Category:Faridpur District
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Lal Mia, Chowdhury Abd-Allah Zaheeruddin
Lal Mia was certainly one of the personalities of the history of this nation who has, among the highest number and magnitude of achievements and contributions, specially to the anti-Colonial movement against British rule. He has also contributed immensely to the social, infrastructural and economical development of not just the Greater Faridpur region but of the nation as a whole.
Born on the 30th of November, 1903 in Moyez Monzil, Faridpur, as the eldest son of Chowdhury Moyezuddin Bishwash, the philanthropic and revolutionary Zamindar of Faridpur, Lal Mia can indeed be said to have been born with a golden spoon in his mouth. However, because of the upbringing he received from his righteous parents, he grew into a simplicity loving human being with a passion for service for mankind. He was one of the very first to take the Matriculation exams at the age of 12 only in 1915, and by dint of exceptional meritorious performance, managed to get enrolled into the prestigious Aligarh University by beginning of 1918 as a 14 year old only. His political involvement had started from that very same year, and he soon became known as not only the youngest student of the university, but perhaps the first student leader of Bengal!
Lal Mia had went on to become the Member of the Central Upper Legislative Council of Undivided Bengal – the equivalent of the Upper House of the Provincial Parliament of Bengal, from Greater Faridpur from 1936 until partition, winning several elections, each time with a vast majority of votes in his favour. He had continued to represent Greater Faridpur to the Central Constituent Assembly of Pakistan from 1950 to 1952 and the National Assembly of Pakistan from 1962 – 1967. He had also been the Executive Member of Parliamentary Board and Central Parliamentary Advisory Committee( 1945 – 1952 ), and had also been responsible for nominating the parliamentary candidates for the decisive 1946 elections and even screening the provincial governor candidates in the late 40s. He had also been the Central Minister for Health, Social Welfare and Labour from 1962 till 1967.
Lal Mia had become a fully registered member of the All India Congress, from 1918, while he was still 14, becoming the youngest person to ever hold an official position in the party. He became an active member of the planning committee of Congress from the same year, and Khelafat Movement since 1919 & Member of Civil Disobedience Movement and General Secretary of Faridpur Committee of the movement since 1931. Mahatma Gandhi himself had appointed Lal Mia to spearhead the movements across Faridpur and East Bengal. Lal Mia was also Representative to Central Congress of India from greater Faridpur from 1928 –1943 for 15 years, from the time he was just 22. He had also been a Policy Advisor” to All India Muslim League since 1928 also. He had also become the Representative of Faridpur Greater District to Bengal Congress since 1920, and the Organizing Secretary of Congress of Undivided Bengal since 1924. He had also been the Chief whip of Muslim League from 1961 to1967and had also been Executive Committee member of the All India Muslim League Council from 1943 onwards.
At a more localized level, Lal Mia had been the Vice Chairman of Faridpur Municipality since the age of 19, i.e from 1925 until 1949 for 24 years and the Municipal Commissioner of Faridpur for over 2 decades. He had also been the Executive Committee Member of Faridpur District Board for 19 years and the Chairman of Faridpur Municipality for about 2 decades as well. He had been the Founder President of Faridpur Improvement Trust in 1950. He had also been the Founding General Secretary of Central Muslim League Disaster Alleviation and Relief Council in 1943 with Shahid Suhrawardy as the President. Lal Mia had also been the main initiator in the establishment of the Anti-Riot & Relief Committee and All India Muslim League Relief Coordination Committee in 1946-47 and he was appointed the Founding General Secretary of the committee. He had also been the Founder of the Calcutta Cloth Rationing Advisory Board in 1943, President of Central Primary Education Board of Pakistan in 1951 & President of District School Board of Faridpur in 1946. He had also been Chairman of several associations and organizations such as the Farmer’s Association of Bengal in 1931, Assam Youth Association in 1931, and Murshidabad National Students Union also in 1931. He had also become the Executive Member of Bengal Motion Pictures Association in 1932 & President of Bengal Motion Pictures Association for the year 1935. He had become the Executive Committee Member of All India Rabindra Memorial Committee in 1941 after death of the great poet and had also been elected President of Calcutta Aligarh Alumni Association in 1947, District Commissioner of Pakistan Boys Scout Association in 1948 and the Head of Executive Committee of Pakistan Writer’s Guild for the year 1960. Lal Mia also served Executive Member of Bengal Film Censor Board from 1935 until 1950 ; Executive Member Industrial Survey Commission; Executive Member Bengal Jute Inquiry Committee; President of All Bengal Textile and Tailors Association; Founder of East Pakistan TB Association.
Through all these activities, Lal Mia had developed a close intimacy with Neta Shubhash Chandra Bose and had even trained a few thousand youths in stick fighting to prepare them to join the Netaji’s Azad Hind Force. He also had become very close over time with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, with who he had even had the good fortune of sharing the same prison once, during the Quit India Movement. He was also very close to Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Shere Bangla A K Fazlul Haque, Shahid Suhrawardy, Maulana Bhashani and all the political stalwarts of the time. It was he who had encouraged Humayun Kabir and many other leaders who later rose to great repute, to join into politics. The Nobel Prize winning Raindranath Thakur treated Lal Mia as his own nephew and would call him Kolir Krishna out of fondness for him. And the legendary Mahatma Gandhi could scarcely conceive of anyone else to organize the activities for any movement in East Bengal aside from Lal Mia and the renowned Maulana Abul Kalam Azad would regularly spend long durations in deep discussions with Lal Mia in the early 40s, contemplating the fate of Congress and potentials of the partition. Lal Mia was also present with all these great leaders at the moment of the Midnight Hour, and also during every noteworthy pre-partition event.
Lal Mia published many articles criticizing British rule and organized meetings and rallies among the youth of Calcutta ever since his adolescent days. He organized and funded a series of conferences in grand scale in Faridpur mainly, and in other parts of East Bengal to promote support for the freedom struggle and increasing participation of East Bengal in the struggle. He contributed financially in very large quantities to all Congress activities across India. Lal Mia organized the Annual Conference of Bengal Central Congress, in 1924 at Faridpur, which was attended by Neta Shubash Chandra Bose, Mrs Sarojini Naidu and even Mahatma Gandhi himself. It was chaired by Deshbondhu Chittorojan Das. Other such events organized by Lal Mia include the “Science, Technology, Agriculture and Health Fairs” of 1934, 36 and 50. These were the predecessors of all modern industrial fairs, and were attended by even famous Scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose. The Conference of Nationalist Muslims for Unity of 1931, chaired by Dr M A Ansari of Delhi and which included all the great Muslim scholars across India, can also be mentioned here. The All India Arts and Literature Conference of 1934 and 1950 presided over by none other than Sharat Chandra Chaterjee, Dr Md Shahidullah etc., were also brilliant successes of Lal Mia. He also arranged the All Bengal Motion Pictures and Drama Conference of 1935, which had been attended by celebrities such as Promotesh Borua ( who was also Crown prince of Assam ), Prithvi Raj Kapoor ( father of Raj Kapoor ), Kanan Devi and many others. Lal Mia also arranged and Chaired the National Farmer’s Conference in Akkelpur Bogra, the National Youth Conference in Behily Assam also in 1931. Lal Mia led the delegation from Bengal to the famous Poona Congregation convened by Gandhi the same year as well as the delegation from Bengal and Bihar to the First Conference of Nationalist Muslims in Lucknow. He went across India convincing the aristocrat society to join in ousting the British and these travels took him to every state and province of India. He led many delegations from Bengal and represented East Bengal in particular in all central political committees and ensured implementation of ideas at grass roots level.
Lal Mia initiated the movement against the false Black Hole Scandal that the British would publish against Nawab Sirajuddowla. Eventually the chapter was withdrawn from text books and the monument made to commemorate the scandal was taken down due to Lal Mia. He was imprisoned almost 20 times by the British laying the example of self – sacrifice for a greater cause. He lobbied and got the government to agree to tax rebates on subsistence farmers thereby empowering the farmer class and got the government to form committees to cut wastage in various sectors during famines of 43. He presented thousands of people with clothes made of Khadi and Cotton, convincing them to abandon their Western outfits. He also fed practically several hundred thousand people during the great famines of 43, 47 etc.
Lal Mia displayed great heroism in defending Hindu and Muslim innocent families of not just Faridpur, but Calcutta, Bihar, Orissa and Darjeeling during the 46-47 riots, risking his life many a times while driving hundreds of endangered families to safety in his own jeep. He brought electricity as well as water works and sanitation system to Faridpur in 1934 on self initiative and so influenced the government to take these facilities to other district towns. He established the first movie theatre in Faridpur in 1935 which also happens to be one of the oldest theatres of Bengal. He also established the town theatre and funded drama societies and cultural activities in which he would participate himself too. He was even responsible for the making of the most important roads within the town and lobbying for the making of the highway connecting Faridpur to Dhaka and other towns. He established the Shere Bangla Library in Faridpur, expanded the Stadium, greatly improved the municipality office and all government and court buildings, expanded the Moyezuddin High School, established the Halima Girls School, (one of the first girls schools in any district town of East Bengal ) and funded scholarships and promoted education at every level. He legalised the existance of homeopathy, ayurvedic, hekemi and other herbal alternative medicines through passing of a parliamentary bill. All cured by such means and all in these professions owe a debt of gratitude to him. He also founded the TB Association and funded TB clinics and anti TB research. He also supported Dr Ibrahim in the preliminary groundwork for establishment of the Diabetic Association. He always represented and upheld the rights and the interest of the East Pakistan to the Central Government and tried to bring about some degree of balance of power. It is mentionable that he resigned from politics in 1952 being frustrated with his dream of a nation not coming true and joined back in 1961 only after demand by the masses who felt his need. Lal Mia also established a large sugar mill in Faridpur for employment generation and even established a major handicrafts and cottage industry setup in the 50s. He played a significant role in convincing the Ayub Khan regime to greatly increase the budgetary allocations for East Pakistan specially across 1964-65.
Lal Mia also promoted folksinger Abbasuddin by arranging several small concerts for him in Faridpur and other districts, introduced renowned Sonnet Writer Sufi Motahar Hossain to Rabindranath Thakur and the elite of Calcutta and promoted his works in those circles; he supported the endevours of Kabi Jasimuddin and Kazi Nazrul Islam, and also wrote two books of spiritual poems himself. He also organized the first Memorial Conference on Rabindranath Thakur across India after the death of the great poet. He also had a volume of the Holy Quran written in letters of gold on parchment. And in-spite of spending his life in constant work, Lal Mia also found time to be actively involved in sports!
Lal Mia had inherited this passion for revolution and action from his celebrated father- Chowdhury Moyezuddin Bishwash who happened to be one of the bravest critics of Colonial rule and an anti British Zamindar with vast estates across Bengal, and who had also been involved with the All India Congress since its inception and with the People’s Association of Faridpur – the first political party of East Bengal. His younger brothers Chowdhury Yusuf Ali Mohon Mia and Enayet Hossain Chowdhury Tara Mia, were also actively involved in provincial as well as national politics, mainly across the late 40s, 50s and 60s.
As a person, Lal Mia was always known to have been most polite and soft spoken and one is yet to find someone who can cite an example of his ever having raised his voice in anger. He enjoyed spending as much time with his family when he could, specially in his younger days. At the time of his demise, he had left behind his wife Begum Sayeeda Khatun, 3 sons and 8 daughters. It may also be mentioned that his wife was the youngest daughter of Syed Ahmad Ali who was Inspector General of School and Head of Prisons of Hoogli, and the descendant of the fabled Tipu Sultan. It is further mentionable that Begum Sayeeda had also been the direct descendant of Nawab Alivardi Khan from her maternal side.
