Today is our topic of discussion Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury .
Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury
Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury was born in the village of Batagram in Tippera in 1894. His father Tofazzal Ahmad Chowdhury, well known as Anu Mia Chowdhury, was a renowned zamindar of Tippera district.! Ashrafuddin was admitted to Hare School Calcutta and later studied at St. Xavier’s School, Calcutta. He however, graduated from Rajshahi Government College.
He then passed his Law examination from Calcutta University in 1919 and began to practice at the Comilla district court.2 Being influenced by his father’s strong anti-British attitude at an early age, Ashrafuddin was very much against the British rule in India.
He had joined the Indian National Congress in 1919 and when Gandhi called for non-co-operation movement in 1921 he plunged into it. He led the Khilafat and the non-co-operation movement in Tippera in the 1920’s. He was elected general secretary of the Tippera district Congress.
Ashrafuddin was a Tippera was mainly a jute-growing district. Slump in jute prices in 1920-21 gave reason for the peasants to join the movement against the local rent- collecting and money-lending groups 9 The Bengal Congress had never sanctioned a no-rent campaign because it went against the interests of the Hindu zamindars, 10 But situation in Tippera was different. Unlike other districts of eastern Bengal where a large number of the landed gentry belonged to the Hindu high-caste.
Tippera had a mainly Hindu upper-caste rent-collecting and money-lending groups, 11 Ashrafuddin initiated the no- rent campaign in Tippera in view of the economic distress prevailing in the district. 12 In fact, the Congress Committee at Tippera encouraged this move. Here the district Congress was under the command of Ashrafuddin Chowdhury.
Under his leadership the peasant movement led by the district member of the Congress for about thirty years and had been the general secretary of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee from 1937 to 1941,5 In his long political career he had never supported the politics of separatism led by the Muslim League 6 He believed in secularism and his political activities all through his life was aimed at maintaining communal harmony. He was one of the pioneers of the peasants’ movement in Bengal in the 1920’s and was the founder president of Tippera District Krishak Samiti .
Tippera was the political base of Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury. It was a Muslim majority area with a predominantly Muslim small holding peasantry 8 Ashrafuddin Chowdhury mobilized the peasants in Tippera district.
He gave lead to the no-rent campaign in the district during 1920-22 Tippera was mainly a jute-growing district. Slump in jute prices in 1920-21 gave reason for the peasants to join the movement against the local rent- collecting and money-lending groups. 9 The Bengal Congress had never sanctioned a no-rent campaign because it went against the interests of the Hindu zamindars.
But situation in Tippera was different. Unlike other districts of eastern Bengal where a large number of the landed gentry belonged to the Hindu high-caste. Tippera had a mainly Hindu upper-caste rent-collecting and money-lending groups 11 Ashrafuddin initiated the no- rent campaign in Tippera in view of the economic distress prevailing in the district 12 In fact, the Congress Committee at Tippera encouraged this move.
Here the district Congress was under the command of Ashrafuddin Chowdhury. Under his leadership the peasant movement led by the district Krishak Samiti and the Congress merged together. 13 In 1921 Ashrafuddin organized a strike by tea-garden coolies of Assam at the direction of C.R.
Das (1870-1925). The railway and dock workers also joined this strike 14 Peasant movement under Ashrafuddin’s leadership took a fierce shape in Tippera during the civil disobedience movement in 1920-22.15 Peasant agitation took the shape of a class conflict. 16 But the agitation remained purely Muslim. It did not take a communal turn 17 The peasants were merely asserting themselves in order to save money in the midst of economic distress.
When Gandhi suddenly called off the non-co-operation movement in February 1922 after the Chauri Chaura incident, Ashrafuddin was disenchanted with Gandhi’s strategy of non-violence and civil disobedience 19 Though a “No-Changer” and a Gandhite, he supported the Bengal Pact initiated by CR. Das in 1923,20 Ashrafuddin supported the pact wholeheartedly hoping that it would forge communal unity.
Gandhi was against the Bengal Pact and was very much unwilling to make it a national one 21 From then on Ashrafuddin began to move away from Gandhi’s leadership. He came to believe that Gandhi’s strategy was impractical in the existing situation.
After C.R. Das died in June 1925 Subhas Chandra Bose began to gain dominant position in the Bengal Provincial Congress organization 22 Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury was distressed by factionalism in Congress politics and communal riots which had taken place between 1925 and 1930 in Bengal. He also disliked extreme loyalism being expressed by the Muslim aristocracy to the British rule.
Ashrafuddin was disappointed to see those and preferred to choose the path of active resistance to British rule 23 The activist philosophy followed by Subhas Bose gave him encouragement and a sense of direction to the nationalist movement Ashrafuddin Chowdhury was elected the Chariman of the Tippera District Board and the member of the Bengal Provincial Legislative Council in 1930.
In Tippera the district Congress was also under Ashrafuddin’s leadership 24 The Provincial Conference of the Congress had passed a resolution in 1929 for closer ties between the peasants and labourers’ organizations in Bengal 25 Ashrafuddin supported this decision and began to mobilize the Muslim peasantry in Tippera 26 During the civil disobedience movement in 1930
Ashrafuddin played a dominant role in bringing the peasants behind the movement in the district 27 There was considerable economic distress among the cultivators affected by sharp fall in prices of agricultural goods in 1929 and by the year 1931 there was a general tendency of the Muslim peasantry to side with the Congress 28 Meetings of the Krishak Samiti and the Congress were held together at different places of Tippera, particularly in the district of Comilla and in the countryside, 29 Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury was arrested in March 1930 for defying government ban on demonstrations.
Released from prison in April 1930 he attended the All-Bengal Muslim Political Conference (the Nikhil Banga Muslim Rajnoitik Sammelan) held in Chittagong on 18 and 19 of the same month 31 This conference was significant in the sense that it was organized by another prominent nationalist Muslim, Maulana Moniruzzaman Islamabadi (1875-1950) .
Nationalist movement led by the Congress on all-India level decided the political moves taken by the Congress leaders in Bengal where they were strongly anti-Gandhi. The Gandhi-Irwin pact in March 1931 had disappointed Ashrafuddin Chowdhury greatly like the other political leaders in Bengal 33 No settlement was made on the question of release of political prisoners or of complete independence.
Ashrafuddin felt that running the charkas (spinning wheels to produce khadi) and giving the harijans (the untouchables) respect (through Communal Award and the Poona Pact in August 1932) were not enough for a nationalist movement.
He now discarded Gandhi’s path of non-violence and began to follow the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose. However, the Krishak Samiti and the Congress movement in Tippera was under complete leadership of Ashrafuddin Chowdhury His political activity in the 1930’s was confined mainly to the peasant movement in Tippera. There was progaganda against landlords and money lenders. T
he zamindar mahajans became very unpopular in the districts because of their oppressive methods 35 Ashrafuddin Chowdhury organized the krishak movement not consciously to lead a class struggle, he said, but to stregthen the nationalist movement 36 He admitted that he never intended to lead any anti-feudalist or anti-landlord movement.
He wanted to make the peasant movement a part of the nationalist movement and his real aim was to attain independence 38 He stood against all kinds of exploitation and oppression and, therefore, chose to take up the cause of the peasants On 1 May, 1931 a large procession was organized in Tippera.
Some 5000 peasants and labourers came out in a procession in Comilla and assembled at the Town Hall Maidan which seemed like “a sort of Bolshie meeting 39 Demands were made for limitation of debt interest to 6%, reduction of union board taxes, increasing representation of cultivators in the councils, provision for education and free legal defence in rent suits, etc.40 Krishak Samiti activities in Tippern and in some other districts like Noakhali, became violent.
The Government of India Act of 1935 which greatly extended franchise, opened up prospects of provincial elections. A large part of the krishak movement was now drawn into electoral politics.
In the years 1935 and 1936 large meetings of the Krishak Samiti were held frequently in Tippera organized by Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury 43 He delivered impassioned speeches at these meetings where he denounced zamindari and manajani and upheld the Bengal Agricultural Debtor’s Bill.44 He could not contest the 1937 elections because of his prison records but he conducted the election campaign for the krishak samiti in the district.
In April 1936 Fazlul Huq presided over a conference at Dacca where krishak samitis of Tippera and Noakhali and proja samitis of other districts were brought together to form the all-Bengal Krishak Proja Samiti, which came to be known as the Krishak Proja Party 45 The Tippera Krishak Samiti remained independent of the Krishak Proja Party.
Ashrafuddin Chowdhury contributed greatly to organize the Krishak Proja movement in Tippera in an extensive scale 46 As a part of election campaign Krishak Proja Party conferences were held in various districts of castern Bengal.
The Tippera Conference was organized by Ashrafuddin Chowdhury at Comilla on 24 and 25 July, 1936 where he explained the reasons for immediate abolition of zamindari without compensation and also the abolition of the khas mahal system .
Muslim League in Bengal was more influenced by the Congress and the Krishak Proja Party leaders in the pre-election months of 1936 and early 1937. Jinnah came to Calcutta in August 1936 in order to win over the United Muslim Party and the Krishak Proja Party members. Fazlul Huq sent a few of the Krishak Proja Party members like Tamizuddin Khan, Shamsuddin Ahmad, Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury and Abul Mansur Ahmad to participate in the negotiation.
Their discussion failed on issues like the choice of Fazlul Huq as the future prime minister of Bengal and abolition of zamindari without compensation both of which being rejected by Jinnah and the United Muslim Party members, 49 Jinnah also insisted that all Muslim candidates should contest the election as Muslim league candidates which the Krishak Proja Party leaders could not accept However, the results of the election of 1937 showed that the Krishak Proja Party had won 36 seats and the Tippera Krishak Samiti independency won 5 seats 50 The Krishak Proja Party proved a stronghold in Tippera district.
After the elections Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury had hoped for the formation of a Krishak Proja Party and Congress coalition ministry. He was involved in the negotiations with Congress leaders. When the possibility of such a coalition was lost and Fazlul Huq quickly decided to form coalition ministry with the Muslim League Ashrafuddin was greatly shocked 51 The Muslim League was very much against the proja interest and did not believe in secular politics.
As soon as Fazlul Huq’s League- dominated ministry took office in March 1937 Ashrafuddin began to intensify anti-ministerial campaign 52 Huq’s coalition ministry consisted men of landed aristocracy and only two Krishak Proja Party men. At a meeting held on 27 March 1937 the executive committee of the Tippera Krishak Samiti passed a resolution urging Fazlul Huq to dissolve his ministry and form one including people who sympathised with the peasants and his role at this stage was both of “responsive co-operation” and “responsive opposition.”
Ashrafuddin now began to organize numerous Krishak meetings where he urged the Muslim cultivators to join the Congress 54 At Chandina in Tippera district a Congress-Krishak meeting was held on 2 May, 1937 which had an audience of 4,000.
Similar meetings were held at Brahmanbaria, Nabinagar, Laksam of the Tippera district in the month of May, same year which also had large audiences 56 At such meetings attacks were made particularly on the Debt Settlement Boards and appeals were made to the Muslims to join the Congress.
After the elections of 1937 different political parties like the Muslim League, the Krishak Proja Party, the Tippera Krishak Samiti and the Congress all began to compete “fiercely” to gain allegiance of the peasants.
There were attempts by the Muslim League to set up branches at Tippera but because of anti-Muslim League campaign by Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury, support for Congress was greater in the district 59 The local krishak samiti movement “coalesced completely” with the Congress and made the peasant agitation powerful in Tippera 60 Congress activities in Bengal did not start as a mass movement.
It localised only in a few districts. Tippera was one of those districts. The significant factor was that most of the residents here were Muslims who were brought to support the Congress. Here the Congress gained a strong peasant base 61 The Muslim League was also increasing its propaganda in Tippera.
Its intention was primarily to gain support for the Muslim League ministry as against the Congress. Fazlul Huq made political tours at places like Noakhali, Tippera and Mymensingh and tried to establish that the peasant disturbances and Krishak proja agitation were instigated by the Congress 62 During 1938 the Congress-Krishak rural campaign was also strong.
The return of the ex-detenus to Tippera gave new life to the Congress and anti-ministerial party 63 Ashrafuddin organized several mofussil meetings where he appealed to the Muslims to join the Congress and to maintain communal harmony 64 At several meetings and conferences in Tippera and other places of Comilla in 1938 he took up the question of remission of the Damodar canal rate which was unusually high, decrease of land revenue and rent, capture of local bodies by the Congress, formation of Congress committees in every village, etc.
It was from this time onwards that Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury was treated by his community as an “outcast”. In his speech at Noakhali on 13 June, 1938 he criticized the Muslim League ministry for doing nothing substantial for the masses and not taking a bold stand for passing the tenancy act. He admitted that he had done nothing wrong to his co-religionists by joining the Congress.
He admitted in the course of his speech that he would fight for freedom till death “as a humble soldier of the Congress, “66 It should be noted that at that time he was the General Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee
In Tippera there was a struggle for influence over the agriculturist population. There was the Congress-Krishak coalition on the one hand and the Muslim League on the other.
The activity of the Muslim League in the districts was also increased so that the Proja party gradually dwindled and the mass contact policy of the Congress could also be stopped,67 There was also the Congress Socialist party organized by the ex-detenus who were against Fazlul Huq’s Proja-League coalition ministry and communist in character 68 Besides, a split in the district krishak samiti had already taken place in Tippera in the mid-1930’s 69 One group was led by Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury and his close associate Abdul Malek.
They were pro-Congress 70 The other group was pro-communist and was led by Asimuddin and Yakub Ali 71 The Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) was set up in April 1936 by the Congress-left and several conferences were held in Comilla.
During 1939 and 1940 left-wing agrarian agitation intensified. particularly in Tippera, geared up further by Subhas Bose’s tour of the district in November, 1939,73 There were also continued efforts to form Krishak Samitis and Congress committees in every union and to unite the factions of the district Krishak Samiti 74 By 1940 these attempts of mass campaign came to a halt.
The Bengal Tenancy Amendment Act. 1938, the Agricultural Debtor’s Act (1935) was put into operation in 1938, the Money- Lender’s Act of 1940 made Huq’s ministry very popular among the masses 75 Although the tenants, ryots and under-ryots were not given propriety rights of their holdings and nothing was done with a view to restricting jute production and fixing minimum price of jute, the above acts brought great relief to the peasants 76 Any attempt to bring down Huq’s ministry was treated in East Bengal as a betrayal to the cause of the Muslims and the peasantry.
In Tippera, however, misery of the peasants was severe in 1940- 1941.78 World War II had started in September, 1939. Jute price continued to be weak in relation to the price of food grains and inflation was also very high.
Collection of dues in Tippera was very poor in 1940-1941 because the peasants could not sell their jute crop 80 Price of rice continued to rise and there was also cyclone and floods which damaged much of jute and paddy in 1941 81 The Forward Bloc, which included the left-wing Congressmen and the members of the Communist Party of India started relief samitls and organized large-scale hunger marches demanding food and work 82 Communal situation was also worse in Bengal in 1941 but Tippera remained calm because of the secular attitude of the leaders there .
Mass arrests of nationalist leaders, particularly of those who were more militant between 1940 and 1942 brought the krishak movement in Tippera to a halt 84
Until 1941 when Ashrafuddin was imprisoned for long five years at the Buxa Special Jail.
Jalpaiguri, his political career was mostly allied with the radicals. He had chosen to fight for the cause of the peasants but retained a certain degree of autonomy from the krishak Proja Samiti. He kept an independent strategy for the movement run by the Tippera Krishak Samiti. He believed in non-communal politics and, therefore, retained his allegiance to Congress.
But, by the late 1930’s he began to dislike the dictatorial attitude of the Congress High Command and particularly, of Gandhi. At the Bogra district conference on 20 and 21 May 1939 Ashrafuddin made a long speech where he stated the reasons for his dislike of Gandhi’s policies. He expressed his disenchantment at Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement and the creed of ahimsa.
He also criticized Gandhi’s support for Communal Award and the provision of reservation of seats which, he believed, had divided the communities and had greatly broadened the cleavage 87 Like Subhas Chandra Bose he believed that war was to begin and it was the right moment to attack the imperial power 88 He criticized the Congress leaders for not willing to take that opportunity 89 He felt that it was practical to follow any path to attain freedom from colonial rule even if it was a violent means and rejected the path of spiritual salvation of Gandhi 90 He preferred the path of armed struggle and direct warfare against the British in India as was chosen by Subhas Bose.
Bose had already formed the Forward Bloc in the later part of 1939 and for the next one year he toured the country trying to gain support for his party,92 During this time Ashrafuddin became the closest associate of Bose and had worked for him carrying out secret missions 93 He toured with Bose places like Assam, Bombay, Nagpur, Delhi, the United Provinces, Madras, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Ramgar, Dacca to create support for the Forward Bloc and to get men, munitions and money to promote India’s struggle for freedom 94 Ashrafuddin was not clearly a revolutionarly leader himself or a member of the Indian National Army Bose formed during the war, but helped him in his attempt.
He had joined hands with Bose although knowing that Gandhi had a strong dislike for him. Ashrafuddin was still then the General Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee. The Congress High Command expelled him from the party in 1940.
Although Ashrafuddin supported Bose he was much against Bose’s attempt to make alliance with the Muslim League in 1940 regarding the election to the Calclutta Corporation 96 Ashrafuddin opposed Muslim League demand for partition based on the “two-nation” theory and tried to convince Bose not to ally with the Muslim League which to his opinion, was a purely communal party .
Ashrafuddin was arrested in 1940 while he was attending a Workers’ Conference at Kachar near Assam 98 He was under house arrest for sometime but escaped one night 99 He was arrested again in 1941 when he was speaking at a gathering in Chittagong with other left-wing leaders, 100 By early 1941 Subhas Bose had also slipped secretly out of India never to come back 101 By the time Ashrafuddin came out of prison in December 1945 most Krishak Proja leaders had joined the Muslim League 102 By March 1940 when elections were to be held Muslim League was the most popular party and the creation of Pakistan was the only demand of the Muslims.
When Ashrafuddin came home from jail in December 1945 he was attacked by Muslim youths in front of his house. They pelted him with stones and called him a betrayer, a “kaumi gaddar” meaning, traitor to the nation, as they called all the nationalist Muslims 103 Ashrafuddin was surprised and shocked to see Muslims becoming so violently communal.
By the time of the elections the Krishak Proja members had either joined the Congress or the Muslim League 104 The nationalist Muslims were cornered and they had little hope to win the elections. There was very little support from the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee for the Congress Muslims, 105 The condition of the nationalist Muslims at this stage was such that they were left out the mainstream politics, 106 So long.
they had identified themselves with the Krishak Proja movement in Bengal and had got moral and material support from the Congress. Now that the ideology of Pakistan gained a mass support and all hope for a Hindu-Muslim unity had withered away Congress seemed reluctant to stand by the side of the nationalist Muslims.
Ashrafuddin Chowdhury organized a meeting of the Nikhil Banga Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Hind, a non-communal and pro-Congress party, at his village Shuagazi in Tippera on 9 February, 1946.107 The meeting was addressed by Maulana Husain Madani who strongly declared that the Hindus and Muslims were not two nations but one and belonged to one state, 108 The demand for Pakistan was opposed at the conference.
In the elections of March 1946 those krishak samiti leaders at Tippera who had not joined the Muslim League had lost their seats to the League candidate 109 The two nationalist Muslims, Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury and Syed Nausher Ali who contested the election on Congress ticket failed to win any seat 110 The Muslim League supporters had led violent attacks on the nationalist Muslims during election campaigns,111 Demand for partition led to such frenzy among Muslims that they adopted any means to attain that.
Defeat of the nationalist Muslims in the 1946 clections and the clamour for Pakistan revealed to them the futility of their efforts and the great sacrifices they had made during their whole political career .
Ashrafuddin Chowdhury, however, remained firm in his belief in secular politics and continued to pursue the Congress leaders to avert partition. He believed partition of India would fragment the large community into three small sections making them weaker in every respect.113 He hoped that the Muslim League leaders would realize that and expected that the Congress leaders would find a way out to avoid partition.
He hoped that Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarat Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhai Patel, J.B. Kripalani and above all, Gandhi would take initiative in this respect. But, Ashrafuddin observed that like the Muslim League leaders the Congress High Command had also become communal. 114 He wrote repeatedly to the Congress leaders reminding them of their pledge for keeping India united.
But, Congress rejection of compulsory groupings of the so-called Pakistan provinces and the three-tier constitutional scheme presented by the Cabinet Mission (1946) led to a disastrous consequence 115 The Muslim League called for Direct Action Day to be observed on 15 August, 1946, Although the League’s Direct Action was not aimed at any political party or any community of India, provecation from some leaders of both the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha led to the massacre at Calcutta, known as the Great Calcutta Killing on 16 August, 1947,116 Communal riots followed in places like Noakhali, Tippera, Bihar and other regions of Bengal 117 So long under Ashrafuddin’s leadership no communal riot had occured in Tippera.
In Bihar many innocent nationalist Muslims were slain in the riot and nationalist Muslims were attacked in Calcutta and other places of Bengal. Ashrafuddin was attacked by the Muslim mob in 1940 and forced to take shelter at a Marwari house 119 Still he hoped for a united India 120 He wrote to leaders of the Congress like Jawaharlal Nehru and J.B. Kripalani
in 1947 to stop India being divided 121 He even went to Delhi to meet Gandhi hoping that he would be able to stop partition 122 Futile in his attempts and disappointed, he wrote at one point that “the Congress High Command has let us down.”
After partition in 1947 Ashrafuddin decided to live in East Pakistan and came to terms gradually with Pakistan as his new homeland. 124 He never repented that he was a nationalist Muslim. In the 1950’s Ashrafuddin carried on his political career on a very different line. He joined the Nizam-i- Islam party in 1953.125 It seemed strange that such a secular person should join a religious party like this but to be religious did not mean to be communal.
He could not morally accept Muslim League politics and had not forgotten the shock of communal violence and partition. The only option he saw was to join the Nizam-i-Islam party. He was a deeply religious person and offered his prayers regularly, had beards and dressed like a devout Muslim all through his life.126 He believed that a truly religious person could never hate other religions.
However, he contested as a Nizami- i-Islami candidate for the Provincial Assembly elections in March 1954 and got elected from Comilla constituency, 127 His victory and the victory of the United Front in the election symbolized to him the hope for secular politics in East Pakistan 128 Ashrafuddin took oath and became minister of a small cabinet of three members of the United Front ministry of Fazlul Huq 129 He was the minister for Education.
After the fall of the United Front ministry he was not much involved in politics. After the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 he came to tem again with his new identity just as he came to terms with Pakistan in 1947.130 He died on 25 March, 1976.