Muzaffar Ahmad (known as Kakababu; 5 August 1889 – 18 December 1973) was an

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

i politician, journalist and a co-founder of

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 ...

Background

Ahmed was born at Musapur village in

Sandwip Island Sandwip ( bn, সন্দ্বীপ, Shondip) is an island located along the southeastern coast of Bangladesh in the Chattogram District. Along with the island of Urir Char, it is a part of the Sandwip Upazila. Description Sandwip is locate ...

Chittagong District Chittagong District, renamed the Chattogram District, is a district located in the south-eastern region of Bangladesh. It is a part of the Chattogram Division. The port city of Chattogram, which is the second largest city in Bangladesh, is ...

of Bengal Province in the-then

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(in present-day Bangladesh) to Mansur Ali and Chuna Bibi. Ahmed studied at the Asria Senior Madrasa in Bamni,

Companiganj Companiganj ( bn, কোম্পানীগঞ্জ) is an upazila of Noakhali District. The area is famed for ''water buffalo doi (curd)''. History The Port of Jugdia (presently in Sirajpur Union) gained relevance as an important commercial se ...

. He passed matriculation from

Noakhali Zilla School Noakhali Zilla School ( bn, নোয়াখালী জিলা স্কুল) is a boy's high school located in the Maijdee town of Noakhali, Bangladesh. It is one of the oldest schools in the country. The school was established in 1850.(EI ...

in 1913. In 1918, he was appointed joint secretary of " Bangio Musalman Sahitya Samiti". In 1920, along with Kazi Nazrul Islam he started a new magazine, '' Nabajug''. Later, when another magazine, '' Dhumketu'' was launched by Nazrul in 1922, he contributed to it using the pseudonym "Dwaipayana".

Political movement

Ahmed was one of the founders of the

. In 1922, the ''Bharat Samyatantra Samiti'' was formed in

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 ...

with Ahmed as its secretary. In 1924, he was sentenced to four years in prison because of his role in the

Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case The Kanpur Bolshevik conspiracy case was a controversial court case initiated in British India in 1924. After Peshawar in 1922, two more conspiracy cases were instituted by the British government, one in Kanpur (1924) and Meerut (1929). The acc ...

along with

S.A. Dange Shripad Amrut Dange (10 October 1899 – 22 May 1991) was an Indian Politician who was a founding member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and a stalwart of Indian trade union movement. During the 20th century, Dange was arrested by the ...

, Nalini Gupta and

Shaukat Usmani Shaukat Usmani (Maulla Bux Usta) (1901–1978) was an early Indian communist, who was born to artistic USTA family of Bikaner and a member of the émigré Communist Party of India (Tashkent group), established in Tashkent in 1920, and a founding ...

. He was released due to illness in 1925. In November, 1925 he, along with Kazi Nazrul Islam,

Hemanta Kumar Sarkar Hemanta Kumar Sarkar ( bn, হেমন্তকুমার সরকার) (1897 — 3 November 1952) was an Indian philologist, author, biographer, editor, publisher, union leader, leader of the Indian freedom movement and an associate of Su ...

, and others, organized the

Labour Swaraj Party Workers and Peasants Party may refer to: * Workers and Peasants Party (Egypt) *Workers and Peasants Party (France) *Workers and Peasants Party (India) * Workers' and Peasants' Party (Japan) *Workers' and Peasants' Party (Liechtenstein) The Worke ...

in Bengal. He was one of the main leaders of CPI in the early 1920s along with

Abdul Halim ʻAbd al-Ḥalīm (ALA-LC romanization of ar, عبد الحليم) is a male Muslim given name, and in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' ʻabd'' and ''al-Ḥalīm'', one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which gives rise ...

and

Abdur Rezzak Khan Abdur Rezzak Khan (1900–1984) Bengali anti-British freedom fighter, communist revolutionary and politician. He was a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1969. Background He was born in June 1900 at Hakimpur, 24 parganas of Beng ...

. On 20 March 1929, the British colonial government arrested 31 labour activists and sent them to Meerut for trial. Ahmed was the chief accused, along with S.A. Dange, Shaukat Usmani, P.C. Joshi and others, was convicted in this so-called

Meerut Conspiracy Case The Meerut Conspiracy Case was a controversial court case that was initiated in British Raj in March 1929 and decided in 1933. Several trade unionists, including three Englishmen, were arrested for organizing an Indian railway strike. The Bri ...

. He was released in 1936. He had served the longest term in jail as the chief accused in the Meerut Trial. Meerut prisoners outside the jail

After 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: ...

in 1947, Ahmed moved to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

rather than staying 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 ...

(now Bangladesh). On 25 March 1948, the

was banned by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

and Ahmed was imprisoned. He was released from prison in 1951. He was again arrested and imprisoned for two years in 1962, and another time for two years in 1965. He was imprisoned several times in post-

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

India by the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

government.

Personal life

Ahmed had a daughter, Nargis. She was married to the poet

Abdul Quadir Abdul Quadir (1 June 1906 – 19 December 1984) was a Bangladeshi poet, essayist, and journalist. He was the recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1963 and Ekushey Padak in 1976. Early life and education Quadir was born in the village of ...

Legacy

* Co-founder of

, 26 December 1925. * Founder of National Book Agency, 26 June 1939. * The headquarters of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

is named after him. * Ripon Street, a thoroughfare in

, was renamed "Muzaffar Ahmad Street".

Selected works

* ''Qazi Nazrul Islam: Smritikatha'' (in Bengali). * ''Amar Jiban O Bharater Communist Party'' (in Bengali). * ''Krishak Samasya'' (in Bengali) * ''Prabase Bharater Communist Party Gathan'' (in Bengali) * ''Bharater Communist Party Gorar Pratham Jug'' (in Bengali) * ''Nirbachita Prabandha'' (in Bengali)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed, Muzaffar (politician) 1973 deaths 1889 births People from Sandwip Upazila Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians Indian male journalists Bengali communists 20th-century Indian journalists Hooghly Mohsin College alumni Prisoners and detainees of British India