Dr. M. Abul Kashem Mozumder and Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque :
Sher-e- Bangla was a force to be reckoned with so far proletariat is concerned. In fact, ‘his soul was with them’. His endeavor to build up a platform as a countervailing force against exploitation and persecution was a clear ‘indication of the nature of his political heartbeat than anything else he sought to do in life.’ He established a meaningful link with the rural poor in the gangatic plain in order to impoverish their emancipation. Using his institutional capacity being the Chief Minister, AK Fazlul Huq set up the Eloud Commission in November 1938 putting interests of the rural peasants first.
There was so much enthusiasm that Sher-e- Bangla sparked among the peasants. He was an icon among the Bengali Peasants and rising Jotdars who joined him in his institutional mission – all for the ordinary peasants. Being ‘a full blooded Bengali, the friend of peasantry’ he was frustrated to see the termination of the Floud Commission without any commensurate results and had to ‘wait until 1950 to see his dream of ending landlord elitism-feudal over lordship in other words. Bengal under colonial rule presented a desolate scene. From the very start of the colonial rule the peasants were seen to have been protesting colonial intervention affecting peasantry. Due to rack-renting and persecution of peasants by the rent-receiving agents of East India Company and moneylenders there happened to be the fast deterioration of the peasant economy. Bengal was treated as the hotbed of anti-British rebellion with rising militancy of peasant movements against the oppression of the Hindu landed class. As a result of the periodic peasant eruption against the landlords and money lenders in the wake of abysmal poverty a handful of Muslim leaders ‘started flirting with the Muslim peasantry vigorously promising land reform and pro-peasant measures projecting the Hindu zamindar-bhadralok-mahajan triumvirate as the sole enemy of both the Hindu and Muslim peasants.’ ‘Eventually Muslim leaders successfully organized Muslim peasants in the region and formed a government under the leadership of Fazlul Huq, who in 1937 became the chief minister of Bengal.’ He and his Krisak-Praja Party ‘committed to an anti-zamindar and anti-mahajan economic programme, as reflected in the election manifesto of Krisak-Praja Party that formed a government in April 1937 with Muslim league. Sher-e-Bangla represented the upper peasantry (Jotdars). Several Muslim jotdars joined him to espouse a peasant and anti-landlord programmes on the eve of 1937 election. In fact, Sher-e-Bangla occupies the foremost place among the leaders ceaselessly fighting for the emancipation of Bengali peasants. Indeed he was matchless and had only a few equals well known in history as humanists and philanthropists. To cite Amir Hossain:
The greatest achievement of AK Fazlul Huq as the Prime Minister of Bengal was that he accomplished some laudable work for alleviating the sufferings of the peasantry. “He protected the poor agriculturists from the clutches of the usurious creditors by enforcing the Bengal Agricultural Debtors’ Act (1938). He also set up the Debt Settlement Board in all parts of Bengal. The Money Lenders’ Act (1938) and the Bengal Tenancy (Amendment) Act 1938 improved the lot of the peasants. The Land Revenue Commission appointed by the Government of Bengal on 5 November 1938 with Sir Francis Floud as Chairman submitted the final report on 21 March 1940. This was the most valuable document related to the land system of the country.
The Tenancy Act of 1885 was amended by the Act of 1938 and thereby all provisions relating to enhancement of rent were suspended for a period of 10 years. It also abolished all kinds of ABWABS and selamis (imposts) imposed traditionally by the zamindars on raiyats. The raiyats got the right to transfer their land without paying any transfer-fee to zamindars. The law reduced the interest rate for arrears of rent from 12.50 per cent to 6.25 per cent. The raiyats also got the right to get possession of the nadi sekasti (land lost through river erosion and appeared again) land by payment of four years of rent within twenty years of the erosion. Thus several acts enforced during Fazlul Huq’s Premiership helped the peasants reduce some of their burdens.” (Banglapedia)
The amended provisions of the Bengal Tenancy Act restored almost all the rights of the tenants taken away from them by the Permanent Settlement Regulation of 1773. For that reason the Bengal Tenancy Act is termed the Magna Carta of tenant rights in Bengal.
Since a demand for abolition of the zamindari system was raised during the later part of British rule in 1939, the Land Revenue Commission was appointed with Francis Floud as its chairman. It submitted its report in 1940 recommending acquisition by the government of all rent receiving interests. Its recommendations led to the passage of the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950.
Thus, after 163 years of Permanent Settlement all rent-receiving interests were again placed directly under the government by abolishing the zamindari system.
The Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 thus revised the original constitution of the Permanent Settlement very drastically. Under the Bengal Tenancy (amendment) Act of 1939 the salami right of a zamindar was abolished. The raiyats were now virtual owners of land, which could be transferred and which they could use any way they liked. The zamindar was now left only with the rent receiving right.
The pioneers like Tagore, Sher-e- Bangla and Akhtar Hameed Khan reconceptualized the perspectives of institution building with the doctrine acceptable to the peasants. The touch tone of sherebangla’s agenda was institution building for the villagers to get rid of money lenders. By dint of his extraordinary genius, he created an era. In fact he was a versatile talent making remarkable marks in public life as politician, peasant leader, teacher, lawyer, administrator, statesman, freedom fighter and a person with incredible physical strength and guts. He ’emerged from the heart of rural Bengal, stormed the bastions of elitist Calcutta and showed his downtrodden community a way to economic freedom, educational skills and political ascendancy’. He was a symbol of peasant vision articulating peasants’ point of view with all their cognitive orientations.
(Dr. M. Abul Kashem Mozumder is Pro-VC, BUP and Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque is ex-professor, Chittagong University).
