Bibi Amtus Salam

Last updated

Bibi Amtus Salam
Died(1985-09-29)29 September 1985
NationalityIndian
Occupation Social worker
Known forDisciple of Mahatma Gandhi

Bibi Amtus Salam (died 29 September 1985) was a social worker and disciple of Mohandas Gandhi who played an active role in combating communal violence in the wake of the Partition of India and in the rehabilitation of refugees who came to India following partition.

Contents

Early life

Bibi Amtus Salam was born the daughter of Abdul Majid Khan and belonged to a conservative but aristocratic Muslim family of Patiala. She was denied an education owing to the family's observance of purdah which she shunned in 1925. [1]

Gandhi's associate

Bibi Amtus Salam was a close associate of Gandhi's and he saw and addressed her as his daughter. Writing to Sardar Patel in 1934, Gandhi noted that the frail Salam's "heart is gold, but her body is brass". [2] Salam was an advocate of Hindu-Muslim amity and channeled her efforts to attaining that goal. [3]

In 1947, as riots occurred throughout India, Gandhi toured Bengal to try and calm tempers. Amtus Salam accompanied him on that trip and fasted with him for 21 days at Noakhali to bring peace there. [4] Gandhi left her there to continue with the efforts of re-establishing communal harmony in Noakhali and later observed that "you are the moving spirit behind whatever peace has been achieved in Noakhali. It was and still is your most significant work. Only you can sustain it. Wherever you stand, you stand in the capacity of my daughter, do you not?" [5]

Amtus Salam had wanted to stay in Patiala during the Partition and its accompanying violence, as a young and single Muslim woman, to further the cause of communal harmony. She opted to stay on India even as her brothers and most of her extended family chose to move to Pakistan and their action both dismayed and angered her. Gandhi arranged for their safe passage to West Pakistan. [5]

In his India Wins Freedom , Maulana Azad notes that Mohammed Ali Jinnah's title of Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader) was first popularised by Gandhi who had followed Amtus Salam's suggestion that he address Jinnah thus since the Urdu press referred to him by that title. Azad writes that in following Salam's advice without considering the consequences of his letter, which was published in the newspapers, Gandhi ended up legitimizing Jinnah's image as the Quaid before Indian Muslims. [6]

Life in independent India

During 1947-48, she worked on the evacuation and rehabilitation of thousands of women kidnapped during the melee that followed Partition. Here she was assisted by Lajjawati Hooja, a member of the Congress and the All-India Women's Congress and Salam made several trips to Pakistan to help with the evacuation of refugees. [1] [5]

She established the Kasturba Seva Mandir and settled down in Rajpura where she worked on the resettlement of Hindu migrants from Bahawalpur. When the Government of India began constructing a township at Rajpura for the rehabilitation of refugees, she was involved in the work there along with the Hindustani Talimi Sangh who worked on the education of the children in the refugee camps. [7] [8]

In the 1980s, Amtus Salam served as a permanent invitee on the All India Committee on Jail Reforms. [9] She died in September 1985. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vallabhbhai Patel</span> Indian barrister and politician (1875–1950)

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, commonly known as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was an Indian independence nationalist and barrister who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India from 1947 to 1950. He was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, who played a significant role in the country's struggle for independence and its political integration. In India and elsewhere, he was often called Sardar, meaning "Chief" in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Persian. He acted as the Home Minister during the political integration of India and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Partition of India</span> 1947 division of British India

The Partition of India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent and the creation of two independent dominions in South Asia: India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan—which at the time comprised two regions lying on either side of India—is now the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The partition was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947. The change of political borders notably included the division of two provinces of British India, Bengal and Punjab. The majority Muslim districts in these provinces were awarded to Pakistan and the majority non-Muslim to India. The other assets that were divided included the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Indian Air Force, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury. Provisions for self-governing independent Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 14 and 15 August 1947 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All-India Muslim League</span> Political party in British-ruled India

The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when some well-known Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests on the Indian subcontinent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maulana Azad</span> Indian politician

Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad ; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following India's independence, he became the First Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning 'Our Master' and he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as National Education Day across India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pakistan Movement</span> Movement to establish Pakistan, 1940–1947

The Pakistan Movement was a nationalist and political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the perceived need for self-determination for Muslims under British rule at the time. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a barrister and politician led this movement after the Lahore Resolution was passed by All-India Muslim League on the 23 March 1940 and Ashraf Ali Thanwi as a religious scholar supported it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Direct Action Day</span> 1946 sectarian violence in British India

Direct Action Day was the day the All-India Muslim League decided to take "direct action" for a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. Also known as the 1946 Calcutta Killings, it was a day of nationwide communal riots. It led to large-scale violence between Muslims and Hindus in the city of Calcutta in the Bengal province of British India. The day also marked the start of what is known as The Week of the Long Knives. While there is a certain degree of consensus on the magnitude of the killings, including their short-term consequences, controversy remains regarding the exact sequence of events, the various actors' responsibility and the long-term political consequences.

The Partition of Bengal in 1947, part of the Partition of India, divided the British Indian Bengal Province along the Radcliffe Line between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Bengali Hindu-majority West Bengal became a state of India, and the Bengali Muslim-majority East Bengal became a province of Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominion of India</span> 1947–1950 dominion in South Asia

The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India, was an independent dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations existing between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950. Until its independence, India had been ruled as an informal empire by the United Kingdom. The empire, also called the British Raj and sometimes the British Indian Empire, consisted of regions, collectively called British India, that were directly administered by the British government, and regions, called the princely states, that were ruled by Indian rulers under a system of paramountcy. The Dominion of India was formalised by the passage of the Indian Independence Act 1947, which also formalised an independent Dominion of Pakistan—comprising the regions of British India that are today Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Dominion of India remained "India" in common parlance but was geographically reduced. Under the Act, the British government relinquished all responsibility for administering its former territories. The government also revoked its treaty rights with the rulers of the princely states and advised them to join in a political union with India or Pakistan. Accordingly, the British monarch's regnal title, "Emperor of India," was abandoned.

The "Day of Deliverance" was a celebration day marked by the All-India Muslim League and others on 22 December 1939 during the Indian independence movement. It was led by Muslim League president Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and intended to rejoice the resignation of all members of the rival Congress party from provincial and central offices in protest over their not having been consulted over the decision to enter World War II alongside Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noakhali riots</span> Anti-Hindu riots in East Bengal

The Noakhali riots were a series of semi-organized massacres, rapes and abductions, combined with looting and arson of Hindu properties, perpetrated by the Muslim community in the districts of Noakhali in the Chittagong Division of Bengal in October–November 1946, a year before India's independence from British rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simla Conference</span> 1945 meeting convened to formulate the Wavellite Plan in British India

The Shimla Conference of 1945 was a meeting between the Viceroy of India Lord Wavell and the major political leaders of British India at the Viceregal Lodge in Simla. When it was clear that British intended to leave India, they desperately needed an agreement on what should happen when they leave.

Fatima Begum is a revered woman of the Pakistan Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amir Chand Bombwal</span>

Amir Chand Bombwal was born in Punjab. He was a journalist, a freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement, a Khudai Khidmatgar and a political leader of the Indian National Congress Party from Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of British India. He was the founder, editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper called The Frontier Mail and a close associate of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan whom it has been claimed he named ‘Frontier Gandhi’.

Pakistan Zindabad is a patriotic slogan used by Pakistanis in displays of Pakistani nationalism. The phrase became popular among the Muslims of British India after the 1933 publication of the "Pakistan Declaration" by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, who argued that the Muslim minority in British India—particularly in the Muslim-majority regions of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan—constituted a nation of an irrevocably distinct nature from the rest of India on "religious, social, and historical grounds" owing primarily to the issue of Hindu–Muslim unity. Ali's ideology was adopted by the All-India Muslim League as the "two-nation theory" and ultimately spurred the Pakistan Movement that led to the partition of British India. During this time, "Pakistan Zindabad" became a widely used slogan and greeting within the Muslim League, and following the creation of Pakistan, it was also used as a rallying cry by Muslims who were migrating to the newly independent state from India as well as by those who were already within Pakistan's borders. The slogan is commonly invoked by Pakistani citizens and Pakistani state institutions on national holidays, during times of armed conflict, and on other major occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subhadra Joshi</span>

Subhadra Joshi was an Indian freedom activist, politician and parliamentarian from Indian National Congress. She took part in the 1942 Quit India movement, and later remained the president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC). She was from Sialkot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Ali Jinnah</span> Founder and 1st Governor-General of Pakistan (1876–1948)

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a barrister, politician and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, and then as the Dominion of Pakistan's first Governor-General until his death.

<i>Viceroys House</i> (film) 2017 fictional drama film

Viceroy's House is a 2017 fictional drama film directed by Gurinder Chadha and written by Paul Mayeda Berges, Moira Buffini, and Chadha. The film stars Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Manish Dayal, Huma Qureshi, and Michael Gambon. It was selected to be screened out of competition at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Anis Kidwai (1906–1982) was a writer, an activist and a politician from Uttar Pradesh. She worked towards peace and the rehabilitation of the victims of India's bloody partition, and spent a majority of her life in service of the newly independent India. She served two terms as a Member of the Parliament in the Rajya Sabha as a part of the Indian National Congress from 1956 to 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opposition to the Partition of India</span> Political viewpoint in South Asian politics

Opposition to the Partition of India was widespread in British India in the 20th century and it continues to remain a talking point in South Asian politics. Those who opposed it often adhered to the doctrine of composite nationalism in the Indian subcontinent. The Hindu, Christian, Anglo-Indian, Parsi and Sikh communities were largely opposed to the Partition of India, as were many Muslims.

References

  1. 1 2 Mohan, Kamlesh (2006). Towards Gender History: Images, Identities, and Roles of North Indian Women. New Delhi: Aakar. pp. 177, 90. ISBN   9788187879657.
  2. "164. LETTER TO VALLABHBHAI PATEL" (PDF). The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 63 (18): 153. 18 January – 19 May 1934. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  3. Guha, Ramachandra (22 August 2005). "They Too Wrote Our History". Outlook. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  4. Shukla, A K (2007). Women Chief Ministers in Contemporary India. New Delhi: APH Publishing Company. p. 12. ISBN   9788131301517.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Salam Bibi". The Tribune. 31 July 2005. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  6. Abdelhalim, Julten (2012). Spaces forJihād: Indian Muslims and Conceptions of Citizenship (PDF). Heidelberg: Ruprechts-Karls Universitat Heidelberg. p. 94.
  7. Jain, L C (1998). The City of Hope: The Faridabad Story. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. p. 40. ISBN   9788170227489.
  8. "THE STORY OF NAI TALIM". Archived from the original on 26 July 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  9. Kumar, Virendra (1994). Committees and Commissions in India: 1980 (Vol.18 Part B). New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. p. 389. ISBN   9788170225119.