Monday, November 23, 2020

Suhrawardy family

Riyyan Farooq:




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{| class="infobox" style="float: right; text-align: center; font-size: 85%; clear:right;"
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|'''Suhrawardy Family Tree'''
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|- style="background: green"
! Midnapore
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|[[Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy]];· Ali Mobarak Suhrawardy<br />
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|- style="background: green;"
! Kolkata
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|[[Hassan Suhrawardy]]
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|[[Abdullah Al-Mamun Suhrawardy]]
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|[[Naz Ikramullah]]
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|[[Shaista Ikramullah]]
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|[[Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy]]
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|[[Princess Sarvath al-Hassan ]]
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|[[Zahid Suhrawardy]]
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|[[Robert Ashby|Rashid Suhrawardy]]
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|[[Hasan Shaheed Suhrawardy]]
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|[[Shahida Jamil]]
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|[[Salma Sobhan]]
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|[[Begum Akhtar Sulaiman]]
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|- style="background: green;"
! Cuttack
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|[[Sayeed Mohammed]]
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| [[Begum Badar un nissa Akhtar]]
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|[[Ibrahim Suhrawardy]]
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|[[Afzal-ul Amin]]
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|- style="background: green;"
! Allahabad
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| [[Nilofar Suhrawardy]]
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|-
|}
'''The Suhrawardys''' were a prominent, wealthy and illustrious family in [[Bengal]] during the [[British]] occupation of India. It comprised of intellectuals who made significant contributions to political developments during India’s freedom struggle. In the book ‘Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932-1947’, author [[Joya Chatterji]] writes that the Suhrawardys were a “leading ashraf family of Bengal, which claimed ancestry going back to the first caliph”.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> In Islam, [[Abu Bakr]] was the first caliph and the father-in-law of the Prophet. Those who trace their lineage to the Prophet through Abu Bakr call themselves Ashrafs. The family has produced several persons who have contributed substantially in the fields of politics, education, social reformation, religious reformation, art and literature.<ref></ref>

==Family History==

The Suhrawardys were of Arab descent having originated from [[Sohrevard]] in Iran, from where the family takes its name. Their common ancestor was [[Shahab al-Din Abu Hafs Umar Suhrawardi|Shaikh Shahbuddin Suhrawardy]] (1145-1235) a famous Sufi saint, who embraced martyrdom by incurring the wrath of the [[Caliph]], on a matter of principle who himself was a direct disciple and successor of [[Abdul-Qadir Gilani]]. The family was known since medieval times for their piety, learning and forthrightness. A descendant of the martyred Shahabuddin migrated to India. He sojourned in [[Delhi]] during the [[Khilji Sultanate]] and finally settled in [[Multan]] now in [[Pakistan]]. A branch of the family ultimately came down and settled in [[Midnapore]], [[West Bengal]]. Shah Aminuddin Suhrawardy is reckoned to be the last Pir of the Suhrawardiyya order, after which the family involved itself with law, education, public service and learning. But the 'saintly halo' around the name of the Suhrawardys persisted in the public imagination for long years, well into the modern age.

==Background of Suhrawardy==


The eminent [[Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy]] (1832-1885), was a learned scholar, educationist, translator and writer. He was born in Midnapore, West Bengal, British India, once the heartland of the Suhrawardys in Bengal. He was proficient in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English. He passed the Final Central Examinations in 1857, from the prestigious Aliya Madrasah in Kolkata. He was appointed as the first superintendent of Dhaka Madrasah in 1874, and remained there till his death. The British Raj bestowed on him the title of 'Bahrul Ulm' (Sea of knowledge) in recognition for his great contribution to knowledge, education and society. He was the father of Sir Abdullah Al Mamun and daughter Khujesta Akhtar Banu. Ubaidullah died in Dhaka and lies buried beside the Lalbagh Fort in old Dhaka.

Allama Sir Abdullah Al Mamun Suhrawardy (1877-1935), PhD, was the eldest son of Ubaidullah Al Obaidi. An outstanding scholar and academician, he studied at King's College in London, and in Cambridge University. For his profound learning the Ottoman Turkish Sultan decorated him with the medal of 'Tamgha-e-Majidi', whereas, the Shah of Iran invested him with the title of 'Iftekhar-ul-Millat' (pride of the Muslim nation).

Lt. Col. Sir Hassan Suhrawardy (1884-1946), MD (FRCS), was a military officer (IMS), politician, public official and the first Muslim Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University (1930-1934). He was born in Dhaka, son of Ubaidullah Al Obaidi. He was married to Sahibzadi Shahbanu Begum daughter of Nawab Syud Mohammad Azad of Dhaka. Their children were Hassan Masud Suhrawardy and Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah.

Justice Sir Zahid Suhrawardy (1879-1949), Bar-at-Law, was born in Midnapore, West Bengal, the son of lawyer Maulana Mobarak Ali Suhrawardy. He was educated in Dhaka and Calcutta. He became an eminent jurist and served as a judge in the Calcutta High Court. He married his first cousin Khujesta Akhtar Banu the daughter of Ubaidullah Al Obaidi Suhrawardy. Their children included the brilliant Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy of multifarious talents, and the fifth Prime Minister of Pakistan, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.

Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy (1890-1965), eldest son of Sir Zahid was born in Midnapore, West Bengal. He was educated at the universities of Calcutta and Oxford. He taught at the Imperial University and the Women's University in Moscow, and the universities of Calcutta and Columbia. He was a regisseur at the Moscow Art Theatre and the State Exemplary Theatre, and a member of the League of nations International Institute for Intellectual Cooperation, the precursor of UNESCO. For a few years he was the chief art critic for The Statesman of Calcutta, and a member of the prestigious Bengal Public Service Commission. After the Partition of India he reluctantly moved to Pakistan and served as a member of the country's Federal Service Commission before taking up the post of Ambassador to Spain. A lifelong bachelor, after retirement he lived in Karachi where he died in 1965. He is regarded as a foremost modern poet of South Asia writing in English with some memorable publications.

When Tagore was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, Shahid was in Oxford. He recounted, "it is difficult now for me to recapture the elation and the ecstasy of those days, but I remember distinctly that look of awe which was in my landlady's eyes when she brought in the breakfast with the morning newspaper containing the scoop." Shahid's first impression of Tagore in London was one of exalted adoration. He had gone to invite Tagore to grace their Oxford Majlis, a forum or club run by some progressive Indian students at Oxford University. Shahid captured his first 'darshan' of the Nobel laureate memorably, "I was introduced into a large-sized room where I first saw the Poet. He was sitting on a divan and along the walls there were many chairs occupied by men and women, Indian, British and continental, who sat in rapt silence, as in a prayer-hall. In the corner of the room an Englishwoman was modeling the Poet's head in clay whilst in another a fierce young man, a Pole perhaps, was sketching, as I saw from the corner of my eye, the fine folds of his robe. The windows were wide open on to the Embankment and I do not now remember if incense was burning in that room, but if it was not, it ought to have been because the atmosphere was so charged with awe and admiration."
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (1895-1963), the bright, mercurial and colourful youngest son of Sir Zahid, attended the prestigious educational institutions of Aliya Madrasah, St. Xavier's College and the Calcutta University in India. He then joined the Oxford University in England from where he received a BCL degree and was called to the Bar from Grey's Inn in 1918. On return to Calcutta, he married Begum Naiz Fatima in 1920, daughter of Justice Sir Abdur Rahim of the Calcutta High Court. She died young in 1922, leaving behind two children son Shahab and daughter Akhtar Jahan. By this time Shaheed had embarked on a successful legal practice as a lawyer at the Calcutta High Court. However, politics and public service was his calling, and he soon came under the captivating spell of the towering personality of Deshbandhu C R Das. In 1921 Shaheed was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly. C R Das appointed him as the deputy in his Swaraj Party and also made him the first Muslim Deputy Mayor of the Calcutta Corporation under him, as per the stipulation of The Bengal Pact of 1923. After the most unfortunate and premature death of C R Das in 1925, The Bengal Pact which was established to foster Hindu-Muslim harmony and political power sharing, was repudiated by the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha.

A gravely disappointed Shaheed then gravitated towards the politics of the Muslim League and held ministerial portfolios in undivided Bengal. He was a phenomenal organizer and made Calcutta the nerve center of Muslim politics in British India. However, during his tenure as the Civil Supplies Minister in 1943, the terrible Bengal Famine occurred during the WWII period. In 1946, under Suhrawardy's unique leadership the Muslim League triumphantly won the only provincial election in Bengal, given the failure of the Muslim League to win any other Muslim majority provinces in British India. This was a decisive factor which made Pakistan possible. However, as ill luck would have it, Suhrawardy's eventual assumption of office as the Prime Minister of Bengal in 1946, was marred by the apocalyptic 'Great Calcutta Killings' on Jinnah's unwitting inflammatory clarion call for 'Direct Action Day' on 16 August, 1946 in Calcutta, following the impetuous utterance of Nehru which led to the failure of the Cabinet Mission Plan. It aroused primordial sentiments amongst Hindu and Muslim troublemakers to a fever pitch, leading to a horrifying conflagration of communal rioting and unprecedented carnage. It sealed the fate of a united India and made the partition of 1947 inevitable. However, detractors of Suhrawardy have vociferously accused him of ideological ambivalence, chicanery and political opportunism during this period.

After the partition Suhrawardy finally came over to Pakistan and became one of the co-founders of the progressive Awami League political party in Dhaka, in 1949. He went on to become ministers in successive federal government ministries, eventually becoming the short lived fifth Prime Minister of Pakistan (1956-1957), before voluntarily resigning being aware of the nefarious designs afoot to unseat him. His resignation practically dealt a fatal blow to the unity of Pakistan, and the last chance to promote and practice parliamentary democracy in the unfortunate country. Shaheed Suhrawardy died a disillusioned man in Beirut from a heart attack in 1963.


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