A. K. Fazlul Huq
Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq, popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla, was a Pakistani statesman, lawyer and politician who served as the first and longest-serving prime minister of Bengal during the British Raj. He presented the Lahore Resolution, the foundational document of the Pakistan Movement, for which he is regarded as one of the Founding Fathers of Pakistan.
Born in 1873 to a Bengali Muslim family in British Bengal, Huq held important political offices in the subcontinent, including president of the All India Muslim League, general secretary of the Indian National Congress, education minister of Bengal, mayor of Calcutta, prime minister of Bengal, advocate general of East Bengal, chief minister of East Bengal, home minister of Pakistan and Governor of East Pakistan. He was first elected to the Bengal Legislative Council from Dhaka in 1913; and served on the council for 21 years until 1934.
Huq was a key figure in the Indian independence movement and then the Pakistan movement. In 1919, he had the unique distinction of concurrently serving as president of the All India Muslim League and general secretary of the Indian National Congress. He was also a member of the Congress Party's committee enquiring into the Amritsar massacre. Fazlul Huq was a member of the Central Legislative Assembly from 1934 to 1936. Between 1937 and 1947, he was an elected member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly, where he was prime minister and leader of the house for six years. After partition, he was elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly, where he was chief minister for 2 months; and to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, where he was home minister for one year during the 1950s.
Huq boycotted titles and a knighthood granted by the British government. He was notable for his English oratory during speeches to the Bengali legislature. He courted the votes of the Bengali middle classes and rural communities. He pushed for land reform and curbing the influence of zamindars. As prime minister, Huq used legal and administrative measures to reduce the debt of millions of farmers subjected to tenancy under the Permanent Settlement. He was considered a leftist and social democrat on the political spectrum. His ministries were marked by intense factional infighting.
In 1940, Huq had one of his most notable political achievements when he presented the Lahore Resolution which called for the creation of a sovereign state in the Muslim-majority eastern and northwestern parts of British India. During the Second World War, Huq joined the Viceroy of India's Defence Council and supported the Allied war efforts. Under pressure from the governor of Bengal during the Quit India movement and after the withdrawal of the Hindu Mahasabha from his cabinet, Huq resigned from the post of premier in March 1943. In the Dominion of Pakistan, Huq worked for five years as East Bengal's attorney general and participated in the Bengali language movement. He was elected as chief minister, served as a federal minister and was a provincial governor in the 1950s.
Fazlul Huq died in Dacca, East Pakistan on 27 April 1962. He is buried in the Mausoleum of Three Leaders. Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, where the National Parliament is located, is named in his honour. His son, A. K. Faezul Huq, was a Bangladeshi politician.
Early life and family
Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq was born on 26 October 1873 at his maternal family home, the Mia Bari of Saturia in Backergunge District of the Bengal Presidency. He belonged to a Bengali Muslim family of Qadis hailing from Bilbilash in Bauphal, Patuakhali. His father, Qazi Muhammad Wajid, was a well-regarded lawyer of the Barisal Bar and his grandfather, Qazi Akram Ali, also worked in the Barisal Court and was a Mukhtar as well as a scholar of the Arabic and Persian languages.Education
Initially home schooled by Shamsul Ulama Khan Bahadur Hedayet Hossain and Allamah Abdur Rahman Kashgari, he later attended the Barisal Zilla School, where he passed the FA Examination in 1890. Huq moved to Calcutta for his higher education. He sat for his bachelor's degree exam in 1894, in which he achieved triple honours in chemistry, mathematics and physics from the Presidency College. He then obtained a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Calcutta in 1896. He obtained his Bachelor in Law from the University Law College in Calcutta in 1897.Civil servant and lawyer
From 1908 to 1912, Huq was the assistant registrar of co-operatives. He resigned from the public service and opted for public life and law. Based on advice from Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, he joined the bar council of the Calcutta High Court and started a legal practice. He practised in the Calcutta High Court for 40 years.Legislator and Indian independence movement
Huq became secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League in 1913. After the First Partition of Bengal, Huq attended the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference hosted by Sir Khwaja Salimullah in Dacca, the capital of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The conference led to the formation of the All-India Muslim League. The annulment of the partition led to the formation of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League, in which Huq became secretary. With the patronage of Sir Salimullah and Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury, he was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council from the Dacca Division in 1913.In 1916, Huq was elected president of the All-India Muslim League, one of those who was instrumental in formulating the Lucknow Pact of 1916 between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. In 1917, he was a Joint Secretary of the Indian National Congress and from 1918 to 1919 he served as its general secretary. He was the only person to concurrently hold the presidency of the League and the general secretary's position in the Congress. In 1918, Huq presided over the Delhi Session of the All-India Muslim League. In 1919, he was chosen as a member of the Punjab Enquiry Committee along with Motilal Nehru, Chittaranjan Das and other prominent leaders which was set up by the Indian National Congress to investigate the Amritsar massacre. Huq was the president of the Midnapore Session of the Bengal Provincial Conference in 1920.
During the Khilafat movement, Huq led the pro-British faction within the Bengal Provincial Muslim League, while his rival, Maniruzzaman Islamabadi, led the pro-Ottoman faction. Huq differed with the Congress leadership during its non-cooperation movement and favoured working within the constitutional framework rather than boycotting legislatures and colleges. He later resigned from the Congress. In 1923, Huq served as education minister of Bengal for six months under the dyarchy system. In 1929, he founded the All Bengal Tenants Association, which evolved into a political platform, including as a part of the post-partition United Front.
Prime Minister of Bengal
First Premiership (1937-1941)
The dyarchy was replaced by provincial autonomy in 1935, with the first general elections held in 1937. Huq transformed the All Bengal Tenants Association into the Krishak Praja Party. During the election campaign period, Huq emerged as a major populist figure in Bengal. His party won 35 seats in the Bengal Legislative Assembly in the 1937 Indian provincial elections. It was the third largest party after the Bengal Congress and Bengal Provincial Muslim League. Huq formed a coalition with the Bengal Provincial Muslim League and independent legislators. He was elected as the leader of the house and the first prime minister of Bengal.Cabinet
Huq's cabinet included Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, Bijoy Prasad Singh Roy, Maharaja Srish Chandra Nandy, Prasanna Deb Raikut, Mukunda Behari Mallick, Sir Khwaja Nazimuddin, Nawab Khwaja Habibullah, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Nawab Musharraf Hussain, and Syed Nausher Ali.Debt relief and Permanent Settlement
Under Huq, the Bengal government used administrative and legal measures to relieve the debt of millions of tenant farmers under the zamindari system of the Permanent Settlement. Huq hailed from a middle class zamindar family as had many of his colleagues. But Huq represented a new generation of Bengali middle-class political consciousness which won support among both Bengali Muslims and Bengali Hindus. The Krishak Praja Party promoted land reform. Huq's tenure saw the enactment of the Bengal Agricultural Debtors' Act, the Money Lenders' Act and the Bengal Tenancy Act. Debt Settlement Boards were created in all districts.The Land Revenue Commission, appointed by the government of Bengal on 5 November 1938 with Sir Francis Floud as chairman, submitted its final report on 21 March 1940. This was a valuable document relating to the land system of the country. The Tenancy Act of 1885 was amended by suspending rent provisions for ten years. Huq abolished informal taxes imposed traditionally by the zamindars on tenants. The tenants obtained the right to transfer their tenancy without paying any transfer fee to the zamindars. The law reduced the interest rate for arrears of rent from 12.50% to 6.25%. The tenants also obtained the right to gain possession of the by payment of four years' rent within twenty years of the erosion. These measures resulted in debt relief for millions of Bengali peasants. However, he failed to fully implement his rice and lentils program which he campaigned for during the 1937 election.