Sir Khwaja Nazimuddin (19 July 1894 – 22 October 1964) served as the second governor-general of Pakistan from 1948 to 1951, and then as the second prime minister of Pakistan from 1951 to 1953.
Born into an aristocratic Nawab family in Bengal, he was educated at Aligarh Muslim University before pursuing post-graduation studies at the Cambridge University. Upon returning, he embarked on his journey as a politician on the platform of the All-India Muslim League. His political career initially revolved around advocating for educational reforms in Bengal, later focusing on supporting the Pakistan Movement, a campaign for a separate Muslim homeland. Nazimuddin rose to popularity as the party's principal Bengali leader and a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He served as Prime Minister of Bengal in British India from 1943 to 1945, and later as the 1st chief minister of East Bengal in independent Pakistan from 1947 to 1948.
Nazimuddin ascended to governor-general in 1948 after the death of Jinnah, before becoming prime minister in 1951 following the assassination of his predecessor, Liaquat Ali Khan. His term was marked by constant power struggles with his own successor as governor-general, Ghulam Muhammad, as law and order deteriorated amid the rise of the Bengali language movement and protests in his native Dhaka in 1952, and religious riots in Lahore a year later. The latter crisis saw the first instance of martial law, limited to the city, and led to Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad dismissing Nazimuddin on 17 April 1953.
Nazimuddin's ministry was the first federal government to be dismissed in Pakistan's history, though his former ministers, Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, Abdul Sattar Pirzada, and Mahmud Husain refused to take the oath of office in the new cabinet. He retired from national politics, dying after a brief illness in 1964. He is buried at the Mausoleum of Three Leaders in Dhaka. He was one of the leading founding fathers of Pakistan and the first Bengali to have governed Pakistan.
Khwaja Nazimuddin was born into a wealthy Muslim family of the Nawabs of Dhaka on 19 July 1894, then under British Raj rule. His father was Khwaja Nizamuddin and his paternal grandfather was Khwaja Fakhruddin. His family hailed from Kashmir and was long settled in Dhaka. He was the maternal grandson of Nawab Bahadur Sir Khwaja Ahsanullah and his mother, Nawabzadi Bilqis Banu, notable for her own statue. Nazimuddin had a younger brother, Khwaja Shahabuddin, who would later play a vital role in Pakistani politics. They were the first cousin of Nawab Khwaja Habibullah, son of Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur, who helped lay the foundation of the Muslim League in 1906. He grew up speaking Urdu.
He was educated at the Dunstable Grammar School in England, but returned to British India following his matriculation, where he enrolled to attend the MAO College of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh, India. Nazimuddin secured his graduation with a bachelor's degree in sociology from AMU and returned to England to pursue higher education.
After AMU, Nazimuddin went to England. He attended Trinity Hall in the University of Cambridge, and earned a Master of Arts. His training in England enabled him to practice law and become a Barrister-at-Law in England.
He was knighted in 1934. In 1947–49, Nazimuddin was granted the degree of Doctor of Laws by the vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, Mahmud Hasan.
Political career in British India
Public service and independence movement
Nazimuddin returned to India to join his brother Khwaja Shahbuddin from England, taking an interest in civil and public affairs that led him to join the Bengali politics. Both brothers joined the Muslim League, and Nazimuddin successfully ran for the municipality election and was elected as chairman of Dhaka Municipality from 1922 until 1929. During this time, he was appointed as education minister of Bengal. He remained minister of Education till 1934. That year he was appointed to the Viceroy's Executive Council and served until 1937. In his former capacity, he successfully piloted the Compulsory Primary Education Bill. He piloted the Bengal Agriculture Debtors' Bill and the Bengal Rural Development Bill in 1935–1936 through a hostile, landlord-dominated parliament to destroy the power of the moneylenders.
He participated in regional elections held in 1937 on a Muslim League's platform but conceded his defeat in favour of Fazlul Haq of the Krishak Praja Party (KPP) who was appointed as Prime Minister of Bengal, while assuming his personal role as member of the legislative assembly.
Upon the formation of the coalition government in an agreement facilitated between the Muslim League and the Krishak Praja Party, Nazimuddin was appointed as the home minister under Haq's premiership., which he continued until 1941.
Due to his conservative elite position, he became close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, then-president of the Muslim League, who appointed him as a member of the executive committee to successfully promote the Muslim League's party agenda and program that gained popularity in East Bengal. In 1941, Nazimuddin broke away from the coalition led by Premier Fazlul Haq and decided to become a leader of the opposition, leading campaign against Haq's premiership and his coalition government formed with Hindu Mahasabha on Bengali nationalism instead of pan Muslim nationalism as promoted by Muslim League. In 1943, Nazimuddin took over the government from Premier Haq when the latter was dismissed by the governor, John Herbert, amid controversies surrounding in his political campaigns. During this time, Nazimuddin played a crucial political role for the cause for the separate Muslim homeland: Pakistan.
His premiership lasted until 1945, when his ministry's appropriation for agriculture was defeated in the assembly by 106 to 97 votes. The next day, 29 March, Speaker of the Assembly Syed Nausher Ali, an Indian nationalist Muslim and a prominent member of the Congress Party, ruled that the vote was effectively one of no confidence. On 31 March, the administration was taken over by Governor of Bengal Richard Casey under section 93 of the Government of India Act 1935.
From 1945 to 1947, Nazimuddin continued to serve as the chairman of the Muslim League in Bengal, ardently supporting the political cause for Pakistan against the Congress Party. This despite Nazimuddin and other Muslim League leaders not having thought through the consequences of the Pakistan Movement. As late as February 1947, Governor of Punjab Sir Evan Jenkins reported that Nazimuddin said "he did not know what Pakistan means and that nobody in the Muslim League knew." During this time, Nazimuddin had been in conflict with Premier Suhrawardy and strongly opposed the United Bengal Movement as in United Bengal capital would have remained in Hindu dominated Kolkata and not Dhaka in Muslim majority East Bengal. In addition, the conflict between the two men exposed deep division in the society as Suhrawardy represented the middle class, while Nazimuddin was representing the aristocracy.
Chief Minister of East Bengal (1947–1948)
In 1947, he again contested the party elections in the Muslim League against Suhrawardy's platform and securing his nomination as the party chairman for the Muslim League's East Bengal chapter. His success in the party election eventually led him to be appointed as the first Chief Minister of East Bengal after the Partition of India in 1947 and effectively gained control of the Muslim League in the province.