Momen, Khan Bahadur Abdul
Momen, Khan Bahadur Abdul (1876-1946) a member of Bengal Civil Service, one of the Chief Settlement Officers of the Survey and Settlement Operations in the early twentieth century and also an activist of peasant politics. Mohammad Abdul Momen was born in their home village Kashiara (now Kasemnagar) in Burdwan district on 28 June 1876. He was the second son of Nawab Abdul Jabbar and grandson of Ali Asgar, who was a Principal Sadar Amin under the Judicial Department of the Government. Momen passed his B. A. examination from the presidency college, Calcutta, in 1896.
Abdul Momen joined the Bengal Civil Service as a sub-deputy collector in 1897. In 1906 he was promoted to the rank of deputy collector. He was the commissioner of Chittagong Division and it was during his tenure as Divisional Commissioner that the chittagong armoury raid (1930) took place under the leadership of mastarda surya sen. After his retirement Momen was appointed the chairman of KOLKATA improvement trust.
Abdul Momen was an activist in reforming the existing Muslim education system. In 1931, the government established under public demand a committee called Muslim Education Commission. Momen was made its president. The committee came to be known as the Momen Commission. The other members of this commission included Azizul Huq, Tamizuddin Khan, Khan Bahadur Afazuddin Ahmed and Abul Kasem (Burdwan).
Khan Bahadur Momen was a strong advocate for reforming and codifying the anomalous wakf system of the Muslim community. His ideas and efforts led to the enactment of the Waqf Law of 1934 under which the Bengal Wakf Board was established in 1936. Abdul Momen became its first Chief Commissioner. In recognition of his unique contributions to administration and social services, the government honoured him with the title of 'Khan Bahadur' first and later CIE. His economic thought led him to found an insurance company called Arjasthan Insurance Company which made him one of the pioneering insurance entrepreneur among the Muslims.
In 1929, Nikhil Banga Proja Samiti (All Bengal Tenants' Association) was formed under the presidency of the jurist sir abdur rahim (1867-1952) with five Vice-Presidents - Abdul Momen being one of them. The four other vice-presidents were ak fazlul huq, Dr. Abdullah Suhrawardy, Abdul Karim and Mujibur Rahman. akram khan became the Samiti's Secretary.
In 1934 Sir Abdur Rahim became the Speaker of the Indian Legislative Assembly. He thus resigned from the Samiti's presidency for joining his new position in Delhi. Factionalism and wrangling started immediately on the question of who would succeed him as president of the Samiti. Both Abdul Momen and AK Fazlul Huq showed interest on the post. To prevent the seemingly inevitable rift in the Samiti, the leading members came to a consensus that the outgoing president would nominate his succeeding president and others would accept the decision. By doing so, Abdur Rahim, however, could not solve the party squabbling. Though he gave his ruling in favour of Khan Bahadur Abdul Momen, AK Fazlul Huq repudiated his nomination and declared himself president of the Samiti at the Samiti's annual conference in Mymensingh held in 1935.
From the beginning of his civil service career, Momen made land system of Bengal his special interest and made himself an outstanding specialist on the subject. In appreciation of his deep knowledge in land system, Momen was appointed as the Survey and Settlement Officer for Jessore district. In his Final Report on Survey and Settlement Operations in the Jessore District 1920-1924, Momen made very valuable contributions to the understanding of various land tenurial and economic affairs of the district. His survey included details of many important subjects, such as land tenure system, intermediate tenures, rights and conditions of raiyats of all variety, zamindari impositions, agricultural conditions, haats and bazaars, population movement, economy of all classes and so on. It is to be noted that the post of the Chief Settlement Officer was kept traditionally reserved for the European members of the Indian Sivil Service until 1947. The lone exception was made in the case of Abdul Momen of Bengal Civil Service. Momen also once worked as a Director of Land Records of Bengal. Khan Bahadur Abdul Momen died on 18 June 1946. [Badruddin Umar]
