Khan Chowdhuri Amanatulla Ahmed A Pioneering Historian of Eastern and North Eastern India

Abstract

Khan Chwodhuri Amanatulla Ahmed was a renowned administrator, litterateur and a social activist in Cooch Behar, a major princely state in North Eastern India which ruled from the fourteenth to the twentieth century India. But what brought him the highest and unparalleled glory is that of a historian. His book on history titled - Cooch Beharer Itihas i.e., The History of Cooch Behar - has virtually made him an immortal personality. He was one of the very few indigenous historians of North Eastern India who made marks by their historiography up till now. The acumen he has displayed as a historian, without being from the field of academics, has been outstanding. It is my firm belief that he would always be remembered for this noble work.

Amanatulla Ahmed was born on 2nd January 1873 in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal in India. Located in the south western part of Cooch Behar district, his village bordered Rangpur district of present Bangladesh. Amanatulla’s father was Md Amirulla Ahmed who was an established and respectable Jotdar (landlord) of the area and was also known as the Patoari – a noble man of the village (Ray Sarkar, 2015, P-3). About the ancestral roots of Amanatulla, it is quite possible that his parents were off springs of the Muslim warriors who came along with Hussain Shah to invade Kamatapur, an ancient kingdom existed then, and settled down there. However, Amanatullah’s family had completely adapted the life style, culture and language of their chosen home land Cooch Behar by the time Amanatulla was born. They had become an inseparable part of Cooch Behar in all respects as a Deshi Musalman (Mulsims who adopted culture of Cooch Bear) family.

During Amanatulla’s time, facilities of education were not available in remote villages of Cooch Behar other than having some Islamic Madarsa and Muktabs. Amanatulla’s village Baramaricha was not an exception. The people of the villages at large used to be deprived of minimum level of education. Only the socially conscious, forward looking and well to do families of some villages used to send their children to the towns for their secondary and higher education, as an exceptional case. Amanatulla was a brilliant student and had the fortune of receiving the elementary education in his village. Thereafter, Patoari Amirulla Ahmed sent the little boy Amanatulla to the capital town Cooch Behar for his higher education. In Cooch Behar town he used to live in Ranibagan area  where Amirulla had his own shelter.⁸ Though not much of details are available about Amantulla’s academic achievements, but it has been established through his works that he was well versed in languages like Rajbanshi, Bengali, English, Assamese, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Parsee and Sanskrit and the mastery of which had helped him in compiling history and pursuing the literary work of higher degree that he did. It is also estimated that Amanatulla must have been highly educated and knowledgeable; and without which he would not have been assigned with the administrative responsibilities in the court of Cooch Behar emperor. Besides his passionate administration involvement, the three major passions that Amanatulla had pursued vigorously were the study of history and literature and association with the social activism for the benefit of the common people.