Khawaja Nazimuddin(1894-1964 AD) Politician. He was the Prime Minister of undivided Bengal and the Governor General and Prime Minister of Pakistan. Born on 19th July 1894 in Khawaja family of Dhaka. Father's name is Khwaja Nizamuddin and mother's name is Nawabzadi Bilquis Banu.
After tutoring as a teenager, studied at Aligarh College, Dunstable Grammar School, London. He passed M.A. from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and barristers from Middle Temple.
He was the Chairman of Dhaka Municipality from 1922 to 1929. During this time he was also a member of the Executive Council of Dhaka University. He was elected from the Barisal (Muslim) constituency in the general elections of 1922, 1926 and 1929 AD to the Provincial Council introduced under the India Act (1919 AD).
He was the Education Minister of undivided Bengal from December 1929 to June 1934. During his ministry in 1930, the Primary Education Bill was passed.
In 1926 he was awarded the title of CIE by the British government.
He was a member of the Executive Council of the Government of Bengal from 1934 to 1937. It is to be noted that the 'Bengiya Debt Arbitration Board' Bill was passed in 1935 AD and the 'Bengiya Rural Development Bill' was passed in 1936 AD under his special initiative.
In 1934 he was awarded the title of K.C.I.E by the British Government.
In the general election of 1937 AD, he was a candidate for election from Patuakhali as a candidate of the Muslim League. In this election he was defeated by Krishak Praja Party leader AK Fazlul Haque. But later Hossain Shaheed won the seat vacated by Suhrawardy from Kolkata North Constituency. In April this year, he was appointed Home Minister in the coalition cabinet of Krishak Praja Party and Muslim League led by AK Fazlul Haque.
During the provincial elections of 1937, the attempt to form a coalition government in the United Provinces by the Congress and the Muslim League failed. There was a split in the Muslim League. In this situation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah started the task of reorganizing the Muslim League. Khwaja Nazmuddin Muhammad Ali Jinnah in this work
Specially help. In this context, he was recognized as a significant leader of the Muslim League in Bangladesh. During this time he was elected a member of the All India Muslim League Working Committee.
In 1941, when a dispute arose between Fazlul Haque and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he resigned from the cabinet on 1st December on the orders of Jinnah. He then served as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament during the Shyama-Haq Cabinet in 1942-43.
On March 28, 1943, the Shyama-Haq cabinet collapsed. On April 24, the Muslim League formed the cabinet under his leadership.
This cabinet fell on March 28, 1945. He was then selected as a member of the Indian food delegation sent to the United States. Represented the Indian subcontinent in the last session of the United Nations held in Geneva in 1946.
When Pakistan was established on August 14, 1947, Khawaja Nazimuddin was appointed as the Chief Minister of East Bengal (East Pakistan). At this time, the West-Pakistani ruling group decided to make Urdu the only state language of Pakistan, excluding Bengali. Khawaja Nazimuddin opined against making Bengali the national language. As a result, the people of East Bengal lost confidence as an anti-language movement.
On 5th December some professors and students of the university along with Prof. Abul Kasem went to his residence (Burdwan House) with a procession and demanded that Bengali be made the state language. However, Khwaja Nazimuddin considered this demand unreasonable and did not take any action for it. Instead, they used government power to suppress the language movement.
On February 23, 1948, Dhirendranath Dutta proposed to adopt Bengali as the language of the Constituent Assembly along with Urdu and English in the session of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. During this time he proposed an amendment to use Bengali language in government work. He referred to Bengali as the language of the majority of the people of Pakistan and demanded the status of Bengali as the national language.
He also protested against the decision not to use Bengali language in government papers. This time the elected members of Parliament from East Pakistan — Premhari Barman, Bhupendra Kumar Dutta and Srishchandra Chatterjee — welcomed his proposal. All the Muslim members of the Parishad (all Muslim League) under the leadership of Tamizuddin Khan opposed this proposal.
As Governor of East Pakistan, Khwaja Najumuddin gave a speech opposing the proposal. He said that "most people of East Bengal want Urdu to be the national language".
On March 11, 1948, a large demonstration was held in favor of the language movement. The agitators stood in front of the Constituent Assembly (Jagannath Hall Auditorium, which later collapsed), Prime Minister's residence Burdwan House (now Bangla Academy), the High Court and the Secretariat and called for Bengali workers to boycott their offices. At one point the police lathi-charged the protestors. Professor Abul Qasem and many others were injured in police lathi charge.
When the news of the police baton charge on the students spread around, the Secretariat area turned into a sea of angry people. At one point, the protesters forced Food Minister Syed Mohammad Afzal and Education Minister Abdul Hamid to sign resignation letters.
The government called in the army to quell the protests. Brigadier Ayub Khan (later President of Pakistan) and a group of infantrymen under Major Peerzada, the then Officer Commanding of East Pakistan, went to the Constituent Assembly and brought Khwaja Nazimuddin out through the kitchen. When a protest meeting was held in the afternoon, the police broke up the meeting and arrested a few.
Among those arrested were Shamsul Haque, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Oli Ahad, Shaukat Ali, Kazi Golam Mahbub, Roshan Alam, Rafiqul Alam, Abdul Latif Talukder, Shah Md Nasiruddin, Nurul Islam and others. It is noted that the meeting was presided over by Naeemuddin Ahmad.
A strike was observed in Dhaka from 12 to 15 March due to the incident of 11th. In the face of the intensity of the movement, on March 15, Khawaja Nazimuddin met with the leaders of Sangram Parishad. Abul Kashem, Kamruddin Ahmad, Mohammad Toaha, Syed Nazrul Islam, Abdur Rahman Chowdhury participated on behalf of Sangram Parishad. A compromise agreement was signed between the two parties on 8 issues subject to negotiation.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah died on 11th September 1948. He assumed the post of Governor General of Pakistan on 14 September.
On October 16, 1951, Pakistan's Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was killed. According to this source, Khawaja Nazimuddin assumed the responsibility of the Prime Minister as an additional responsibility from 17th October.
In 1951, Central Finance Secretary Ghulam Muhammad was appointed as the Governor General of Pakistan and Khawaja Nazimuddin assumed full responsibility as Prime Minister of Pakistan on 24 October. In November this year, he was elected as a member of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly and on 16 November was nominated as the President of the Muslim League.
In 1952 he was criticized and denounced for his attempt to suppress language agitators and the police attack on language agitators on 21st February.
On 17 April 1953, President Ghulam Muhammad Khawaja deposed Nazimuddin and appointed Bogra Muhammad Ali as Prime Minister. He also resigned from the post of Muslim League president in June this year. Since then he kept himself away from politics.
In 1958, he was awarded Nishan-e-Pakistan, Pakistan's highest civilian award.
He returned to politics in 1963 and assumed the post of President of the Pakistan Council Muslim League.
Khawaja Nazimuddin passed away on October 22, 1964. He was buried inside the Tomb of the Three Leaders, west of the Dhaka High Court.
 |
| Khawaja Nazimuddin |