Moulana Shafi Dawoodi

MOULANA SHAFI DAWOODI

Date of Birth: 27^th October, 1875 and Date of Death: 1^st January, 1949

            Moulana Shafi Dawoodi, who declared that a special arrangement is a must for the minority communities who may not get enough share in the political power as a result of having less numerical strength in the days to come, was born on 27^th October, 1875 in Dawood Nagar of Mujafarpur district of Bihar state.  His father’s name was Mohammed Hasan.  Dawoodi completed matriculation in 1895and did his B.A., and B.L. from Calcutta University.  He started practising as an advocate in Calcutta.  He came into contact with Mahatma Gandhi for the first time in 1917.  There upon, he left his practice of law and joined Indian National Congress in 1920 to jump into Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements.  He was elected chairman of Bihar Provincial Congress Committee on 21^st October, 1920.  He formed ‘Quami Sewadal’ and ‘Charakha Samithi’ in response to Gandhiji’s call and under took programmes such as Prohibition of liquor, boycotting foreign goods, Adult Education and wearing Khadi.  Angred his activities, the British Government imprisoned him for a year in 1921-1922.  He worked twice as the chairman of Mujafarpur Congress Committee.  In 1923 he joined ‘Congress Swaraj Party’ which was formed under the leadership of Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru.  He was elected Member of Central Legislative Assembly in 1924 and again in 1927.  In 1928 he differed from ‘Nehru Report’ and left Swaraj Party to form ‘All India Muslim Conference’ in association with Fazal-e-Hussain.  He started an Urdu forthrightly ‘Ittehad’ to provide publicity to activities of National Movement.  He served as a member of ‘Central Council’ from 1928 to 1935.  He attended Second Round Table Conference that held in London along with Moulana Showkath Ali in 1931.  He joined ‘Majlis-e-Ahara’ in 1937 and was defeated in the elections.  Since then, he stayed away from politics and involved himself in social service activities while practising law.  During partition of India, he appealed to Muslims not to leave India for Pakistan.  Practising law ad rendering service till his last breath, Moulana Shafi Dawoodi passed away on 1^st January, 1949.