Mulla Abdul Qayum · Telugu History

Mulla Abdul Qayum was a scholar and government officer of Hyderabad in the late 19th century.¹ With his friend Aghornath Chattopadhyaya, he led the first public awakening in the Nizam’s state.¹ He backed the Indian National Congress, argued for schooling for every child, and helped to found two great institutions of learning.²³ Sarojini Naidu later remembered him as a living example of Hindu-Muslim unity.⁴

About the sources. Most of this page comes from The Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), the history compiled by a committee of the Hyderabad government. It gives a whole chapter to him.¹

Early life

The Hyderabad history says Abdul Qayum was born at Madras in 1853.¹ He spent his early childhood in Mysore, and his family settled in Hyderabad when he was eight.¹ He studied at the famous Dar-ul-Ulum school, where he learnt Persian and Arabic well.¹ He then went to Mirzapur in the north to finish his studies.¹

In 1875 he joined the Survey and Settlement Department of the Nizam’s government.¹ At that time the reforms of Salar Jung I brought many able men into the state’s service. One of them was Aghornath Chattopadhyaya, the principal of the Chadarghat College.¹ The two men met about 1880, and became lifelong friends.¹ With other friends, Abdul Qayum started a society called the Ikhwan-us-Sufa. It held monthly lectures on education and social reform, and published a monthly magazine.¹

He later worked on compiling the Hyderabad gazettes, in charge of the Persian section, and then became an Assistant Director in the Education Department.¹

A friend of the Congress

While he was in the Education Department, the government’s plan for a railway to Chanda stirred the educated men of Hyderabad. They protested against its talks with the British over the line.¹² Aghornath and Abdul Qayum led the protest committee. The government put the protest down. Aghornath was sent out of the state, and Abdul Qayum had to leave for Madras for a short time.²

When he came back, he warmly welcomed the Indian National Congress, founded in 1885.² He was one of the first men in Hyderabad to enrol as a member.² Sarojini Regani calls him the first Muslim leader of Hyderabad to join it.⁵ The Nizam’s government was against the Congress. So when he wrote articles for it in the paper Safir-e-Deccan in 1888, the government warned him severely.²

Schools for every child

As an education officer, he drew up a plan to make schooling compulsory for the sons of landlords, inamdars and jagirdars (holders of land grants).² In 1886 he was moved to Gulbarga as a Deputy Commissioner.² Through his efforts a school for these boys, the Madras-e-Sardaran, opened there on 14 August 1888.² But officers would not use force to fill it, and it closed.²

He felt this deeply. In 1894 he published, in Urdu, A Plea for Compulsory Education.² The book answered ten objections to schooling for all.⁶⁷ He wrote that a government is strong only when its people are educated.⁷ To those who feared that education would wipe out the line between nobles and common people, he replied that “nobility was derived not from blood, but from character”.⁸ The Hyderabad history says the officials of his day ignored the plea, but the educated public welcomed it.⁸

Institutions and public causes

The same history credits him with starting the Dairat-ul-Maarif, a centre for editing rare Arabic manuscripts, in 1891.³ It also says he founded a State Central Library in 1892.³

About 1898 he was Collector at Lingsugur, in Raichur district, when plague broke out.³ He helped villagers to move out safely and built shelters for them.³ He protested when the plague staff drove people from their homes without reason, and the European officers turned against him.⁹ A commission cleared him, but under European pressure the government retired him on pension in 1901.⁹

Last years

After retiring, he gave all his time to public work.⁹ He attended the Congress sessions at Madras and Banaras.⁹⁵ He also collected money across India for the Hejaz Railway, which Turkey was building from Damascus to Medina.⁹ At the Banaras Congress of 1905 he spoke for removing the limits placed on pilgrims to Mecca.⁹ In the same year he wrote a pamphlet, Indian National Congress and the Muslims, to defend Muslims who joined it.⁹

In 1905 he and Aghornath began the Swadeshi agitation in Hyderabad, asking people to use goods made in India.¹⁰ He also took part in the Ganesh festival of 1906, at the invitation of Keshav Rao Koratkar.¹⁰ He died soon after, on 27 October 1906.¹⁰

In 1941 the poet Sarojini Naidu wrote a tribute to him as her father’s beloved friend.¹⁰ She called him “the living message of Hindu-Muslim Unity”.⁴

Where the sources disagree

The year of his death. The Hyderabad history first says his friendship with Aghornath lasted until his death in 1900.¹ Later in the same chapter it says he retired in 1901 and died on 27 October 1906.⁹¹⁰

The founding of the Dairat-ul-Maarif. The Hyderabad history dates it to 1891.³ The Hyderabad census report of 1931 says “the late Mulla Abdul Qayyum” and Syed Husain Bilgrami founded it in 1886.¹¹

The state library. The Hyderabad history says he founded a State Central Library in 1892.³ G. Venkataramarao writes that in 1886 Abdul Qayyum and Syed Husain Bilgrami took over a library and opened it to the public.¹²

The Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), p. 62 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴
Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), p. 63 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹
Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), p. 67 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), p. 73 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India. ↩ ↩²
Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1956), p. 169 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), p. 64 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩
Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), p. 65 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), p. 66 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India. ↩ ↩²
Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), p. 68 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad, Vol. III (1957), p. 72 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Census of India 1931, Vol. XXIII: H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions, Part I: Report (1933), p. 220 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
G. Venkataramarao, Telangana Charitra (2014), p. 141 (in Telugu) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩