Khawaja Nazimuddin

He was born into a wealthy Muslim family of the Nawabs of Dhaka on 19 July 1894 then under British Raj rule.[4][5][6][7] His father was Khwaja Nizamuddin and paternal grandfather was Khwaja Fakhruddin. His family hailed from Kashmir and was long settled in Dhaka.[8] He was the maternal grandson of Nawab Bahadur Sir Khwaja Ahsanullah and his mother, Nawabzadi Bilqis Banu, was notable for her own statue.[9] Nazimuddin had a younger brother, Khwaja Shahabuddin, who would later play a vital role in national politics onwards.[10]^: 76[9]^: xxx His family spoke Persian, Urdu, and Bengali.[11] They were the first cousin of Nawab Khwaja Habibullah son of Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur who helped laid foundation of Muslim League in 1906.[12][13][14][15]

He was educated at the Dunstable Grammar School in England, but returned to British India following his matriculation where he enrolled to attend the MAO College of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh, India.[16] Nazimuddin secured his graduation with a bachelor's degree in sociology from AMU and returned to England to pursue higher education.[17] During his time at AMU, he was known to be an avid tennis player and excelled in this sport when he represented his university in collegiate games.[10]^: 76

After AMU, Nazimuddin went to England and attended Trinity Hall at Cambridge University. He was granted his master's degree in English by Cambridge University.[18]^{: 449–450} His training in England enabled him to practice law and become a Barrister-at-Law in England.[16] He was knighted in 1934.[19] In 1947–49, Nazimuddin was granted the degree of Doctor of Laws by the vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, Dr. Mahmud Hasan.[20]^: 161

Nazimuddin returned to India to join his brother Khwaja Shahbuddin from England, taking interest in civil and public affairs that led him to join the Bengali politics.[21] Both brother joined the Muslim League, and Nazimuddin successfully ran for the municipality election and elected as Chairman of Dhaka Municipality from 1922 until 1929.[6] During this time, he was appointed as Education minister of Bengal. He remained minister of Education till 1934. Later he was appointed in Viceroy's Executive Council in 1934 which he served until 1937.[22] In the former capacity he successfully piloted the Compulsory Primary Education Bill; removing disparity that existed in education between the Hindus and the Muslims. As Minister for Agriculture in 1935, he piloted the Agriculture Debtors Bill and the Bengal Rural Development Bill which freed poor Muslim cultivators from the clutches of Hindu moneylenders.[23]

He participated in regional elections held in 1937 on a Muslim League's platform but conceded his defeat in favour of Fazlul Haq of Krishak Praja Part (KPP) who was appointed as Prime Minister of Bengal, while assuming his personal role as member of the legislative assembly.[24][25]^: 69

In the India Office Records, Political and Secret Department Records (1756–1950), Category L/P&S, Record 5/250, 3/79, one comes across the Fortnightly Report (February 1947) to the Viceroy by the then Governor of Punjab Sir Evan Jenkins. According to this report when inquired about the Pakistan project, Khwaja Nazimuddin candidly told him that ″he did not know what Pakistan means and that nobody in the Muslim League knew.″ This remark clearly shows that so few as six months before the creation of Pakistan, even senior Muslim League leaders had no clarity as to the basic features of the State they were asking for.[lower-alpha 2]

Upon the formation of the coalition government in an agreement facilitated between Muslim League and the Krishak Praja Party, Nazimuddin was appointed as the home minister under Haq's premiership., which he continued until 1943.[26]^: 331

Due to his conservative elite position, he became close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, then-president of the Muslim League, who appointed him as a member of the executive committee to successfully promote Muslim League' party agenda and program that gained popularity in East Bengal.[26]^: 332[27] In 1940–41, Nazimuddin broke away from the coalition led by Premier Fazlul Haq and decided to become a leader of the opposition, leading campaign against Haq's premiership and primarily focused on Bengali nationalism issues.[26]^: 332 In 1943, Nazimuddin took over the government from Premier Haq when the latter was dismissed by the Governor, John Herbert, amid controversies surrounding in his political campaigns.[28] During this time, Nazimuddin played a crucial political role for the cause for the separate Muslim homeland, Pakistan.[26]^: 332 About his role, he was asked about the "Pakistan question" by British Governor Richard Casey in 1945 but he showed very little and no interests in discussing the existence of the movement and reportedly quoting: he did not know what Pakistan means and nobody in Muslim League knew."[29]

His premiership lasted until 1945 when a motion of no confidence and faced with defeat in the assembly hall by 160 to 97 votes that effectively ended his premiership.[30]^: 106 He relinquished the office to Nausher Ali, an Indian nationalist Muslim and a prominent member of Congress Party who the speaker of the assembly, but the administration was taken over by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.[30]^: 106[31]

From 1945 to 1947, Nazimuddin continued to be served as the chairman of the Muslim League in Bengal, ardently supporting the political cause for Pakistan against the Congress Party.[26]^: 333 During this time, he had been in brief conflict with Premier Suhrawardy and strongly opposed the United Bengal Movement and led a strong parliamentary opposition in the assembly against Suhrawardy's administration in April 1947. The conflict between two men mainly existed because Suhrawardy had represented the middle class while Nazimuddin was representing the aristocracy in the assembly.[32]

In 1947, he again contested in the party elections in the Muslim League against Suhrawardy's platform and securing his nomination as the party chairman for the Muslim League's East Bengal chapter.[33]^: 49–50 His success in the party election eventually led him to the appointed as the first Chief Minister of East Bengal after the Partition of India in 1947 and effectively gained controlled of the Muslim League in the province.[33]^: 50

As the Chief Minister, he led the motion of confidence that ultimately voted in favour of joining the Federation of Pakistan and reorganized the Government of East Pakistan by delegating conservative members in his administration.[33]^: 49–50

The agitations and violence spread through the successful Bengali language movement and the riots in Lahore proved the inability of Nazimuddin's government as he was widely seen as weak in running the government administration.[47]^: 288

In a view of attempting to improve the economy and internal security, Malik Ghulam asked Prime Minister Nazimuddin to step down in the wider interest of the country.[47]^: 289 Nazimuddin refused to oblige and Malik Ghulam used reserve powers granted in the Government of India Act 1935, dismissed Nazimuddin.[47]^: 289

Nazimuddin then requested the Federal Court of Pakistan's intervention against this action but the Chief Justice, Muh'd Munir did not rule on the legality of the dismissal, but instead forced new elections to be held in 1954.[48] Malik Ghulam appointed another Bengali politician, Muhammad Ali Bogra who was then tenuring as the Pakistan ambassador to the United States, as the new prime minister until the new elections to be held in 1954.[47]^: 289 The dismissal of Sir Khwaja Nazimuddin's administration, the prime minister, by the Governor-General, Sir Malik Ghulam, signalled a troubling trend in political history of the country.[47]^: 289[49]^: 132

Mausoleum of three leaders at Dhaka

Even after his dismissal, he and his family remained active in parliamentary politics; his nephew, Khwaja Wasiuddin, an army general serving as GOC-in-C II Corps and later repatriated to Bangladesh in 1974.

His younger brother, Shahabuddin, remained active in the politics and eventually ascended as Information minister in the President Ayub Khan's administration.[50]^: 559

Sir Khwaja died in 1964, aged 70. He was buried in the Mausoleum of three leaders in his hometown of Dhaka.[51]

Nazimuddin and his brother, Shahabuddin, belonged to an aristocratic family who were known for their wealth. In thesis written by Joya Chatterji, Nazimuddin was described for unquestionable loyalty to British administration in India:

Short statured with a bulging pear-like figure, he was known for his insatiable appetite and his unfailing submission to the ... Britishers ... Dressed in British-styled Sherwani and breechers-like Churidar pajamas with a Fez cap and wearing little shoes, he carried a... cane of knob and represented an age and tradition.

— Joya Chatterji, Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition [22]^: 80

By 1934, the family had estates that covered almost 200,000 acres and was well spread over different districts of Eastern Bengal, together with properties in Shillong, Assam and Kolkata, had a yearly rent of £120,000 ($2,736,497.94 in 2017).[22]^: 80 By the 1960s, the majority of estate was relocated from East Pakistan to the different areas of Pakistan, leaving very little of his estate in East.[22]^: 80

He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1926, and was knighted in 1934 by the King-Emperor, George V, when he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE).[52]

In 1958 he was awarded the highest civilian award titled Nishan-e-Pakistan. Later by the Government of Pakistan, Nazimuddin has been honoured from time to time after his death. In Karachi, the residential areas, Nazimabad and North Nazimabad in suburbs of Karachi, had been named after his name. In Islamabad, there is a road intersection, Nazimuddin Road, that has been named in his honor; while in Dhaka, there is also a road after his namesake.