By Mohammad Sajjad
While looking into certain archival documents (CID files of the 1940s) pertaining to my research work I came across a name of an office-bearer (General Secretary) of the Bihar Muslim League, in correspondence with Jinnah. This name sounded familiar as I had read an Urdu memoir/ autobiography Haqeeqat Bhi Kahani Bhi: Azimabad Ki Tahzibi Daastaan (1988), authored by the same name. The puzzle was: in a thick volume of 578 pages of the memoir, there was not even a slight hint of the author’s association with or involvement in politics of any persuasion, League, Congress, …It left me a bit confused as to whether the writer of the memoir and the Muslim League’s politician I came across in the document, was one and same or they were two different people incidentally bearing similar names.
The note of dedication (Intesaab) of the memoir was quite amazingly fascinating:
“Main apni is kitab ka intesaab Patna ke us guzray huay Ganga-Jamuni samaj ki yadon ke saath ma’anwan karta hoon jo Patna hi ka nahin, pooray Hindustan ka mushtareka Ganga-Jamuni samaj tha aur jis ki taameer mein yahan ke har firqa aur har tabqa ke logon ney yaksaan taur par hissa liya tha. Is samaj mein poori qaum ek ikaai thi, is samaj mein bhai-chara aur mohabbat ka raj tha, rawadari aur yekjehati parwaan charhti thin aur ekta ke saanchay mein jazbaat o mahsoosaat dhaltay thay. Aaj phir usi Ganga-Jamuni samaj ki zaroorat hai taaki hamara mulk dubara Jannat-e-nishan ban jaaye”.
[I dedicate this book of mine to the memory of Patna’s Ganga-Jamuni culture, which belonged not only to Patna but also to the whole of India, and which was nurtured by the people of every sect and class. In this culture all the communities were a composite unit consisting of brotherhood and love, with growing tolerance and unity sharing emotions and feelings with each other. Today, we need the very same Ganga-Jamuni culture so that our beloved country once again becomes heaven for all].
Syed Badruddin Ahmad. [Photo courtesy of Bihar Urdu Youth Forum.]
As I explored more about this, it became clear to me that the two were one and same- Syed Badruddin Ahmad- who has also left a collection of poems (Kulliyat-e-Badr), not yet published. He composed poems bearing the pen-name, ‘Badr Azimabadi’. [The memoir sold many copies inland and abroad, and came out its re-print in 2003, not to say of so many Xerox copies of the book].
His father [Khan Bahadur] Syed Zamiruddin Ahmad (1862-1921) had established the Patna branch of the Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (founded in 1903 in Aligarh), on the persuasion of Abdul Haq (1872-1961), the then chief of the Anjuman. Zamiruddin was joined by Syed Mahmud, Dr. Zubair Siddiqi and also by few Hindus. It was started in the Hugh Library of Patna, and Qazi Abdul Wadud (1896-1984) after coming back from Cambridge made this branch quite pro-active and popular, shifted its library to Bankipur (Patna). Zamiruddin came from Biharsharif; was BA from the Presidency College, Calcutta, and was married (1882) in an elite family of the Sadr Gali, Patna City, where Badruddin was born and brought up to do BA from the Patna College, and then pursued MA in English literature; cutting it short, joined BL and started court practice. In 1937 he had joined politics, and became General Secretary of the Bihar Muslim League, contested Assembly election from Champaran, and came out successful. It is however intriguing that in his memoir Badruddin maintains a conspicuous silence on his political activities during 1937-46.
In March 1947, on the persuasion of Gandhiji (when he visited Patna), Badruddin joined the Congress. Badruddin’s son, Faiyaz Ahmad shared with the historian Papiya Ghosh (1958-2006): ‘[A]fter Partition Badruddin Ahmad expressed his anguish to Jinnah since he had understood the Lahore resolution [of 23 March 1940] as a demand for a confederation of Muslim and non-Muslim provinces and not partition’. Jinnah responded that even he too had not demanded it. Jinnah asked Badruddin to stay on in India, an advice which Badruddin passed on to others. Subsequently both Jinnah and Nazimuddin called Badruddin many times to Pakistan with promises of land, property, etc. Defying all these inducements Badruddin decided not to leave those Muslims rudderless who chose to stay on in Bihar.
Badruddin was also associated with the Mohammedan Education Committee, Patna (founded in March 1884; a regional response to the Aligarh Movement), which runs Mohammedan Anglo-Arabic High School as well as the Oriental College, Patna (est. 1964). He was also a member of the Senate (Executive Council) of the Patna University. He was a voracious reader with special interest in reading History and biographies; had a rich personal library. In short, after independence, Badruddin not only left politics for good, he was not even prepared to talk/write about politics. His memoir is a specimen of good prose with lot of cultural details about the urban life of Patna, comparable to an extent with Sharar’s Guzashta Lucknow.
This profile of Badruddin Ahmad narrating his ‘sudden’ turn towards the Congress, and against the League, few months before the partition, gives some clue to the historians to re-visit the historiography of India’s partition.
For more see my forthcoming book Changing Contours of Muslim Politics in Bihar: Pre and Post-independence Experiences.
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Mohammad Sajjad is Asstt. Prof. at Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University.
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