Mohammad Iqbal Shedai

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Shedai
Born	1888 PuraHairanwala, Sialkot
Died	13 January 1974 Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Spouse	Bilquis

Dr. Mohammad Iqbal Shedai, A revolutionary, who spent his entire life fighting against British imperialism. The best part of his life was spent in self-exile in Asian and European countries – away from his homeland –

Biography

Early life

He was born in 1888 in Pura Hairanwala – an outskirt of Sialkot city. His father, Ch. Ghulam Ali Bhutta was a teacher of Science, Mathematics and English language in Scotch Mission High School. Ch. Ghulam Ali Bhutta always took pride in being a teacher of Allama Muhammad Iqbal – the Philosopher – Poet of the Sub-continent. He also mentioned with great respect Moulvi Mir Hassan, a fellow-teacher, who later on became Professor of Oriental Languages in Murray College, Sialkot. Shedai was a student of Moulvi Mir Hassan just as Allama Iqbal was a brilliant student of learned Moulvi Sahib. Shedai graduated from Murray College Sialkot.

Political struggle

From 1914 he participated in politics^[1] under guidance of Maulana Muhammad Ali Jouhar and Maulana Shaukat Ali. He joined “ Anjuman Khadami Kaaba ”, organized by the Ali brothers. Soon he became Shedai – e –Kaaba. Throughout India there were only nine Shedais and Muhammad Iqbal Shedai was one of them. In 1915, he went to Hoti Mardan, where he taught for sometime in the local government school. Soon he was externed from N.W.F.P. for his Anti-British stance because the British considered him dangerous for their Imperialism. In August, 1915 his movements were restricted to Pura Hairanwala, Sialkot and he was not allowed to move. In 1915 (October) the Deputy Commissioner Sialkot removed those restrictions. Next year he tried to get admission in Law College, Lahore but the Principal refused him admission, considering him dangerous for British Rule in India.

Ghadr Party

In 1918, he joined the Hindustan Ghadr Party, which stood for overthrow of British imperialism. Soon he became one of the top-most leaders of Ghadr Party

Hijrat Movement

In early 1920, Hijrat Movement started when Maulana Muhammad Ali Jouhar and Maulana Abdul Majeed Sindhi declared India as “Darul Harab” and exhorted Muslims to migrate to Afghanistan. Shedai took an introductory letter from Maulana Jouhar in name of Mujahid Fazl Elahie Wazirabadi then living in Chamarkand (Mohamad) to help Shedai to cross over to Afghanistan. He travelled to Haripur where he was joined by Akbar Qureshi and both reached Kabul. Thousands of Indian Muslims were already there as refugees. King Amanullah appointed Shedai as his Minister for Indian refugees. Shedai’s heart was pained to see the miserable plight of Indian Muslims because they lived as destitute, without work and food.

Visit to Moscow

So he decided to leave Kabul and reach Moscow, where Red Revolution had already come in 1917. Both Shedai and Akbar Qureshi had a chance to study socialism in Moscow. They were assigned the task of working for socialism and they came back to Kabul. Qureshi went back to Haripur, while Shedai went to Ankara, Turkey.

Interview with Mustafa Kamal Pasha

He sought an interview with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first President of Turkish Republic and İsmet İnönü, the first Prime Minister. Both of them were full of praise for the excellent work done by Dr. Ansari and his medical mission. But they were bitter against the Indian Muslims of Indian Army, whom they considered as hirelings responsible for Turkish defeat in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria during the First World War. They expressed their disgust for the role of Arab Guerillas of Riyadh, who stabbed the Turks in the back. Mustafa Kamal Pasha had earlier defeated and routed ANZAC army and inflicted 100,000 casualties upon the enemy in the Gallipoli campaign. But he was helpless against the Indian Muslim Army of British and the Guerilla war tactics of Arabs, who were misled by Lawrence of Arabia.

His struggle In Italy

Italy had supported Indian independence movements in the 1920s and 1930s, and during WW2 created a unit made only of Indian POWs. On March 1942 about 15 Indian volunteers were placed in Villa Marina (near Rome), and at the foundation of the "Centro I" ("I" for "Indians"), on 15 July 1942, they were 44. Their instructors were Italian officers and NCOs speaking English and sometimes that had lived in India. There was an Indian political commissar and consulent: Mohamed Iqbal Sheday. On 3 Aug. were formed a command squad and three fusilers platoon (but with the manpower of a squad), but in Sept., with the arrival of about 200 new volunteers, were formed: 4 fusiliers platoons 3 machineguns platoons 1 parachters platoon (55 men, sent to Tarquinia for training) On 1 Oct. the platoons (except the para) were united into a fusiliers company and a machineguns company. On 22 Oct. the "Centro I" (except the para) was sent to Tivoli for intensive training, and the following day was renamed "Battaglione Hazad Hindostan". Its strength (without the 55 para) was the following: Italians: 21 officers, 12 NCOs, 34 soldiers Indians: 5 NCOs, 185 soldiers.

Realising the potentiality of Indian revolutionaries abroad as propaganda material for the purpose of weakening Western Colonialism in the East, Mussolini’s government gave facilities just before the war to two Indians to carry on anti-British propaganda. They were Iqbal Shedai and Sardar Ajit Singh. Both of them had, of course, different political and ideological outlooks. Shedai had kept his links with the pan-Islamic movements and was in favour of independence for Muslim countries. On the other hand, Sardar Ajit Singh had been deported from India in 1908 and since then he had been fighting for the liberation of India along with other members of the Ghadr Party. He had come from Brazil and at first took up a teaching assignment at Naples. After sometime, he began propaganda work which was mainly directed towards the soldiers of the British Indian army in North Africa. They were instigated to desert and not to fight for the British. It is not easy to determine the basis for Shedai’s position in Italy, but it is known that from 1933 onwards, the Italian Foreign Ministry accepted his advice as regards Muslims in India and the Middle East. At the beginning of war, his advice became indispensable for the Italians and he along with Ajit Singh carried on the propaganda from Radio Himalaya. Shedai became a dangerous rival for Bose, when Bose tried to seek cooperation of the Italians. His position is best summarized by Trott who met him in 1941. He wrote: ”The driving force in the entire Indian and partly in the oriental activities of the Italian External Ministry is the Indian Iqbal Shedai, who is known in Berlin. He enjoys the fullest confidence of all Italian authorities concerned”.^[2]

Family life

Shedai decided to leave for France where he landed in Marseilles, a part of France. For a decade from 1930 to 1939, he lived in Paris. He married a French lady, whom he named as Bilquis. They lived together for 10 years in Paris. Bilquis gave birth to a daughter named Shirin. The Second World War started in September 1939, Shedai was externed from Paris on plea of the British Government. His wife decided to get divorce from Shedai and migrated to London along with her daughter. That proved to be the greatest shock of his life. After externment from France, Shedai reached Luson in Switzerland. There he was introduced to the younger brother of Mussolini, the Italian Dictator. He accompanied younger Mussolini and reached Rome in 1941. Benito Mussolini permitted Shedai to work against the British from 1941 till his down-fall in 1944.

Iqbal Shedai with his wife and other family members in Paris, France

Shedai’s work against the British imperialism was on three fronts. He organized the Azad Hind Government (in exile), established Radio Himala in Rome and recruited the Indian prisoners-of-war in Azad Hindoustan Battalion to fight against the British rule in subcontinent.

Muhammad Iqbal Shedai is at the sixth from left,in white turben, with Lt Col. Inverea at eight, Ajit Singh at fourteenth and other officers of Battalion Azad Hindustan

Organizations

Some details of the three organizations^[3] follow.

Azad Hind Government

The Azad Hind Government (in Exile) was established by Shedai in 1941 in Rome by approval of Benito Mussolini. Shedai was appointed as the President of this Government, which worked till 1944, when the Allies captured Sicily and then Rome. With the downfall of Mussolini, Shedai left Rome and took refuge in Milan with his Italian friends. Sardar Ajit Singh, a Sikh Revolutionary was Shedai’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting. In spite of the best efforts of British, they could not capture Shedai.

Radio Himala

Radio Himala started its programmes on daily basis from Rome. The British rulers of India were perturbed very much because all freedom lovers listened to those programmes. The British rulers in India banned those programmes but to no avail. In those days only the rich could afford having a radio. Every evening the drawing rooms of the rich owners of radio were filled with people to listen to those one hour programmes. Shedai and Ajit Singh used to conduct those programmes. According to an old BBC publication, a RSI shortwave service known as Radio Himalayas used to "broadcast to India in Indian languages and English and claimed to speak for an Indian liberation movement". The programme had been previously broadcast from Rome and was run by an Indian Moslem revolutionary known as Iqbal Shedai (Roger Tidy, UK)^[4]

Manifesto of Azad Hind Government

The manifesto of Azad Hind Government was frequently put on the Radio Himala, which inspired love of freedom among all and sundry. Salient features of the Manifesto were:

• (a) The free and independent India will be a welfare state, providing equal opportunities of progress and development to all its citizens without any distinction of caste, creed or Religion.
• (b) Every Indian child will get free and compulsory education up to Matric level. The state will endeavour to get 100 % literacy in shortest possible time. The syllabi will be uniform for school as well as higher levels of education. Primary Education will be provided in mother-tongue only, while secondary education will be provided in Urdu, Hindi, Bengali etc. depending upon the local and provincial requirements.
• (c) Every citizen of free Indian will be entitled to free medical cover in government dispensaries and hospitals.
• (d) Land Reforms will be introduced. Maximum land ceiling per peasant family will be 30 Acres (240 Kanals) of irrigated land and 60 Acres (480 Kanals) of Barani land. The excess land will be confiscated and re-distributed free to the landless peasants. (After 63 years of independence, the fruits of freedom have not reached the poor of either India, Bangladesh or Pakistan). Shedai was a Romantic Revolutionary and the vested interest of every society is always against such Revolutionary ideas.

Return to Pakistan

Shedai returned to Pakistan after Independence of the sub-continent. He was included in Kashmir Delegation led by Ch. Sir Zafarullah Khan. When cease-fire was declared by the U.N. in 1948; he returned to Karachi. The Brownies of Pakistan (Browns of establishment) like Ghulam Muhammad & Iskandar Mirza with their intelligence agencies pursued him doggedly wherever he went for his progressive ideas and links with progressives. So in early 1950s he went back to Italy. He became Professor of Urdu in Turin University and he taught Urdu language to the Italians for a decade. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Education Minister of India met him in Rome and offered him to settle down in Delhi. He would get free residence in Delhi, free servants and handsome stipend. Shedai thanked Maulana Sahib and declined to accept this offer. His reply to Maulana Sahib was: “I was born in Pakistan and I would like to be buried in Pakistan.”

Last days of Shedai

In 1964, he returned to Lahore and spent the last ten years of his life in the house of Ch. Abdul Rahman Bhutta (a retired railway engineer and a maternal nephew). On 13 January 1974 in early morning hours, the call from Almighty came and he answered it. He was buried in Miani Sahib Lahore.

Earlier, he had compromised with the socialists of Russia for independence of his native land. He had compromised with the fact of separation from his family. He had also compromised with Benito Mussolini to continue his fight for freedom from the British. But he could not compromise with the idea of death as a stateless alien in India. His epitaph reads, “Here lies for Eternal rest Muhammad Iqbal Shedai – the Revolutionary”.

Source

• Shedai Papers, preserved by Dr. Muhammad Jamal Bhutta, the younger brother of Muhammad Iqbal Shedai.
• M. Phil: Thesis on Iqbal Shedai, the Revolutionary by M. Gulzar Awan of history department, University of the Punjab.
• Daily Imroaz newspaper from Lahore

• History of Sialkot by Isfaq Niaz page 560.

External sources

• [1] A forum discussion on Radio Himala and Iqbal Shedai.
• [2] The Battaglione Azad Hindostan and Iqbal Shedai.
• [3] Media at the time of Mussolini and Tucci, a fascist radio in Kabul.
• [4] Shedai, Mussolini and the mission in Afghanistan.
• [5] Raggruppamento "Frecce Rosse
• [6] The free Indian legion Chapter 3

Note

1. ^ M. Phil: Thesis on Iqbal Shedai, the Revolutionary by M. Gulzar Awan of history Department, University of the Punjab.
2. ^ Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose-Relevance to Contemporary World.
3. ^ Shedai Papers , preserved by Late Dr. Muhammad Jamal Bhutta, The younger brother of Muhammad Iqbal Shedai.
4. ^ Roger Tidy, UK, Oct 10 via DX LISTENING DIGEST

Persondata
Name	Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Shedai
Alternative names	Iqbal Shedai
Short description
Date of birth	1888
Place of birth	PuraHairanwala
Date of death	13th January, 1974
Place of death	Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan