Book: Purdah to Parliament

Author: Shaista Ikramullah
Publisher:

In the late 1980s, when Benazir Bhutto became the Prime Minister of Pakistan, she earned the distinction of being the first Muslim woman leader of a modern nation state. It was a first that even many countries of the developed world had not yet achieved, but it was fitting that it happened in Pakistan. In fact it could have happened much earlier, when Fatima Jinnah was denied victory through rigging in the Presidential election of 1965 by Field Marshall Ayub Khan. Muslim women had been awoken and brought forth into the political fray by the Pakistan Movement, in which they played an active role. This no doubt was the result of the modernizing efforts of Mr. M.A. Jinnah who had long been arguing for equal rights for women in all societies. Even as a student in London, when he was associated with famous quaker leaders-to-be like Ms. Agatha Harrison, Mr. Jinnah had staunchly supported the suffragette movement, which was considered an unpopular cause in that day. Later when Jinnah assumed the leadership of the Pakistan cause, one of his most famous reprimands to the Muslim men was as follows:

“No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you. We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of their houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable conditions in which our women have to live.' (M.A.Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan)

Whatever one may think of the Pakistan movement, but it is to the credit of this movement that Muslim women came out of their homes and became active in political life. The traditional role of women in a Muslim society was shattered. Inspired by their leader’s encouragement, Muslim women came out to support the Pakistan Movement in large numbers, playing a vital role in the establishment of the new nation-state. One such woman was Shaista Ikramullah, a young Muslim woman from Calcutta, who had to her credit the honor of being the first Muslim woman PhD in the world. “Purdah to Parliament” is the story of her life, a life which took her from an ordinary Muslim girl in Purdah, to the legislator of a new nation. Born in 1915 in a traditional Muslim family of Calcutta, she was educated, by her father’s efforts, at an English school called the ‘Loreta House’ where under the tutelage of Mother Joseph Agatha she learnt of a new world where men and women were equal. Later it was her husband who encouraged her to join politics and pursue her ambitions. Her story is set in the backdrop of the most soul stirring events of the South Asian history. It was a tumultuous period of earth shattering events. Young Shaista was a witness to history in the making; The Khilafat Movement and Non-cooperation movement unfolded in front of her. She was thus the witness to “big leaders” and “big ideologies” to use Arundhati Roy’s words.

It was the Pakistan Movement that was destined to make Shaista Ikramullah a national leader. After the experience of Congress rule from 1937-1939 had forced Muslims to view with concern the consequences of being a minority in a free India of the future. The right wing within the Congress had gone on the rampage, going as far as designating the anti-Muslim song ‘Bande-Mataram’ the national song and making Hindi the national language of India. Furthermore the Congress in 1937 refused to share ministries with the Muslim League, that had been the Congress’ ally since the Lucknow Pact of 1916. All this had alarmed the Muslim leaders, even those who had spent a lifetime trying to bridge the gap between Muslims and Hindus, like Mr. Jinnah. To counter this extremism, the Muslim League put up the demand for a separate homeland as a ‘bargaining counter’. Shaista Ikramullah is of the view that as late as 1942 Mr. Jinnah thought the Canadian style constitution best suited India, and that it would be a good compromise between Congress’s ‘centrist’ ideology and Muslim League’s ‘separatism’. Later research by the Cambridge historians Anil Seal and Ayesha Jalal have proved this view to be the right one. Even the renowned Congress leader Azad expresses a similar view in his book ‘India wins freedom’. At late as June 1946, Jinnah and the Muslim League had agreed to the Cabinet Mission Plan that preserved the unity of India. The Congress Party also agreed to the plan, but in July the Congress President, Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru dropped a bombshell on a stunned public when he declared that the Congress will go into the constituent assembly unfettered by any agreement, bringing the League to a point of no return. The Muslim League had won the mandate on the basis of Pakistan, but had agreed to compromise on the basis of a confederation, at great peril to its popularity. Deeming Nehru’s rejection as an insult, the public opinion amongst Muslims demanded the creation of Pakistan. Begum Ikramullah notes:

“The most ardent of Muslim leaders at this stage still hoped that that it was possible to come to a compromise which would enable the Muslims to continue as a separate Muslim entity within a wide political framework. Quaid-e-Azam himself favoured this. I definitely remember him telling me at that first meeting we had with him that the Canadian Constitution would probably be the best solution for us and the fact that for seven years after the passing of the Pakistan resolution he agreed to discuss and negotiate with the British and Congress and once almost came to agreement is further proof. That an agreement was not reached is not because of Quaid-e-Azam’s intransigence but because of the narrow-mindedness and bigotry of the Congress hierarchy.”

(Page 98, Purdah to Parliament, Oxford University press)

Begum Shaista Ikramullah won the elections for Legislative assembly on a League ticket in the 1946 elections. Given the impasse on a constitutional agreement, she refused to sit in the Indian legislative assembly. After the creation of Pakistan, Shaista Ikramullah took her seat as a member of the constituent assembly of Pakistan. She also had a stint as a diplomat representing Pakistan in the United Nations in 1948, and later she was Pakistan’s Ambassador to Morocco where she got the chance to learn from great leaders of the Moroccon independence like Allal Al Fasi, Siddi Mameri and Ahmed Balafrej. Back in constituent assembly, she was an active and outspoken advocate of creating a modern and liberal welfare state. Shaista Ikramullah also made a significant contribution to the rights of women in Pakistan. While not quite a secularist (she had voted in favor of the Objectives Resolution), she was a great believer in Ijtehad and reform of Islamic law. Muhammadan Personal Law had been enacted in British times, and it contained the provisions of Islamic family law as per the different fiqhs. Speaking from the floor of the constituent assembly of Pakistan she thundered for the reform of personal law:

“As a woman I would like to bring forward a law restricting polygamy, because the way polygamy is practiced by men today is not Islamic… I would like for the divorce law made so stringent that no man gets away with it so easily. I think since Islam gives women the right of property, it will be completely in keeping with the Islamic principles so that women should be able to inherit all of their father’s properties and it should not go to collaterals. I have been to women’s organizations and I can tell you from experiences that these reforms are wanted by women and by deeply religious women. There is nothing irreligious about it, nothing anti-Islamic. It is only a question of interpreting and understanding the Islamic law.” (Page 243-244, Purdah to Parliament Oxford University Press).

Her efforts were instrumental in bringing about the reform of the said law. In 1961 the “Muslim Family Law Ordinance” incorporated all that she had fought for in the constituent assembly.

“Purdah to Parliament” is not merely an autobiography, but a record of history, as seen through Begum Ikramullah’s eyes. Well written and easy to read, this book gives a first hand account of partition and its major players. Shaista Ikramullah had known all major leaders of the subcontinent personally. This included Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru, Suhrawardy, Liaqat Ali Khan, Asaf Ali, Srojini Naidu. This makes the book an important read for all those researchers interested in learning more about South Asian History. For those writers researching the role of women in Muslim societies, I am sure this book will be an eye opener.