The elites of Kolkata once argued that there was no need to establish a university in Dhaka. According to them, a small agricultural college near Farmgate or Dhanmondi would be enough.
Outraged by this narrow-minded and self-serving attitude, A. K. Fazlul Huq went to the British authorities and firmly argued that Dhaka deserved a full-fledged university. The British eventually softened their stance, though the First World War delayed the project. When University of Dhaka was finally established in 1921, Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq was serving as the Education Minister of Bengal.
In 1916, he became the president of the All-India Muslim League. The following year, in 1917, he became the General Secretary of the Indian National Congress. He remains the only person in history to have simultaneously held the positions of President of the Muslim League and General Secretary of the Congress. During 1918–19, Jawaharlal Nehru served as his personal secretary.
Before the 1937 elections, Fazlul Huq declared that if elected, he would abolish the zamindari system forever. To stop him, landlords across Bengal and Kolkata spent enormous amounts of money against him. But it was of no use—the peasants voted for their own leader.
At the historic Lahore Resolution session in 1940, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was delivering his speech when a sudden murmur spread through the audience. People’s attention shifted away from Jinnah because Fazlul Huq had just entered the hall. Seeing this, Jinnah reportedly remarked:
“When the tiger arrives, the lamb must give way.”
It was Fazlul Huq who moved the historic Lahore Resolution. In his proposal, he envisioned separate Muslim-majority states: one in the northwestern region and another comprising Bengal and Assam in the east.
However, only a few days later, Jinnah altered the wording of the resolution. The original phrase “Muslim majority states” was changed into “Muslim majority state,” transforming the vision of two sovereign Muslim states into a single Pakistan. Fazlul Huq bitterly remarked:
“Jinnah circumcised my Lahore Resolution.”
He believed that a country divided into eastern and western wings with India in between could never survive in the long run. History proved his fears correct in 1971 during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman later wrote in his memoirs that ordinary people loved Fazlul Huq so deeply that criticizing him often provoked public anger. Bangabandhu’s own father once advised him:
“Whatever you do, never speak against Sher-e-Bangla. He did not become Sher-e-Bangla without reason.”
Professionally, Fazlul Huq was one of the most respected lawyers of the Calcutta High Court. Before studying law, he completed triple honours in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, and later earned a master’s degree in Mathematics.
Once, during a legislative budget session, an MP personally attacked him and even began singing a mocking song aimed at humiliating him. Fazlul Huq calmly responded:
“Mr. Speaker, I can jolly well face the music, but I cannot face a monkey.”
When controversy erupted, he cleverly clarified:
“I never mentioned any honourable member of this House. But if any honourable member thinks that the cap fits him, I withdraw my remark.”
Throughout his life, he held almost every major political office possible. He served as the first Prime Minister of Bengal, the Chief Minister of East Bengal, the Home Minister of Pakistan, the Governor of East Pakistan, and the Chancellor of the University of Dhaka.
Yet above all, Fazlul Huq became beloved because he stood for the peasants and working-class people of Bengal. He once said:
“The day the newspapers of Kolkata begin praising me, know that the peasants of Bengal are in danger.”
In 1948, when Jinnah visited Dhaka and declared Urdu to be the sole state language of Pakistan, students fiercely protested. Jinnah suspected that Fazlul Huq was secretly encouraging the students. Eventually, the two leaders met privately. According to Fazlul Huq’s assistant, the conversation unfolded sharply.
Jinnah said:
“You never truly wanted Pakistan.”
Fazlul Huq replied:
“I was the one who moved the proposal. Later, it was mutilated.”
When Jinnah warned him by saying, “You are talking to the Governor-General of Pakistan,” Fazlul Huq calmly answered:
“I know the powers of a constitutional Governor-General.”
And when Jinnah attempted to intimidate him further, Fazlul Huq responded boldly:
“This is Bangladesh, and you are talking to the Royal Bengal Tiger.”
A. K. Fazlul Huq was not merely a politician. He was the voice of Bengal’s peasants and workers, a visionary leader who foresaw the future long before others did, and one of the greatest figures in the political history of Bengal.
