Mian Shah Din (2 April 1868 - 2 July 1918) was a

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. In October, 1908 he was the first Muslim appointed a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

of the Chief Court of the Punjab, now known as the

Lahore High Court The Lahore High Court () is a provincial court house based in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was established as a high court on 21 March 1882. The Lahore High Court has jurisdiction over the province of Punjab. The High Court's principal seat is ...

.Charing Cross (Lahore) is where the elite dwelled
Dawn (newspaper), Published 20 February 2011, Retrieved 18 January 2019

Biography

Early life

Mian Shah Din was born in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

to the

Arain Arain (also known as Raeen) are a large Punjabi Muslim agricultural community with a strong political identity and level of organisation. At the beginning of the last century, they numbered around 1 million and were mainly rural cultivator ...

Mian family of Baghbanpura The Mian family of Baghbanpura is a feudal family of Punjabi Arain descent from Baghbanpura, Lahore, which was politically prominent in the early-20th century. The family originally owned the land in Baghbanpura on which the Shalimar Gardens we ...

. He was educated at

Government College, Lahore The Government College University (colloquially known as GCU; Punjabi, Urdu: ) is a public research university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded as Government College, Lahore, in 1864 under British administration, it became a university i ...

and in 1887 left for

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to study law. He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1889. While in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, he joined judge Abdul Rahim and others in the foundation of the London branch of the Anjuman-i-Islamiya, which was established on 10 November 1889. This was the first Muslim organisation in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and Shah Din was elected its vice-president.

Career

He returned to Lahore in September 1890, and enrolled as an advocate at the Punjab Chief Court in January 1891. That same year he established the Young Men Mohammedan Association at Lahore. Two years later, he read out at the

All India Muhammadan Educational Conference The All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference was an organisation promoting modern, liberal education for the Muslim community in India. It was founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, also the founder of the Aligarh Muslim University. All India Mum ...

, a learned and thoughtful paper on “The Education of Musalmans in the Punjab”. This paper impressed

Syed Ahmad Khan Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898), also spelled Sayyid Ahmad Khan, was an Indian Muslim Islamic modernist, reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British Raj, British India. Though initially esp ...

so much that Shah Din was chosen, at the early age of twenty-six, to preside over the next session of the All-India Mohammedan Educational Conference in 1894. The following year he was made a fellow of the

University of the Punjab The University of the Punjab (UoP) is a public university, public research university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 1882, its international influence has made it one of the most prestigious universities in South As ...

and in 1896, he began working as a Trustee of Aligarh College. Mian Shah Din was one of the members of the Simla Deputation in 1906. After the

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party founded in 1906 in Dhaka, British India with the goal of securing Muslims, Muslim interests in South Asia. Although initially espousing a united India with interfaith unity, the Muslim L ...

was established, an active provincial branch was organised in the Punjab in November 1907 and Shah Din was elected its president. In October 1908, he was appointed the first Muslim Judge of the Chief Court of the Punjab, and was at that particular time the only sitting Muslim judge in any of the High Courts across British India. Under the Minto-Morley Reforms, he was appointed along with

Mian Mohammad Shafi Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi, (10 March 1869 – 7 January 1932) was a politician and statesman in British India. He supported and represented various Muslim educational, national and religious causes and was a founding member of the All-India Mu ...

, Umar Hayat Tiwana and Chaudhary Shahab-ud-din to the Punjab Council. These western-educated leaders, drawn from the Muslim middle and upper classes, were marked by their progressive and liberal views. His appointment as a judge would however curtail his political ambitions and he resigned as president of the Punjabi branch of the All-India Muslim League. He nonetheless retained his passion for educational work and in 1913 presided over the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference for a second time.S.M. Ikram, Indian Muslims and Partition of India, Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 1995 p.217

Death

Mian Shah Din died in 1918 at the age of fifty, and was eulogised by

Muhammad Iqbal Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 187721 April 1938) was a South Asian Islamic philosopher, poet and politician. Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

Humayun

His son also launched ''Humayun'', a monthly magazine in which Iqbal wrote the poem, “Humayun”.

Biography

Early life

Career

Death

Humayun

References

Further reading