Nurul Huq Chowdhury: Gone but not forgotten

Chattogram is the birthplace of many great personalities and the late firebrand Nurul Huq Chowdhury was one of them. He was born into a respected Muslim family in 1890 in Katroli village of Chattogram.

Apart from his distinguished political lineage, he was the cousin of the then Provincial Minister in the United Front Cabinet, late Mahmuddunabi Chowdhury, who is the father of the current BNP Standing Committee leader and Minister for Finance and Planning, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury.

Nurul Huq Chowdhury

Nurul Huq Chowdhury was born to Fazlur Rahman Chowdhury, primarily a businessman, and Begum Abeda Huq Chowdhury. At that time, many businessmen from Chattogram had business connections with Burma (now Myanmar) and Assam, and Fazlur Rahman Chowdhury was no exception. He was a well-known businessman dealing in Arakan and Rangoon.

However, unlike many businessmen who devoted themselves solely to trade and commerce, he was a knowledgeable, educated and generous man who was deeply involved in social welfare. He ensured that his son received a modern education and encouraged him to dedicate himself to public service.

That is why Nurul Huq Chowdhury became a well-educated man. Although he began his primary education at the village school, his father later sent him to Kolkata, where he was admitted to the Aliya Madrasa.

He passed the Entrance Examination there and subsequently enrolled at Presidency College, Kolkata, where he obtained a B.A. degree. In 1918, he earned his M.A. and a law degree from Kolkata University.

While at Presidency College, he became actively involved in student politics. During that time, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das (C.R. Das) was the leader of the Swarajya Party. Inspired by the ideals of the Swadeshi Movement, Nurul Huq Chowdhury burned his foreign-made coat and trousers. Impressed by this act, C.R. Das nicknamed him “Firebrand Nurul Huq Chowdhury.”

Professional Life: After obtaining his law degree, he initially began practising as a lawyer in Rangoon. A year later, he returned to the Kolkata High Court, where he joined the legal profession as an assistant to Chittaranjan Das.

For some time, he also served as a professor in the Law Department of the University of Kolkata and was a member of the university’s Senate.

Nurul Huq Chowdhury’s political career began when he entered politics through his participation in the Khilafat Movement and the Congress’s Non-Cooperation Movement. In 1924, he was elected a Member of the Bengal Legislative Council (MLC). As a council member, he played an important role in promoting the development of Chattogram.

In 1925, he introduced and successfully passed a bill calling for Chattogram Port to be declared a major port. In 1928, he became the General Secretary of the Calcutta District Congress Committee. Later, he served as Chief Whip of the Swarajya Party led by Chittaranjan Das and played a significant role in Bengal politics.

He also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Calcutta-based newspaper Sultan, whose editor was the renowned journalist Maulvi Maniruzzaman Islamabadi. He was likewise Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the weekly The Muslim, a newspaper founded by Maulana Mujibur Rahman.

After the Partition of India, he joined the Dhaka High Court and, after the late Sher-e-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Huq, he was elected President of the Dhaka High Court Bar Association for two consecutive terms. Among the distinguished lawyers of Dhaka, Nurul Huq Chowdhury ranked among the foremost.

In 1954, he was elected a Member of the Ganaparishad (MP) as a candidate of the United Front. At the same time, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was also elected as an MP. Later, he served as Minister of Works, Labour, and Minority Affairs.

During his tenure, he provided employment to many Bengalis in various government departments.

He also served as Acting Home Minister and played a key role that earned him special recognition across the country.

While A.K. Fazlul Huq was the Governor of the then East Pakistan, he wrote a letter to Nurul Huq Chowdhury, praising him in these words: “I am delighted to hear that you have proved yourself to be one of the strong men of Pakistan. Shabash! This is what I wanted from heroes like you in East Pakistan.”

After his death on 29 July 1958 at his residence in Dhaka, an editorial written by Editor Altaf Husain and published in the English daily Dawn said: “His long years of public life since 1924, when he was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council, were noted for unbending honesty and sincere devotion to clean politics as an avenue of public service rather than as a means of self-aggrandisement.”

Referring to his role in combating corruption while serving as Acting Home Minister, the editorial further stated: “Citizens of the federal capital will particularly remember his devoted work as Minister to purge the city of corrupt officials and tone up the local administration.”

The Bengali daily Azad also carried an editorial authored by its founder-editor, Maulana Mohammad Akram Kha: “There is no doubt that parliamentary politics has suffered an irreparable loss through the demise of Nurul Huq Chowdhury.

Even in these dark days of our parliamentary politics, a few flickering lights of public service still remain, and among them Mr. Nurul Huq Chowdhury was one of the brightest.”

The English daily The Pakistan Observer wrote: “Mr. Chowdhury distinguished himself as an able and straightforward administrator in his capacity as a Minister.”

It further stated, “He will, perhaps, be most remembered for his part in toning up the administration of Karachi during his brief tenure as the Home Minister, when he unearthed what later came to be known as the telephone tapping scandal.”

The then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Chaudhry Mohammad Ali, expressed his deep condolences at the death of Nurul Huq Chowdhury, saying, “He was one of the country’s most capable and dedicated leaders.”

Lastly, I would like to mention an example set by Nurul Huq Chowdhury during his tenure as an astute and capable cabinet minister. As Acting Home Minister, he ran his important ministry without being dominated by its secretary or anyone else, despite direct and indirect pressure from army officers in the then unified Pakistan

. For his firm and independent leadership, he earned widespread praise and kudos. This is why the foresight, integrity and sound decision-making that Nurul Huq Chowdhury demonstrated as a minister should serve as a model for Bangladesh’s ministers today.

(The writer is Publicity Secretary of the Nurul Huq Chowdhury Smrity Sangshad)