Sheikh Osman Ali Sadagar ( as, শেখ ওছমান আলী সদাগৰ, bn, শেখ ওছমান আলী সওদাগর; 1856 – 28 April 1948) was a politician, cultivator and educationist. He served as a member of the inaugural

Assam Legislative Assembly The Assam Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Assam. It is housed in Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, geographically situated in present Western Assam region. The Legislative Assembly comprises 126 Me ...

, and opposed the integration of Assam into the

Dominion of Pakistan Between 14 August 1947 and 23 March 1956, Pakistan was an independent federal dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations, created by the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947 by the British parliament, which also created the Dominion of I ...

. Sadagar is considered to be a pioneer of the cultural and linguistic Assamisation of the Miya community. The Chor Chapori Literary Council named the Osman Ali Sadagar Honorary Award in his memory.

Early life and migration

Sadagar was born into a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...

family in the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

Career

In 1885, he migrated to Alitangani in Nowgong,

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

with the help of his uncle, Nazrul Ali. Ali was working in the steam ships that flowed through the rivers of Bengal and Assam at the time. He participated in the

Battle of Patharughat Patharighat, previously known as Patharughat, is a place in Assam, India. It is one of the revenue circles in Darrang district. The place is famous for the event of 1894, popularly known as ''Patharughatar Ran'' (Battle of Patharughat). After the ...

of 1894 where he got injured. In 1902, Sadagar founded a primary school in Alitangani, Nowgong. According to doctoral researcher Hafiz Ahmed, the school was the second Assamese-medium institution from the Bengal-origin Muslim migrant community of Assam. Sadagar was also a member of the

Asam Sahitya Sabha The Asam Sahitya Sabha (; Literary Society of Assam) is a non Government, non profit, literary organisation of Assam. It was founded in December 1917 in Assam, India to promote the culture of Assam and Assamese literature. A branch of the organi ...

, partaking in its inaugural 1917 session where he donated 10

British Indian rupee British trading posts in the Indian subcontinent were first established by the East India Company (EIC) early in the seventeenth century, which quickly evolved into larger colonies covering a significant part of the subcontinent. Early settlement ...

s (today equivalent to 130

American dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

s) to it. He independently contested in the first Assam legislative elections in 1937, and was successfully elected as a member of the

from the Nagaon constituency. In the politics of Assam, Sadagar opposed both ethnic Assamese politician

Muhammed Saadulah Sir Syed Muhammad Saadulla KCIE ( as, ছাৰ ছৈয়দ মহম্মদ ছাদুল্লাহ; 21 May 1885 – 8 January 1955) was the Prime Minister of Assam in British India. He was also the chairman of Gauhati Municipalit ...

and the ethnic Bengali politician

Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani (12 December 1880 – 17 November 1976), often shortened as Maulana Bhashani, was a Bengali politician. His political tenure spanned the British colonial India, Pakistan and Bangladesh periods. Maulana Bhashani was pop ...

. He later left the

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when a group of prominent Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests on the Indian subcontin ...

entirely. Under his leadership, five independent Muslim politicians represented themselves in the assembly, who all opposed the Muslim League's plans to integrate Assam into the

Death and legacy

Sadagar died in

. His son, Abdul Shahid, was also a politician. In 2019, false NRC claims were made against his descendants. Among those that defended them was the Leader of the Opposition

Debabrata Saikia Debabrata Saikia ( Assamese: দেবব্ৰত শইকীয়া; born 14 December 1964) is an Assamese politician. He is the incumbent Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly. Saikia was elected to the Assam Legislative ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadagar, Osman Ali People from Nagaon district Assam MLAs 1937–1946 20th-century Bengalis 19th-century Bengalis 1856 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Indian Muslims 19th-century Indian Muslims Bengali Muslims