Debt to yet another forgotten hero of freedom struggle: Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Ludhianvi

Manav Ghuman
The Tribune Chandigarh

3 July 2009

(From left to right): Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Ludhianvi, Mastar Tara Singh, Satguru Pratap Singh and Saifuddin Kitchlu at a convention at Bhaini Sahib near Ludhiana in 1931.

 
He hoisted the tricolour on the banks of the Ravi after fervently opposing the subcontinent’s partition. He later actively helped to unite thousands of families stranded across the new border. He came up with the idea of the India-Pakistan Samjhauta express train.

However, neither the Indian nor [East] Punjab government now remembers the invaluable contributions to the country’s freedom struggle of Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Ludhianvi, a freedom fighter who largely remains an unsung hero even on his birth anniversary that falls on July 3. He was born in 1892 in Ludhiana.

His descendants make no secret of their bitterness. “The government didn’t even send us an invitation when it observed 150 years of the independence struggle,” said one of them. The present Shahi Imam of the city’s Jama Masjid happens to be the grandson of the maulana, whose great grandfather, Shah Abdul Qadir Ludhianvi, had issued a ‘fatwa’ against India’s British rulers.

Bakshi Ram Kaushal, 90, is one of the few people alive who remembers Habib-ur-Rehman. The maulana, he recalls, had a passion for poetry and would host a ‘poetic’ evening every month. “Though not a poet himself he was well versed in poetry”, adds Bakshi, who was getting ready today to recite yet another poem in Habib-ur-Rehman’s memory on Friday evening at the Jama Masjid here.

The Shahi Imam points out in order to help the women victims of Partition get back to their respective families, Habib-ur-Rehman set up the Phir Basau Committee. “Thousands of women returned to their parents under this exchange programme,” said the Shahi Imam, who claims the Samjhauta Express was actually the maulana’s brainchild. In British records Habib-ur-Rehman has been described as a fiery speaker who exercised considerable influence on people in the region. Subhash Chandra Bose took refuge for three days at his home while on his way to Japan. Similarly, Bhagat Singh’s mother, brother and sister also stayed at his place during the freedom struggle.

Habib-ur-Rehman had to spend 14 years in prison in various places including Simla, Mianwali, Multan, Ludhiana and Dharamsala. He was confined in cold places during winters and hot one during summer. He contracted a serious infection in jail, which cut short his life, and he died in 1956.