The Begum by Deepa Agarwal & Tahmina Aziz Ayub

Author:Deepa Agarwal & Tahmina Aziz Ayub
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789353054502
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2019-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

MADAR-E-PAKISTAN

Tahmina Aziz Ayub

1

August 1947: Arrival of the Liaquats in Pakistan and the Years of Turbulence and Struggle

When the small aircraft carrying the Liaquat Ali Khans, along with their two sons, touched down in Karachi on the eve of the creation of Pakistan, they were not fully cognizant of the sea change their life was about to undergo.

During the course of more than a decade prior to Independence, both Liaquat Ali and Begum Ra’ana had begun to work together for the Indian freedom movement. Their home in Delhi had been a major hub of political activities where Muhammad Ali Jinnah had been a frequent visitor. In 1923, Liaquat Ali had become a member of the All India Muslim League and then, three years later, a member of the UP Legislative Council. According to Ziauddin Ahmad, his biographer, ‘His main ideal in political life from which he never swerved . . . was to work for a broad-based freedom for the people of the subcontinent in which the Muslims would have their equal share as a distinct social, cultural and political entity.’1

In the early years of their marriage—they were married in 1933—when he was made the general secretary of the Muslim League, she worked devotedly alongside him and even learnt to type to be able to provide secretarial support, something which the party could not afford in those days. She undertook the responsibility of organizing other women to take part in political activities. She had done this earlier during World War II when she had trained groups of women volunteers in nursing and basic first-aid services to tend to the sick and wounded. The direction and inspiration for this had come from Jinnah, who had reportedly said to her as early as 1942, ‘Be prepared to train women. Islam does not want women to be shut up and never see fresh air.’2

Within days of their arrival in Karachi, Liaquat Ali was asked by Jinnah to take over as the prime minister of the new State of Pakistan. Since Ra’ana had already been his full-time political partner during their early struggles, she was fully equipped to step into the shoes of the first lady of the country. They both plunged into the governance of the newly born country which had been wracked by violence and rioting. They had to restore peace and ensure adequate provisions for the refugees who poured in from across the border.

Fortunately, her friend and former principal of Karamat College, Kay ‘Billy’ Miles, had given up everything and decided to accompany her to Pakistan. She had been Ra’ana’s loyal and steadfast comrade from the very beginning and had even helped her organize and rally women members of the Muslim League in the pre-partition struggle in Delhi.

Ra’ana described her as a pillar of strength, what with her education, her intellect and her innate ability to get on with people. Together, they mobilized women and created numerous bodies like widow welfare homes, a shelter for abducted women and even a lost and found bureau for women and children.

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