Overview
Abul Hashim (1905–1974) was a Bengali politician, Islamic thinker and writer who played a prominent role in the politics of late-colonial Bengal and, after 1947, in East Pakistan (later Bangladesh). He is best remembered as the General Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League during the 1940s, when he reorganised the party along populist lines and worked closely with Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Sarat Chandra Bose on the unsuccessful proposal for a United Bengal in 1947.
Key facts
| Full name | Abul Hashim |
|---|---|
| Born | 1905, Burdwan district, Bengal Presidency, British India |
| Died | 1974 |
| Nationality | British Indian; later Pakistani; later Bangladeshi |
| Known for | General Secretary, Bengal Provincial Muslim League (1943–1947); United Bengal proposal (1947); Islamic political thought |
| Notable work | The Creed of Islam (Islamic political and theological writing) |
| Family | Son of Abul Kasem, a barrister and politician of Burdwan |
Background and early life
Abul Hashim was born in 1905 into a politically active Muslim family of Burdwan in western Bengal. His father, Abul Kasem, was a barrister and a member of the Bengal Legislative Council, and the family was associated with the reformist and nationalist currents within Bengali Muslim society. Hashim received his education in Burdwan and Kolkata, and was drawn early to debates about colonial rule, Muslim political identity and the social condition of the Bengali peasantry.
Political career
Entry into Bengal politics
Hashim entered electoral politics in the late 1930s and was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly from a Burdwan constituency. He aligned with the Muslim League, then led in Bengal by figures such as A. K. Fazlul Huq and, later, Khawaja Nazimuddin and Suhrawardy.
General Secretary of the Bengal Muslim League
In 1943, Hashim was elected General Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League. In this role he undertook a far-reaching reorganisation of the party, opening primary membership to ordinary cultivators, expanding the district committees and emphasising socio-economic issues such as land reform and the rights of tenant farmers. Working with younger activists, including students of Islamia College, Calcutta, he helped shape a more radical, mass-based wing of the League in Bengal that contrasted with the more conservative leadership in other provinces.
Under his secretaryship, the Bengal Muslim League performed strongly in the 1946 provincial elections, which preceded the formation of Suhrawardy's ministry.
The United Bengal proposal, 1947
As partition approached, Hashim was among the chief advocates of a sovereign, undivided Bengal. Together with Suhrawardy, Sarat Chandra Bose and Kiran Shankar Roy, he was associated with the May 1947 proposal for an independent United Bengal that would be neither part of India nor of Pakistan. The plan envisaged a joint electorate, a coalition cabinet and protections for both Muslim and Hindu communities. The initiative collapsed in the face of opposition from the Indian National Congress high command, sections of the Hindu Mahasabha and ultimately Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Bengal was partitioned in August 1947.
After 1947
Following partition, Hashim moved to East Bengal (East Pakistan). He continued to write and speak on Islamic political philosophy, language rights and democratic governance, and was associated at various times with opposition politics against the central government in Karachi. He suffered a serious illness in the 1950s that affected his eyesight, but continued to dictate his books and articles. He lived to see the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 and died in 1974.
Thought and writings
Hashim is regarded as one of the more original Muslim political thinkers of twentieth-century Bengal. His best known book, The Creed of Islam, sets out a reading of Islamic doctrine that emphasises social justice, rationality and democratic responsibility, and was influential in mid-twentieth century Bengali Muslim intellectual circles. He also wrote in Bengali on questions of constitutionalism, language and the relationship between religion and the state, and was an active commentator on the Bengali Language Movement of the early 1950s.
Significance
Abul Hashim's career bridges three political eras — late-colonial Bengal, the Pakistan period and the early years of Bangladesh. His reorganisation of the Bengal Muslim League is widely seen as having injected a populist and reformist character into Muslim politics in the province, while his support for an undivided Bengal in 1947 marks him as one of the few senior League leaders who sought an alternative to a religion-based partition. As an Islamic thinker, he is grouped with reformist voices who attempted to reconcile Islamic ethics with parliamentary democracy and Bengali cultural identity.
Related topics
- All-India Muslim League
- Bengal Provincial Muslim League
- United Bengal proposal
- Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
- Sarat Chandra Bose
- Partition of Bengal (1947)
- Bengali Language Movement
- History of Bangladesh
References
- Wikidata entity: Q3348087
- Banglapedia, National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, entry on Abul Hashim.
- Harun-or-Rashid, The Foreshadowing of Bangladesh: Bengal Muslim League and Muslim Politics, 1936–1947.