Memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy: With A Brief Account of His Life and Work

These are the memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (8 September 1892-5 December 1963) who began his political career as an associate of the great liberal nationalist leader of Bengal, C.R. Das. After Das's death in 1925 and in the wake of the growing divide between the Hindu and Muslim communities in general, Suhrawardy was drawn to Muslim separatist politics. For quite some time he was a prominent Muslim League leader and it was chiefly due to his dynamic leadership that the Muslim League won their spectacular victory in the elections of 1946 However, the Great Calcutta Killing in 1946 and subsequent communal riots in many parts of India wrought a radical change in his outlook as he began to realize the dangerous implications of communal politics. In 1947, at the height of the communal violence, he worked with Mahatma Gandhi in his peace mission. He eventually returned to secular politics and this transformation is fully reflected in the United Bengal scheme propounded by him and other leaders such as Sarat Bose. Although this move failed, Suhrawardy's greatness is reflected in the fact that he had the wisdom to learn from experience. After independence, Suhrawardy believed that Pakistan and India should be guided by the modern concepts of secularism and democracy. This was also the view taken by M.A. Jinnah, founder of Pakistan. In these memoirs, Suhrawardy describes how he fought to establish a democratic regime in Pakistan but how the army sought to perpetuate its rule by various means. These memoirs serve as an object lesson in light of the contemporary situation in Pakistan and Bangladesh.