Cutchi Memon Digest
Kerala
ﮐﮁﻲ ﻤﻴﻤﻦ ﮢ ﺍﯿﺠﺴﭧ - ﮐﻴﺮﻻ
HAJI ABDUL SATHAR SAIT
OUR LEADERS
Born in 1896 in Talasserry, Malabar in the erstwhile Madras Province (now in Kannur District, Kerala). The four storey building where he was born is still in good shape at Wadhyar Peedika, Thalassery. His father was Haji Ishaq Haji Ayub Sait and mother Fathima Bai. He married Asia Bai, daughter of Abdul Sattar Omar Hashmani of Thiruvananthapuram. (Step sister of Abdul Rahman Abdul Sathar Sait and Joonus Abdul Sathar Sait) Asia Bai died without any issues and he then married Halima Bai of Bangalore, who was reportedly assasinated by burglers in the early 1980s, while in Karachi.. Haji Abdul Sathar Sait was a prominent political figure in India and was the President of Muslim League in Malabar. He was elected member of the Constituent Assembly of India from the Madras Presidency. Even after the declaration of partition he continued to attend the Constitutent Assembly. It is on record that he did actively participate in its meeting on 14th July 1947. At this meeting the first name to be called by the Secretary, asking members to sign the attendance register was that of Haji Abdul Sathar Haji Ishaq Sait. A point of order was raised by Deshbandhu Gupta that the member should be asked "whether he still subscribes to the Two-Nation theory or not? I take it that, as a sovereign body, and in view of the Partition that has been decided upon, we should review the whole question and lay down that a Member who does not subscribe to the Objectives Resolution that has been passed cannot sign the Register." The President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad gave the ruling "An interesting point has been raised. But I do not consider it is a point of order at all. It is a question of the right of Members who have been elected to the Constituent Assembly under the procedure laid clown. Any one who has been elected is entitled to sit in this House as long as he does not resign. Therefore I do not think I can prevent any Member who has been elected duly from signing the Register."(See Proceedings of the Constitution Assembly of India, Volume IV)
All along his political career he was much concer-ned about the low level of education among the Muslims of India. His inaugural address to the Kanara Muslim Conference on 6th June 1936 will throw ample light on his views. See http://akbanis.freeservers.com/sattarsait1.htm
for the complete speech.After independence he opted for Pakistan and migrated in 1948. He continued his political career as the first Pakistan Ambassador to the United Arab Republic, Egypt and then to Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka (then Ceylone). He used to visit India often and meet his relatives including Mrs Osman Abdulla Sait of Trivandrum, Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait, Saleh Mohamed Sait, Joonis Abdul Sathar Sait, Mrs. Abdul Kareem Abdul Sathar Sait of Tellicherry and friends in the Muslim League like B. Pocker Sahib, Mahboob Ali Baig Sahib, K. T. M. Ahmed Ibrahim Sahib.
He died at the age of 93 in Karachi. Your editor had the good fortune to visit him in Karachi twice, once when he was in the hospital just before his death in 1989. and on an earlier occasion when he visited Pakistan on UN business. During that visit he expressed his pain over the later developments in the country, particularly the sad fact that the Muslims who migrated from Indian side of the subcontinent, especially from the south, were labelled “Muhajirs” or refugees and treated with less than equality by some of the native populations. That was a shattering blow to his dream of a Muslim nation of equal honour and opportunity.
He had two brothers Abdulla Sait and Elias Sait and two sons Aleem Munshi and Ebrahim.