered at the All-Bengal Muslim Conference held on 16 and 17 May 1931 and at Bengal Muslim Conference held on 9 and 10 July 1932, respectively. The presidents of the different sessions of Bengal Muslim Conference (held with a slight variation of nomenclature167) varied-Sir Abdul Rahim presided in 1928, while Maulana Shaukat Ali was the President in 1931-but on all the three occasions-1928, 1931 and 1932-Suhrawardy was the chairman of the Reception cornmittee. The history of Bengal Muslim Conference has not been written, but a study of the material available leaves no doubt that Skihrawardy was its moving force and that the role of this Conference at this crucial juncture in mobilising Muslim opinion in Bengal and in applying pressure on the Muslim delegates from Bengal to the Round Table Conference must have contributed to the large increase in representation (from 40% under Lucknow Pact) allowed to Bengal Muslims under the Communal Award.