Great Lives, Great Places: Sher-e-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Huq
VognoDuut890
Sher-e-Bangla
A.K. Fazlul Huq
Fazlul Huq's political career lasted nearly half a century, starting with
his foundation of the All India MUSLIM LEAGUE at Dacca on 30 December 1906.
In 1913, he was elected to British Bengal Legislative Council, probably the
then version of national assembly, and remained the member until 1947,
independence of Pakistan.
As a member of the indian national congress he was instrumental in
formulating the Lucknow pact of 1916 between the Congress and the Muslim
League. In 1917 Huq was a Joint Secretary of the Indian National Congress
and in 1918-1919 he served this organisation as its General Secretary. Huq
was also the president of the All India Muslim League from 1916 to 1921. In
1919 Fazlul Huq was chosen as a member of the Enquiry Committee along with
Motilal Nehru, C R Das and other prominent leaders set up by the Indian
National Congress to investigate the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre. Although Huq
was in a leadership role of non-cooperation movement and Khelafat andolon,
but he was opposed to the idea of boycotting of schools and colleges,
particularly considering the backward condition of the Muslim community. He
felt that the boycott resolution would hamper the progress of the Muslim
boys and girls.
In 1920 Huq brought out a daily paper NABAJUG along with KAZI NAZRUL ISLAM
and MUZAFFAR AHMAD
He became the Mayor of Calcutta in1935, was the Chief Minister of undivided
Bengal 1937-1943 and of East Bengal in 1954. He became the home Minister of
Pakistan in 1955 and was the Governor of East Pakistan 1956-58.
Sher-e-Bangla was noted for charisma in politics at a time when figures like
Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, C R das, Shohrawardi were also active in politics.
Oratory of Sher-e-Bangla is still mentioned in different political history
book on Bengal.
Despite Sher-e-Bangla's political life often showed self contradicting and
differing, often erratic, political ideology, he remains a formidable figure
in Bengal as well as Indian political landscape for his relentless efforts
towards progress of Bengali nation and at the same time his contributions
for his dreamt united independent India. Huq was very simple in his private
and public life. Even during his lifetime the people, irrespective of caste
and creed, adored him for his generous and charitable disposition. He ran
into debts for helping the distressed and the needy.
His life long struggles for the upliftment of the backward Bengali Muslim
community and for the removal of poverty of vast peasant masses are the
highest points of his life.
His funeral drew a crowd of about half a million to mourn his death.
nkdat...@bigmailbox.net
VognoDuut890 wrote:
> Great Lives, Great Places
>
> Sher-e-Bangla
> A.K. Fazlul Huq
>
[Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq's party of krishaks and shramiks might have
felt more at home in "Hindu" West Bengal of today than in "Muslim"
Bangladesh because of the perception that government policies and laws
are more pro-labor and more pro-working class in "Hindu" West Bengal
than in "Muslim" Bangladesh]
The August 1942 movement precipitated a big change in Bengal politics.
When Sher-e-Bangla Huq (the then Premier of undivided Bengal) agreed to
an enquiry in February of 1943 to Raj's excesses against those that had
responded to the Quit India Movement in Midnapore, Bengal Governor
Herbert was livid with anger. He forced Sher-e-Bangla to resign. On
April 24, 1943 Herbert had Khwaja Nazimuddin sworn in as the Premier.
It is not at all surprising that there was no tribute to, or role for,
Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq
when Pakistan was born in August of 1947. Even Surhawardy had been
marginalized by that time. The man who was given to lead East Pakistan
at its birth by Pakistan's ruling establishment was Sir Khwaja
Nazimuddin who was more at home in the drawing rooms of aristocrats of
UP than in the field with the peasants of Bengal or in the factory with
the workers of Bengal.
"Field Marshal" Ayub Khan had EBDOed politicians like Sher-e-Bangla
Fazlul Haq, Suhrawardy and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the grounds of
corruption.
The "Field Marshal" was not fit even to polish Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul
Haq's boots. But the "Field Marshal" and his merry band of robbers had
a monopoly over the guns. And that allowed him to denounce the
Sher-e-Bangla for corruption and have him "EBDO"ed that not only barred
Fazlul Haq from running for office but even took away his voting
rights! The Sher-e-Bangla had complained bitterly, after that
humiliation, that even the Britsh Governor, Herbert, had treated him
with more dignity in 1943! Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq died a
broken-hearted man in Ayub Khan's Pakistan.
Once Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq fell out with the Qaid-e-Azam, Jinnah
never ever dreamt of allowing Fazlul Huq a place in the Muslim League
as long as he was alive. There was no tribute to, or role, for Huq when
Pakistan was born in August, 1947. And even after Jinnah's death,
Khwaja Nazimuddin wasn't particularly eager to accommodate
Sher-e-Bangla.
At the end of 1950, Huq, now 77, said bitterly in a letter to a friend,
" The gods of Karachi seem convinced that the people of East Bengal are
no better than goats and may be slaughtered with impunity... They think
that East Bengal contains only milch cows and that the Royal Bengal
Tiger is dead. Sher-e-Bangla, they think is no more.The time is coming
when the Sher-e-Bangla will roar again."
Fazlul Huq revived the K.P.P., altered it to K.S.P. - the Krshak Sramik
(Peasants & Workers) Party, enlisted Muslim League dissidents and
offered his partnership to Suhrawardy who accepted it. Huq became the
Jukto (United) Front's leader. The elections took place in March of
1954 (Sher-e-Bangla was now 80). The Jukto Front won a resounding
victory,. It won 223 seats to Muslim League's 10. Sher-e-Bangla became
the Chief Minister but in about 2 months in May of 1954, he was accused
of being a pro-Indian agent (much as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would be a
decade later in the infamous Agartala Conspiracy Case) and was
humiliatingly dismissed from office.
There operates a Gresham Law in politics - Jinnah, with his shrill
accusations against the "tyranny of the majority" and against the
"Hindu Nation" was indeed able to bamboozle Muslim Bengal to go for the
Muslim League in the 1946 elections. This was the only time in the
history of Muslim Bengal that Muslim League can claim to have won the
elections. But it is as ironic as it is apt, that in post-partition
era, Jinnah`s Pakistan continued to be plagued by the very same
premises that gave it birth, namely, that one-man-one-vote democracy is
unsuitable for a pluralistic society. West Pakistan`s ruling elite
which had once inveighed against the Hindu majority in pre-partition
India, found themselves inveighing against the Hindu-tainted majority
of East Pakistan. "Separate Electorates" and "Parity" were the
neo-shibboleths to neutralize the majority voters in East Pakistan from
having a significant say in Pakistan`s affairs.
While a vote for the Nazimuddins and the Ispahinis in the 1946
elections may be construed to be a vote against the "Hindu" zamindar
and against Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq, it was not necessarily a vote for
the "Muslim" share-cropper. One cannot get the whole picture by
"monolithizing" the Hindu zamindars either. People like Moni Singh (of
tebhaga movement fame) were from families that could be characterized
as Hindu zamindars.
Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq's party of krishaks and shramiks might have
felt more at home in "Hindu" West Bengal of today than in "Muslim"
Bangladesh because of the perception that government policies and laws
are more pro-labor and more pro-working class in "Hindu" West Bengal
than in "Muslim" Bangladesh.
Separate electorates and the Pakistan Movement were all predicated on
the argument that one-man-one-vote democracy is unsuitable for a
pluralistic society like pre-partition India.
This line of argument suited the feudal aristocrats of the United
Provinces and the mercantile class of the Bombay Presidency which were
Muslim minority provinces. It was a convenient tool to prevent the hoi
polloi of these provinces from treading on the fiefdom of the well to
do in the name of religion. And Muslim League establishment played the
religious card to the hilt.
However, the tactics proved inimical to the interests of Muslim
majority provinces like Bengal. Lucknow Pact, for example, relegated
the Muslim peasantry of Bengal to have a mere 40% representation under
separate electorates to give the feudal aristocrats of the United
Provinces and the mercantile class of the Bombay Presidency a better
deal! Is it any wonder that Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq fell out with
Jinnah on the question of separate electorates?