Sayeed Mohammed (1891 – 1922) was an Indian Odia educationist, freedom fighter and philanthropist. In 1913, he founded the Moslem Seminary (present day : Sayeed Seminary) at Cuttack, which is regarded as the second nationalist school of Odisha. Sayeed is known for his activism against the British in the early 1900s. He was one of the prominent members of the Utkal Sammilani. In 1922, Sayeed along with Ekram Rasul co-founded the All Odisha Khilafat Committee, in the wake of the Non cooperation movement in India.
Early life and career
Janab Maulana Sayeed Mohammed was born at Madhigarh, into the Diwan family of Dhenkanal, to Atharuddin Mohammed and his first wife (Badi Bahu Begum), Begum Nadeera Sultana. Sayeed's father was the ruling chief of Kamakhyangar and also the Diwan of the Princely State of Dhenkanal during Raja Shura Paratap Mahendra Bahadur's rule. Sayeed's maternal uncle, Imaan ul Haque practiced as a lawyer at Cuttack court and was a colleague of Subhash Chandra Bose's father, Janakinath Bose.
Sayeed moved to Cuttack in order to attain formal education. After studying at Ravenshaw Collegiate School, he joined the Utkal Sammilani. Both he and his father made attempts to unify the Odia speaking tracts by working for the Sammilani. In Cuttack, Sayeed emerged as a local leader and started to serve the Muslim community. He led the Odia muslims to participate in the Indian freedom struggle.
Later, Sayeed earned a scholarship from Calcutta Madrasa and did his F.A. there, after which he qualified the entrance examination and joined the Calcutta University. He graduated with honours in Persian studies, Philosophy and Arabic subjects in 1908, obtaining a first class in his special subjects and standing the first of his year. He was the first muslim from Orissa province to become a graduate. Sayeed was then appointed as an assistant head master at Victoria high school, Cuttack by the British government. Being a nationalist, he also worked in close association with Gopabandhu Das, Madhusudan Das, Bhakta kabi Madhusudan Rao and Radhanath Rath, the editor of Samaja.
In October 1908, Sayeed organized and led various mass protests against the British government regarding the new provision introduced by the British, which provided limited and separate reservation of seats for Muslim and Hindu students in schools at the time of admission. Because of his participation in the nationalist movements against the British government, he along with some of his other Indian colleagues at Victoria high school, who were nationalists too, were asked to resign from their respective positions. It was during this period when Gopabandhu Das established the first nationalist school in Odisha called the Satyabadi Bana Bidyalaya at Sakhigopal, Puri in 1909.
Sayeed saw this as an excellent idea to educate and uplift Indian children without actually serving or working under the British and thus, to cultivate the ideals of nationalism in the hearts of Indian students; he established a new nationalist school called the 'Muslim Seminary' in 1913 at Cuttack for Indian students.. On 23 March 1921, he received Gandhiji at Qadam e Rasul, Cuttack and hosted the meeting along with Ekram Rasul in which Gandhiji had addressed the people of Cuttack. Sayeed contributed generously to the Tilak Swaraj Fund as per Gandhiji's appeal. In the wake of the Non-cooperation movement, Sayeed organized various melas to unite the Hindus and Muslims of the city against the British and had called for a complete boycott of foreign goods. In order to support the ongoing Swadeshi movement, he had made it mandatory for everyone in his school to wear clothes only made of Khadi. Sayeed himself wore clothes made of Khadi to set an example. He co-founded the All Odisha Khilafat Committee in 1922 before his death.
Marriage and family
Sayeed married Begum Badar un nissa Akhtar, the only daughter of Aminuddin Al Amin Suhrawardy and the granddaughter of Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy. The couple bore five children (three sons and two daughters). After Sayeed's untimely death in 1922, Begum Badr continued to work for the Muslim community in Cuttack. She particularly emphasized on female education.