Syed Hossain
Indian journalist and activist (1888–1949)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Syed Hossain (also Syud Hossain; 23 June 1888 – 26 February 1949) was an Indian journalist, an Indian independence activist, and the first Indian ambassador to Egypt in the Jawaharlal Nehru administration.[1][2]
- Nawab Syed Muhammad Azad (father)
- Nawab Abdul Latif (maternal grandfather)
- Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Huq (brother-in-law)
- Sir Hassan Suhrawardy (brother-in-law)
- Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah (niece)
Syed Hossain | |
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| Born | 23 June 1888 |
| Died | 26 February 1949 (aged 61) Cairo, Egypt |
Burial place | Cairo |
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Early life
Syed Hossain was born in Calcutta in 1888.[3] His father, Nawab Syed Mohammad Azad Khan Bahadur (1850–1915), was the Inspector-General of Registration, Bengal.[4] His great-great-grandfather was Mir Syed Ashraf Ali Khan (d. 1829). Syed Hossain's mother was the daughter of Nawab Abdul Latif, a social reformer of Bengal.[3] Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Huq (1873–1962) and Sir Hassan Suhrawardy (1888–1946), were his brother-in-laws.
Hossain passed his Entrance Examination in 1904 and F.A. in 1906 from the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College of Aligarh. He then joined the Bengal Civil Service as a Sub-Deputy Collector in Calcutta but he soon went to England to pursue further education in 1909.[3]
Career
Hossain started his journalism career early in life and became the editor of Motilal Nehru's nationalist newspaper, The Independent.[5]
Hossain wrote "Echoes from Old Dacca", published in May 1909 and "Gandhi: The Saint as Statesman" in 1937.[4][6][7]
Hossain represented India at the Paris Peace Conference in 1920 for the Near Eastern Peace settlement.[7]
In the 1930s, he moved to California. He served as a lecturer at the University of Southern California's Department of History as a visiting faculty lecturer. He taught two courses entitled "India's Civilization" and "Islamic Civilization" in the summer of 1934.[8] The university later conferred on him an honorary doctorate degree.
When Hossain left the United States for India in 1946, a farewell dinner was organized for him at the Ceylon India Inn in New York City where the guests included Ragini Devi, Habib Rahman, and Indrani Rahman.[9]
Personal life
He is said to have fallen in love with Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit but eventually went through break-up with her. She later wrote in her autobiography, The Scope of Happiness, "...while still in my teens, I had become attached to a young man, Syed Hossain (sic), whom my father had appointed editor of a newspaper he had just started, The Independent. In an era that proclaimed Hindu-Muslim unity, and belonging to a family that had close Muslim friends, I must have thought it would be perfectly natural to marry outside my religion. But in matters such as marriage the times were deeply traditional, and I was persuaded that this would be wrong."[10]
He has been buried in Al-Arafa in Cairo. He was then one of the only Indians who was buried there. A state funeral was accorded to him by the Egyptian government.[11] The road serving the tomb was later announced to be named after him.[12]
Works
- Gandhi, the Saint as Statesman (1936)
