Wahid Baksh Bhutto

Sardar Wahid Baksh Bhutto (Sardar Wahid Bux Bhutto) was born in 1898 in the village Pir Baksh Bhutto, the original and ancestral home of the Bhutto family, in Sindh. Wahid Baksh's father, Illahi Baksh Bhutto, a Magistrate of the British Raj, died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 28. Illahi Baksh was the youngest son of Doda Khan Bhutto, brother of Khuda Baksh Bhutto and the uncle of Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto (Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto's father).

Wahid Baksh Bhutto was educated at the Sindh Madressah, with the likes of Mohammed Ayub Khuhro, Omar Bin Mohammed Daudpoto and Khan Sahib Kehar.

Due to his father's early death in 1910, the responsibility of looking after the family estates fell on him at a very young age. At first he was not involved in politics and devoted much of his time looking after and developing his lands and purchasing various new properties. The family estate increased considerably under the management of Wahid Baksh. He grew to be very popular as close ties and friendships developed with prominent families not only in Sindh, but all over India. These friendships were further cultivated by 'shikar' (hunting) parties which are a common practice in Sindh, and Village Pir Baksh Bhutto was considered to be the 'wado ghar', the main and prominent home of the Bhutto family.

Seen as an up-and-comer, Wahid Baksh was made a Sardar by the people of the Bhutto tribe from all over India in 1924. Although the more elderly members of his family objected to this initially due to the young age of the contender, he was still made Sardar. Since nobody in the family was Sardar before Wahid Baksh, the process of selection was egalitarian in nature, and essentially a matter of who would head the tribe, make decisions on behalf of it, and settle disputes within it, and also a question of who the tribesmen felt they could put their trust in. Wahid Baksh Bhutto was also the first individual from the Bhutto family to be elected to government by the people, in 1926.

The Morley-Minto Reforms, followed by the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919 paved the way for increasing native participation in the politics of the subcontinent. Indians could now be elected to the Legislative Assembly of India, the law-making body of the British Raj. 1926 saw the first ever election in Sindh, a constituency of the Bombay Presidency. The zamindars and jagirdars of Sindh chose Wahid Baksh to contest the election as their representative, and in his campaigning he was helped by G.M. Syed, amongst others. He won the election by a wide margin. Wahid Baksh Bhutto, aged 28, was the first elected representative from Sindh to the Legislative Assembly of India. From 1926, until his untimely death in 1931, Wahid Baksh would gain the highest number of votes in Sindh, while Abdullah Haroon would gain the second highest number of votes.

In the 1930 elections to the Council of State, Sardar Wahid Baksh contested against Honourable Ali Bux Mohammed Hussain and won. In the selection of the Bombay council in the same year, Khan Bahadur Ghulam Muhammed Khan Isran handed his seat to Sardar Wahid Baksh. While Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto was at the Round Table Conference, Sardar Wahid Baksh organised a social event at Gandhi Garden in Karachi on the 1st of October 1930, attended by 500 guests. Wahid Baksh opened a maternity home in Naudero and gave many scholarships to the poor in his constituency.

Sardar Wahid Baksh Bhutto died on the 25th of December 1931, immediately upon his return from the sessions of the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi. He was alleged to have died of pneumonia. However, members of his family and friends at the time were convinced that he was poisoned by political opponents or even distant family members, who saw him as a threat to their own advancement. They believed that it was these same individuals who were responsible for poisoning his father. According to G. M. Syed, if he had lived a full season, he would have had distinguished place in the politics and history of the Subcontinent. After his death, his younger brother, Nawab Nabi Baksh Bhutto, father of Mumtaz Bhutto was the elected representative of Sindh in the Legislative Assembly from 1935 until Partition. Nawab Nabi Baksh Bhutto then gave this constituency (NA 207) to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he first entered politics.

Sources

The Sindh Archives />BBC Interview and Documentary on Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, "Day of a Feudal Lord" (1994).
List of members the Legislative Assemblies of 1927 and 1935.
Stanley Wolpert, "Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan", Chapter 1: 'Sindhi Roots'.