Jidd-o-Jehed-i-Azaadi Aur Tashkeel-i-
Pakistan Mein Nawab Bahadur Yar Jang Ki
Khidmaat Ka Tehqeeqi Mutaala
By Dr Shahana Begum
Bahadur Yar Jang Cooperative Housing Society Ltd, Karachi
400pp.

Dr Shahana Begum’s scholarly work, Jidd-o-Jehed-i-Azaadi Aur Tashkeel-i-Pakistan Mein Nawab Bahadur Yar Jang Ki Khidmaat Ka Tehqeeqi Mutaala [An Investigative Study of Nawab Bahadur Yar Jang’s Services in the Struggle for Independence and the Creation of Pakistan], brings to light the life and achievements of one of South Asia’s versatile leaders who, besides being a scholar, was a freedom fighter and played a major role in the struggle for Pakistan.

Packed with facts and figures, the book is the result of eight years of painstaking research by the author on an icon to whom historians of the Pakistan movement have not given the recognition he deserves.

Scholars such as Hector Bolitho (Jinnah: Creator of Pakistan), Stanley Wolpert (Jinnah of Pakistan) and Yasser Latif Hamadani (Jinnah: A Life) virtually ignore Bahadur Khan, even though the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah paid the young man handsome tributes because of his priceless role in the crucial referendum in what then was called the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Sadly, Bahadur Khan did not live long enough to see the referendum that gave a ‘yes’ vote to Pakistan, but the respect he commanded, and his mesmerising power of speech, helped counter anti-Pakistan vituperations among the ulema and tribal elders, led by guerrilla leader Haji Mirzali Khan, popularly known as the Faqir of Ipi.

Of Afghan descent and belonging to the Sodazai tribe, Bahadur Khan was remarkably handsome, studious from his childhood, and grew to excel in a number of disciplines. He was a linguist, poet, man of letters, orator and essayist. For his power of speech, he was called Lisanul Ummat, which can be translated as ‘Spokesman for the Nation’. Nizam the Seventh, the last ruler of Hyderabad, gave him the title ‘Yar Jang’ after he was overcome by the dazzle of one of Bahadur Khan’s sermons.

An excellent biography of scholar and freedom fighter Bahadur Yar Jang, who achieved so much in the short 39 years that nature gave him, yet has not been given the recognition he deserves

Even though he belonged to a feudal family, Bahadur Khan never allowed his family background to eclipse his progressive ideas and commitment to the interests of South Asia’s Muslim nation. He was a prolific writer, and the astonishing number of letters he wrote and the subjects he dwelled on testify to his intellectual brilliance and the power of his pen.

It is pertinent here to recall the impact some great Urdu scholars had on him. Ignoring the 19th century giants — Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, Mir Anis, Ameer Meenai, Altaf Hussain Hali and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan — those who lived in Bahadur Khan’s lifetime included Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Premchand, Josh Malihabadi, Jigar Muradabadi, Daagh Dehlvi, Hasrat Mohani, Fani Badayuni, Khwaja Hassan Nizami and, yes, the Awadh Punch. Even though it was a magazine known for biting satire, it had high literary standards and a wide readership.

No wonder, then, that Bahadur Khan’s own letters were veritable pieces of literature.

Dr Begum’s book gives an admirable account of these letters, published after his death in book form in Pakistan by the Bahadur Yar Jang Academy, Karachi, with a foreword by internationally known physicist and mathematician Dr Raziuddin Siddiqi, and in India by the Quaid-i-Millat Academy of Hyderabad Deccan.

“A look at these letters, which run into thousands,” writes Dr Begum, “will astound the reader both by the splendour of language and by his insight into the literary, political and religious controversies of his time.”

In safeguarding the rights of South Asia’s Muslim minority, Bahadur Khan had two forums. First, Hyderabad’s Ittehadul Muslemeen, whose chief he was elected in 1939, and second, the All-India Muslim League, with Jinnah in command.

Among Bahadur Khan’s priorities was Sindh, which had a Muslim majority, but was part of the Bombay Presidency, and the British government showed no signs of accepting their demands to make it a separate province. As the Muslim League high command took up the issue, Bahadur Khan aligned himself with Muslim leaders of Sindh, especially Haji Sir Abdullah Haroon, to make a concerted effort to separate Sindh from Bombay.

Despite having a Muslim majority, the province didn’t have a well-organised Muslim League. However, Bahadur Khan and Abdullah Haroon joined hands to reorganise the Muslim League, and opened its branches in a number of Sindh cities. Their efforts bore fruit when Sindh finally became a province in 1937. The two also drafted a resolution demanding a separate state for South Asian Muslims, and its wordings were strikingly similar to the 1940 Lahore resolution.

In 1931, Bahadur Khan undertook a tour of the Middle East after performing hajj and visited Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. The travels were across a region traumatised by post-World War I events, the Hashemite revolt, the Ottoman empire’s collapse, the brazen violations of the promises made to the Sharif of Makkah, the Sykes-Picot pact, the occupation of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine by the ‘mandatory’ powers — Britain and France — and the handover of Palestine to the Jews through the Balfour declaration. No wonder, a sense of grief and anguish runs through his travelogue, Siyahat-i-Mumaalik-i-Islamia [Travels in Islamic Countries].

Back home, as the Pakistan movement gained momentum, Bahadur Khan drew close to the Quaid, who valued his many qualities. In 1944, Jinnah wrote a letter to the Nizam of Hyderabad asking him to lift the ban on Bahadur Khan’s speeches, after one of his lectures was misinterpreted by his rivals, who instigated the Nizam to gag him. To silence him, he was offered the office of Hyderabad State’s prime minister, but Bahadur Khan refused to accept the bribe.

There is no doubt that Dr Begum has a powerful pen and she is quite generous with adjectives, which may make some readers wonder whether they are reading a hagiography — an impression that many Urdu biographies evoke. However, this comment should not take away from Bahadur Yar Jang’s greatness as a leader, or from the efforts Dr Begum has invested in writing a highly readable book, whose portrayal of the subject is backed by facts collected from an astonishing number of reliable, historical sources. The author deserves compliments.

However, in a case of poor wording, the loss of a large number of Bahadur Yar Jang’s letters has been attributed by the author not to India’s military invasion of Hyderabad and its extinction as a sovereign state (as is factually correct), but to “siyasi daopaich” [political intrigues].

The details of the military onslaught are a click away on Google. On Sept 13, 1948, India mobilised a force of 22,000 which included the 1st Armoured Brigade, units from the 18th King Edward’s Own Cavalry, some veteran regiments of the Burma campaign and tanks from 18 Cavalry, besides Tempest bombers. Space constraints do not allow for details about the massacre and rape of the civilian population.

Since the Indian home minister at the time, Vallabhbhai Patel, alleged that the figures were exaggerated, India’s then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, appointed an interfaith committee to probe the issue. It reported: “At a number of places, members of the armed forces brought out Muslim adult males from villages and towns and massacred them in cold blood.”

The “very conservative estimate” was that 27,000 to 40,000 died “during and after the police action.” Other scholars have put the figure at 200,000, or even higher. That the report was not released until 2013 confirms the enormity of the crime.

One can understand the publisher’s regard for the Indian readership’s sensitivity, but it is certainly bewildering that a human tragedy of such massive proportions would be reduced to mere ‘political intrigues’. The author must take a second look at this for history’s sake and make appropriate changes in the second edition.

That apart, Jidd-o-Jehed-i-Azaadi… — Dr Shahana Begum’s PhD thesis, produced under the able guidance of Professor Dr Syed Wasimuddin — is a ready reckoner of Bahadur Yar Jang’s life. Dr Begum has indeed burned the midnight oil to give us this excellent biography of a man who achieved so much in the short 39 years that nature gave him.

The reviewer is Dawn’s External Ombudsman and an author

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, January 1st, 2023