.........Muhammad Bahadur Khan (3 February 1905 – 25 June 1944), alias Saadi Khan. Titles Bahadur Yar Jung (
Urdu: بہادر یار جنگ) and Quaid-e-Millath (
Urdu: قائد ملت) was an
Hyderabadi Muslim who argued for the formation of Muslim
states in
India during the
British Occupation in the 1930s and 1940s.
Early life
He was born in 1905 to
Nawab Nasib Yawar Jung and named Saadi Khan alias Muhammad Bahadur Khan. He was descended from the
Kakazai Pashtun family which had come to
Hyderabad during the reign of the
Nizam Sikandar Jah (1903–29) and was granted a minor
jagir of Lal Garhi, He was also a hereditary jamadar of the nazim-e-jamiat (commander of the Irregular Forces) of the
Nizam.
His mother died barely seven days after his birth. He was therefore brought up by his maternal grandmother up to the age of 14 and thereafter by his paternal grandmother. He was educated at the
Madarsa-e-Aliya and
Darul-Uloom ( now
City College Hyderabad ) and acquired proficiency in
wrestling,
swimming,
marksmanship, and
swordsmanship. He was also very fond of
shikar. He was married at the age of 14 to Talmain Khatoon, an older cousin. Right from school days he used to excel in declamation and became a popular orator.
When Bahadur Khan inherited the
jagir on the death of his father in 1923 he also inherited a debt of Rs.4.5
Lakhs. Within four years he set the affairs right and having cleared all the debt, doubled the income from his estate to Rs.40,000per annum.
[1][
self-published source?]
Career
Bahadur Yar Jung was a practical and realistic person.
[2] Particularly, he wanted his own home state, Princely
Hyderabad, to be separate from the rest of India as an Islamic state with
Sharia Law in force, and led an organisation called
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, for the propagation of
Islam. A friend and aide to
Mohammed Iqbal and
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he was one of the most admired leaders of the
Pakistan Movement. In 1926 Bahadur Yar Jung was elected president of the Society of
Mahdavis.In 1938 he was made president of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen .The party has roots back to the days of the princely State of Hyderabad. It was founded and shaped by Nawab Mahmood Nawaz Khan Qiledar Golconda of Hyderabad State by the advice of His Highness Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan the Nizam of Hyderabad and in the presence of Ulma-e-Mashaeqeen in 1927 as a pro-Nizam party. then it was only Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and the first meeting was held in the house of Nawab Mahmood Nawaz Khan his house name was “Touheed Manzil” at Chowk-e-Aspan opposite asha talkies Qazipura Hyderabad. The MIM advocated the set up of a Muslim dominion rather than integration with India. In 1938 Bahadur Yar Jung was elected President of the MIM which had a cultural and religious manifesto soon acquired political complexion and became aligned with the Muslim League in British India. He soon rose to be the supreme and unquestioned leader of the MIM and imparted a new militancy to it.
Titles
In November, 1930 a public meeting was held in the
Victory Playground to celebrate the
birthday of
Prophet Muhammad. A young man was moving his audience to tears by his oration. Midway through his speech, there was a general commotion. Policemen on duty started blowing whistles nervously.
Mir Osman Ali Khan,
Nizam VII, had arrived unannounced to attend the meeting. The young speaker paused only for a while and then greeted the
Nizam in an emotion-charged manner and referred him with these words:
Oh! Crowned slave of the Muhammad of Arabia, come,
let me tell thee about the style of governance of that emperor of both the spiritual and the corporeal worlds.
Mir Osman Ali Khan,
Nizam VII, sat there completely mesmerized and like the thousands amongst the audience, washed by the flood of words coming from that young speaker, tears began to roll down from
Mir Osman Ali Khan cheeks.
[3] He asked some of the telling sentences of the speech to be repeated, as people say encore in
mushairas (
Urdu poetry conferences).
[1][
self-published source?]
A week later, on 25 November 1930, he received a firman. It read:
The royal personage was delighted to hear your sermon and on the auspicious occasion of his birthday is pleased to confer the title of Bahadur Yar Jung on you.[1]
When
Jagirdars were not allowed to participate in politics. To overcome that constraint, Bahadur Yar Jung renounced his
Jagir and
Title of (Bahadur Yar Jung) in 1940 and intensified his activities. That added to his popularity, thus the people of erstwhile
Hyderabad Deccan used to call him as Quaid-e-Millath.
[1]
Oratory
Matched by very few, his
oratory skills served as a
catalyst to the independence struggle. A sample is presented here:
- On the December 26, 1943, he delivered an important speech in the All India Muslim League Conference. In the first half of his speech he laid stress on the struggle for Pakistan. In the second half he talked about the creation of Pakistan. At the end he said,
“Muslims! Decisions made under pressure do not last for long. To-day we are not in need of a tree that blooms like a flower or in need of fruit that tastes sweet to our mouths. Instead, we are in the need of fine manure that dissolves in the soil and strengthens the roots. That will unite with the water and soil to produce beautiful flowers. That will destroy itself but will leave its scent and taste in the flowers. We are at present not in need of beautiful scenery that looks good to the eyes, but what we need are foundation stones that will bury themselves in the soil to make the building standing on them strong.”[4][
dead link]
- The first time he spoke at the Aligarh University‘s famous strachey Hall, he spoke till early morning 3 a.m, and still the audience showed no sign of restlessness or boredom and were demanding more from him such was his oratory skills. In 1942 at the leagues Allahabad session when Bahadur Yar Jung appealed for funds, no less than Rs 1,25,000 were contributed on the spot within minutes. In 1943 at the next Muslim League session at Delhi he spoke till early morning 4 a.m, in the last on his appeal for funds the large contingent of women in the audience gave away even their jewellery amounting to nearly ten lakhs. The Quaid-e-Millath was of course, overwhelmed by their generous response.
- Once Syed Abul Ala Maududi wrote a letter to Bahadur Yar Jung seeking work that the Bahadur Yar Jung deems fit for the status of Mawdudi. In response Bahadur Yar Jung wrote back,
the time has come for the muslims not to wait for any allotment of work, instead we should by ourselves join the masses and start working in between them in the branch we are capable to handle, as no work is unfit for a genuine worker and make ourselves as bricks and get fixed where ever necessary and strengthen the dilapidating wall of the Muslim community.[5][
self-published source?]
Struggle for Muslim nation
See also:
Pakistan Movement
In 1926 he was elected president of the Society of
Mahdavias and in 1927 he started the Society for the Propagation of Islam. In 1930 he was elected secretary of the Union of
Jagirdars which had been established in 1892 but was moribund. He served in that capacity for four years and infused new life into it. He was fond of reading and knew
Urdu,
Arabic,
Persian and
English and had smattering of
Telugu. Because of his oratorical skills he became immensely popular and also very close to the
Muslim League leaders, Specially to
Mohammed Ali Jinnah and
Mohammed Iqbalwhose speeches he often interpreted from
English into
Urdu.
[1]
To make matters absolutely sure, the demographic balance of the State had to be altered. Bahadur Yar Jung founded the Majlis-e-Tabligh-e-Islam in 1927 to counter the
Arya Samaj movement in
Hyderabad Deccan. Enlisted and trained a missionary corps, organized campaigns of
tabligh and was instrumental in conversion of
Hindus into
Muslims – particularly those belonging to the
untouchable and
backward classes in rural areas. He advised his band of missionary workers to aim not at the conversion of individuals but of whole groups. This work was done with particular zeal for three years and during that period he is credited with the conversion of 24,000 persons.
[1]
In 1931, he performed
Haj along with 82 persons and thereafter undertook a tour of the
Islamic Countries of
West Asia, and of
Europe.
[1][6]
In early 1935, The Muslims in India under the leadership of
Nawab Bahadur Yar Jung of
Hyderabad Deccan started campaigning for restoration of
Caliphate. The response from the
Arab world and
Turkey was disappointing.
Arabs were disintegrated in various
kingdoms,
Emirates and
Turkey became a secular state.
[7][
dead link]
In 1938 he was elected president of the
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a society with a cultural and religious manifesto. However, it soon acquired political complexion and became aligned the
Muslim League in
British India. He soon rose to be the supreme and unquestioned leader of the MIM and imparted a new militancy to it.
[1]
Bahadur Yar Jung noted the peculiar political situation of
Hyderabad State. It was a State with an overwhelming
Hindu population (some 87%) and a
Muslim ruler. With the winds of change blowing all over and the talk of
democracy and the demands for a responsible government, the control of power was bound to pass from the ruling
Muslim minority to the
Hindu majority. To perpetuate the existing state of affairs, heavily weighted in favour of the
Muslims, he therefore propounded an ingenious theory. The
Nizam claimed that, as a ruler, he was sovereign.
Louis XIV of
France had proclaimed in the 17th century L’etat!– c’est moi! (I am the State). In 1938, Bahadur Yar Jung enunciated the doctrine of Ana’ Al Malik, (We are sovereign). According to this theory, sovereignty did not vest in the ruler, but in the
Muslim community. The
Nizam was merely a symbol of that sovereignty. Every
Muslim in the State thus became a participant and a sharer in sovereignty. It thus sought to make it the vested interest of every
Muslim to protect his sovereignty and its symbol, the
Nizam. It became the official doctrine of the MIM and Bahadur Yar Jung insisted that Hyderabad should be declared a
Muslim State.
[1][8]
Bahadur Yar Jung thus reduced the
Nizam from the personification of sovereignty to its mere symbol. He often said things which caused the
Nizam discomfiture, and, not unoften, even offence. Once when he thundered against the
British presence and their direction of administration in the State, the
Nizam was compelled by the
British Resident to censure and to silence him and to be confined to his house for some time. The
Jagirdars were not allowed to participate in politics. To overcome that constraint, Bahadur Yar Jung renounced his
Jagir and
Title in 1940 and intensified his activities.
[1][3] At that very moment he announced that:
I was not made to sit on an official seat and look after the affairs of the state. The aim of my life is to go on streets and raise storms in the hearts of men[9]
.
.
....... His sudden and unexpected death raised suspicion that he was poisoned allegedly at he instance of the
Nizam. But only whispers were heard. However, the
Nizam joined the mammoth funeral procession the next morning. His early death changed the course of history in the
Hyderabad State.
[1]
After his death the
Muslims mourned throughout the
India. And his absence was acutely felt during the rest of the separation and formation of
Pakistan, especially the 1945-46 general elections when the fate of
Muslim state was hung in the balance. After the integration of Hyderabad with the Indian Union, the fist wave of immigrants from the state were committed enough to set up an Academy named after him in
Karachi,
Pakistan.
Though it might possible that it's only internet punjabi .
