Khan Sahib Khan Sahib - a compound of Khan "Leader" and Sahib "Master" - was a formal title of respect and honour, which was conferred mainly on Muslim, and also on Parsi, Irani, and Jewish subjects of the British Indian Empire. It was a title one deg ...

Syed Muhammad Afzal () was a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

politician. He served as a member of both the

Bengal Legislative Council The Bengal Legislative Council ( was the legislative council of Bengal Presidency. It was the legislature of the Bengal Presidency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After reforms were adopted in 1937, it served as the upper house of ...

and the

Bengal Legislative Assembly The Bengal Legislative Assembly () was the largest legislatures of British India, legislature in British India, serving as the lower chamber of the legislature of Bengal Presidency, Bengal (now Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal). It ...

. Afzal was noted an early supporter of the

Bengali language movement The Bengali language movement was a political movement in East Bengal (modern-day Bangladesh) in 1952, advocating the recognition of the Bengali language as a co-lingua franca of the then-Dominion of Pakistan to allow its use in government ...

Early life

Afzal was born into a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work./ref> are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ...

family of

Syeds ''Sayyid'' is an honorific title of Hasanid and Husaynid lineage, recognized as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and Ali's sons Hasan and Husayn. The title may also refer to the descendants of the fam ...

from the village of Shayestabad in the

Backergunge District Backergunge, Backergunje, Bakarganj, or Bakerganj is a former district of British Bengal, East Pakistan and Bangladesh. It was the southernmost district of the Dacca Division. The district was located in the swampy lowlands of the vast river delta ...

of the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

Career

Afzal was a member of the District Khilafat Committee which supported the pro-Ottoman

Khilafat Movement The Khilafat movement (1919–22) was a political campaign launched by Indian Muslims in British India over British policy against Turkey and the planned dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after World War I by Allied forces. Leaders particip ...

. He was associated with the

Krishak Praja Party The Krishak Sramik Party (, ''Farmer Labourer Party'') was a major anti-feudal political party in the British Indian province of Bengal and later in the Dominion of Pakistan's East Bengal and East Pakistan provinces. It was founded in 1929 as th ...

established by

A. K. Fazlul Huq Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq (26 October 1873 – 27 April 1962), popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla, was a Bengalis, Bengali lawyer and politician who served as the first and longest Prime Minister of Bengal, prime minister of Bengal during the Britis ...

. In 1937, Huq contested in several constituencies during the Bengal legislative elections and became the first ever

Prime Minister of Bengal The prime minister of Bengal was the head of government of Bengal Presidency, Bengal Province and the Leader of the House in the Bengal Legislative Assembly (1937—1947), Bengal Legislative Assembly in British India. The position was dissolved u ...

. Having successfully defeated 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 ...

's candidate former Deputy Magistrate Lihaz Uddin of Kaukhali in the Firozpur North constituency, Huq gave up this seat to Afzal. The constituency covered Firozpur Sadar, Kaukhali,

Swarupkathi Swarupkathi () is a municipality in Nesarabad, Pirojpur, Barisal, Bangladesh Barisal ( or ; , ), officially known as Barishal, is a major city that lies on the banks of the Kirtankhola river in south-central Bangladesh. It is the largest cit ...

, Banaripara and Nazirpur. Afzal was a member of the first Governing Board of the Fazlul Haq College in Chakhar founded by A. K. Fazlul Huq in 1940. Despite the party struggling to gain support at the

1946 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1946. Africa * French legislative election, November 1946 (French Equatorial Africa) * French legislative election, November 1946 (Guinea) * 1946–1947 Moyen-Congo Representative Council election * ...

as a result of the growing popularity of the

Muslim League Muslim League may refer to: Political parties British India *All-India Muslim League, led the demand for the partition of India resulting in the creation of Pakistan ** Punjab Muslim League, a branch of the organization above **Unionist Muslim L ...

Pakistan Movement The Pakistan Movement was a religiopolitical and social movement that emerged in the early 20th century as part of a campaign that advocated the creation of an Islamic state in parts of what was then British Raj. It was rooted in the two-nation the ...

, Afzal preserved his Firozpur North seat against Abdus Subhan Mia of the Muslim League. He served as the chairman of the Pirojpur Municipality from 1944 to 1950. After partition, Afzal joined the

and became the Minister of Agriculture under

Khawaja Nazimuddin Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin (19 July 1894 – 22 October 1964), also spelled Khwaja Nazimuddin, was a Pakistani politician and statesman who served as the second Governor-General of Pakistan from 1948 to 1951, and later as the second Prime Minister ...

on 16 August 1947. On 12 November 1947, he attended a

Tamaddun Majlish The Tamaddun Majlish (), formerly Pakistan Tamaddun Majlish, is an Islamic cultural organization in Bangladesh, established in 1947 by Principal Abul Kashem in the former East Pakistan. It was one of the founding organizations of the Bengali Lan ...

literary conference at the Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall where he expressed his support for the

alongside Health Minister Habibullah Bahar Chowdhury and Civil Supplies Minister

Nurul Amin Nurul Amin (15 July 1893 – 2 October 1974) was a Pakistani politician and jurist who served as the eighth prime minister of Pakistan from 7 December to 20 December 1971. His premiership term of only 13 days was the shortest served in Pakista ...

. Clashes began between the pro-Urdu and pro-Bengali groups on 12 December 1947. A group of protestors harassed several ministers including Afzal and Education Minister

Abdul Hamid ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd (ALA-LC romanization of ; ; ), also spelled as Abdulhamid, Abdelhamid, Abd-ul Hamid, and Abd ol-Hamid, is a Muslim male given name and, in modern usage, surname. It is a Muslim theophoric name built from the Arabic words '' ʻabd' ...

, with Afzal being dragged from one place to another on the balcony within the secretariat area. Abdul Hamid came out and stated that he would resign if Bengali is not given a national status. Afzal refused police intervention to safeguard himself from the protestors, and promised the protestors that he is a supporter of the movement, urging them to calm down. He became a member of the East Bengal Language Committee and signed a twelve-member memorandum requesting the government to recognise and promote an official standardised Bengali language based on

Eastern Bengali Eastern Bengali, Baṅgālī () or Vaṅga () is a nonstandard dialect cluster of Bengali spoken in most of Bangladesh and Tripura, thus covering majority of the land of Bengal and surrounding areas. Names It is also known as Baṅgālī (), ...

. Among those that signed the letter are

Mohammad Akram Khan Mohammad Akram Khan (; 1868 – 18 August 1968) was a Bengali journalist, politician and Islamic scholar. He was the founder of Dhaka's first Bengali newspaper, ''The Azad''. He was among the founders of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind. Early life and edu ...

, Abdullah al-Baqi,

Muhammad Shahidullah Muhammad Shahidullah (; 10 July 1885 – 13 July 1969) was a Bengali people, Bengali linguist, philologist, educationist, and writer. He played vital role in Language movement of 1952 he was the first to establish logic about Why Bengali should ...

, Habibullah Bahar Chowdhury, Mizanur Rahman (Deputy Minister of Education), Syed Abul Hasnat Muhammad Ismail (Deputy Inspector-General of Police), Ajit Kumar Guha, AQM Adamuddin (Professor, Naogaon Islamic Intermediate College),

Abul Kalam Shamsuddin Abul Kalam Shamsuddin (3 November 18974 March 1978) was a journalist, writer and politician. He was born in Trishal in the Mymensingh district of Bengal. Early life Shamsuddin graduated from Dhaka College in 1919. He then went to the Ripon C ...

, Shamsunnahar Mahmud and Shaikh Sharafuddin (Professor, Islamic Intermediate College). On 28 June 1948, Afzal laid the foundation of the main building of the Sri Sundari High School in Lalpur,

Natore Natore is a city ("town" in some sources) in western Bangladesh. It is the headquarters of the Natore District. Its current administrator is Asha Khatun. The Narod river is passing through the center of the city with pollution from upstream industr ...

. Afzal later joined the

Council Muslim League The Council Muslim League was a faction of the Pakistan Muslim League that divided from the Convention Muslim League that was supportive of the military regime of the President of Pakistan Gen. Ayub Khan. Sardar Muhammad Zafarullah, Mian Mu ...

, and became the president of its Bengal branch. He was arrested after the independence of Bangladesh for allegedly supporting the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ), commonly known as the Pak Army (), is the Land warfare, land service branch and the largest component of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The president of Pakistan is the Commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the army. The ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afzal, Syed Muhammad Bengal MLAs 1937–1945 Pakistan Muslim League politicians Krishak Sramik Party politicians People from Barisal District Politicians from Barisal Division 20th-century Bengalis Bengal MLAs 1946–1947 East Bengal MLAs 1947–1954 Provincial ministers of East Pakistan