Ehsan Qadir, Indian army, the partition of India and Pakistan, the partition of India, partition of India and creation of Pakistan, partition of India
The story of Ehsan Qadir, the 'last soldier' of the Independent Indian Army in Pakistan
He was the Commandant of Civil Defense in Pakistan.
Immersed in reading newspapers and collecting news clippings. He soon started
making political speeches and started criticizing President Field Marshal Ayub
Khan.
When his superiors prepared his report and sent it
to the President, the military dictator, instead of ordering any action, simply
wrote on the file: "Let them speak, no action is required."
The name of this Commandant of Civil
Defense was Ehsan Qadir.
Who was Ehsan Qadir? For that, we have to go back in
time. He was the eldest son of Sir Sheikh Abdul Qadir. The same Sir Sheikh
Abdul Qadir who published the famous Urdu literary magazine 'Makhzan' in 1901.
In the world of literature, Makhzan got the
distinction that most of the poems of Allama Muhammad Iqbal were first
published in Makhzan. The condition of Sir Sheikh Abdul Qadir's relationship
with Allama Iqbal was that he had written the preface of his first Urdu
collection Kalam 'Bang Dara'.
Among the sons of Sir Sheikh Abdul Qadir were Ehsan
Qadir, Manzoor Qadir, and Altaf Qadir.
Ehsan Qadir was born on September 12, 1912. Despite
enrolling at Cambridge University, he preferred to join the army and joined the
Indian Army in 1934. When World War II broke out in 1939, Ehsan Qadir was sent
to Malaya.
Imdad Sabri writes that from 1939 to 1941, Ehsan
Qadir served in the British Army in Singapore, and during that time his wife
was also with him. His youngest daughter Parveen Qadir was also born in
Singapore and when Japan invaded Singapore his wife returned to India with
their daughters but Ehsan Qadir "disappeared".
Ahmed Saleem has written in his book 'A Lost Sheet
of History' that the duration of Ehsan Qadir's sudden disappearance is not
clear. He is thought to have been in hiding from late 1941 to the early months
of 1942.
Ahmed Saleem mentions the date of the first activity
after the emergence of Ehsan Qadir regarding Imdad Sabri on February 3, 1942,
when he (Ehsan Qadir) started the operation of Azad Hind Radio established by
General Mohan Singh in Saigon. Was performed
He further writes that he used to broadcast messages
of Indian soldiers on the radio which millions of Indians listened to with
great interest. The British Indian government was unable to stop the
broadcasts, although it banned them from listening. Despite the ban, the
radio's broadcasts became increasingly popular. This was the era of the first
independent Indian Army.
The first leader of the Independent Indian Army was
General Mohan Singh, who joined the Japanese army as the commander of a company
of the Punjab Regiment. Instead of dying at the hands of the Japanese, he
decided why not fight for the overthrow of the British rule in India with the
help of the Japanese.
The Japanese assured him of their support. General
Mohan Singh handed over 15,000 Indian prisoners of war to Japan whom he had
persuaded to fight against the British rule in India. Japan made General Mohan
Singh the head of these prisoners of war. But soon General Mohan Singh realized
from some steps taken by the Japanese that Japan was using them for its own
purposes but not trusting them.
General Mohan Singh decided to disband this first
independent Indian army. The Japanese arrested General Mohan Singh and detained
him in Sumatra. With his capture, the Independent Indian Army he had formed was
disbanded and all documents related to this army were burnt.
Ehsan Qadir and other officers continued to observe
the situation. In this period of conflict with the Japanese, he did not allow
the Independent Indian Army to disperse but played an important role in its
reorganization.
His comrades included Col. Bhunsle, Col. Kayani, Lok
Nathan, and Rash Behari Bose. On June 13, 1943, Subhash Chandra Bose arrived in
Tokyo from Germany in a submarine, which was received by the Japanese Prime
Minister. Rash Behari Bose persuaded Subhash Chandra Bose to take over the
reins of the Independent Indian Army, thus creating another Independent Indian
Army.
The leadership of Subhash Chandra Bose not only
strengthened the AIADMK but also announced the formation of an independent
Government of India on October 21, 1943, which was recognized by nine countries
including Japan, Burma, and Germany.
Two days later, the independent government of India
declared war on Britain and the United States, after which its headquarters was
moved to Rangoon, from where plans for an attack on the Indian border began.
According to historical sources, on February 4,
1944, the Indian Army invaded India from the Burmese border, where on March 18,
1944, it occupied several places in the province of Assam and hoisted the flag
of the Independent Government of India. But unfortunately, this was the time
when the Japanese began to retreat in the Pacific, their defeat forced them to
withdraw their support from the Free Indian Army.
Four months later, on 18th July 1944, the
Independent Indian Army also had to retreat and their conquered territories
were recaptured by the Indian Army.
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On May 13, 1945, Rangoon, the capital of Burma, was
annexed by the British. This was the city that was the headquarters of the
Independent Indian Army. As soon as Rangoon was occupied by the British, the
officers and soldiers of the Independent Indian Army were also forced to
surrender and were taken prisoner of war.
Subhash Chandra Bose along with some of his friends
managed to escape from Rangoon. Unfortunately, on August 18, 1945, while on his
way to Japan from Saigon, his plane crashed at Tai Hoku Airport in Taiwan and
he died in the crash.
Officers and soldiers of the Independent Indian Army
were brought to India as prisoners of war, where they were tried on 5 November
1945.
According to Munshi Abdul Qadir's book, History of
the Independent Indian Army, "General Shah Nawaz Khan, Captain PK Sehgal,
and Lieutenant GS Dhalan were among the prisoners of war."
The trial lasted until December 31, 1945, and the
officers and soldiers were sentenced to life in prison. But a few days later,
following a public outcry, the government had to reverse its decision.
Among the released prisoners of war was Ehsan Qadir,
but during his imprisonment, he was allegedly tortured to such an extent that
his mental condition deteriorated.
After his release, his family brought him to Lahore
where he was treated and gradually recovered. On April 26, 1946, a reception
was given in his honor at the residence of Sir Abdul Qadir.
Ehsan Qadir was not in favor of the
partition of India.
He was a 'soldier' of
Subhash Chandra Bose and believed that India needed Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and
Christian unity. He was deeply affected by the partition of India in 1947 but
preferred to remain in Pakistan.
Pakistan's Commander-in-Chief sent him a message
that if he admitted that he had made a mistake by joining the AIADMK and
apologized, he could be pardoned and withdrawn. But, unlike some other Muslim
officers in the AIADMK, he refused to do so.
Ahmed Saleem writes that after missing the
opportunity to return to the army, Sir Zafarullah Khan, the first Foreign
Minister of Pakistan, offered him to come to the Foreign Ministry and be posted
abroad, which he did not accept, saying that he would leave the country. I
don't want to go. '
He further wrote that Ehsan Qadir's brother Manzoor
Qadir had become a successful lawyer. Ehsan Qadir also tried to follow the same
path. After completing his law studies, he started practicing but the situation
in Pakistan had changed a lot. The subtleties and nuances of the legal
profession began to seem like a big lie to Ehsan Qadir. Hypocrisy was not his
only disease, so he became disillusioned with the law.
But there was another reason. Mentally, he could not
separate himself from military life. For some time after his release, he had
not given up the uniform of the Independent Indian Army. The British
Commander-in-Chief of the newly independent Islamic State was not willing to
join the Armed Forces without apologizing to him. He was eventually promoted to
the rank of Commandant of the Civil Defense Training School. At least in this
new job, there was a uniform similar to the army.
"The Ministry of Civil Defense, like all other
agencies, has been troubled by challenges since India's division," he
notes. According to his temperament, Colonel Ehsan Qadir also worked hard here.
He worked day and night to manage the department. In that song, he had to leave
home again, but this time he was in his own country. After being posted in
Rawalpindi as the principal of the school, he had to spend some time in Murree.
Then this school shifted to Lahore. He later became the Commandant of the Civil
Defense Academy.
Ahmed Saleem writes that during this whole activity,
something, some emotion kept him restless inside. The seriousness of his temper
had now turned into a suppressed and silent rage. He had sealed his tongue like
silence. This is not because, but you can weld with the assistance of fire.
Defense of the people Maybe they were in the wrong area because they didn't
feel like defending people.
At the same time, there was an incident which we
have mentioned at the beginning, when the military dictator Ayub Khan wrote on
his file, "Let them speak, no action is required."
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He retired in 1967. Now, most of their time was
spent at home. The world of the Independent Indian Army was lost in the distant
past. In the year and a half after his release and before the partition, he had
emerged as a total Indian political leader. But after the partition of India,
he himself plunged into the darkness of anonymity. An incoherent and
unorganized struggle against Ayub Khan made him even more isolated. Among his
brothers, Justice Manzoor Qadir and General Altaf Qadir had come a long way in
their respective fields, who did not face any failure.
Ahmed Saleem further writes that “Colonel Ehsan
Qadir's loneliness and frustration was not self-made. He was a true and real
mujahid, he lived the life of a hero, earned a good name, his only fault was
that he could not adjust to the wrong circumstances.
Ehsan Qadir was happy with his wife and daughters.
His eldest daughter was in England, he suffered a heart attack after retiring
from the job, he went to England with his eldest daughter for diagnosis and
treatment, after some time he returned home He died as a result of the closure.
Ehsan Qadir's youngest daughter Parveen Qadir Agha
served in the civil service and resigned from the post of Federal Secretary.
This is the same Parveen Qadir Agha to whom Parveen Shakir has also attributed
a collection of his Kalam. After the death of Parveen Shakir, it was Parveen
Qadir Agha who established the Parveen Shakir Trust and protected the works and
heritage of Parveen Shakir.
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