Afzal-ul Amin

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Mohammed Afzal-ul Amin
Lord Mountbatten with Afzal ul Amin at Cuttack.jpg
Afzal-ul Amin shaking hands with Lord Mountbatten
Chairman, Odisha Board of Wakfs
In office
June 1963 – November 1977
Vice chairman, Cuttack Municipal Corporation
In office
25 February 1955 – 27 November 1960
Personal details
Born(1915-07-16)16 July 1915
Manzil e Amin, Cuttack, Bihar and Orissa Province, British India
Died28 May 1983(1983-05-28) (aged 67)
Cuttack, Odisha
Resting placeQadam e Rasool, Cuttack
Citizenship
  • British India (1915–1947)
  • India (1947–1983)
Political partyIndian National Congress
Other political
affiliations		Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee
ChildrenTabasum Sultana, Farhat Amin
Parents
RelativesHussain Rabi Gandhi (elder son-in-law)

Saleem Farook (younger son-in-law)

Ibrahim Suhrawardy (father-in-law)
Alma materRavenshaw Collegiate School
OccupationPolitician, Social activist

Mohammed Afzal-ul Amin, popularly known as M.A Amin, was an Indian statesman, politician and social worker from Cuttack, Odisha. He served as the general secretary of Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee during Biren Mitra's chief ministership.[1] Afzal-ul was the Vice Chairman of Cuttack Municipality and also the President of Odisha Mohammadan Association. He played a major role in preserving Urdu language in Cuttack by establishing several lower primary and upper primary Urdu schools in the city. He is also credited for organising various nationalist meetings and mobilizing the common masses in Cuttack during the Quit India movement of 1942.[2][3]

Life and career[]

Portrait of M.A Amin

Mohammed Afzal-ul Amin alias M.A Amin was born into the Diwan family to the notable educationist of Cuttack, Sayeed Mohammed and his wife Begum Badar un nissa Akhtar. From his mother's side he was the great grandson of the famous poet and writer, Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy and from his father's side he was the great grandson of the Sufi Pir Khwaja Fazal Mohammed. After finishing his schooling from Ravenshaw Collegiate School, Afzal-ul entered the field of politics where he emerged as a prominent Muslim leader in the town. Like his father, he too mobilized the Odia Muslims to join the Indian freedom struggle. During the 1942 Quit India movement, Amin worked in close association with Malati Choudhury and Ramadevi Choudhury, he organised various nationalist meetings at his place in Cuttack to gather support for the movement after Surajmal Shah and Bibhunendra Mishra were arrested in August 1942.[4][5]

Afzal-ul served as the chairman of Odisha board of Wakfs (State Muslim endowment board). He was also one of the most prominent Muslim councilors in the Cuttack municipality then. He was elected as the councilor continuously for 28 long years i.e. from 1952 to 1980, winning all the elections continuously. He had also been elected as the Vice Chairman of Cuttack Municipality.[6] Afzal-ul was a member of the Indian National Congress (Organisation). In 1961 he was appointed as the general secretary of Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee by Biren Mitra. In 1971 he ran for the Cuttack State legislative assembly elections as an MLA candidate from the Indian National Congress (O) party.[7][8] He was later appointed as the President of Odisha Mohammadan Association.[9]

Amin seated in between the former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi and the former chief minister of Odisha, Janaki Ballabh Patnaik at the Indian National Congress delegation meeting with Odia leaders.

Afzal-ul played a major role in preserving Urdu language in Cuttack. As the chairman of Cuttack Municipality's sub-committee on education he established five Urdu lower primary and five upper primary schools in Cuttack some of which include, Maulana Azad U.P school in Qadam Rasool.

Marriage and family[]

Afzal-ul Amin married his second cousin, Syeda Roshanara Akhtar, the younger daughter of Ibrahim Suhrawardy, a notable author and linguist from Balasore of the Qadiriyyah house.

Afzal-ul has two daughters, Tabassum Amin Sultana, who married the notable politician and writer Hussain Rabi Gandhi, and Farhat Amin Sultana, a journalist and a social activist who married the tribal rights activist Saleem Farook.

References[]

  1. ^ "Gandhi's ideals". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  2. ^ Pati, Biswamoy (1 March 1992). "The climax of popular protest: The Quit India Movement in Orissa". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 29 (1): 1–35. doi:10.1177/001946469202900101. ISSN 0019-4646. S2CID 143484597.
  3. ^ "Cuttack City Assembly Constituency Election Result - Legislative Assembly Constituency".
  4. ^ Gayer, Laurent (2012). Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalisation. Hurst. ISBN 978-1-84904-176-8.
  5. ^ "Cuttack City Assembly Constituency Election Result - Legislative Assembly Constituency". resultuniversity.com. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  6. ^ "The Quit India Movement in Odisha – History of Odisha" (in American English). Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  7. ^ Gayer, Laurent (2012). Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalisation. Hurst. ISBN 978-1-84904-176-8.
  8. ^ "Cuttack City Assembly Constituency Election Result - Legislative Assembly Constituency". resultuniversity.com. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  9. ^ Sethy, Rabindra Kumar (2003). Political Crisis and President's Rule in an Indian State. APH Publishing. ISBN 978-81-7648-463-3.


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