Cutchi Language Tutorial, Kerala

Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait was born on 3 November 1922 into a family of Mysore Cutchi Memons settled in Bangalore, as the son of Mohammed Sulaiman Sait and Zainab Bai. His mother was from Thalasseri (Tellichery) in Kerala. He completed his primary education in the Brennen High School and Madrassa Yusufiya in Tellicherry as he had stayed back with his uncle Tahir Mahmood Moosa. He could not complete his studies at St. Alocious High School in Mangalore owing to his father's sudden death in 1937. He then shifted to St. Joseph High School and St. Joseph College in Bangalore. After graduating in economics and history, he started teaching in 1943 at Robertsenpet Government College in Kolar and Marai Melappe Government College in Mysore. He resigned from his teaching post when the establishment prevented government servants from indulging in politics.

He was active in social, educational and cultural fields right from his school and college days. He was a founder member of the Anjuman-e-Islahul Lisan, Talasserry, an organization founded for the propagation of Urdu. He was also an active member of the Muslim Students Federation and was elected Assistant Secretary of the St. Joseph's College Union and of Urdu Literary Society. He won the prestigious All Karnataka Elocution Competition in Oratory in English in 1942 as well as Urdu Oratory Competitions conducted by Cutchi Memon Union, Bengaluru.

Sulaiman Sait had the privilege to share the stage with All India Muslim League's all time great leaders like Qaed-e-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah, Haji Abdul Sathar Sait, Liaqat Ali Khan and Fazlul-Haq, in the 1941 conference held at Madras. He was just 19 years old then. He announced his entry into politics through a speech he gave in the Malabar district conference of Muslim Students Federation.

At 22, in 1944 he became the President of the Beedi Labour Union of Mysore, in which position he continued upto 1948, and General Secretary of Mysore City Muslim League from 1945 to 1952. In 1953 he was elected President, Ernakulam District Muslim League.

In 1960 he was elected General Secretary of Kerala State Muslim League and later its Vice President. After the demise of K.M. Seethi Saheb in 1961 he was elected as the General Secretary of Indian Union Muslim League. On the demise of Bafakeyh Tangal in 1973 he was elected President of the Party and held office continuously for 20 years, when he resigned. Following the tragic incidents connected with the demolition of Babri Masjid, Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait ran into a serious conflict with the Indian Union Muslim League. He strongly felt that IUML should dissociate itself from Congress, whose leaders were passive witnesses to the demolition and the atrocities that followed.

On 23rd April 1994, he formed the Indian National League and took its stewardship at the All India Muslim Convention held in Delhi. Since then, for nearly a decade, he painstakingly led the party forward, despite his old age and shortage of monetary, resources and manpower.

His first entry into the Indian Parliament was as a Rajya Sabha Member representing the Indian Union Muslim League in 1960 for a six year term ending 1966. He was elected to Loksabha continually for 30 years from 1967 to 1996. During the long 35 years he served on various Parliamentary Committees.

Cutchi Memons of Kochi will ever gratefully remember him for his hard work for the resuscitation of the Cutchi Memon Jamath.

He was an ardent admirer of Allama Mohammed Iqbal's poetry. He was perhaps the only Muslim leader in India who could meet and spend time with many internationally renowned Muslim leaders like Muhammed Ali Jinnah, Syed Maududi, King Faisal, Imam Khomeini, Yasser Arafat and many others.

Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait was held in high esteem by everyone in politics and otherwise : he never ever had a foe! Such a person we call AJATHASHATRU!! Cutchi Memons as a whole are proud of such a son of the soil, rightly a saint and a legend.

He died on 27th April 2005, in a private hospital in Bangalore, after a brief illness. He was 83. May Allah be pleased with him and grant him his well-deserved place beside His Rasool.(SAW).