Saquib Salim

“I knew Maulana Mazharul Haq in London when he was studying for the bar, and when I met him at the Bombay Congress in 1915 - the year in which he was President of the Muslim League - he had renewed the acquaintance,” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), wrote this in his autobiography about Mazharul Haque, an eminent Indian Freedom Fighter who happened to be in England when Gandhi reached there. He founded Anjuman-i-Islamia, an association of Indian Muslim students in London, which introduced Gandhi to public life.

The name Anjuman-i-Islamia may lead one to misunderstand its objectives. Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha writes, “He (Mazharul) started there (London) the Anjuman Islamia, which though ostensibly organized for Muslims was for years a favourite meeting place of Muslim and non-Muslim Indians, and which I used to attend, since my arrival in London in February 1890.”

After returning to India, Mazharul joined judicial services and started practicing law. He became one of the leading lawyers in Bihar. However, soon the national service called him. In 1906 when a small group of aristocratic Muslims started an association to support British rule, Mazharul came out in opposition. He opposed the Muslims' association that openly supported the British policies.

A Postal stamp on Maulana Mazharul Haque

Sinha writes, “In 1906 it was decided by the non-nationalist section of the Mussalmans to start a political association with the object (as was stated in the circular issued at the time) of supporting "every measure emanating from the Government, and to oppose all demands of the Congress." A meeting was called at Dacca for the purpose of starting this organisation. Haque at once saw the great harm that was likely to result from an association with such objects as those mentioned in the militant and aggressive circular issued by its organisers. With Hasan Imam, he at once went to Dacca, and the two Biharee nationalists succeeded in pushing into the background the proposed institution and starting in its place the All-India Muslim League, with aims and objects wholly different from those originally proposed. Haque acted as its Secretary in the beginning, and organized and nursed it very carefully.” 

Mazharul publicly opposed the demand for separate electorates by certain Muslim sections. For this, he was ridiculed by a section of the press and allegedly attacked for ‘harming’ the interests of Muslims.

Most of us know Mazharul as the person who introduced Gandhi to Bihar and Indian politics. Gandhi himself wrote that he was the first person in Bihar to whom he had gone before reaching Champaran. Gandhi wrote, “(Mazharul) extended me an invitation to stay with him whenever I happened to go to Patna. I bethought myself of this invitation and sent him a note indicating the purpose of my visit. He immediately came in his car and pressed me to accept his hospitality. I thanked him and requested him to guide me to my destination by the first available train, the railway guide being useless to an utter stranger like me. He had a talk with Rajkumar Shukla and suggested that I should first go to Muzaffarpur. There was a train for that place the same evening, and he sent me off by it.”

What happened later is history. Gandhi went to Champaran, led a Satyagraha and entered the political scene of India. After this Mazharul remained close to the movement started by Gandhi. He led the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movement along with Gandhi and donated his property to the national cause.

During the Non-Cooperation Movement, Mazharul gave up his lucrative practice and Anglicised lifestyle. Sinha pointed out, “Once he accepted the Mahatma's lead, Haque suddenly became a changed man. He locked up his fastidiously well-tailored suits, metamorphosed himself from a clean-shaven man into literally a "bearded pard", forsook his foreign style of living, built for himself, outside Patna, a hermitage, called it Sadaqat Ashram ("The Abode of Truth" ) - which is still the chief center of Congress activities in Bihar - gave up the use of a motor car, abjured meat and drink, and transformed himself into a veritable recluse. And so he stuck to his new life and ideals until the last.”

The belief in non-cooperation was so steadfast that Mazharul chose prison over principles. Manthreshwar Sharma, a journalist, and colleague of his, noted, “Mazharul Haque had written in The Motherland, criticizing the treatment meted out to political prisoners in the Bihar and Orissa jails. Colonel Banatwalla was prevailed upon to seek the Government's permission to prosecute Haque. They saw this as a convenient alternative to (the then Judicial Member of Government ) Mr. Sachchidananda Sinha's blunt refusal to prosecute Haque for sedition.

"But Mr. Sinha could not justly refuse permission to an officer who wanted to proceed against Haque to defend his reputation which, in his opinion, had been slandered. The case dragged on from month to month. Haque declined to give bail, and the Magistrate had to release him from custody and depend on his honour to attend the sittings. Now, if only Haque had defended himself and let in some evidence to prove his allegations, Colonel Banatwalla's case would have been sure to be dismissed. But because it was Congress policy not to engage oneself in defence in State or semi-State prosecutions, Haque politely declined to join the proceedings. It resulted in the Magistrate taking cognizance of only the unrebutted evidence of Colonel Banatwalla."

Before becoming an agitator,Mazharul tried to correct things from within the colonial setup. In 1911, as one of the 54 members of Council of Governor General of India Lord Hardinge, he raised the issue of oppressive taxation and demanded free compulsory education for the Indians.

On 7 March 1911, Mazharul said in the Council of Governor General, “Last year, when my Hon'ble friend imposed fresh burdens upon the people of India in the shape of new taxation, he had pleaded for the necessity of such a serious step….. The whole of this revenue from new duties has contributed. towards the swelling of an already bloated Budget, and new burdens have been laid upon a poor people…. Many conjectures are being hazarded, and the strongest and perhaps the most probable of these is that history is repeating itself and that the revenues of the country are being sacrificed, as in yore, to some powerful interests in Great Britain and elsewhere.”

Mazharul was demanding that the duties on petroleum products should be reduced because it affected the interests of common people directly. The government, in his opinion, was reducing duties on tobacco and increasing duties on petroleum to help the business in Britain.

The same year, Mazharul introduced a resolution to affect free education. The resolution said, “That this Council recommends that the grants to Local Governments be increased by such an amount as will enable them to remit the fees payable in Primary Schools for the coming year .”

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Mazharul said, “Our ideal is that education should become universal in India, and that every unit of the community – young or old, man, woman or child – should know how to read and write his own language and to keep his own accounts. That is our ideal and we intend to work for it, live for it, till we secure it. We may not succeed today, we may not succeed tomorrow; but we are bound to succeed sooner or later, if only the full force of public opinion is brought to bear upon the Government.”

The dream came true in the form of the Right to Education Act 2009.