Jiban Ratan Dhar (April 1889 – 19 January 1963) was an Indian politician. He headed the municipality of

Jessore Jessore ( bn, যশোর, jôshor, ), officially Jashore, is a city of Jessore District situated in Khulna Division. It is situated in the south-western part of Bangladesh. It is the administrative centre (headquarter) of the eponymous district ...

during the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

, represented the Bangaon constituency in the

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian states and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is located in the B. B. D. Bagh area of Kolkata, the capital of the state. Members of the Legislative as ...

twice and served as Minister for Jails and Health in the state government.

Youth

Dhar was the son of Prasanna Kumar Dhar, a lawyer. Dhar went to school in

and

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. In 1913 he set up a students' mess at 110 College Street,

. He obtained his

Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

degree in Calcutta in 1916. He joined the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

as a Commissioned Officer during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1916. On 18 September 1916 he was named Lieutenant in the

Indian Medical Service The Indian Medical Service (IMS) was a military medical service in British India, which also had some civilian functions. It served during the two World Wars, and remained in existence until the independence of India in 1947. Many of its officer ...

. He remained an officer until 1926, reaching the rank of captain.

Independence struggle and Partition

During the struggle for Indian independence, Dhar was jailed in 1930, 1941 and 1942. He was a member of the

All India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from state-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousan ...

1930–1950. He served as president of the Jessore Congress District Committee for 15 years. Between 1946 and 1950 he served as chairman of the Jessore municipality. He played a key role in the Bengali language movement in Jessore in 1948 and was the chairman of the National Language Action Committee of Jessore. Dhar migrated to India in 1950 and settled in

Bangaon Bangaon is a city and a municipality in North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bangaon subdivision. Geography Location Bangaon is located at . It has an average elevation of 7 m ...

. Whilst Dhar had wished to stay in

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

, he felt obliged to leave as he was threatened with being arrested.

Minister

Dhar won the Bangaon constituency in the

in the

1952 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election The West Bengal State Assembly Election of 1952 was a part of the series of Legislative Assembly elections in 1952. Alliances On the political left, two alliances had emerged the United Socialist Organisation of India (an alliance between th ...

, standing as an

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

. Dhar obtained 7,510 votes (37.34%), defeating the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

candidate Ajit Kumar Ganguly, and independent candidate Mosharraf Hossain. He served as Minister for Jails 1952–1957, first as Deputy Minister until 1956 and then as Cabinet Minister. Dhar, himself a former prisoner, made frequent visits to the jails and advocated resocialization of prisoners. Dhar lost his seat in the assembly in the

1957 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election The West Bengal state assembly election of 1957 was part of a series of state assembly elections in 1957. State Reorganization On 1 November 1956, under States Reorganisation Act, 1956, a portion of the Purnea district east of the river Maha ...

. He obtained 35,809 votes (41.83%), but was defeated by Ajit Kumar Ganguly (CPI) by a margin of around 10,000 votes. As of 1958 he served as Vice President of the

West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC), formerly known as the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee in Colonial India, is the unit of the Indian National Congress for the state of West Bengal. The head office of the organization is ...

. He was the president of the

24 Parganas 24 Parganas district (''cabbiś pargaṇā jēlā'') is a former district of the Indian state of West Bengal. The district was split into two districts — North 24 Parganas district and South 24 Parganas district, with effect from 1 March 1 ...

Congress Committee 1958–1960. Dhar regained the Bangaon seat in the

1962 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly elections was held in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1962. Parties Ahead of the polls, the Communist Party of India, the All India Forward Bloc, the Marxist Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Communist Party of India, the B ...

. He obtained 33,220 votes (56.88%). He was named Minister of Health in the West Bengal state government of

Bidhan Chandra Roy Bidhan Chandra Roy (1 July 1882 – 1 July 1962) was an Indian physician, educationist, and statesman who served as Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1948 until his death in 1962. Roy played a key role in the founding of several institutio ...

in 1962.

Death

Dhar died at the

SSKM Hospital IPGMER and SSKM Hospital, or in its full name Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital, colloquially known as P.G. Hospital (Presidency General Hospital), also known as PGI Kolkata, is ...

in Calcutta on 19 January 1963 after a long period of illness. In 1964 the government of West Bengal renamed the Bangaon Subdivisional Hospital as the "Bangaon Dr. Jiban Ratan Dhar Subdivisional Hospital" in his memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhar, Jiban 1889 births 1963 deaths Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal West Bengal MLAs 1951–1957 People from Jessore District Politicians from Khulna Division Mayors of places in Pakistan State cabinet ministers of West Bengal 20th-century Indian medical doctors Medical doctors from Kolkata West Bengal MLAs 1962–1967 Pakistani emigrants to India