Famous Punjabis before 1947, Part 3: Sir Chhotu Ram

Sir Chhotu Ram  

Sir Chhotu Ram (1881-1945) was one of the most prominent

Pre-partition politicians in Punjab and an ideologue of the Jat peasantry and a

champion of its interests. He was born on 24 November 1881 in Ghari Sampla in

Rohtak district in Jat Gotra Ohlan family.

He was associated with organizations representing peasant interests like the

Zamindar League and the Unionist Party (after resigning from the Congress in

1920). He was one of the founders of the Unionist Party (along with Sir Sikander

Hayat Khan). The Unionists ruled Punjab for its first two decades of (limited)

democracy. They represented a coalition between Hindu farmers in the eastern

part of the province and feudal Muslim landlords in the west. As an important

minister (he held the revenue portfolio) in the then Unionist Party Government

in Punjab, he did a lot to improve the economic status of the peasants through

numerous legislative measures.

Sir Chhotu Ram was part of a massive recruiting drive for the army during World War II

across Punjab, led by Punjab Premier Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan. His support of the British war effort (during World War II) is often seen as a controversial step as the Congress had given a call not to provide any help to the British. He actively promoted recruitment of Jats in the army as he felt that it was economically beneficial to the community.

The recurring theme of his campaigns was India's independence after the war. He

said: "My hope is that after this war Hindustan will be free. And it will be

free in a real sense."

Growing up in the prevailing economic misery at his time, he was strongly

influenced and motivated by the slights and insults, intended and otherwise,

that he had undergo on the path to achieving an education. In his time the Jat

peasants were victims at the hands of the usurious Mahajans. He exhorted

peasants to shed their inferiority complex and fatalistic outlook and become

assertive and self-confident.

He played a very significant role in the organization of the Jats as a

self-conscious community and helped them acquire self-confidence and

self-respect. As he was outside the political mainstream (Congress), his

contributions have been rather unfairly neglected from Indian history.

His own understanding of the Jat identity combined the themes of caste

(Kshatriya) assertions and land ownership. "The Jats are a quam of warriors and

zamindars", he wrote. His political language drew upon peasant culture and the warrior traditions of the Jats. In this respect, he differed from the other Unionist leaders whose

activities were confined to the formal imperial structures and not connected

with any mass movement in Punjab. He worked to project the Jats as a community lacking in self-confidence and in need for both protection and recognition, to bolster their self-confidence and transform them into a politically, culturally and economically viable entity.

Equally he broadened the meaning of Jat identity by unifying the cultural

strands of the Hindu Jats of Rajasthan, UP and southeast Punjab by providing

them with a common language against the cultural subordination of the

brahman-bania castes. He did not confine Jatness to a class but rather projected

it as a homogeneous cultural community with its distinct identity. Moreover, he

was able to establish a direct and close connection with other peasant groupings

in Punjab. The sahukar or bania (moneylender) was a major motif in his narratives. Portrayed as an 'evil force' within the countryside with his easy access to law, land and capital, the moneylender was constantly chided and ridiculed for manipulating

prices and controlling marketing and debt relations. He bemoaned the Jat

peasants' subservience to the banias.

He employed the bhajniks to propagate the concept of biradari (peasant

brotherhood) among the different peasant groups, who in turn saw him as a leader

who spoke their language and responded to their needs and aspirations.

After his death in 1945, he was equated with Dayanand Saraswati, their names

evoking notions of heroism and serving as reference points for the collective

identity of the Jats. Muslim Jats too gave him the title of Rehbar-i-Azam (great guide).

( MAIN SOURCES: FAMOUS JATS WEBSITE AND WIKIPEDIA)

Famous Punjabis before 1947, Part 2: Sardar Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan

Sardar Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, KBE, KCSI, Doctor of Oriental Lit etc (5 June

1892 in Multan – 25/26 December 1942) was , as we have noted below, a renowned statesman from the Punjab; and the son of late Nawab Muhammad Hayat Khan CSI, of Wah, a close associate of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, and a prominent scion of the Khattar

tribe of Attock, North Punjab.

Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan is chiefly remembered today as he led the Unionist Party, an all-Punjab political party formed to represent the interests of the landed gentry and landlords, as well as farmer agrarian class of Punjab, which included Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Hindus. He had taken over leadership of this group from Sir Fazli Husein. Khan led his party in the 1937 elections, held under the Government of India Act 1935. He governed the Punjab as Premier in coalition with the Sikh Akali Dal and the Indian National Congress. Being basically an all-Punjab party, for and by great Punjabis including (in addition to Sir Sikandar) Sir Chotu Ram, Malik Sir Khizar Hayat Tiwana, and other stalwarts, the Unionists did their utmost to save above all that most important asset of the Punjab, its fertile land, ‘’dharti’’, and tillers of the soil, ‘’zamindars’’, from ruin and utter destruction at the hands of usurers and money-lenders. It passed many ‘golden laws’ to save and salvage the peasants and their agrarian areas, so that these could go on being the bread-basket for all the subcontinent and the nursery of future generations of honest and strong men and women.

Khan opposed the Quit India Movement of 1942, and supported the Allied powers

during World War II. Khan believed in politically cooperating with the British

for the independence of India and the unity of Punjab.

In 1937, Khan signed the famous Sikandar-Jinnah Pact at Lucknow, which led to the

Lahore Resolution of 1940, calling for an autonomous or semi-independent Muslim majority region within the larger Indian confederation-- which demand later after his death, led to the demand for an independent Pakistan. In his lifetime, he controlled the Muslim League too, and with his sagacity, saw that this move of reconciling Muslim interests with Indian and Punjabi unity was paramount. “I am a Punjabi first, and then a Muslim”, he used to say.

Khan died in 1942. He is buried at the footsteps of the Badshahi Masjid in

Lahore, commemorated for his contributions to Islam by having restored and

revitalized the grand mosque, which had been in a very poor state when he became Premier/CM.

 His son, late Shaukat Hayat Khan, continued the family's political role in

post-Independence Pakistan. Among Sir Sikandar's famous grandchildren, are Yawar Hayat Khan, the Pakistani television director/producer and Tariq Ali a British -Pakistani writer and lecturer of international repute. Among his great-grandchildren, is the noted Pakistani poet, writer, research scholar and social activist Omer Tarin.

Main Sources: Wikipedia, Shaukat Hayat Khan’s ‘’Memoirs’’ (1995) and Dr Iftikhar H Malik’s ‘’Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan: A Political Biography’’ (1985).