The Second Saadulah provincial government was the Cabinet of Assam Province headed by Prime Minister of Assam Muhammed Saadulah from 1939 to 1941.
History Following the resignation of the Bordoloi government, Muhammed Saadulah formed a coalition government. The previous government had resigned in objection to the Second World War, but Saadulah was a support of the British.
In December 1941, Congress leaders including Bordoloi were released from prison and became determined to remove Saadulah from his position.
In protest against a government circular for the participation of students in a War Fund Exhibition, around 2500 students of Cotton College staged a protest at Guwahati Judge Field on 6 December. Police attacked students with a lathi charge. Numerous schools and colleges were on three-day sympathy strikes in Assam, as well as in Calcutta. Education Minister Rohini Kumar Chaudhuri resigned on 9 December in protest against the police action.
Before his resignation, Rohini Kumar Chaudhuri had entered into a secret pact with Bordoloi in which Congress would support Chaudhuri in a forming a stable government but would be neutral in matters related to the war effort. Another condition in the agreement was that the executive officers responsible for the lathi charge would be suspended. President of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee Muhammad Tayabulla opposed Bordoloi in this agreement, having voiced his disapproval of Chaudhuri's association with the War front, but Bordoloi persisted.
On 9 December, the same day as Chaudhuri's resignation, five independent members (allied to Congress) tabled motions of no-confidence against the Saadulah government, and three of the motions were moved. Saadulah was determined to continue on, but with more legislators leaving him, he was left with no option but to resign. Saadulah announced the resignation of his cabinet on 12 December.
Governor Robert Reid met Bordoloi on 18 December and asked him to form a government, but Bordoloi stated that he was unable to do so and voiced his support for Chaudhuri, and Bordoloi also made it clear that his support for the war would be limited". Reid was not supportive of this suggestion; he later had a discussion with Chaudhuri which made it "indisputably clear" to him that a ministry reliant on the support of Congress would be unstable, most prominently when a matter of war was concerned.
Reid instead contemplated reinstalling Saadulah but Saadulah was unable to command a majority. He also explored forming an "all-party" government whose focus would be for the purpose of and during the war, but was unsuccessful. Consequently, with Reid having explored numerous other possibilities, Governor's rule was declared on 25 December.
Chauduri felt that he could have formed his ministry, but it would have relied on the support of Congress. Both Reid and his successor Andrew Clow refused to accept a ministry which would have been formed on its support from a party which did not support the war effort.
Ministers (1941)
Cabinet +NamePortfoliosMuhammed Saadulah Prime Minister HomeCabinet MinistersRohini Kumar Chaudhuri Education PrisonsMunawwar Ali Agriculture VeterinaryHirendra Chandra Chakravarty Medical Public healthMuddabbir Hussain Chaudhuri Judicial Local self-governmentMahendra Nath Saikia ExciseAbdul Matin Chaudhury Public Works LabourSayidur Rahman Finance Revenue LegislationMavis Dunn Registration Industries CooperativeRupnath Brahma Forest
Parliamentary secretaries +NamePortfoliosB.K.J. Sarwan LabourBenjamin Ch. Momin Hills tribalKalachand Roy Scheduled casteDhirsing Deuri Plains tribal
References