Sir Abdur Rahim, (7 September 1867 – 1952), sometimes spelled Abdul Rahim, was a judge and politician in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, and a leading member of the

Muslim League Muslim League may refer to: Political parties Subcontinent ; British India *All-India Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinah, led the demand for the partition of India resulting in the creation of Pakistan. **Punjab Muslim League, a branch of the organ ...

. He was President of the Nikhil Banga Praja Samiti from 1929 to 1934 and of the

Central Legislative Assembly The Central Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the Imperial Legislative Council, the legislature of British India. It was created by the Government of India Act 1919, implementing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. It was also sometime ...

of India from 1935 to 1945.

Life

Rahim was born into a highly educated family of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, the son of Mawlawi Abdur Rab, who was a

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

in the province's

Midnapore district Midnapore district was a district of the state of West Bengal, India. This district was bifurcated on 1 January 2002 into the Purba Medinipur district and the Paschim Medinipur district. On 4 April 2017, the Jhargram subdivision of Paschim Medin ...

. Educated at Presidency College,

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, and in England at the

Inns of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They have ...

, he became a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

of the Calcutta High Court in 1890, and later became a founding and influential member of the

. S. M. Ikram, ''Indian Muslims and Partition of India'' (Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 1992) p. 308-310Sir Abdur Rahim
at rajyasabha.gov.in Beyond his profession, Rahim was active in the world of education and became a member of the Senate and the Syndicate of the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...

. He was one of those who successfully promoted the foundation of the

Maulana Azad College Maulana Azad College, formerly Islamia College, is a public institute of liberal arts, commerce and science in India, located in central Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The college is fully government-administered. It is located near the junction of R ...

. On 20 July 1908, Rahim was appointed a Judge of the High Court of Judicature at Madras, and in September 1912 (with

Lord Islington John Poynder Dickson-Poynder, 1st Baron Islington, (31 October 1866 – 6 December 1936), born John Poynder Dickson and known as Sir John Poynder Dickson-Poynder from 1884 to 1910, was a British politician. He was Governor of New Zealand between ...

, Lord Ronaldshay, Herbert Fisher, and others) as a member of the Royal Commission on the Public Services in India of 1912–1915. Sir_Abdur_Rahim

Rahim went on to become Chief Justice of the High Court of Madras and Tagore Professor of Law in the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

.Salahuddin Ahmed, ''Bangladesh Past and Present'' (APH Publishing, 2004)
p. 86
/ref> In the 1919 Birthday Honours, he was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

. While he was still a judge of the High Court of Madras, Rahim gave a series of lectures at the University of Calcutta which were later published under the title ''The Principles of Muhammadan Jurisprudence according to the

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named aft ...

Maliki The ( ar, مَالِكِي) school is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas in the 8th century. The Maliki school of jurisprudence relies on the Quran and hadiths as primary ...

Shafi'i The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...

, and

Hanbali The Hanbali school ( ar, ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلْحَنۢبَلِي, al-maḏhab al-ḥanbalī) is one of the four major traditional Sunni schools (''madhahib'') of Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Arab scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal ...

Schools''. This work considers some recent European books on philosophy and law and compares the Islamic and European principles of

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

, combining classical and modern learning.M. Hamidullah, ''Emergence of Islam''
extract
at muslim-canada.org Entering politics, he became a member of the Bengal Province Executive Council and served as the province's Administrator of Justice and Allied Subjects from 1921 to 1925. In the

1925 Birthday Honours The 1925 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were p ...

, Rahim was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI). In December 1925 and January 1926, Rahim chaired the 17th session of the

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when a group of prominent Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests on the Indian subcontin ...

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Allygarh, and Kol) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district, and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capita ...

, when he said – In 1926, he presided over the All-India Mohammadan Educational Conference and argued for the use of the

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Governor of Bengal offered him a place in the Provincial government, the Hindus refused to work with him. Also in 1926, he formed a political party called the Bengal Muslim Party.Ramananda Chatterjee, ed., ''The Modern Review'' vol. 39, Jan–June 1926 (Prabasi Press, 1926) p. 601 ''The Modern Review'' commented:

For any Muslim, and particularly for Sir Abdur Rahim, to form such a party cannot surprise anybody. But what is amusing is that he has felt it necessary to camouflage it as something other than what it is. For the party speaks in the opening paragraph of its manifesto in the most liberal and nonsectarian tones.

In 1928, Rahim was the president of the Bengal Muslim Conference which opposed the

Nehru Report The Nehru Report of 1928 was a memorandum All Parties Conference in British India to appeal for a new dominion status and a federal set-up of government for the constitution of India. It also proposed for the Joint Electorates with reservation of s ...

, and in 1930 of the Bengal Muslim Conference which opposed the proposals of the

Simon Commission The Indian Statutory Commission also known as Simon Commission, was a group of seven Members of Parliament under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon. The commission arrived in India in 1928 to study constitutional reform in Britain's largest a ...

From 1929 to 1934, he was President of the Nikhil Banga Praja Samiti, or All Bengal Tenant Association. In 1931, he was elected to the

of India, and while

Mohammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mono ...

was overseas for the

Round Table Conferences The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in Dec ...

, Rahim led the Independent Party. On 24 January 1935, he was elected as the assembly's president, which effectively ended his public involvement in partisan politics, but he retained strong views on the interests of Muslim Indians. He served as president of the Central Legislative Assembly from 1935 until 1945. A member of the Indian Military College Committee, Rahim was sometimes skeptical of British policy. He was also opposed to recruiting men from outside India into the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

, such as the

Gurkhas The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are recru ...

, which he described as "absolutely an anti-Indian policy". In June 1939, the Viceroy,

Lord Linlithgow Marquess of Linlithgow, in the County of Linlithgow or West Lothian, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 23 October 1902 for John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun. The current holder of the title is Adrian Hope. This ...

, wrote to the

Secretary of State for India His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India Secretary or the Indian Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of th ...

Lord Zetland Marquess of Zetland is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 22 August 1892 for the former Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lawrence Dundas, 3rd Earl of Zetland. Zetland is an archaic form of Shetland. The Dundas family ...

, after sounding out Rahim on Muslim attitudes towards the proposed Federation of India – In October 1939, with Sir Abdullah Haroon, Rahim visited

Allama Mashriqi Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi ( ur, ; August 1888 27 August 1963), also known by the honorary title Allama Mashriqi (), was a British Indian, and later, Pakistani mathematician, logician, political theorist, Islamic scholar and the founder of th ...

, leader of the

Khaksars The Khaksar movement ( ur, ) was a social movement based in Lahore, Punjab, British India, established by Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi in 1931, with the aim of freeing India from the rule of the British Empire. The Khaksars opposed the partitio ...

, shortly after his release from jail. In 1946, Rahim donated his collection of 333

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

books, mostly on religion, to the Imperial Library (now the

National Library of India The National Library of India is a library located in Belvedere Estate, Alipore, Kolkata, India. It is India's largest library by volume and public record. The National Library is under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Currently, Dr. ...

), where they are known as the Sir Abdur Rahim Collection. After moving to Pakistan in 1947, he settled in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

, where he eventually suffered from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

and died in 1952.

Muhammad Mojlum Khan Muhammad Mojlum Khan (born 6 December 1973) is a Bangladeshi-born British non-fiction writer. Early life Khan was born in Habiganj District, Bangladesh, and was brought up and educated in England. Khan studied classical Arabic and traditional ...

, ''The Muslim Heritage of Bengal: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of Great Muslim Scholars, Writers and Reformers of Bangladesh and West Bengal'', Kube Publishing Ltd (2013), p. 279 His daughter Begum Niaz Fatima married the

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy ( bn, হোসেন শহীদ সোহ্‌রাওয়ার্দী; ur, ; 8 September 18925 December 1963) was a Bengali barrister and politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 t ...

(1892–1963), who later became the fifth

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan ( ur, , romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen cabinet, despite the president of Paki ...

, while his son

Jalaludin Abdur Rahim Jalaluddin Abdur Rahim ( Urdu: جلال الدين عبدالرحيم; Bengali: জালালুদ্দিন আবদুর রহিম; also known as J. A. Rahim) (27 July 1906 – 1977) was a Bengali communist and political philosopher ...

was a

Nietzschean Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) developed his philosophy during the late 19th century. He owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Arthur Schopenhauer's ''Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung'' (''The World as Will and Represe ...

philosopher and one of the founders of the

Pakistan People's Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded i ...

Publications

References

External links

Photograph of Sir Abdur Rahim
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahim, Abdur 1867 births 1952 deaths Pakistani writers Writers from Karachi Pakistani scholars Pakistani jurists Leaders of the Pakistan Movement British India judges Presidents of the Central Legislative Assembly of India Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Bachelor Members of the Central Legislative Assembly of India University of Calcutta alumni University of Calcutta faculty Judges of the Madras High Court Chief Justices of the Madras High Court Pakistani people of Bengali descent 20th-century Bengalis Bengali lawyers Bengali Muslims People from Midnapore 19th-century Bengalis