Abbas Ali (3 January 1920 – 11 October 2014) was an Indian freedom fighter and politician who was a captain in the

Indian National Army The Indian National Army (INA; ''Azad Hind Fauj'' ; 'Free Indian Army') was a collaborationist armed force formed by Indian collaborators and Imperial Japan on 1 September 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. Its aim was to secure In ...

led by

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...

. Later he joined the Socialist movement and was a close associate of

Ram Manohar Lohia Ram Manohar Lohia ; (23 March 1910 – 12 October 1967) was an activist in the Indian independence movement and a socialist political leader. During the last phase of British rule in India, he worked with the Congress Radio which was broadcast ...

Personal life

Abbas Ali was born at

Khurja Khurja is a city (and a municipal board) in Bulandshahr district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated around 20 km from Bulandshahr, 85 km from Delhi. Khurja supplies a large portion of the ceramics used in the country, h ...

Bulandshahr Bulandshahr, formerly Baran, is a city and a municipal board in Bulandshahr district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Bulandshahr district and part of Delhi NCR region. According to the Governmen ...

district of Uttar Pradesh, on 3 January 1920 into a

Muslim Rajput Muslim Rajputs are the descendants of Rajputs of Northern regions of the Indian subcontinent who are followers of Islam. They converted from Hinduism to Islam from the medieval period in India onwards, retaining historically Hindu surnames suc ...

family. From his early days he was inspired by the revolutionary ideas of

Bhagat Singh Bhagat Singh (27 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was a charismatic Indian revolutionary* * who participated in the mistaken murder of a junior British police officer * * in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian national ...

and joined

Naujawan Bharat Sabha Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS, sometimes spelled Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha, with the acronym NJBS) ( Youth Society of India) was a left-wing Indian association that sought to foment revolution against the British Raj by gathering together worker and pe ...

, an organization founded by Singh and his colleagues while he was a high school student at Khurja. While pursuing his studies at

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

he came in contact with Kunwar Muhammed Ashraf and become member of the

All India Students Federation The All India Students' Federation (AISF) is the oldest surviving student organisation in India, founded in 1936. Pre-independence AISF was founded on 12 August 1936, with guidance and cooperation from the Indian independence movement. The ...

. On his inspiration to revolt in army he joined the British Indian Army in 1939. During his service in British Indian Army, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, he was posted at various officers training schools of India such as Bangalore, RIASC Depot Ferozpur (Punjab), Waziristan (N.W.F.P), Naushera (N.W.F.P) Khanpur Camp (Delhi), Bareilly Cantt (United Province), Bhiwandi Army training Camp (Maharashtra), Singapore, Ipoh, Penang, Kualalampur (Malaya), Arakan, and Rangoon (now Yangoon). In 1945 when Subhash Chandra Bose called for revolt he left the British Army and joined the Indian National Army (INA) or "Azad Hind Fauj" but later he was arrested, court-martialled and sentenced to death. When India gained independence in 1947 he was released by the Indian government.

Political life

In 1948 Abbas Ali joined the Socialist Party led by

Narendra Deva Acharya Narendra Deva (; also Dev; 30 October 1889 – 19 February 1956) was one of the leading theorists of the Congress Socialist Party in India. His democratic socialism renounced violent means as a matter of principle and embraced the ''saty ...

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' ( Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for l ...

and

and remained associated with all the Socialist streams namely the Socialist Party, Praja Socialist Party, Samyukta Socialist Party and Socialist Party until its merger with the Janata Party in 1977. He was General Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh unit of Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) in 1966-67, and of the Socialist Party in 1973-74, respectively and was member of the National Executive of the Socialist Party and of its Parliamentary board, 1974-77. In 1967 he played a key role in the formation of the first Non-Congress Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD) government in Uttar Pradesh led by

Charan Singh Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) served as the 5th Prime Minister of India between 28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980. Historians and people alike frequently refer to him as the 'champion of India's peasants.' Charan S ...

, who became Prime Minister of India in 1979. During the Socialist movement (1948–74) he was arrested more than fifty times in various civil disobedience movements. During the emergency (1975–77) he was imprisoned for 19 months under the Defense of India rule (DIR) and the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and when emergency was lifted in 1977 and Janata Party came into power he became first President of the Uttar Pradesh unit of Janata party. In 1978 he was elected to the UP Legislative Council for six years. He had been a member of UP Sunni Central Waqf Board for six years. He wrote his autobiography ''Na Rahoon Kisi ka Dastenigar-Mera Safarnama'' in 2008, which was released on 3 January 2009, on his ninetieth birthday in New Delhi by Shri Surendra Mohan, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ramjilal Suman, Saghir Ahmad and many other friends and colleagues. Ali died on 11 October 2014 at

Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College is the constituent medical college of Aligarh Muslim University, located in Aligarh, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. In September, 2014 researchers found deadly bacteria on the college premises. This is t ...

due to heart failure.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Abbas 2014 deaths Azad Hind Indian National Army personnel People from Bulandshahr district People from Aligarh Aligarh Muslim University alumni 1920 births