Dr Muhammod Shohidullah

 

Muhômmod Shohidullah  generally known as Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah (July 10, 1885 – July 13, 1969) was a famous Bengali educationist, writer philologist and multilingual person. A dormitory in University of Dhaka is named after him (Shahidullah Hall).

Early life

He was born in the village Peyara, 24 Pargana, West Bengal (now in India). His father Mafizuddin Ahmed was a warden of a shrine. With the reference of the Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University, Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, and the patronage of Nawab Ali Choudhury, Shahidullah was award a state scholarship to study Sanskrit in Germany. But unfortunately he was refused a medical certificate. He passed the LLB examination from the Calcutta University in 1914. It may come into view bizarre that Shahidullah studied LLB after having an MA degree in comparative philology, but he did so to acquire information.Shahidullah joined the bar at Bashirhat Subdivisional Court and skillful there until 1919 when he got a communication from Sir Ashutosh Mukherjje, who wrote: “Shahidullah, the Bar is not for you, please join us in the university.” He became the research assistant of Dinesh Chandra Sen in the Calcutta University. Later, he joined Dhaka University what time it was established in 1921.

Education

Muhammad Shahidullah approved his school finals (known as Entrance examination at that time) in 1904 from Howrah Zila School. In 1906 he passed the FA question paper (equivalent to HSC) from Presidency College, Kolkata. He received the Bachelor of Arts degree with Honors in Sanskrit in 1910 from City College, Kolkata, and Master of Arts in 1912 in Comparative Philology from the University of Calcutta. He also straight a PhD from Sorbonne university.

Family

Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah has seven sons and two daughters. His third son A.K.M. Zakiyullah established a school named ‘Dr. Shahidullah Gyanpith’ in Hazi Osman Goni Road, Alu bazaar (Old Dhaka) and a research collection named ’Dr. Shahidullah Memorial Library and Language Research Center’ in Senpara Parbata, Mirpur-10,Dhaka.One of his son Dr. Abul Bayan M. Naqiyyullah (M.S) also studied in George Washington University in Washington, DC and settled in Cairo,Egypt after serving as a pathologist in Saudi Arabia. He married an Egyptian women and has two sons and three daughters. His another son Murtaja Baseer is well thought-out as one of the most fashionable and foremost painter in Banglades

Work

The significance of establishing an group for Bengali language was first emphasize by the linguist Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah. Later, following the Language movement, on April 27, 1952, the All Party National Language Committee decided to demand establishment of an organisation for the endorsement of Bengali words.During the 1954 parliamentary elections, the United Front's 21 point manifesto stated that, "The prime minister from the United Front will dedicate the Bardhaman House for establishing a research centre for Bengali language". following the vote success of the Front, the teaching priest Syed Azizul Haque placed the order to fulfill this promise.

In 1955, the Government formed a board to expedite the procedure. The committee was collected of leading intellectuals like Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah, Dr. Qazi Motahar Hossain, Dr. S.M. Bhattacharya, Dr. W. H. Shadani, and Muhammad Barkatullah. On December 3, 1955, the prime minister, Abu Hossain, inaugurate the Bangla Academy.

Even today

Acquiring expressiveness in 18 classical languages Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah was an example of endless effort and scholarship. He picked up quite a few languages in his discipline life — Urdu and Persian to carry on family custom, Bengali, English and Sanskrit at school to fulfill academic pressure and Hindi and Udiya from neighbours in Howrah. “For fear of the Arabic teacher, I took Sanskrit instead of Arabic at secondary school level. The teacher had no good terms with the students.” He wrote later on. However, the teacher explain new path to the juvenile Muslim boy to become a undergraduate of an assortment of languages.

Dr. Shahidullah passed the Entrance examination in 1904 and FA in 1906 taking Sanskrit as a second language. He was admitted to Hooghly College in degree class with honours in Sanskrit. But he knock down ill and gave up studies for two being. At last he passed the Honours Examination from Calcutta City College in 1910. He was admit to the Sanskrit department in the Calcutta University for the MA course. But some teachers of the department refused to teach Vedas and Vedanta to a Muslim undergraduate. This denial created the “Shahidullah Affair.”

The editor of The Comrade, Maulana Muhammad Ali, wrote: “student of the Classics would no doubt be attracted by the inexhaustible mines of literature and philosophy in Sanskrit and Arabic. And while we expect that Muslims researcher would learn Sanskrit in larger numbers than we do at present, we confidence such incidents as the ‘Shahidullah Affair,’ when a Pundit of Calcutta University refused to teach a Muslim student, would not recur.” Mr. Suren Banerjee, editor of The Bengali, wrote. “Today, these established pundits should be thrown into the Ganges.”
But regrettably the orthodoxy won the game. The Calcutta University Senate was compelled to open a new department on Comparative Philology. Muhammad Shahidullah was the first and only student of the branch, and he passed MA in 1912. despite the fact that he was not allowed to study Sanskrit in MA, it showed him the way of scholarship poles apart languages as a stude of   family member philology.

While plateful in the division of Bengali and Sanskrit in the University of Dhaka in 1926, he took study leave for two years and attend the Sorbonne University in Paris. He studied Vedic and Buddhist Sanskrit, Tibetan and Old Persian languages. He worked on a thesis paper titled “Les chants mystics” (Songs of the mystics), and simultaneously studied phonetics in the institute of records Della Parole, where he submitted a research paper unrestricted, “Les sons du Bengali,” and was awarded a extraordinary diploma. After submitting his thesis paper to the Sorbonne University he went to the Fribourg University in Germany to study Vedic Sanskrit and Prakrirt. His great thirst for acquaintance did not permit him rest for a single minute. He kept late hours at night for study even at old age.
Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah was not only a mine of knowledge but also an ideal teacher, and was devoted to occupation. It is important to mention here that the vast acquaintance he acquired made him a simple, well-versed and dignified person. His main aim in life was to attain excellence through attainment of knowledge, both saintly and everyday.