ABDUL QAIYUM ANSARI (1905-1973): HISTORICAL ROLE & CONTRIBUTION
Abdul Qaiyum Ansari was an eminent nationalist and mass leader of twentieth century India whose contribution to nationalism is historic. He was born at Dehri-On-Sone in the then Shahabad (modern Rohtas) district of Bihar on 1 July 1905. Son of M Abdul Haq and Safia Beguin he got education at Sasaram and Dehri High Schools, Aligarh Muslim University, Calcutta University and Allahabad University. He could not complete his university education due to active involvement in the movement for national independence. He married Asma Begum in October 1932 and had two sons Khalid Anwer and Hasan Nishat and two daughters Azra Raihana and Najma Sultana.
Mr. Ansari was an hereditary agriculturist and was closely associated with Indian National Congress since 1919. At the young age of fifteen years he was a participant to the all parties’ leaders conference held at Allahabad in June 1920 that approved and adopted Gandhi programme of Noncooperation with the alien British Government which started on 1 August 1920. In September 1920 Mr. Ansari attended the notable special session of the Indian National Congress held at Kolkata as a young delegate from Bihar that passed the historic resolution on Noncooperation moved by Mahatma Gandhi with the objectives of freeing India from ‘British rule and supporting the Khilafat movement. He and his colleagues left the school run by the Government at Dehri-On-Sone and established a National School in accordance with the resolution of the congress session where students who had boycotted government schools were instructed. ‘He was arrested during 1921 in Dehri-On-Sone at the young age of sixteen years for taking active part in the anti-British Noncooperation and Khilafat movements In 1928 as a youth leader he actively participated with his young followers in the student agitation against the all white Simon commission during its visit at Calcutta Then a student of Kolkata University, he along with others sustained violent assaults of baton charge by the police while the agittionists were marching through Kolkata College Street.
ABDUL QAIYUM ANSARI
1 July 1905 – 18 January 1973
Mr Ansari opposed the communal politics of the Muslim League and its demand for the creation of Pakistan by dividing India. To counteract the ‘two-nation theory’ and communal policy of the Muslim League and for social, political and economic emancipation and uplift of the Momin community, a backward class, he started the Momin movement in 1937- 38 as a political organisation. This “prevented the Muslim League from making inroads Into the Mom in community which constitutes a sizeable section of India Muslim population. Thus “in the late thirties when the Muslim League’s separatist propaganda threatened to divide every village on the basis of community Mr. Ansari stood in the forefront of the struggle to uphold the secular ideals of the Congress. “As the leader of the All India Morn in Conference which represented and continues to represent half of the total Muslim population of India, he in pr91independence days belied the twin claim of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the then president of the All India Muslim League that the Indian National Congress was an organisation of the Hindus and Muslim League was the sole representative organisation of the Muslims.
To effectively deal with the political problem created by the pernicious communalism of the Muslim League, Mr. Ansari forwarded ‘The Six Points Of the Morn ins’ (Nukat-E-Momin)also known as ‘The Six Points of A. Q. Ansari to the president of the Indian National Congress on 8 October 1939.for acceptance by the congress but the political demands of the Mom in community were not accepted by the congress although this ‘!could have encountered the designs of the British Government and warded off the pernicious British- e* collusion against the unity and integrity of India as aimed at. “The Mom ins’ political demands propounded by him were : (1) one minister, at least, of the Central (or Federal) Government and of each of the Provincial Governments be taken from the Mom in community; (2) fifty percent of the seats in the central (or Federal) Legislative assembly and in each of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies and councils reserved for the Muslims be allotted to and reserved for the members of the Momin community; (3) Seats in Local Self-Governing and Civil bodies be reserved for the members of the Momin community proportionate to their population in the area served by such body; (4) appointments in Government and Semi-Government services be reserved provided by Government for imparting general as well as education to mom in boys and girls and (6) state – protection and state aid be provided for the handloom textile industry owned and carried on by the Momins. It would be quite a historical revilement to find out a out as to why the Indian National congress leadership did not accept tv1’y Ansari is suggestions on how to deal with the Muslim League”