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Most of us would not even have heard of Allah Bux, a name long mistreated on both sides of the border. This is the story of a man who incarnate everything that worldly India values today but he remains as an unsung hero. During the days of relinquish India Movement in 1942, Allah Bux was the prime minister of Sindh, now a part of Pakistan and founder of the Ittehad Party.
Allah Bux Muhammad Umar Soomro was a zamindar and was born in 1900 in Shikarpur in the Bombay Presidency in an wealthy family. He was assassinated, supposedly by religious extremists, in 1943. His son Rahim Bux Soomro was also a politician in Pakistan and his nephew Elahi Bux Soomro was the speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan and is a expert Politician.
His family remembers the time when a flood endangered to flood Shikarpur and Soomro diverted the intense waters to his own land to protect the homes of others. He matriculated from the Hopeful Academy in 1918 and attached with his landlord father’s business as a contractor. At the age of 23 he entered politics. He was chosen to the Jacobabad Muncipality. His achievement was rapid and soon and he became the president of the district local board. In 1926, he beaten an powerful feudal lord and became a successful member of the Bombay Legislative Council (BLC). He remained there for the next 10 years. Soomro represented upper Sindh in the BLC.
It was Allah Bux’s plan and belief of a joint and worldly India that kept the Muslim League from spreading its influence in Sindh. He fervently opposed the Muslim League’s position of the two-nation premise on the basis of religion. He was a stem believer in a joint India, one whose heritage belonged to both Hindus and Muslims together. Being a popular leader and extensively respected in his area he managed to assembly most Muslims to his point of view.
In 1940 Allah Bux prearranged the Azad Muslim Conference in Delhi which was attended by over 1,400 delegates from all over India.There he powerfully spoke of a united India for both Hindus and Muslims. He vocally divergent Muslim League’s stand on the formation of Pakistan.
He protested Winston Churchill’s censure of the Indian National Congress and the Quit India Movement in 1942, by persistent the Knighthood and the title of Khan Bahadur which was conferred on him by the British.
Soomro became the premier of Sindh in March 23, 1938. During his occupancy he insisted that cabinet ministers are paid low salaries and he took away arrogant powers from influential landlords. Soomro met Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi where Jinnah was asset a meeting to launch the Muslim League in Sindh. He was also invited to join the League as were the premiers of Punjab and Bengal who were also present at the meeting. Both of them accepted after long debates but Soomro held back.
After that another meeting was held on October 14, at that time a number of Sindh Assembly members tied the party. But the equilibrium shifted when some Muslim League members anticipated a new leader in Sindh. Soomro opposed by asking why Sindh should be the only place where a dissimilar leader was being considered. And for that reason the coalition between Soomro and Muslim League not solved before it was even made. By the other sidefrom the Muslim League and communal riots in 1939 led to Soomro being dislodged from his post.
The League managed to form a government in Sindh that lasted for a year. In 1941, Soomro was made premier again. Soomro was awarded the title of Khan Bahadur and the Order of the British Empire by the British and the viceroy nominated him to the Defence Council of 30. But he renounced his honours in September 1942, writing to the British that he could not support their subjection of Indian forces for their own imperialistic aims.
It might have been his nationalistic stance that led the British governor to remove him from his post on October 10, 1942. The reason given by the British was that they just did not have confidence in Soomro anymore. Allah Bux Soomro was assassinated at 9 am on May 14, 1943. He was travelling on a tonga in Shikarpur when four men attacked him. His case was tried in a special tribunal but 67 years later, it still remains unresolved.
Regrettably, he didn’t find support from either the Indian National Congress or the Muslim League, which detested him for his opposition to their two-nation theory. He helped initiate the Sukkur Barrage project, which in large part, was responsible for revolutionising agriculture in Sindh. After the introduction of provincial autonomy in 1936, Shahnawaz Bhutto, Abdullah Haroon and Allah Bux formed the Itehad (Unity) Party. The party won a resounding victory, capturing 24 of 35 Muslim seats in a house of 60.
He was murdered on 14 May 1943 by expert killers, apparently hired by elements within the Muslim League. After he died government offices, schools and markets were closed all through Sindh and the Union Jack flew at half-mast in admiration and reminiscence of the man.
His whole life and involvement to the freedom struggle is hardly highlighted in Pakistan and mostly ignored in India. Allah Bux Soomro lived and died for a combined India and believed in an India that belonged to all….if only this ‘unsung hero’ had lived on… Today Soomro is sleeping in his grave in the Panjpir graveyard,” said Sindh nationalist leader G M Sayed, “We can’t say whether he would be laughing at our condition or weeping!”
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