Mohammad Sajjad,
Rasheed[at]-un-Nesa (1855-1926) was the first female Urdu novelist. She wrote her novel, Islah-un-Nesa in 1881, which was published in 1894. Like Deputy Nazir Ahmad (1836-1912) her novel was aimed at reforming the women; persuading them to take education and to shed superstition, to take recourse to learning English in order to access European sciences. Second edition of the Islah-un-Nesa came from Pakistan in 1968, and third in 2000. Patna’s Khuda Bakhsh Library reprinted it in 2007 which included prefatory note by its Director, Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad, a historian, who also included critical essays on the novel by Adeeb Sohail, Zahida Hena, and Sohail Azimabadi.
Rasheed-un-Nesa was married to an advocate, Yahya, a big rais of Patna, with deep interest in literature and music; established a small school for girls to be looked after by Rasheed-un-Nesa. Lady Fraser, the wife of the then Lt. Governor, Bihar, visited the school in 1906, and got immensely impressed with it. Rasheedah approached another rais of Patna City, Badshah Nawab Rizvi, to provide land and handsome fund for the school. Its hostel as looked after by her daughter Naseeb-un-Nesa. The Maharani of Bettiah provided building for the school and till date the building is famous as “Bettiah House”, and the school is named after Badshah Nawab Rizvi, which has now grown up to become BN Rizvi Training College for Women.
Zahida Hena compares her with Rashundri Devi, one of the first women to have written autobiography (in Bengali). However compared to Rashundri Devi, Rasheedah came from highly educated aristocratic family of Patna. Her father Waheeduddin was chief justice and had honours of Shams-ul-ulema, and Khan Bahadur. Her brother Imdad Imam Asar is an acknowledged name in Urdu tazkira (primitive criticism), whose sons Ali Imam (1869-1932) and Hasan Imam (1871-1933) are among the founders/makers of modern Bihar; Rasheedah’s father-in-law, Nemat Ali was also chief justice. Rasheedah’s son Sir Sulaiman, was an accomplished barrister. Her daughter Nesar Fatima Kubra was a poetess with Diwan; and Sir Abdur Rahim was her son-in-law. Lady Anis Imam (1901-79), and Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy were also among her close relatives; and her antecedence goes back to connect with Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah and Saif Khan, the Mughal governor of Bihar.
Zahida Hena gives much premium to Rasheedah on the argument that even Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the “father of Indian Renaissance” had a less glowing personal life, much in contradiction with what he was fighting for. He was not keeping well with his mother and with his three wives. Rasheedah was championing the cause of modern education to women in a harsh age when even an enlightened person like Rabindranath Tagore was justifying child marriages.
Zahida Hena also compares Rasheedah with Ruqaiya Sakhawat Husain. Ruqaiya (1880-1932) was married to Syed Sakhawat Husain (d. 1909) of Bhagalpur, who died soon after the marriage with a will to promote girl education for which he left enough of wealth. Ruqaiya’s step daughter and son-in-law threw her out; she shifted to Calcutta where she opened Sakhawat Husain Memorial School in 1911.
(Mohammad Sajjad is an Asstant Professor of History at the Aligarh Muslim University.)
