He wanted Pakistan, but stood against the rulers later
Rafique Ullah Chowdhury as an activist of the Tamaddun Majlish – a cultural organisation that shepherded the Language Movement in 1952 – led the Language Movement from the forefront in Chattogram
When AKM Rafique Ullah Chowdhury was a teen, he campaigned for a Muslim-majority Pakistan; the political movement succeeded eventually. But after the creation of the Pakistan dominion, the youth turned into a vocal against the oppressions by Pakistani rulers.
What helped reconfigure his political philosophy in just 10 years was the coercive decision to make "Urdu and Urdu alone" the official language for a state with a Bangla-speaking majority.
Rafique Ullah Chowdhury as an activist of the Tamaddun Majlish – a cultural organisation that shepherded the Language Movement in 1952 – led the Language Movement from the forefront in Chattogram.
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He was born in 1923 in a Chattogram elite family. Both of his parents – Halim Ullah Chowdhury and Nazmun Nesa Chowdhury – were zamindar descendants of Sandwip and Feni.
After receiving a Maktab-based religious education, Rafique Ullah Chowdhury was admitted to Katgarh Golam Nabi Primary School in 1932. He passed matriculation (secondary school certificate or SSC) from Muslim High School in Chattogram in 1941.
He passed intermediate (currently HSC or the higher secondary certificate) from Kolkata Islamia College in 1943 and earned the Bachelor's Degree from Kolkata City College in 1946.
He was a member of "Nikhil Banga Muslim Chhatra League" since his school days. While studying at Kolkata City College, he was a Pakistan Movement activist, and got arrested by Kolkata Police in 1946 on "Captain Rashid Ali Day" – a mass uprising against the then British rulers.
Though Rafique Ullah was supposed to take part in the master's examination from Aligarh University in 1948, he moved to Chattogram after the 1947 Partition of Bengal. Subsequently, he joined the Tamaddun Majlish.
In 1952, he played an active role in Chattogram on behalf of the organisation in pressing demand for Bangla.
On 16 October 1959, he married Begum Jolekha Khatun Chameli Chowdhury. Rafique Ullah Chowdhury served Khilafat-e-Rabbani Party as the district secretary and later as a central committee presidium member from 1953 to 1971.
He contested the Pakistan National Assembly elections in 1962, 1965 and 1970.
In 1979, he was elected as a member of parliament from Chattogram-3 constituency from Gano Front. In the first upazila parishad election in 1985, he was elected upazila chairman of Sandwip.
He resigned from the post in 1989 protesting the then autocrat government.
He established the Jamiatul Falah Mosque in Chattogram. In 2011, he was honoured by the Chattogram City Corporation with the "Swadhinata Smarak Sammanana Padak".
Rafique Ullah Chowdhury passed away on 22 September 2011 while undergoing treatment at a Chattogram hospital.
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