Ashab Uddin Ahmad

Ashab Uddin Ahmad (also known as Ashabuddin Ahmad, Ashab Uddin Ahmed or Mohammed Ashabuddin Ahmad; bn, আসহাব উদ্দীন আহমদ; April 1914-28 May 1994) was a Bangladeshi writer, educator and politician. He was a member of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly for the United Front, and a Communist activist. In 2005, he was posthumously awarded the Ekushey Padak, one of the highest civilian awards in Bangladesh, for his contributions to literature, which include 24 published books in Bengali and English.

Early life and background

Ashab Uddin was born in April 1914, in Sadhanpur, a village in what is now Banshkhali Upazila of the Chittagong District of Bangladesh, which was then part of the British Indian province of Bengal. He belonged to a middle-class Muslim family. His father was a tea plantation manager named Munshi Safar Ali Chowdhury. Safar Ali had five children from his first marriage and six from his second marriage with Ashab Uddin's mother, Nasima Khatun. Among Safar Ali's sons, Ashab Uddin was the second-youngest. According to Ashab Uddin, his ancestors were from the Gaur region, and one of his ancestors had moved to Sadhanpur while serving the Mughal Empire, possibly under Shah Shuja.

Education

Ashab Uddin's education began in a maktab, after which he attended a "minor school", followed by the Sadhanpur English Middle School and the Banigram High School, from which he graduated in 1932. While studying at the Banigram High School, Ashab Uddin organised a library in Sadhanpur, which he named the Sadhanpur Rural Welfare Library. This was the first library in Sadhanpur, and one of the few in the area. One of his aims was to open a library in a Muslim-majority rural area, as all the rural libraries he knew of were located in Hindu neighbourhoods. Together with his friends, he raised money for the library by working as a waiter at weddings. Using this money, he purchased books for the library and subscribed the library to several periodicals. Ashab Uddin and his friends also staged an anti-moneylender play that they had read in one of these periodicals.

In 1934, Ashab Uddin Ahmad obtained an IA degree from Chittagong College, securing a scholarship of Rs. 20 per month. In 1936, he graduated from Chittagong College with a BA. He obtained an MA in English from the University of Dhaka in 1939.

Teaching and activism

Ashab Uddin Ahmad began teaching English in September 1939 at his alma mater, Chittagong College, buying his first suit and tie prior to starting work there, as wearing these was compulsory for professors at state colleges under the British Raj. He was forced to leave this position in April 1941 as a result of a conflict with the principal, Padmini Bhusan Rudra.

In July 1941, he was hired by the Chittagong Islamia Intermediate College (now known as Government Hazi Mohammad Mohshin College), where he remained until 1945. One of his students there was Abdul Karim, who would later become the vice-chancellor of the University of Chittagong. Abdul Karim reminisced later that Ashab Uddin Ahmad's lectures on prose and poetry were so engaging that listening to them was sufficient preparation for an examination. He also noted that Ashab Uddin had helped him as well as other students with advice, money and books as needed.

In 1945, Ashab Uddin Ahmad joined Laksam Faizunnesa College, moving to Feni College in 1948, and Comilla Victoria College in 1950.

Language Movement

Although Ashab Uddin had supported the Pakistan Movement ever since the Lahore Resolution of 1940, he became disillusioned with Pakistan within a few months of the creation of the state. In his view, the Pakistani elite misused Islam as a way to promote its class interests at the expense of the country's " Sindhi, Baluch, Pathan and Bengali" peoples. On 27 December 1948, the Pakistani minister of education, Fazlur Rahman, declared that the Arabic script should be used to write all the languages of Pakistan. In practice, this suggestion, if implemented, would only have affected Bengali, as all the languages of West Pakistan already used the Arabic script. Ashab Uddin wrote to the ''Pakistan Observer'' in 1950 to protest against Fazlur Rahman's suggestion.

Around the same time, Ashab Uddin, together with a fellow professor at Comilla Victoria College named Abul Khair, founded a cultural organisation named the Pragati Majlis (Progress Assembly). The organisation was headquartered in Comilla, in rented premises across the street from the town hall. The Pragati Majlis organised discussions on the future of Bengali culture and the Bengali nation in general, and drew an audience largely consisting of professors and students from the Comilla Victoria College. The activities of the organisation were viewed with suspicion both by the Muslim League and by the state. Nevertheless, it was shielded from persecution by the influential non-Bengali principal of Comilla Victoria College, Akhtar Hameed Khan, who was on friendly terms with Ashab Uddin.

In 1952, following the killing of several people at a protest march in Dhaka demanding that Bengali be made an official language of Pakistan, a demonstration was held in Comilla to echo the demands made in Dhaka and express solidarity with the victims. Ashab Uddin and Abul Khair led a number of Comilla Victoria College to join the procession, which stretched out for a mile. The main slogan voiced by the protesters was, "We want Bengali to be a state language. We want Nurul Amin's neck." Prior to the Comilla protest, Ashab Uddin had talked to local Muhajir leaders in order to persuade them not to oppose the Bengali Language Movement. As a result, after the demonstration, one Muhajir leader gave a speech in Urdu