Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy | |
|---|---|
হোসেন শহীদ সোহরাওয়ার্দী حسین شہید سہروردی | |
 | |
| 5th Prime Minister of Pakistan | |
| In office 12 September 1956 – 17 October 1957 | |
| President | Iskandar Ali Mirza |
| Preceded by | Chaudhry Mohammad Ali |
| Succeeded by | I. I. Chundrigar |
| 3rd Prime Minister of Bengal | |
| In office 23 April 1946 – 14 August 1947 | |
| Monarch | George VI |
| Governors General | Earl Wavell Earl Mountbatten |
| Preceded by | Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished (Khawaja Nazimuddin as Chief Minister of East Bengal) (Prafulla Chandra Ghosh as Premier of West Bengal) |
| 2nd President of Awami League | |
| In office 27 July 1956 – 10 October 1957 | |
| General Secretary | Sheikh Mujibur Rahman |
| Preceded by | Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani |
| Succeeded by | Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 8 September 1892 Midnapore, Bengal Presidency, British India |
| Died | 5 December 1963 (aged 71) Beirut, Lebanon |
| Cause of death | Cardiac arrest |
| Resting place | Mausoleum of three leaders, Dhaka, Bangladesh |
| Citizenship | British Indian (1892–49) Pakistani (1949–63) |
| Political party | All-Pakistan Awami League |
| Other political affiliations | Swaraj Party All-India Muslim League Pakistan Muslim League |
| Spouse(s) |
Begum Niaz Fatima
(m. 1920; died 1922) |
| Children | Begum Akhtar Sulaiman (daughter), Rashid Suhrawardy (son) |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Suhrawardy family,
Hasan Shaheed Suhrawardy (brother) Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah (cousin) Naz Ikramullah (cousin) Salma Sobhan (cousin) Princess Sarvath El Hassan (cousin) Shahida Jamil (granddaughter) |
| Residence(s) | Calcutta, Karachi and Dhaka |
| Alma mater | Calcutta University (BS in Maths, MA in Arabic lang.) St Catherine's College, Oxford (MA in Polysci and BCL) |
| Profession | Lawyer, politician |
| Independence of Bangladesh |
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| Events |
| Organisations |
| Key persons |
| Related |
 Bangladesh portal |
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (Bengali: হোসেন শহীদ সোহ্রাওয়ার্দী; Urdu: حسین شہید سہروردی; 8 September 1892 – 5 December 1963) was a Pakistani Bengali barrister and politician. In Bangladesh, Suhrawardy is remembered as a pioneer of Bengali civil rights movements, later turned into Bangladesh independence movement, and the mentor of Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He is also remembered for his performance as the Minister for Civil Supply during the Bengal famine of 1943.[1][2] In India, he is seen as a controversial figure; directly responsible for the 1946 Calcutta Killings,[3][4][5] for which he is often referred as the "Butcher of Bengal" in West Bengal.[6]
He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 to 1957 and before that as the Prime Minister of Bengal from 1946 to 1947 in British India. In both Pakistan and Bangladesh, Suhrawardy is regarded as a patron of separate homeland for the Muslims, especially for Bengali Muslims, for which he is revered as one of the founding statesmen of Pakistan.
Suhrawardy was a scion of one of British Bengal's most prominent Muslim families, the Suhrawardy family. His father Sir Zahid Suhrawardy was a judge of the high court in Bengal. Suhrawardy studied law in Oxford. After returning to India, he joined the Indian independence movement during the 1920s as a trade union leader in Calcutta. He was initially associated with the Swaraj Party. He joined the All-India Muslim League and became one of the leaders of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML). Suhrawardy was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1937. In 1946, Suhrawardy led the BPML to decisively win the provincial general election. He served as Bengal's last premier until the Partition of India. His premiership was notable for his proposal to create a Free State of Bengal and failing to prevent the Great Calcutta Killings.[6] Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League, supported an independent Bengal; this was strongly opposed by the Congress Party.[7][1][2] In 1947, the Bengal Assembly voted to partition the territory. Suhrawardy briefly remained in India after partition to attend to his ailing father and manage his family's property. He eventually moved to Pakistan and divided his time between Karachi (Pakistan's federal capital) and Dhaka (capital of East Pakistan).
In Dhaka, Suhrawardy emerged as the leader of the Bengali-dominated Awami League which became the principal opposition party to the Pakistan Muslim League. In 1956, the centre-left Awami League formed a coalition government with the military-backed Republican Party to unseat the Muslim League. Suhrawardy became Prime Minister in the coalition government. He forged stronger ties with the United States by leading Pakistan's diplomacy in SEATO and CENTO. He also became the first Pakistani premier to travel to Communist China. His pro-US foreign policy caused a split in the Awami League in East Pakistan, with Maulana Bhashani forming the break-away pro-Maoist National Awami Party. Suhrawardy's premiership lasted for a year. His central cabinet included figures like Sir Feroz Khan Noon as Foreign Minister and Abul Mansur Ahmad as Trade Minister. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was considered Suhrawardy's chief political protégé.[8]
Suhrawardy was premier under Pakistan's first republican constitution which ended dominion status and the monarchy of Queen Elizabeth. During the 1958 military coup, Suhrawardy was arrested by the martial law government. He missed the wedding of his niece, Salma Sobhan (Pakistan's first woman barrister), because of his detention.[9] In 1963, Suhrawardy died in Beirut due to a heart attack. After his death, the Awami League veered towards Bengali nationalism, the 6-point movement, East Pakistani secession and ultimately Bangladeshi independence in 1971. According to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, "Bengalis had initially failed to appreciate a leader of Mr. Suhrawardy's stature. By the time they learned to value him, they had run out of time".[8][10] Suhrawardy's only daughter Begum Akhtar Sulaiman was a social worker and activist in Pakistan; his son, Rashid Suhrawardy, from his second marriage to Vera Alexandrovna Tiscenko Calder; was a British Bangladeshi actor known for his role in the film Jinnah. His brother Hasan Shaheed Suhrawardy was a diplomat, writer and art-critic. Many places in South Asia bear his name, including an avenue in Islamabad; a large park near his mausoleum in Dhaka; and streets, dormitories and memorials across Bangladesh. The Suhrawardy family home in modern-day Kolkata has been leased as a Library and Information Centre of the Bangladesh High Commission in India by the city's Waqf board.
- ^ a b Pranab Chatterjee (2010). A Story of Ambivalent Modernization in Bangladesh and West Bengal: The Rise and Fall of Bengali Elitism in South Asia. Peter Lang. p. 219. ISBN 978-1-4331-0820-4. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
- ^ a b Krishna Dutta (2003). Calcutta: A Cultural and Literary History. Signal Books. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-902669-59-5. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
- ^ Y.G. Bhave (1995). The First Prime Minister of India. Northern Book Centre. pp. 9–. ISBN 978-81-7211-061-1.
- ^ Tomasz Flasinski. "Dr. Jekyll, Mr Hyde or Bengali Hamlet? Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardy as the last Prime Minister of undivided Bengal*" (PDF). Journals PAS.
- ^ M K K Nayar (24 February 2014). Story of an Era Told Without Ill-will. DC Books. p. 113. ISBN 978-93-81699-33-1. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
- ^ a b Neha Banka (7 February 2020). "Streetwise Kolkata: Suhrawardy Avenue... no, not named after the 'Butcher Of Bengal'". The Indian Express.
- ^ Ayesha Jalal (1994). The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-521-45850-4.
The Hindu Mahasabha's demand for partition ... Suhrawardy's only hope was ... asking for an united and independent Bengal. Paradoxically he had a greater chance of getting Jinnah's endorsement for this scheme than of getting it ratified by the Congress High Command ... Jinnah told Mountbatten ... 'What is the use of Bengal without Calcutta; they had better remain united and independent.'
- ^ a b "An unlikely partnership: Bangabandhu and Suhrawardy". Dhaka Tribune (opinion). 6 December 2019.
- ^ "Remembering Salma Sobhan". The Daily Star. 29 December 2014.
- ^ Unfinished Memoirs. University Press Limited, Bangladesh. November 2013. ISBN 978-984-506-111-7.