Q: Tell me about Sir Sikander as a man. What
was he like? Did he have the intellect of Sir Fazli Hussain?
A: Well, they were two different personalities.
Sir Fazli Hussain as I said was a giant in politics. But for Sir
Fazli Hussain, the Indians which one saw in the Imperial Services
wouldn't have had Muslims at all. It was Sir Fazli Hussain who had
ensured the quota. Number two, I know on good authority that the
major portion of the Communal Award which was announced by Mr. Ramsey
McDonalds was initiated in India when Lord Willingdon was the Viceroy
and Sir Fazli Hussain was a member of the Executive Council of the
Viceroy. So Sir Fazli Hussain had very much to do with the recommendation
that went from the Government of India for the Communal Award which
was finally announced by the British Prime Minister. Sir Fazli Hussain
was a giant as far as his political acumen was concerned, as far
as the way he put his point-of-view. He carried out whatever he
had in mind, what he wanted to do. He was able to get a quota for
the Muslims in the Punjab, and similarly when he was Executive Councilor
to the Government of India. He also had a legal background, so he
had all the constituents that were necessary for a good politician.
He was a good speaker being a good lawyer. He was a man who did
take [some] interest in social affairs - Sir Fazli Hussain at one
time was the President of the Anjuman Himayat e Islam [an educational
foundation]. But as a person, when I knew him, he was first of all
getting old and he was in a very high position so that the rapport
I could have had with him was not the same as I had with Sir Sikander.
These were two different personalities. Sir Fazli Hussain had everything
chalked out. For instance, he would get up at five in the morning
and would write down what he was going to do during the day. Everything
was written and he followed that program very rigidly. Second, he
was not a charmer. He was rather a person who didn't want to waste
his time, he didn't have any other side kind of attractions. Whereas
Sir Sikander who also went to England for a short time - and curiously
enough wanted to study medicine, but after a year or so he came
back - Sir Sikander was a very genial personality.
I had mentioned Diwan Chaman Lal. I remember the first meeting
of the new Punjab Legislative Assembly was in the old hall where
the Punjab Legislative Council used to meet. The Council was [established]
under the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms, whereas the Punjab Assembly
was [established] under the Government of India Act 1935, and there
were a lot of differences because now the entire government was
run by the Indians. There were only certain subjects which were
reserved [for the British], but everything else, law and order,
education, industry, roads, anything you can think of was a transfer
subject, which was dealt with by the Indians.
Now I remember the second or third sitting of the Punjab Legislative
Assembly took place in that building [on the Mall]. A bill was introduced
about the salaries of the Ministers and the Premier. That was very
strongly opposed by the opposition and Diwan Chaman Lal. He was
a Member of the opposition and he was a member of the Congress Party.
The Congress Party was comprised largely composed of Hindus, there
were some Sikhs in it, perhaps one or two Muslims, but no more.
Diwan Chaman Lal had made a fantastic speech, and after he had
finished I was wondering how Sir Sikander could ever rise up to
the occasion to reply to a speech of that very high standard. For
example, talking about the house allowance of the Premier of the
Punjab, he [Diwan Chaman Lal] said that he wants a house something
like the White House in Washington. But later on, after three years
or four years he [Sir Sikander] became almost as a good speaker
as Chaman Lal was, and in certain ways he even scored points over
Chaman Lal's opposition. This is how his stature rose.
He was a very effective Premier of the Punjab. When the war broke
out in 1940, the Punjab had a very large contingent of troops in
the Indian Army, whether they were Sikhs, whether they were Jats,
or whether they were Muslims. So to go and see the Punjab troops,
he went to the front of the 8th Indian Army deployed on the Coast
of North Africa. I think the 8th Army was commanded by Lord Auchinleck
at that time. So he went there, and there is a photograph of his
sitting with Churchill and Smuts who met at that time in Egypt.
So when he came back, I remember I arranged, on a big lawn, a reception
where all the members of the Legislature were present. Sir Sikander
spoke and gave his experiences of what he had seen and the valour
and how the Army had acquitted itself, particularly the Punjabis.
He was very proud of that.
Another aspect I will tell you, I remember he had a tea garden
in Kangra [hill district in the Punjab], which is now on the Indian
side. This belonged to his family. He took us, me and one or two
others with him, and then we spent two three evenings there together.
Now this kind of thing one could not expect from Sir Fazli Hussain.
Similarly, one day he said, well let's have a cooking party, and
myself and the Nawab of Mamdot, Ahmad Yar Khan Daultana, somebody
else, five, six or so [got together]. Someone was peeling the onions
and someone was doing this, and he sat on the charcoal sigris as
they were called and dinner was cooked by all of us. Similarly,
we attended a music party for instance when we went to Bombay. Two
nights we went and heard the best singer at that time, a woman called
Akhtar Bai Faizabadi, at a dinner given by the Nawab of Surat and
then somebody else gave a party where she also sang. He was much
more of a socially attractive person than Sir Fazli Hussain. I may
add that when Sir Fazli Hussain died, we all went to Batala, where
he came from, and where he was buried in his family graveyard.
The accomplishment of Unionist Party was largely the resurgence
of the agriculturist classes of the Punjab. Sir Chotu Ram played
a very pivotal role in bringing agrarian reforms, wide reforms to
help the agriculturists. For instance, the Indebtedness Bill was
introduced which set-up debt conciliation boards in each district.
The debt conciliation board function was for the petty zamindars,
small landholders, who were not rich, so that instead of going to
the courts of law, the debt conciliation board would meet and decide
on their debts. For example, if the borrower had already repaid
the principal and some interest, then the debt would be liquidated
or very little [additional] interest paid. This greatly helped the
indebtedness of the agriculturists that was one. The Marketing Bill
was another. All this was tooth and nail opposed by the Congress,
which was largely Hindu, and some Sikhs who were not Jats, they
opposed it.