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Salimullah, Nawab Sallimullahism : the Nawab (of Dacca) Nawab Khwajah Salimullah: succeeded his father as head of family of the Nawabs of Dacca in Dec. 1901: was a Deputy Magistrate for some years: a nominated member of the Bengal Legislative Council in 1903. His father Nawab Bahadur Khwajah Ahsanulla (1846-1901): enlightened & loyal supporter of Govt.; for years a Municipal Commissioner & Hon. Magistrate of Dacca, he was made Khan Bahadur 1871, Nawab 1875, CIE (Commander of Indian Empire), KCIE (Knight Commander of Indian Empire), Member of the Gov.-Gen.’s Legislative Council 1890 & 1899). His grandfather Nawab Sir Khwajah Abdul Ghani Mia (d.1896): descendant of a clan which had invaded Kashmir: one his ancestors held a job under the Moghul dynasty, & on its overthrow they family moved to Sylhet & then to Dacca & became wealthy zamindars in Eastern Bengal. During the Mutiny, the family head’s loyalty to Govt. helped E.I. Co. to hold on to Eastern Bengal: he patched up quarrels between local Shias & Sunnis in 1869 & helped the Octopus in suppressing the Lushai & Naga uprisings, in famine relief for his Muslim brethren; his public & private charity to his Muslim brethren amounted to lakhs; he provided Dacca with the Islam-prescribed waters: was made Hon. Magistrate, Member of the Bengal Legislative Council 1866, & of the Gov.-Gen.’s Legislative Council 1867, CSI (Companion of the Star of India) 1871, KCSI (Knight Commander of the Star of India) 1886, granted the personal title of Nawab in 1875, made it hereditary on Jan. 1, 1877, & pinned a medal by the Prince of Wales in Calcutta in 1875. [Buckland, pp.235-36, de-husked] “The Hon. Nawab Bahadur Salimollah of Dacca succeeded his father in December 1901. He has already shewn himself a public spirited man, taking interest in whatever is for the benefit of his fellowmen, &, in particular displaying masterly judgment in managing his estates & intricate family affairs.... Lately he has been appointed to the Lt. Governor’s Council.... He has proved himself a worthy successor to his illustrious ancestors.... His charity & kindly & genial disposition bid fair to make out for him a career of usefulness & honour.” [Caption to his photo in volume 1 of Claude Campbell’s Glimpses of Bengal, (pub. Campbell-Medland, 3/4 Hare Street, 1907, p.197] “Towards the end of the year 1903 Lord Curzon’s Govt. proposed to separate the whole of Chittagong Division & the Districts of Dacca & Mymensingh from Bengal, & to incorporate them with Assam…. The crowning act of Lord Curzon’s folly was the partition of Bengal in the teeth of an angry, unanimous opposition, the like of which was never seen before during the British rule. [It] called forth all the latent forces of nationalism which had been gathering strength for years. Ere long, the protest took the form of Swadeshi movement which soon outstripped its original limitations of space & object & merged itself into an all-India national struggle for achieving freedom from the British yoke. That struggle continued through ups & downs, but without a break, until freedom was won….” ― “[By July 1905] the Govt. of India was in feverish haste to put into operation the entire scheme of Partition. On 3 August, 1905, they forwarded to the Secretary of State a draft proclamation & a draft Bill…. The Secretary of State was equally prompt, & with his approval the Proclamation was published on September 1, 1905. It was the final decision regarding Partition & gave a list of the districts in Bengal which, along with Assam, would ‘form a separate Province called the Province of Eastern Bengal & Assam’. It was further stated that the new Province would be a Lieutenant-Governorship with Mr Joseph Bampfylde Fuller, then the Chief Commissioner of Assam, as the first Lt-Gov. Finally, it stated that the new arrangement would come into force from October 16, 1905…. There is, however, no doubt that the solidarity of opposition against the Partition was gradually weakened. Lord Curzon won over Salimullah, the Nawab of Dacca, partly by advancing a loan at a very low rate of interest, & partly by holding out the hope that the interests of the Muslims will dominate the administration of the new Province, & the Nawab, as their leader, will occupy a unique position there, with Dacca, his own home, raised to the status of a great capital city of an opulent Province. The Nawab gradually became a great supporter of the Partition, & gathered a section of Muslims round him…. The new administration, in its actual operation, openly favoured the Muslims, & the first Lieutenant-Governor, Fuller, said with reference to the two main sections of population, the Musalmans & Hindus, that they were like his two queens of Indian legends, the first being the suo (favoured) & the second, the duo (neglected). No wonder that the followers of Salimullah would gain in strength. When the partition led to the Swadeshi, i.e. the movement for the use of indigenous & boycott of English goods, the Englishmen gradually became hostile to anti-Partition agitation, & withdrew their support from it. Injury to material interests proved a much stronger force than sympathy for a just cause.” [R.C. Majumdar’s History of the Freedom Movement in India, Vol.1, Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta, 1963] “Viceroy Curzon’s division of the large province of Bengal was announced in July 1905. Eastern Bengal & Assam would have 18 million Muslims & 12 million Hindus. Western Bengal would have 42 million Hindus to 9 million Muslims, but those speaking Bengali were outnumbered by the Biharis & Oriyas. The secret motivation of Lord Curzon seems to have been to divide the Bengali movement that he considered seditious. This technique of divide & rule increased the conflicts between Hindus & Muslims in Bengal. The plan was approved by the Secretary of State without consulting the Parliament. The Bengal Legislative Council strongly denounced the plan on July 8, & the Indian press in Bengal & other provinces condemned the proposal. Curzon won over Dacca Nawab Salimullah with a low-interest loan & with the prospect of Dacca becoming the new capital. The weekly Sanjivani in Calcutta suggested a boycott of British goods on July 13, & a public meeting at Bagerhat adopted it three days later. The boycott idea spread as two thousand public meetings were organized in the cities & in hundreds of villages. In the town of Barisal students & even teachers went to school barefoot & were threatened with expulsion…. When Lord Curzon refused to receive a deputation from Congress in 1905, they sent Gokhale & Lajpat Rai to England. The Congress met at Benares in December 1905, & 758 delegates elected Gokhale president. The Moderates complained that the boycott methods of passive resistance were impractical or even injurious by denying themselves educational opportunities. For the first time Gokhale mentioned ‘self-government within the empire’ as their goal; & he denounced the partition of Bengal. He spoke of Swadeshi as a profound & passionate movement that calls people to serve the Motherland. The Moderate Congress condemned the Government repression & justified the boycott as a ‘last protest’. They repeated their demands for reform of the legislative councils. [“India's Freedom Struggle 1905-1918” by Sanderson Beck in India's Renaissance 1881-1905 – part? titled India's Boycott 1905-07]