CIPLA Founder Hamied Wanted To Take Up Arms To Stop Partition
By
Saquib Salim
19-05-2022
Hamied
Personally Met Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel To Ask That The Decision To Partition
The Country Should Not Be Taken Without Holding A Plebiscite
Main
Points:
1. Every Indian
belongs to India and is, therefore, a Nationalist.
2. Hamied had
received the early lessons of nationalism at home.
3. The spirit
of Non-Cooperation was high among the nationalists.
------
“As I had
opposed the Muslim League candidate and won the election, everyone called me a
great Nationalist Muslim. I said that I was an Indian and there was no question
of being a Nationalist, an Indian was an Indian and belonged to the Nation…..
Every Indian belongs to India and is, therefore, a Nationalist.”
Mahatma Gandhi and A Hameid
-----
Khwaja
Abdul Hamied, the founder of CIPLA, a pharmaceutical giant, spoke these words
after defeating a Muslim League Candidate during the 1937 elections from the
home constituency of Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Hamied, a
PhD in Industrial Chemistry from Germany, is well known for establishing The
Chemical, Industrial & Pharmaceutical Laboratory (CIPLA), one of the first
modern pharmaceuticals in India, in 1935. But, what is less known about this
scientist and entrepreneur is that he was one of the prominent freedom fighters
and votary against the two-nation theory propounded by Jinnah. When, in 1945,
press reporters in England asked his opinion about Jinnah he said, “We cannot
afford to let loose these (Jinnah and Muslim League) dangerous political
lunatics”.
Hamied had
received the early lessons of nationalism at home. His uncle Abdul Majeed
Khwaja was a close associate of C.R Das, M.A Ansari, Mahatma Gandhi, and T.A.K
Sherwani during the freedom struggle and had served in jail for fighting the
British Colonial rule in India.
K A Hameid with Sardar Patel
----
He was
pursuing MSc (Chemistry) at Allahabad University when Khilafat Movement and anti-Rowlatt
agitation started. One of the brightest students of the University could not
keep himself away from the nationalist struggle. He led the boycott of the
University Convocation where Governor Sir Harcourt Butler was coming. Hamied
was briefly arrested for blocking the way of the Governor's carriage. It was
1920. The spirit of Non-Cooperation was high among the nationalists.
Hamied
returned to his hometown, Aligarh, where Gandhi, Ali Brothers, and others had
gathered to pursue students to boycott AMU. Jamia Millia Islamia, a nationalist
university was started to accommodate students who boycotted the
British-controlled AMU. Hamied volunteered as its first Chemistry teacher. He
established a good college laboratory with funds received by the nationalists
and produced brilliant students like famous botanist Professor Kailas Nath
Kaul.
In 1937, by
that time Hamied had received PhD from Germany and established CIPLA in Bombay
(now Mumbai), his friends asked him to contest Legislative Council Elections
against Muslim League. The elections in those days were through separate
electorates, i.e, Muslim voters would vote for Muslim candidates and Hindu
voters for Hindus. Jinnah was the tallest Muslim leader of Bombay and nobody
could imagine challenging him. In such a situation, Hamied challenged the
Muslim League candidate. It was a prestige issue for Jinnah.
Jinnah met
and told him, “Young man, why are you contesting the election? No one knows you
in Bombay and who is going to vote for you. It is better that you withdraw.” To
which Hamied replied that “if no one would vote for me, I would be defeated,
why then was he anxious for me to withdraw”. Jinnah personally canvassed for
his candidate while Dr. Zakir Husain, another ‘outsider’, campaigned for
Hamied.
On the day
of voting, Hamied’s booth presented a deserted look while all the voters
thronged the Muslim League booth. People would not visit his booth even to have
refreshments. But when the results were declared it came to be known that the
voters had secretly chosen Hamied over the Muslim League candidate. Jinnah did
not accept defeat even after his election to the council and tried to convince
him to join the Muslim League camp. Hamied later recalled this meeting as, “I
told Mr. Jinnah that nationality did not depend on religion. I said I was a
Muslim, but I was not a Turk or an Arab, who were also Muslims. I was an Indian
first and an Indian last. Same was the case, I said, with other nations of the
world, no matter what religion they belonged to.” It is needless to say that he
never joined Muslim League.
Hamied held
the view that Jinnah represented a minority view among Indian Muslims and since
Gandhi met him several times to persuade he became important in the eyes of
Muslims as well. He, in 1945, told press reporters, “Gandhiji, Pandit Nehru,
and other Indian leaders should never have given Mr Jinnah the importance they
did when they met him time out of number to bring him round to a saner point of
view. No Indian can be sane if he talks of the division of the country and all
those who shout Pakistan, suffer from a strange malady.”
Hamied was
vehemently against the separate electorates and considered it the evilest
design to divide Indian people into religious groups. He campaigned against the
election to the Constituent Assembly through a separate electorate but could
not succeed.
K A Hameid with Mahatma Gandhi and
Sardar Patel
-----
In 1947,
when finally the partition of India was accepted by Congress Hamied’s world
fell apart. He could not understand why on earth his great nation had to be
divided to achieve independence. He went to the extent of suggesting an armed
struggle against the Muslim League to keep India united. In a letter to Gandhi
he wrote, “If the Congress would have prepared their plan, which they never
did, and submitted it to the British Cabinet irrespective of the fact whether
Mr. Jinnah or the Muslim League agrees to it or not, we could have forced the
issue on the British Cabinet to accept that plan leaving it to ourselves to see
whether the Muslim League agrees to it or not. If they do not, then the only
alternative is a civil war. We should not be afraid of such a situation.
History proves that this kind of civil war, at the time when power is given to
the people of a country, is inevitable.”
Hamied
personally met Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to ask that the decision to partition
the country should not be taken without holding a plebiscite. He was sure that
if people were told that those who vote for Pakistan had to go to that country
then nobody would vote for the partition. Unfortunately, his advice remained
unheard and India was divided. Hamied kept serving India in different
capacities till his demise.
Source: Awaz, the Voice
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/cipla-hamied-arms-partition/d/127039
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