Abdullah Haroon

Sir Abdullah Haroon (1872 – 27 April 1942) was a British Indian politician and businessman from Karachi who made major contributions to defining the role of Muslims in the economic, educational, social and political fields of the Indian subcontinent. A merchant who rose from poverty to become Sindh's "Sugar King", he presided over the Sindh Khilafat Committee and the provincial Muslim League, organised the first Sind Provincial Muslim League Conference in 1938 and endorsed the Lahore Resolution of 1940, and was known throughout his life for philanthropy. ^{1 2}

He was born in 1872 at Karachi into a Sindhi Memon family; the Urdu article specifies the Kachhi Memon community and a poor household, and gives his father's name as Haroon. ^{1 3} He lost his father at the age of four and was raised by his grandmother, described in the English article as a deeply religious lady. ¹ Early in life he worked as an assistant bicycle repairman for four annas a day. ¹ In 1896, at the age of 24, he started his own business as a small merchant in Karachi and soon became so successful in the sugar trade that his contemporaries called him Sindh's "Sugar King". ¹

He first became a member of the Karachi Municipality from May 1913 to September 1916, and again from 1 May 1921 to 21 August 1934. ¹ He joined the Indian National Congress in 1917 and began taking part in the Indian independence movement, and was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly in 1924 and re-elected in 1930 and 1934. ¹ In 1919 he became president of the Khilafat Committee of Sindh, under the wider Khilafat Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jouhar, and he served as president of the Sindh Provincial Muslim League from 1920 to 1930. ¹ Disenchanted with Congress policies, he joined the All-India Muslim League and remained its strong supporter until his death. ¹

In 1930 he formed the Sind United Party, which called for the separation of Sindh from the Bombay Presidency — a separation that materialised in April 1936. ¹ Although his party won a plurality of seats in the 1937 provincial elections, it could not form the government. ¹ He was knighted by King George VI in the 1937 Coronation Honours. ¹

In October 1938, with the help of Shaikh Abdul Majeed Sindhi and Pir Ali Muhammad Rashidi, he organised the first Sind Provincial Muslim League Conference at Karachi, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah presiding; Haroon chaired the reception committee, and his welcome address warned that India was near "the parting of the ways" between Hindu India and Muslim India. ¹ The Arabic article records the same conference's vote for Pakistan's independence under Jinnah's presidency. ² He spoke at the League's Lahore session and endorsed the Lahore Resolution on 23 March 1940 on behalf of the Muslims of Sindh, and was a member of the Muslim League Working Committee that drafted and endorsed the resolution. ^{1 2}

He was a philanthropist active in social welfare throughout his life: according to the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust, cited in the English article, he gave away Rs. 88,961 to charities. ¹ The Urdu article records that he built many madrasas, colleges, mosques and orphanages, and that Abdullah Haroon College and Abdullah Haroon Road in Karachi are his memorials. ³ He donated ten thousand rupees to the Muslim League at Allahabad in 1942. ¹

His wife was Nusrat Khanum, known as Lady Abdullah Haroon, whom he married in 1914; she has her own record in this museum. ^{4 1} The English article names their children as Yusuf Haroon, Mahmoud Haroon and Zeenat Haroon Rashid. ¹ No source read names a school for Haroon himself — the record states what each source gives: a Memon family background, Muslim political leadership and mosque-building philanthropy, and a generic structured value of Islam — and records his school as unknown.

He died on 27 April 1942 in Karachi, and the Urdu article records that he is buried there. ^{1 3} The Arabic article records the same date and place. ² Pakistan Post issued a commemorative stamp in his honour in its "Pioneers of Freedom" series, and a major street in Saddar, Karachi — formerly Victoria Road — bears his name. ¹ The English article repeats the remark attributed to Mahatma Gandhi about him: "I will trust this man with a blank cheque." ¹

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