Turns of historical events
Allama Iqbal, Poet and Philosopher, in his presidential address on 29 December in 1930, called for “the amalgamation of North-West Muslim-majority Indian states” consisting of Punjab, North-West Frontier Province Sind and Baluchistan.
Chowdhury Rahamat Ali, in 1933 when he was at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, published a pamphlet, Now or Never, coining the word Pakistan for the first time.
In 1940, Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Haque, President of the All-India Muslim League, in the party’s Lahore Conference, raised the proposal for new states in the east and the northwest of India with the Muslim majority regions, which will be independent and sovereign.
In April of 1947, Hussein Shahid Suhrawardy, a leading personality of Pakistan Muslim League, proposed a new state in the eastern India with United Bengal, which will be independent and sovereign. Later in 1946, the Muslim League amended its Lahore Resolution to one Muslim state.
Finally on March 23 in 1971, when it seemed that the West Pakistani leaders would not accept 6-point under any circumstances, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, President of Awami League, took his independent decision which ultimately resulted in the creation of sovereign Bangladesh.
It is amazing that neither Allama Iqbal nor Rahamat Ali included Bengal in their proposals for a new state for the Muslims.
Amer Hamzah
Dhaka
