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A Saga of Sacrifice & Struggle |
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. Freedom Fighters From Pakistan
Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi A prominent religious scholar and political leader of the South Asian Subcontinent, Maulana Obaidullah was born in Sialkot district in a family of Sikh goldsmiths. As his father Ram Singh died before the Maulana was born, he was brought up by his maternal uncle in jampur in Dera Ghazi khan district. Here young Obaidullah embraced Islam at the age of fifteen after which he left his hearth and home and settled in Sindh. After obtaining preliminary religious education here, he went to the famous religious school of Deoband(U.P.) from where he graduated with honors. In 1915 he went to Afghanistan and founded a branch of the COngress committee in Kabul which he got affiliated to its parent organization in India. From Afghanistan he travelled to Turkey and Russia. All his attempts were directed towards forging Muslim unity but they were of no avail. returning home in 1939 he established a religious school at Denpur( District Khanpur); he died and was buried here. Mohsin-ul-Mulk Mehdi Ali Khan Mohsin-ul-Mulk Mehdi Ali Khan was born at Atawah on 9th Dec. 1837. Like Sir Syed he was educated in the prevalent eastern style of education. After completing his education, he began to serve the British Govt. in India. He sat in Civil Service examination for the post of Deputy Collector. After he secured the first position in the examination he was appointed a Revenue Instpector in 1871 and served in the Hyderabad State for twenty years. For sometime he was the Financial Secretary in the Hyderabad State Government of the Nizam. Many people think that the real architect of the success of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was Mohsin-ul-Mulk. However, it will not be incorrect to say that he worked as much with complete dedication and utter sincerety for the establishment of the Muslim University as Sir Syed did. In 1888 Mehdi Ali Khan went to England. Some five years later he resigned his post to settle permanently in Aligarh to look after and nurture the plant put in soil by Sir Syed, namely the Muslim Anglo Oriental College that later became a full-fledged Muslim University. Mohsin-ul-mulk was a man of great integrity. Inspite of his exposure to the West he never for a moment disowned his culture or his roots. A forceful writer and a great speaker, he led a campaign in 1900 against Sir Anthony MacDonald's policy of replacing Urdu with Hindi. It was on his suggestion that a deputation was organized and sent to Simla in 1906. Maulana Hasrat Mohani An excellent poet, a fearless journalist and a dedicated leader, his real name was Fazl-ul-Hasan. Hasrat was his nom de plume. He was born in Mohan[ U.P] which is reflected in his pen name. He was educated at Fatehpur and Aligarh. He went to Aligarh in 1895 and launched his weekly "Urdu-e-Moalla" from there in 1903. This magazine continued to be published intermittently till 1930. In 1908, the British government took umbradge on a hostile article and sentenced him to four years' penal servitude. Then began a period of repeated incarcerations which lasted for a number of years. In 1907 HAsrat attended the Congress session at Surat as an extremist worker; in 1913 he led the agitation against the Kanpur mosque desecration, in 1915 he joined the Muslim League; and in 1916 he was sentenced to four year's penal servitude for his participation in the alleged "silk scarf movement"[ Reshmee Roomaal Tehreek]. In 1920 he presented his noncooperation resolution in the Khilafat Conference Dehli. Hasrat was the first Indian leader to demand complete independence for India in All India Khilafat Conference and at the Ahmadabad[Gujrat] session of the Congress in 1921. The same year he presided over the Ahmadabad Session of the All India Muslim League. In 1928, he led a campaign against Nehru Report. In 1929 he was a delegate to the All Parties Muslim Conference at Dehli. In 1920 he actively participated in Civil Disobedience movement , from 1937 onwards he remained a sincere , devoted, and outspoken member of the Muslim League. Hasrat was a simple man, who feared none and always spoke out what he believed in. He is one of the most revered leaders of our independence struggle. Sir Abdullah Haroon A leading Businessman and a distinguished philanthropist, Sir Abdullah Haroon, in the words of the Quaid-e-Azam, was one of the strongest pillars of the Muslim League. He was born in Karachi and began his career as a merchant in 1896. In 1901, he became interested in politics. In 1917 he joined the Congress and participated in the Civil Disobedience and Khilafat movements. From 1919 to 1923, he was president of the Sindh provincial Khilafat Committe. His brains and wealth brought about the publication of "Al Waheed" (1920), a newspaper promoting ideas of independence. Sir Abdullah Haroon presided over the seventh Sindh Provincial Conference (1920) and remained the president of the Sindh Provincial Muslim League from 1920 to 1930. He played host to Bi Amman -- the revered mother of the Ali Brothers -- in 1921 [ when they were being tried in Khaliq Deena Hall, Karachi]. In 1923 he became a member of the Bombay Legislative Assembly [Sindh was part of Bombay Province]. He demanded a separate provincial status for SIndh in the Muslim Conference at Aligarh (1925) and in the Leaders' Conference at Dehli (1926). Between 1926 and 1942 he was elected thrice to the membership of the Central Legislative Assembly. He was president of the All India Khilafat Committee for 1927-28 and attended the 1928 All Parties Conference as a member. In 1930 he attended the all India Muslim Conference. In 1930 he formed the Sindh United Party on the pattern of the Punjab Unionist Party but his party could not win the 1936 elections; it succeeded, however, in 1938. In 1938 he organized the Muslim League in Sindh. He was the man who piloted the partition of India resolution in the Sindh Provincial Muslim League Conference in October 1938 under the presidentship of the Quaid-i-Azam. Sir Abdullah Haroon presided over the Punjab Muslim Students' Conference at Faisalabad in 1941. He donated ten thousand rupees to the League at Allahabad in 1942. He was very active in social welfare projects throughout his life. Maulvi A.K. Fazlul Haq Maulvi Abul Kasim Fazlul Haq was born in a village in the Barisal district of the present Bangladesh. He was the first Muslim graduate of Bengal. He joined the Congress in 1912 and was elected its secretary general but resigned because of the differences on the minorities issues and joined the Muslim League and was elected the General Secretary of the Bengal Muslim League . In 1913 he became a member of the Bengal Assembly. In 1935 he became the Mayor of Calcutta. From 1935 to 1937 he was a member of the Indian assembly. In 1937 he left the Muslim LEague to form his own Krishak Praja PArty. HE became the Chief Minister of BEngal in April 1937 which he remained till 1943. When the Quaid-e-Azam reorganized the Muslim League, Fazlul HAq rejoined the fold and presented the Pakistan Resolution in the historic Lahore session of the Muslim League in 1940. After independence he was the advocate general of the former East Pakistan. In 1954, after the electoral victory of the United Front, he became the provincial chief minister. In the beginning of 1956 he became the Governor of the former East Pakistan but was removed some months later. HE died in Dacca after a long illness. Hasan Ali Effendi Hasan Ali Effendi was born in a small village of Hala district in a poor family. By purely personal effort he educated himself and chose law as a profession. The difficulties he faced in his own education created in him a fiery urge to found an institution of higher education for the Muslims. In this mission he was helped by the historian-jurist Justice Ameer Ali, on whose invitation he visited Calcutta to observe the education system there. At last in 1885 he established the Sindh Madrsatul Islam where the Quaid-e-Azam too was a student. He also established the first Muslim girls' school of Sindh at Marriot Road In Karachi. He died on August 20, 1896 in Hyderabad and was buried in his own orchard. His efforts placed Sindh on the educational map of the subcontinent; he is called the "Sir Syed of Sindh." The Ali Brothers Maulana Shaukat Ali Maulana Shaukat Ali was the elder of the two Ali Brothers. He was deeply interested in Islam from the very beginning and had extraordinary resources of patience, courage and perseverance against great odds. He was a committed and sincere worker for his cause and his qualities took him to the pinnacle of fame and popularity. He was born in Rampur and educated at Aligarh [A.M.U.] where he became the captain of the cricket team, which testifies to his lefelong keenness for sports. HE served in the provincial civil service of the United Provinces [of Avadh and Agra] for seventeen years(1896 to 1913). When the Aga Khan III launched his fund-raising campaign for the Aligarh Muslim University, Maulana Shaukat Ali worked as its secretary. He served as a trustee and later as president of the Aligarh College Board. He helped and aided Maulana Muhammad Ali in the publication of "Hamdard" and "Comrade", and worked as founder-secretary of Khuddam-e-Kaabaa Society Delhi [Dehli]. In 1915 he was imprisoned along with Maulana Mohammad Ali. In 1919, when he ws in Jail, he was elected president of the first Khilafat Conference. Upon his release in the same year he was elected secretary and chief executive officer of the Central Khilafat Committee. In 1921, he was again sentenced to imprisonment along with Maulan Muhammad Ali and was released in 1923. He led the boycott of Simon Commission in 1927 and opposed the Nehru Report in 1928. He attended the All Parties' Conference in Delhi[Dehli] in 1929 and the first and second Round Table conferences. He helped organize the World Muslim Conference in Jeruslam in 1932. In 1936 he became a member of the All India Muslim League Council and also of the Muslim League Parliamentary Board. From 1934 to 1938 he was a member of the legislative assembly. From 1936 to 1938 he not only helped the Quaid-e-Azam in popularizing the Muslim League at various levels, but also toured Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and America where he gave speeches on the freedom movement of India and on Islam. Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar A popular and dynamic national political leader, a courageous journalist and a poet par excellence, Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar was the greatest Muslim leader of the 20th century before the emergence of the Quaid-e-Azam. Maulana Muhammad Ali was born in Rampur and was educated at Aligarh Muslim University and the Oxford University(1898-1902). First of all, he served in the Education Department of the Rampur State, then he joined the Gaekwad Civil Serivce. Except for a few years he remained active in the affairs of the All India Muslim League from 1906 to 1928. He launched his famous English weekly "Comrade" from Calcutta in 1911 and his Urdu weekly "Hamdard" from Dehli in 1913. For four years after 1911, he remained involved in the Kanpur Mosque affair, The Pan-Islamic movement and the Aligarh University movement. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment(1911-15) for his fearless championing of the Turkish [Khilafat] cause and violation of the Defence of India Rules. Upon his release he became a principal leader of the Khilafat Movement. He led the Indian Khilafat delegation to London in 1920. In 1924 he renewed the publication of "Hamdard". In 1928 he left the Indian National Congress, opposed the Nehru Report tooth and nail, supported the fourteen points of the Quaid-e-Azam and advised the Muslims to dissociate themselves from the Civil Disobedience movement of 1930. In the same year he became the president of the Khilafat Conference and attended the first Round Table Conference, where he delivered a memorable, fiery oration against the subjugation of India and in favor of immediate independence. Maulana Muhammad Ali died in London and ws buried in Bait-ul-Maqdis. During his ilness he had willed that he be buried in Bait-ul-Maqdis( Jeruslam) for he did not want to return to a slave country. He was accordingly buried there. No discussion of the Ali brothers will be complete without mentioning their mother, known as Bi Amaa. She was not only responsible for the training of Ali brothers, but herself active in politics. She was also a poetess. Hakeem Ajmal Khan A physician par excellence of the eastern system of medicine and a reformer, Hakim Ajmal Khan was born in Dehli, where his ancestors had come from Herat in the days of Emperor Babur. During Emperor Akbar's reign, this family became associated with the royal court. Ajmal Khan's father Hakim Mahmood Khan was the grandson of Hakim Muhammad Sharif Khan, the physician of King Shah-Alam. Hakim Ajmal Khan first memorized the Quran and then studied Arabic and Persian, after which he studied medicine under his elder brother Hakim Muhammad Wasil Khan. He became so well versed in it that he became famous all over the country. In 1892, he was appointed special physician to the Navab of Rampur[ ruler of Rampur State]. Hakim Ajmal Khan founded the Tibbi[ medical] Conference in 1906 and in the same year supported the founding of the Muslim League. In 1908 Indian government granted him the honorific title of Haziq-ul-Mulk. He founded the Tibbia College in Dehli in 1916 and in 1920 he was appointed the first administrator of the Jamia Millia, Dehli. Hakim Ajmal Khan also travelled to Europe twice. He presided over the Congress session which passed the resolution of civil disobedience against the government. In 1921, he presided over the Khilafat Conference. A grateful nation conferred upon him the title of Masih-ul-Mulk. He was the uncrowned King of Dehli and was a great champion of Hindu-Muslim unity and his views on national politics were given importance. He authored books on medicine as well as on political subjects. Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, The Aga Khan III He was the hereditary spiritual leader of the Ismaili sect. He was born at Karachi and succeeded to the Imammate in 1885. He was a member of the imperial legislative council from 1902 to 1904. In 1903 he became the president of the reception committee of the All-India Muslim Education Conference and presided over its Delhi[Dehli] session in 1904. In a meeting with the Viceroy Lord Rippon in 1906 at Simla he, as the leader of the Muslim delegation, suggested a seperate electorate for Muslims. From 1906 to 1912 he was the President of the All-India Muslim League. He also convened a Hindu-Muslim unity conference at Allahabad[U.P.]. In 1911 he raised three million rupees for the Aligarh Muslim University. In 1921 he was appointed the Vice Chancellor of this University[A.M.U.]. He was president of the All Parties Muslim Conference 1928-9. In 1930-33, he was chairman of the British Indian
delegation to the round table conferences. In 1932 he suggested a
pact of minorities which facilitated the announcement of the
communal award. He became a privy counciller in 1934. He represented
India in the assembly of the League of Nations in 1932 and in
1934-37. He ws the first Asian to have been elected the president of
the League of Nations in 1937. The Aga Khan died in Switzerland and
was burried in
Egypt. Source: www.chakdephate.com
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