Syed Abul Hassan, Bar-at-Law, was a great nationalist Muslim leader of Bihar, who played a significant role in the political and cultural life of the Muslims of Bihar.
He hailed from a noble Muslim family of Hussainabad in Monger where he was born in the year 1878. He got his early education in Patna and Calcutta. In 1910, he was called to the Bar.
Syed Abul Hassan started his practice at Bhagalpur, where he started his public life and political career. He was elected chairman of the Bhagalpur municipality. He remained associated with the District Congress Committee and also served the Congress along with Deep Narayan Singh.
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He participated in the Khilafat movement and served as the president of the Bhagalpur District Khilafat Committee. Abul Hassan organized Khilafat meetings and collected Turkish relief fund. He also took part in the Non-cooperation movement.
Md. Muzaffar Imam, in his book “Role of Muslims in the National Movement (1912-1930)“, wrote that Syed Abul Hassan, in his welcome address at the Bihar Provincial Conference in Bhagalpur on 28th August, 1920, stressed the need of national unity for the success of the Non-cooperation movement against the British Government.
Abul Hassan was an ardent believer of Hindu-Muslim unity and communal peace. He was certainly a man of broad outlook and secular character. He married an English lady in his second marriage.
At a meeting of the Anjuman Moinul-Islam in 1925, Syed Abul Hassan emphasized the social, cultural and religious upliftment of the Muslims of Bihar.
He was literary man as well as a politician. He urged the Government to recognise Urdu as the official language of Bihar.
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The Bhagalpur District Muslim League also elected him as its President. But it was a distinct feature of Syed Abul Hassan that he was not a communalist or narrow minded leader.
Till his last days he was very generous, philanthropist and kind-hearted man whom every Hindu and Muslim loved and regarded alike.
During the heyday of communalism, Syed Abul Hassan played a significant role to lessen social tension and to maintain communal harmony in Bhagalpur. He died in Bhagalpur in 1960.
