Musings on the Constitution-XXIX Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan Out of 299 members of the Constituent

Musings on the Constitution-XXIX
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
Out of 299 members of the Constituent Assembly, there were 15 women members. As a member said,
“We were not there to adorn the Assembly. We were there to make our mark and leave our imprint. And we did. Right to equality, Universal Suffrage including voting rights for women. were our lasting legacy.”Let us start with the uniquest of them all. .

Who was this progressive woman in the 1940s? I was truly astounded when I read about this brilliant woman, for the first time, some time ago. I was waiting to talk about her. Forget it, she did not belong to womenfolk or minority community. She was an Indian to the core. Feminism, my foot! Check out this one. You would/should be startled, if you had not heard about her before. Or reminded of her existence and her influence on and in the Making of the Constitution. And that she hailed from a conservative and orthodox muslim royal heritage makes it even more remarkable.

Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul was born to the royal family of Malerkotla, situated in erstwhile united Punja, on 4th April, 1908.
Her father was Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Khan. Qudsia had a progressive upbringing and was encouraged from a very early age to lead a modern life, as opposed to several stringent restrictions imposed upon other contemporary Muslim women, such as that of the purdah.

Equality of opportunity
She got married at quite an early age to Nawaab Aizaz Rasul from the erstwhile province of Awadh. Her husband held the position of a taluqdar, or a landowner. Qudsia had political exposure both before and after marriage, and her formal political participation took place after she got married.
“There was much propaganda against me, specially a ‘Fatwa’ by the Ulemas that it was un-Islamic to vote for a non-purdah Muslim woman,” writes Begum Aizaz Rasul in her autobiography, “From Purdah to Parliament”.
The only Muslim woman member in the Constituent Assembly, Aizaz Rasul formally gave up the purdah in 1937 when she won her first election from the non-reserved seat and became a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

Pandit Hirday Nath Kunzru, Begum Aizaz Rasul, Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya and Lala Deshbandhu Gupta, October 17, 1949 (Courtesy: Press Information Bureau)

Aizaz Rasul’s introduction to politics started early. Her father had carved a niche for himself in political, social and intellectual circles. Rasul, from a young age, accompanied him to various political meetings, even working as his secretary.Like her father, Begum Rasul had a long political innings. It was in 1946, when a young Aizaz Rasul through her speeches and interjections in the Constituent Assembly debates would become a major part of drafting India’s constitution.

Ammu Swaminathan, Begum Aizaz Rasul and Rajmata of Tehri Garhwal before their departure to Japan on Government of India’s Goodwill Mission. September 25, 1953.
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Oh My God! Just read the life story of this wisp of a girl who grew to be a great ambassador for Indian women. Not as a minority woman, mind you .As a Bharatiya Nari. Particularly, when Nehru and Sardar Patel and the big boys were trying to convince Mohammed Ali Jinnah to drop the idea of Pakistan, this lady stood tall and by India to the core. When 90 muslim members of the Constituent Assembly, walked out of the 389, after being elected to the Assembly, this genteel woman was sending a powerful message to her sisters.

In the summer of 1941, she recalls her meeting with M.A Jinnah, the founding leader of Indian Muslim League. She remembered Jinnah asking her about why she did not join the League, “when people in thousands were flocking to join”. The idea of Pakistan did not convince her as she felt close to ‘this Bhoomi’.

Begum Aizaz Rasul, M.P with member of Ceylon Parliamentary Delegation. March 16, 1954.

At the time of Partition, Begum Aizaz Rasul stood in Parliament opposing reservation for minorities in legislative assemblies. She was against a separate electorate for minorities formed by the colonial government in 1909. Her debates were focused on political rights of minorities in a secular state.
“To my mind, reservation is a self-destructive weapon which separates the minorities from the majority for all time. It gives no chance to the minorities to win the goodwill of the majority. It keeps up the spirit of separatism and communalism alive which should be done away once and for all,”
she said in the advisory committee meeting chaired by Vallabhbhai Patel in December, 1948.
Decades after the violent aftermath, Rasul in her autobiography wrote about the speech with equal conviction.
“I spoke very strongly about the abolition of reservation…It was absolutely suicidal for religious minority to keep alive the spirit of separatism by demanding reservation on communal lines, ”
she writes.
She did highlight the need for enhancing the ‘educational and socio economic status of her muslim brethren, particular her sustyer”. As Indian deserving of support and not on religious premises.

Begum Aizaz Rasul with the Arjuna award recipient Elvera Britto, former captain of Indian Women’s hockey
Of course, she was subjected to severe criticism by her community on abolishing separate electorate for minorities. S he also introduced resolutions to safeguard their interest. One of them was moving an amendment for any minority residing in any part of India
“having a distinct language or script shall be entitled to have primary education imparted to the children through the medium of that language and script”.
Married to a Talukdar viz. landowner of the former princely state of Oudh, Nawaab Aizaz Rasul, the Begum was a fierce critic of the Zamindari system. Member of the “ Tenancy reform committee”, she was committed to the abolition of the Zamindari System in UP. In 1939, when the bill was discussed in the House, she advocated for more rights for the farmers. More than 1,000 amendments were made to the bill where more hereditary rights were given to tenants.
“The bill should not be opposed and Zamindars should see the writing on the wall and graciously give these rights to the tenants who toil and sweat. If they did not, their land would be forcibly taken away from them,” she writes in her autobiography.

Indian Women’s hockey team in Sri Lanka in 1962.

A lot of Zamindars opposed the bill. Rasul believed her support to this government measure affected her re-election to the UP legislative council in 1940. “Chairman” of several committees and sub-committees, Rasul was a strong voice in the assembly. Her speeches and ideas carried clarity of thought and purpose. She supported India’s membership to the Commonwealth, when many members opposed to it. She was critical of the limitations put to the Fundamental Rights in the framing of the Constitution.

“I find that what has been given with one hand has been taken away by the other,” Rasul said demanding an agency to make sure that fundamental rights and directive principles were observed in all provinces in letter and spirit. She was a fierce protagonist of women’s rights and religious freedom, but always said ‘ that it shall never be at the cost of the nation’s cause”.
(Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)