Azizul Haque
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Azizul Haque (also Azizul Hacque and Khan Bahadur Qazi Azizul Huq) was a Calcutta (formerly kolkata) police officer of British India who worked with Edward Henry to develop the Henry Classification System of fingerprints. Haque, reportedly, provided the mathematical basis for the system.
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[edit] Police career
Haque was with the Calcutta Police service of British India, when he and another Indian police officer, Hem Chandra Bose, were assigned to work on fingerprint classification project in 1897 under the direction of Edward Henry.
[edit] Fingerprinting
Haque devised a mathematical formula to supplement Henry’s idea of sorting slips in 1024 pigeonholes, based on fingerprint patterns. Bose, in addition to working with Haque and Henry on the project, subsequently worked on the development of telegraphic code system for fingerprints. [1]
Henry, however, initially did not openly acknowledge contributions of the two Indian police officers to the development of fingerprint classification, and for which Henry was recognized and honored later in England, and the classification system was named as Henry Classification System.
Years later, when Haque requested recognition and compensation from the British government for his contribution to fingerprint classification work, Henry did acknowledge publicly Haque’s contribution. He also did the same, when the issue of compensation for Bose came up later on. Recently, Sodhi and Kaur published an extensive research paper on the issue of the two Indian police officers' contributions to fingerprint development. [2]
[edit] Publicity
Sodhi and Kaur, in their paper, quoted The Statesman, the eminent newspaper in India(Calcutta), which published an article dated February 28, 1925 entitled, ‘Indian affairs in London,’ which stated, “A Muhammadan Sub-Inspector played an important and still insufficiently acknowledged part in fingerprint classification." Then Sodhi and Kaur went on to quote several other sources to support Haque’s contribution to fingerprint classification. For example, J.D. Sifton, Officiating Chief Secretary to the Government of Bihar and Orissa, wrote a letter (letter no. 761 PR, dated 15 June, 1925): “Azizul Haque was… allowed to start research work upon a method of classifying finger prints, and after months of experiment he evolved his primary classification which convinced Sir E.R. Henry that the problem of providing an effective method of classifying fingerprints could be solved. Thereafter the secondary and other classifications were evolved and the Khan Bahadur (Haque) played an important role in their conception.” Sir Henry,reportedly, when contacted to endorse a grant of honorarium to Haque, wrote in a letter dated 10 May, 1926 to P.H. Dumbel, the then Secretary of the Services and General Department, India Office, “ …I wish to make clear that, in my opinion, he (Haque) contributed more than any other member of my staff and contributed in a conspicuous degree to bringing about the perfecting of a system of classification that has stood the test of time and has been accepted by most countries.” At the time of final approval of the honorarium, the Home Department (Government of India) noted, “It appears from the information now received that he (Haque) was Sir Edward Henry’s principal helper in perfecting the scheme and he actually himself devised the method of classification which is in universal use. He thus contributed most materially to a discovery which is of worldwide importance and has brought a great credit to the police of India.”
On a subsequent request to comment on Haque’s fellow Indian police officer who also worked on the project with Henry,Hem Chandra Bose (Bose), Sir Henry wrote in 1930, “The Rai Bahadur (Bose)…has devoted the whole of his official life to perfecting the methods by which search is facilitated and as his labours have contributed materially to great credit.”
[edit] Henry Haque Bose
Sodhi and Kaur, based on the evidence they gathered, suggested that Henry’s System of Fingerprint Classification should be renamed Henry-Haque-Bose System of Fingerprint Classification. Azizul Haque got only a partial recognition for his pioneering work in the development of fingerprinting classification system, which is still being used widely in the world.
[edit] Biography
Haque was born in the village of Paigram Kasba, Fultala, in the Khulna division of Bengal, (now Bangladesh). His parents reportedly died in a boat accident when he was young. According to family history, Haque left his family home at age 12, as a result of "altercation" with his older brother, and went to Kolkata, where he befriended a family who became "impressed" with his mathematical skills and arranged for him to get a formal education. Upon graduating from college, he joined the Bengal Police Service, and subsequently opted to join the Bihar Police Service. Upon retirement from service, he settled in Motihari in Bihar province of India, where he died and was buried there. He had eight surviving children. His wife, and the children and their families migrated to Pakistan during partition of India, and presently their descendants are settled in Bangladesh, Pakistan, England, and North America.
