Bilal9
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Well I accept your opinion but have not looked into if Bengalis had more significant weight or people in "soon to be West Pakistan" did.
Does it matter?
The ultimate measure is in the fact that Muslim Majority East Bengal wanted to be part of Pakistan, and their leaders however many or however few, were involved.
I'd say there is not enough written or known about Bengali Muslim League leaders post 1971 in Pakistan, that is part of the reason why Pakistanis know so little about this.
I saw this thread and the whole premise of the thread is dubious - we should not drive a wedge between Muslims saying Bengali Muslims were exceptional and other Muslims were not.
The Aligarh Movement pre-dated (and inspired) the Pakistan Movement, that was the spark that formed Pakistan. At that point Indian Muslims came from all different areas, but Aligarh Muslims formed a big part of the Intelligentsia. Calcutta Muslims did too, it was the British Capital of India at the time.
Former East Pakistanis should appreciate the contributions of All India Muslim League (AIML) leaders, whichever ethnicity they were from. I don't believe in this Bengali exceptionalism stuff. Exceptional Muslims are born in every ethnicity, not just within Bengalis.
A significant portion of the East Bengal Intelligentsia and politicians were resident in Calcutta in those days (given that Calcutta was a major trade center and seat of learning), these were partly the descendants of distinguished Dhaka Nawab and Murshidabad Nawab families, many of whom were Bengali speakers. Suhrawardi was mayor of Calcutta, at roughly about the time when he became a Muslim League stalwart and a Jinnah confidant. The Sheikh was Suhrawardi's right hand man.
Suhrawardi and other Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML) leaders did become prominent office holders in Early Pakistan and even early Bangladesh history. The first president of Pakistan was a Bengali, Iskander Mirza. This is history.
Iskandar Ali Mirza - Wikipedia
The posts held by Bengalis in early Pakistan were the Prime Minister of Pakistan (Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, Mohammad Ali of Bogra, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Nurul Amin), Governor General of Pakistan (Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin), Chief Minister of East Bengal (Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, Nurul Amin, A. K. Fazlul Huq and Ataur Rahman Khan).
Later some Muslim Leaguers became leaders such as President of Bangladesh (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Mohammad Mohammadullah and Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad), Vice President of Bangladesh (Syed Nazrul Islam) and Prime Minister of Bangladesh (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman), Tajuddin Ahmad, Muhammad Mansur Ali and Ataur Rahman Khan).
BPML leaders were mostly Bengali speakers (while being somewhat proficient in Urdu), while in West Pakistan, most Muslim League leaders were Urdu-speakers.
The formation of the All India Muslim League (AIML) was in Dhaka in 1906 (Dhaka's Nawab Sir Salimullah Khan was the sponsor). Subsequent meetings were held in Dhaka, Karachi and Lahore.
These are the AIML folks in Dhaka in 1906,
The Lahore resolution of AIML happened in 1940, which was 34 years later.
This is from Wiki:
The impact of Aligarh Movement was not confined to the Northern India only, but its expansion could be seen on the other regions of the Indian sub-continent during the 20th century.[76] The annual Educational Conferences held in different parts of the country played an effective role in the promotion of education among Muslims and directly or indirectly influenced the growth of institutes like Aligarh Muslim University, Osmania University, Dacca University, Anjuman-i-Tarqqi Urdu, Jamia Millia Islamia, Dar-ul-Uloom Nadva, Lucknow, and Dar-ul-Musannfafin, Azamgarh.[77] By the early 1900 Aligarh Movement became the progenitor to a number of socio-religious movements like the Urdu movement,[78] the Khilafat Movement[79] and the Pakistan Movement.[80]
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