Today is our topic of discussion Abul Hashim .
Abul Hashim
Shila Sen and Harun-or-Rashid have made fairly extensive assessments of Abul Hashim’s political career. Abul Hashim also has a large number of his own writings in the forms of books and pamphlets which reveal his ideology and beliefs.2 His autobiography In Retrospection is particularly useful in analysing his political, social and religious views.
Abul Hashim had contributed greatly to the organizational work of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League. Through his continued efforts in the years between 1943 and 1947 he did the task of taking the party to the grass roots level. He had democratized the party organization and had decentralized the authority of the party leadership.
He was primarily a socialist who based his philosophy on the principles of Islam. He had liaison with the Marxists and the members of the Communist Party of Bengal but he did not believe in Marxism as it were. His political philosophy was based on the idea of Islamic Socialism, called Rabbaniyat, meaning social order prescribed in Islam. He preached that all wealth belonged to God.
Men did not have permanent right over land. Everybody had equal right over land and other wealth. In this respect he was indoctrinated by Maulana Azad Sobhani ( ) who evolved the idea of an Islamic state.4
Abul Hashim was born on 27 January, 1905 in the village of Kashiara in Burdwan district.
His father Abul Kasem was a prominent politician in his time taking active part in the Khilafat and non-co-operation movement. He had joined the Swadeshi and the anti-partition movement in Bengal in 1905.7 He was an ardent follower of Surendranath Banerjee (1848-1925) and when the latter left the Congress due to conflict between the moderates and the extremists, Abul Kasem also left with him.
He then participated in the joint movement of Khilafat and non-co-operation led by the Muslim League and the Congress. Abul Kasem never liked the separartist politics of the Muslim League. He was, however, involved in Muslim League politics but had never accepted the domination of the Dhaka nawab family.
When Abul Hashim entered into politics after his father’s death in 1936, he, too, started his political activity by totally rejecting the authority of the Khwaja family. He joined the Muslim League in 1937 but never believed in separatism or communalism. His father’s influence on him had moulded his political belief to a great extent.
Abul Hashim came of a very wealthy and prestigious family.
Several of his predecessors, like grandfathers and uncles from both father’s and mother’s sides were high officials 11 Hashim passed his Matriculation in 1923 from the Municipal High School at Burdwan and passed his Intermediate and Degree examinations from Raj College, Burdwan in 1925 and 1928 respectively, 12 He married in 1928 and his wife also belonged to a very esteemed family of Dhaka.
She was related to Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardly who played a significant role in Hashim’s relatively brief but very active political life between 1943 and 1947. Hashim got his Law from degree the Calcutta Law College in 1932 and started practising at the Burdwan district court. 15 Hashim entered into politics only after his father’s death in October 1936.
Soon after, he contested the elections to Bengal Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate from Burdwan constituency and he won 16 His father had organized the Burdwan Mohammadan Association, a representative political organization of the Muslims of Burdwan, of which he was the president. 17 This association was converted into Burdwan District Muslim League in 1937 of which Abul Hashim was elected President.
He had joined the Muslim League in 1937 being convinced initially by Jinnah that the party was democratic and that there was no place for the Khwajas or the Ispahanis to dominate Muslim politics in Bengal 19 Abul Hashim explained the reason why he joined Muslim League and soon realised, as he himself admitted, that he was deceived by the false impression given to him by Jinnah 20 In fact, Abul Hashim started his political activity with the Muslim League but rejected from the beginning the authority of the non-Bengali landlords and capitalists in Bengali politics.
He was very much against the political maneuverings of the Khwaja brothers in Bengal and the economic exploitation by the non- Bengali capitalists like the Ispahanis. He also disliked Fazlul Huq’s repeated change of allegiance to political parties and quick shifts in opinions.
Abul Hashim collaborated with H.S. Suhrawardy in 1943 and both had made tremendous efforts to organize the Muslim League between the years 1943 and 1945 but Hashim had also observed that Suhrawardy too, was more willing to gain higher political position than mere organizing the party.
Hashim’s total concern was to organize the party in a more democratized and decentralized manner. He had never wanted to be a parliamentary leader 21 He had a problem with his eyesight and was gradually losing his vision.
This physical disability had obviously been a hindrance to his political career. Nevertheless, he was a political leader of the front rank and had participated in major political events and decision- makings. With his preachings of Islamic socialism on the one hand and his ardent belief in the principle of self-determination of every nation in India on the other, had made him a politician of a different kind.
He was often believed to be a communist which was of course not, in the Marxist sense of the term. It seemed that he was a separatist and a supporter of Jinnah’s “two- nation” theory but, in fact, he believed in the right to self-determination of every nation 22 He believed India was multi-national geographical entity where people of different religions, castes, races and languages lived.
Abul Hashim was the exponent of the idea of multi-nation in India and his political ideas reflected belief in nationalism, regionalism, linguism and socialism. His political moves for the United Independent Bengal in 1946- 1947 with Sarat Chandra Bose and others clearly exposed him as a secular and deomocratic person.
Abul Hashim had attended the annual session of the All-India Muslim League held at Lahore on 23 March, 1940. He had supported the resolution adopted at this session which contemplated the creation of independent states in which the constituent units were to be autonomous and sovereign .
The Lahore Resolution proposed two independent sovereign states as homelands for the Muslims of India, one in the North-West consisting of the Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan, the North-West Frontier Province and Kashmir and the other in the North-East consisting of Bengal and Assam.
Ablul Hashim supported this move hoping for complete independence in the North-Eastern region of India. He saw nothing communal in the Lahore Resolution of 1940.26 Abul Hashim wrote in his memoirs explaining very clearly that he never believed in Jinnah’s “two- nation” theory which, according to him, had created a separatist tendency in Indian politics.
Abul Hashim wrote that he neither believed in the “two- nation” theory nor did he ever preach this in Bengal 28 He believed in the multi-nation theory which meant that India was a sub-continent comprising various nations each having its own language, culture, race and religion.
“To me”, he wrote, “India conveys the same sense as the term Europe does.”29 The multi-national concept was not new in India but at a time when separatist tendency was getting upper hand and was being popularized in India the assertion and the attempts to establish the multi-national concept by Abul Hashim went in contrast with the dominant trend.
He was trying to preach the theory of a multi-religious national state in India when Jinnah started propagating his theory of “two-nation” 30 The multi-national concept of Abul Hashim went in conflict both with the “two-nation” theory of Jinnah and also with the Congress theory of a unified India.
The approach of Abul Hashim and his followers in Bengal was never communal. Abul Hashim’s non-communal attitude was manifested even when he did not get involved into active politics.
He had voted a candidate against his father in Burdwan only to avoid a communal rift in the Burdwan Muhammadan Association 31 He always believed in maintaining a status- quo when it came to communal matters, 32 Abul Hashim never preached that India was one country but he never incited communal difference or ill- feeling.
He urged for a common front of all parties and organizations to fight against British imperialism in order to achieve freedom and establish the right to self-determination 33 He also believed in joint electorate and the formation of democratic government .
Abul Hashim’s active participation in the Muslim League began on a provincial level from 1943 when he was elected the General Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League 35 Khwaja Nazimuddin was then the Chief Minister.
When Hashim took office the BPML had no organized fund or any treasury. Although Mirza Hasan Ispahani was the treasurer there was no regular system of preparing annual budget or disbursing the bills and making payments at regular times.36 There were no office of the Muslim League in any of the districts of Bengal.
The President of the Dacca district Muslim League was Khwaja Shahabuddin who was Nazimuddin’s younger brother, Hashim saw that the BPML was under the complete domination of the Dacca nawab family 38 He also noticed that whoever wanted to gain any political position in the BPML had to work in allegiance with the Khwajas.
Even Suhrawardy at times had to accept the authority of the Khwajas to retain his political position. Hashim claimed that from the beginning, he kept himself out of the “unholy game of power politics” 40 He got himself involved in the task of organizing the Muslim League in the grass-roots level.
His first step as the General Secretary of the BPML was to curb the authority of the Khwajas, to free the party from financial constraints and then to move towards establishing Muslim League offices in the districts.
He took up extensive programme to decentralize and democratize the party. The Muslim League was, in fact, “mortgaged” to the Ahsan Manzil for leadership, to the Daily Azad for publicity and to the Ispahanis for finance 42 Hashim’s aim was to free the Muslim League from such position.
He took up an extensive programme to organize the party, particularly in the mofussil areas. He issued bulletins and periodical circulars giving instructions to the leaders in the districts as to how to organize the party bases there. He ordered them to set up party offices in every district and sub-divisional headquarters.43 This was how he did the task of making the Muslim League a mass party.
He felt Muslim membership had to be increased in the Eastern and Northern Bengal where Muslim population was a majority and he made appeals to the Muslim youths in general and student leaders of Calcutta and Dhaka in particular, to organize the party disregarding personal interest or intra-party conflict.
He had also inspired the students and the general masses to gain membership for only two annas which, in fact, transformed the Muslim League into a broad-based organization like the Congress.45 This had made a tremendous impact and within a year membership of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League rose to half a million.
Hashim made extensive tours in the years 1944 and 1945 in various places like Narayanganj, Dhaka, Faridpur, Chittagong. Comilla, Calcutta and other districts and carried on organizational work there.
He was able to gather a large following among the younger generation, particularly in the two university centres of Calcutta and Dhaka 48 The overwhelming victory of the Muslim League in the 1946 elections to the Legislative Assembly was largely due to the tours and organizational work carried out by Abul Hashim.
During his extensive tours Hashim had advocated that all Muslims should join the Muslim League and at the same time he had preached the fundamentals of Islam 49 This had put him in a very controversial position. He was interpreted as a communal person.
The Hindu community could not trust him. It was difficult for many Hindus to accept whether Hashim’s non- communal interpretation of the Lahore Resolution was his genuine belief. On the other hand he was alleged to be a Communist for the doctrine of Rabbaniyat or Islamic Socialism he preached, was close to Communism. He was often dubbed in the Muslim press, particularly by The Daily Azad, The Morning News and The Star of India and by the Khwaja co_terie as a Communist .
Abul Hashim had published a draft manifesto of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League on 24 March, 1945 which contained his views of the ideals of the Muslim League and the socio-economic and political objectives of Pakistan.
The pamphlet was called “Let Us Go to War” which was widely circulated and contained mainly a multi-nation than a two-nation theory, 51 Most of his ideas brought him under severe criticisms from the right-wing of the Muslim League and of the Congress. The draft manifesto emphasized the ideals of Islam and Socialism.
It said that the Muslims in the proposed state of Pakistan would not have any rights reserved for them except their right to mould their life according to the fundamentals of Islam; the non-Muslims would have equal rights and would be treated generously as citizens of an independent and sovereign state; election would be held under universal adult suffrage; equal opportunities irrespective of creed,
caste and class; right to education primary education to be made free and compulsory, all monopolies and rent-receiving interests on land would be abolished; the rights of the peasants would be protected; key industries like jute and transport to be nationalized and workers would have the right to enjoy the share of the profit 52 There were also provisions for unemployment insurance, old age pensions, trade-union rights etc.
There would be peasant proprietorship, collective farming and co-operative marketing. 54 The manifesto was very clearly progressive and socialistic in its content and earned criticisms from the right-wing of the Muslim League particularly about his authority to bring out such a manifesto.
Abul Hashim’s liaison with the Communists was, in fact, somewhat close. He was brought up in a very liberal atmosphere. He had preached tolerance to other’s views and had been ideologically very close to the Communists 56 He believed in the philosophy of Rabbaniyat. This was where he differed with the Communists but he maintained friendly relations with them.
His attitude to Communism, however, was, “support where you can and oppose where you must.” The right-wing of the Muslim League led by Khwaja Nazimuddin accused Hashim of being a Communist and having association with the terrorists. He was accused of preaching Communism under the cover of Islam.
In fact, Nazimuddin and his group had never wanted the Muslim League to be turned into a mass party. Democratization and decentralization of the party meant loss of their authority. Hashim, therefore, was their main target of criticism 59 They attempted to oust him from the leadership of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League and for this, they needed Suhrawardy’s support.
Suhrawardy had been a good organizer as well and was basically non-communal but was desperately after political power 61 He had wanted to be the Chief Minister and, therefore, moved away from Hashim 62 As the 1946 elections were approaching the cleavage between the right-wing and the left-wing of the Muslim League windened greatly.
The conflict of power between Khwaja Nazimuddin, H.S. Suhrawardy, A.K. Fazlul Huq, Maulana Akram Khan and Abul Hashim, the “Big Five” of the Muslim League in Bengal politics in the 1940’s came to an extreme point in the years 1945 and 1946.
Hashim, however, never craved for any parliamentary post nor did he interfere in parliamentary leadership. The Khwajas had wanted to manipulate the Muslim public opinion in Bengal and did not want a properly organized party. They feared Hashim’s attempts to organize the party and felt that he was strengthening the party for his gains.
By early 1947 Abul Hashim was kept aside by the Muslim League leaders in Bengal. Fazlul Huq and Akram Khan were up against him.64 Even Suhrawardy did not like him any more now that he had become the Chief Minister 65 Abul Hashim was disinterested to get involved in these shrewd power game and left for Burdwan, his home town,Another most significant aspect of Hashim’s political thinking was the idea of creating a United and Independent Bengal.
Suhrawardy, who was then the Chief Minister, had initiated the move at a press conference in Delhi on 27 April, 1947 to form an independent and undivided sovereign Bengal 67 Hashim had seriously and sincerely supported Suhrawardy’s scheme and proposed that there should be joint electorates and equal share of jobs in administration,68 He, Sarat Chandra Bose and Kiran Sankar Roy were most serious behind the move but there was little sincere effort from the top ranking leaders of either the Muslim League or the Congress.
The United Bengal scheme was accepted by many Muslim leaders because Bengal was a Muslim majority province but the Hindus in Bengal were unwilling to accept such a plan. Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and also the Hindu Mahasabha had demanded partition of Bengal.70 After the riots in 1946 the Hindus could no longer trust the Muslims.
Muslim League opinion was also divided in this respect. The Khwaja group demanded the whole of Assam but divided Bengal omitting the Hindu majority Burdwan division and including some portion of Purnea and district of Bihar while Suhrawardy and Hashim group wanted the whole of Assam and undivided Bengal with some adjoining districts of Bihar.
Jinnah supported the scheme because to him the whole of Bengal was much better than a “truncated” one.73 Suhrawardy’s move for united, independent Bengal remained controversial since earlier when in April 1946, he had moved the resolution at Delhi for a one Pakistan state. 74 It is also essential to mention in this context that Abul Hashim, who deliberately remained absent at the open session of the Muslim League Legislators’ Convention at Delhi (7-9 April, 1946) but had suggested at the persuasion of Jinnah that the Lahore Resolution could be ammended by cutting out the adjective “one” and put the indefinite article “a.”
Nonetheless, on 20 May, 1947 those who favoured the United Independent Bengal scheme met at Sarat Bose’s house and reached at a tentative agreement signed by Abul Hashim and Sarat Chandra Bose, the terms of which included provisions for joint electorate, adult suffrage, proportionate reservation of seats for Hindus and Muslims, and for the scheduled caste Hindus, equal number of ministers from both communities in the ministry, the Chief Minister being a Muslim and the Home Minister, a Hindu.
Position of Gandhi for United Independent Bengal was not very clear. It seemed that he favoured the move but did not, in fact, take any initiative 77 Suhrawardy, who had initiated the movement declared, quite dramatically, on 7 June, 1947 that “Dacca is now in Pakistan” 78 Hashim seemed to be in a false position and felt almost betrayed in his cause.79 The Communist Party also supported the partition of Bengal .
Abul Hashim’s demand for an independent Bengal was in accordance to the Lahore Resolution of 1940 in which it was emphasized that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North-Western and the Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute “Independent States’ in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.
Hashim believed in the unification of Bengal but he neither wanted Bengal to be dominated by the West Pakistani, Urdu-speaking Muslims and neither did he want it to be a part of India 81 It was the Pakistan demand of the Bengali Muslims. But, here too, Hashim’s view differed from both the Congress and the Muslim League.
He believed that India was a multi- linguistic, multi-cultural nation and each of these linguistic and cultural regions was a nation and that some of the nations would be Muslim majority nations but he did not define nationality on the basis of religion as did the Muslim League in the 1940’s 82 The creation of a sovereign Bengal was a secular demand where Muslims and Hindus would enjoy equal power and opportunities.
He remained member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly as the leader of the opposition 85 When he came to Dacca in 1950 he got himself involved in the language movement demanding Bengali as the official language 86 He was arrested during anti-government demonstrations and was in prison for 16 months 87 Later, in 1954 he formed the Khilafat- i-Rabbani Party and remained outside the United Front 88 He contested from old Dacca constituency in the elections of 1954 as a Rabbani candidate and was badly defeated 89 He then continued to get more involved in his religious philosophy of Rabbaniyat but began to dislike the activities of his followers.
He left the party in 1956 and then joined the Muslim League but remained practically inactive politically, 90 He, however, had an exceptionally friendly relation with Ayub Khan, the then President of Pakistan.
In 1960 Abul Hashim became the first director of the Islamic Academy formed in November, 1960 in Dacca, where serious intellectual discussions and debates were arranged relating to the principles of Islam, Islamic thought and Islamic economics, 92 Although Hashim remained a Bengal unficationist until his death and a secularist, he, however, accepted Pakistan.
He could not later accept the breakaway of Pakistan in 1971. However, he totally dissociated himself later with the idea of integration of Pakistan and came to accept Bangladesh. 94 He died in 1974. Abul Hashim’s political position in the very brief period of five years between 1943-1947 was of meteoric one.
From the position of an almost unknown person he turned into a front-ranking politician of the Muslim League. His organizing ability was such that he managed to transform the Muslim League into a mass party within only a period of two years. He was a great orator. His leanings towards socialism had also made him a prominent thinker in the Communist circle in Bengal. His belief in Rabbaniyat or Islamic Socialism made him one of the leading scholars of Islam.
His firm belief in liberalism, socialism and secularism had made him a very progressive-minded leader. While at the same time his preachings of Islamic Socialism had made people to criticize him as a Communalist. This was the dichotomy in his whole political career. Abul Hashim’s son, Badruddin Umar commented that his father was, in fact, “a political schizophrenic” to symbolize his contradictions.