Dewan Mahbub Ali

In this Bengali name, the surname is Dewan.
Dewan Mahbub Ali
দেওয়ান মাহবুব আলী
Member of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly
In office
1954–1958
ConstituencyComilla-XI
Personal details
Born1924 (1924)
Sarail, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died4 June 1971(1971-06-04) (aged 46–47)
Delhi, India
PartyBNAP
Other political
affiliations
Alma materUniversity of Dhaka
NicknameQutub Mian

Dewan Mahbub Ali (Bengali: দেওয়ান মাহবুব আলী; 1924–1971) was a lawyer and leftist politician. He was elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly for Comilla-XI in 1954 as a Ganatantri Dal candidate.

Biography

Early life

Dewan Mahbub Ali was born in 1924 in Sarail, Bengal Presidency, British India. He was member of Dewan family.[1] He graduated from the Islamic College of Calcutta in 1944. He completed an M.A. and a B.L. at the University of Dhaka.[2]

In December 1951, Ali was a member of the East Pakistan Youth League, a youth party that had been established earlier that year. The party played a significant role in the Bengali language movement in 1952.[3]

Adamjee Jute Mills started production in 1951 with 300 full-time workers. Wages were low, and living conditions were poor. Trade union organizing was strictly forbidden in the mill area. Nevertheless, around 1952, with several others, Ali formed the Adamjee Jute Workers Union. He was made general secretary. Mill management had preemptively registered an organization with the same name, so the new union shortly changed their name to Adamjee Jute Mill Mazdur Union. It attracted workers and led them out on strike twice in the first year, achieving improved overtime pay.[4]

Political career

Ali became joint secretary of the Ganatantri Dal, a political party that was established in January 1953.[2]

He lived in Sarail, in that period in Tipperah district, East Bengal, Dominion of Pakistan (now in Brahmanbaria District, Bangladesh).[5] He was elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly for Comilla-XI in the 1954 provincial election.[6]

When police in Dhaka went on strike in November 1955 demanding better pay, troops took over policing.[7][8] Several days into the strike, they arrested Ali,[9] along with over 100 other political activists. They were detained without trial "in the interest of the maintenance of law and order".[8][10] He had been freed by May 1956.[11]

Ali was a founding member of the left-wing National Awami Party (NAP), which was established in July 1957.[12] On 23 September 1958, he moved a motion of no-confidence against the speaker of the Provincial Assembly of East Pakistan, Abdul Hakeem. The motion carried. This led to a heated debate in the assembly hall. It turned violent; members threw chairs at each other and used anything at hand as a weapon. Shahid Ali, the deputy speaker, was hit in the head and died a few days later.[13]

In the 1965 East Pakistani elections, he stood for the provincial assembly seat of Comilla-I. He finished a distant third.[14]

Ali was part of the pro-Moscow faction within the NAP. In December 1967, they split from the pro-Beijing majority of the party, forming a parallel East Pakistan NAP. He was elected a vice president of the party. In November 1968, he was appointed general secretary of the East Pakistan NAP (pro-Moscow).[15]

By 1968, he had been imprisoned three times during his political career.[2] He was arrested again in connection with the 1969 East Pakistan mass uprising.[16] After being detained for ten days, he was released in February 1969.[17]

In 1970, Ali ran unsuccessfully for the National Assembly of Pakistan seat of Comilla-I. The Awami League (AL) swept East Pakistan. Ali placed third, receiving 58,899 fewer votes than the AL candidate, Taheruddin Thakur.[18]

In April 1971, the Bangladesh government-in-exile in Calcutta sent Ali to Europe.[19] He was one of a team of three, led by special envoy Abdus Samad Azad.[20][21] They were to rally foreign support for Bangladesh in the Bangladesh Liberation War at the World Peace Conference in Budapest in May.[19]

Death and legacy

Ali died at Delhi airport on 4 June 1971, on his way back from the World Peace Conference.[22] In June 2025, a mural portrait of Ali was installed at the Sarail Upazila Parishad complex.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b দেওয়ান মাহবুব আলী: এক কিংবদন্তির রাজনৈতিক যাত্রা [Dewan Mahbub Ali: The political journey of a legend]. Janakantha (in Bengali). 2 June 2025.
  2. ^ a b c Nuruzzaman, Md. (1968). Who's Who. Dacca: The Eastern Publications. p. 274.
  3. ^ গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ভূমিকা রেখেছিল পূর্ব পাকিস্তান যুবলীগ [The East Pakistan Youth League played an important role]. Prothom Alo (in Bengali). 16 February 2017.
  4. ^ Umar, Badruddin (2004). The Emergence of Bangladesh. Karachi: Oxford University Press. pp. 236–238. ISBN 0-19-579571-7.
  5. ^ আহমদ ছফার অগ্রন্থিত লেখা: স্মৃতির শহর ব্রাহ্মণবাড়িয়া [Ahmad Safa's Unpublished Writings: Brahmanbaria, the City of Memories]. bdnews24.com (in Bengali). 11 January 2013.
  6. ^ Habib, Khaled (1991). Bangladesh: Elections, Parliament & the Cabinet, 1970-91. E. Āra. Muraśeda. p. 181. OCLC 27146030.
  7. ^ "Police Strike in E. Pakistan". The Times of India. 22 November 1955. p. 12.
  8. ^ a b "When Police Goes on Strike!". Indian Daily Mail. 28 November 1955. p. 1.
  9. ^ "Mass Arrests In East Pakistan". Hindustan Times. 27 November 1955. p. 12.
  10. ^ "Bhasani Deplores Dacca Arrests". Hindustan Times. 29 November 1955. p. 11.
  11. ^ "Modified rationing in E. Pakistan rural areas demanded". Civil & Military Gazette. Lahore. 3 May 1956. p. 3.
  12. ^ ন্যাপের ৬৪তম প্রতিষ্ঠাবার্ষিকী মঙ্গলবার [NAP's 64th founding anniversary is Tuesday]. Samakal (in Bengali). 26 July 2021.
  13. ^ Yaqubi, Himayatullah (2021). National Awami Party Nature and Direction of Politics 1957-1975: An account of the left and progressive politics in Pakistan. Vanguard Books. p. 93. ISBN 978-969-402-631-2.
  14. ^ "Election Results". The Pakistan Observer. 17 May 1965. p. 8.
  15. ^ Yaqubi, Himayatullah (2021). National Awami Party Nature and Direction of Politics 1957-1975: An account of the left and progressive politics in Pakistan. Vanguard Books. pp. 161–162, 170. ISBN 978-969-402-631-2.
  16. ^ "Political arrests in Dhaka, Khulna, Barisal". The Pakistan Observer. 30 January 1969. p. 1.
  17. ^ "From The Past Pages Of Dawn: 1969: Fifty Years Ago: Call to repeal". Dawn. 10 February 2019.
  18. ^ National Assembly Elections in Pakistan, 1970-2008: A compendium of elections related facts and statistics (PDF). Karachi: Church World Service Pakistan, Afghanistan : Free and Fair Elections Network. 2010. p. 68. ISBN 978-969-8882-39-6.
  19. ^ a b Maniruzzaman, Talukder (1973). "Radical Politics and the Emergence of Bangladesh". In Brass, Paul R.; Franda, Marcus F. (eds.). Radical politics in South Asia. MIT Press. p. 273. ISBN 0-262-02099-8.
  20. ^ Bhatt, V. R. (20 May 1971). "UN bodies' plea to member Govts". Hindustan Times. p. 6.
  21. ^ "সর্বাত্মক সঙ্গী সোভিয়েত ইউনিয়ন" [All-round ally Soviet Union]. Samakal (in Bengali). 11 December 2018.
  22. ^ দেওয়ান মাহবুব আলীর ৫০তম মৃত্যুবার্ষিকী উপলক্ষে সরাইলে নাগরিক শোক সভা [Citizens hold mourning meeting in Sarail on the occasion of the 50th death anniversary of Dewan Mahbub Ali]. Jaijaidin (in Bengali). 4 June 2021.
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