Dada Amir Haider Khan (2 March 1900– 27 December 1989) was a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

activist of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, and revolutionary during the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

.KARACHI: Memoirs of a global revolutionary
Dawn (newspaper), Published 6 December 2008, Retrieved 31 October 2020

Biography

Dada Amir Haider Khan was born in 1900 in a remote village called Saaliyah Umar Khan Union Council Samote, Tehsil Kallar Syedan in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

district. He was orphaned at an early age – losing both parents, then put in a

madrassah Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

. He ended up running away from his village at the age of 14. In 1914, he joined

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

merchant navy and left the shores of

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

as a coal-boy on a ship. He later transferred to the

United States Merchant Marine United States Merchant Marines are United States civilian mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, an ...

in 1918. It became apparent later that he joined both institutions to be able to travel all over the world so he could do some practical learning and gain some first-hand experiences of the world on his own and judge the real-world circumstances for himself. Consequently, he worked at dockyards and storehouses and became very street-smart. At this time, he met Joseph Mulkane, an

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...

who introduced him to anti-British political ideas. During his stay in USA, he was subjected to racist harassment and segregation attitudes when attempting to learn how to fly a plane in Southern Illinois, according to his memoirs. In 1920, he met Indian nationalists and

Ghadar Party The Ghadar Movement was an early 20th century, international political movement founded by expatriate Indians to overthrow British rule in India. The early movement was created by conspirators who lived and worked on the West Coast of the Unite ...

members in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He started distributing ''‘Ghadar ki Goonj’'' to Indians in sea ports around the world. He was dismissed from the ship after the great post-war strike of

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 ...

and worked and traveled inside the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He then became a political activist, worked with Anti-Imperialist League and the

Workers Party (United States) The Workers Party (WP) was a Third Camp Trotskyist group in the United States. It was founded in April 1940 by members of the Socialist Workers Party who opposed the Soviet invasion of Finland and Leon Trotsky's belief that the USSR under Josep ...

, which sent him to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

to study at the

University of the Toilers of the East The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) (russian: link=no, Коммунистический университет трудящихся Востока; also known as the Far East University) was a revolutionary training scho ...

. In 1928, he completed the University course in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and arrived in

in 1928. He established contact with S.V. Ghate,

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 ...

P.C. Joshi Puran Chand Joshi (14 April 1907 – 9 November 1980), one of the early leaders of the communist movement in India. He was the general secretary of the Communist Party of India from 1935 to 1947. Early years Joshi was born on 14 April 1907, in ...

B. T. Ranadive Bhalchandra Trimbak Ranadive (; 19 December 1904 – 6 April 1990), popularly known as BTR, was an Indian communist politician and trade union leader. Personal life He was elder brother of Ahilya Rangnekar, a CPI-M leader and 6th Lok Sa ...

Benjamin Francis Bradley Benjamin Francis Bradley (1898–1957) was a leading British communist and trade unionist who was accused of attempting to overthrow the British colonial authorities in India, leading to him being sentenced in the Meerut Conspiracy Trial. His i ...

and some other senior

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

. He also started to organise the workers of the textile industry in Bombay. In March 1929, he escaped arrest in the

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 ...

and made his way to Moscow to inform the

Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...

(Comintern) on the situation in India and seek their assistance. Dada attended the International Trade Union (Profintern) Congress as member of the presidium and also attended the 16th Congress of the CPSU in 1930. After his return to Bombay, he was sent to Madras to avoid arrest as still he was wanted in the Meerut Conspiracy Case. He carried on the political work all over South India under the pseudonym of ''Shankar''. He also set up the

Young Workers League The Young Communist League USA (YCLUSA) is a communist youth organization in the United States. The stated aim of the League is the development of its members into Communists, through studying Marxism–Leninism and through active participation ...

. In 1932, he was arrested by the British for bringing out a pamphlet praising the

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 nationa ...

Trio and sent to Muzzafargarh jail, then transferred to

Ambala Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala has two sub-area ...

jail. He had been labeled as the most dangerous individual by the British authorities. When he was released in 1938, he started open public political activity in Bombay. The left wing of Congress elected him to the

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 ...

(INC)'s Bombay Provincial Committee. He also attended the INC Annual General meeting in

Ramgarh Ramgarh may refer to: Bangladesh * Ramgarh Upazila, a sub-district of Khagrachari District India * Ramgarh, Bihar, a village near Munger, Bihar * Ramgarh, Kaimur, a town in Kaimur district, Bihar * Ramgarh, Uttarakhand, a hill station in Nainital ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

. He was re-arrested in 1939 as

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 opposin ...

broke out. Later interned in

Nashik Nashik (, Marathi: aːʃik, also called as Nasik ) is a city in the northern region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Situated on the banks of river Godavari, Nashik is the third largest city in Maharashtra, after Mumbai and Pune. Nashik ...

jail where Dada wrote the first part of his memoirs. In 1942, he was the last of the Communists to be released after People’s War thesis. He worked for the Trade Union in Mumbai. He also attended the Natrakona (Mymansingh)

All India Kisan Sabha All India Kisan Sabha ( AIKS; lit. ''All India Farmers Union'', also known as the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha), is the peasant or farmers' wing of the Communist Party of India, an important peasant movement formed by Sahajanand Saraswati in 19 ...

in 1944. Dada arrived in Rawalpindi on the eve of the

independence of Pakistan The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the per ...

to look after local party work in 1945. He organized a network all over Pakistan to hide, when wanted by the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

was the nucleus of his activities. In Lahore, he used to take refuge in the house of a Sufi saint named Hussain Baksh Malang. He also safely repatriated

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

families during the

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 ...

riots in 1947. In 1949, Dada was arrested from the Party office in Rawalpindi under the Communal Act and released after 15 months. He got re-arrested after a few months from Rawalpindi Kutchery (Rawalpindi court) for organizing the defense of Hassan Nasir and Ali Imam. When the Pakistani government launched operation as a result of the

Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case The Rawalpindi Conspiracy (also known as the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case) was an attempted ''coup d'état'' against the governments of Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, in 1951. The conspiracy was the first of many subsequen ...

, Dada was moved to

Lahore Fort The Lahore Fort ( ur, , lit=Royal Fort, translit=Shāhī Qilā, label=Punjabi language, Punjabi and Urdu) is a citadel in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. The fortress is located at the northern end of Walled City of Lahore, walled city Lahore, a ...

and imprisoned with

Faiz Ahmad Faiz Faiz Ahmad ''Faiz'' (13 February 1911 – 20 November 1984; Urdu, Punjabi: فیض احمد فیض) was a Pakistani poet, and author of Urdu and Punjabi literature. Faiz was one of the most celebrated Pakistani Urdu writers of his time. Out ...

, Fazal Din Qurban, Dada Feroz-ud-Din Mansoor, Syed Kaswar Gardezi, Haider Bux Jatoi, Sobo Gayan Chandani, Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal, Zaheer Kashmiri, Hameed Akhtar etc. He was released after campaign in ''

Pakistan Times ''Pakistan Times'' (1947–1996) was a Pakistani newspaper, originally established by the leftist Progressive Papers Limited based in Lahore, Pakistan. Historical background It was owned and operated by Mian Iftikharuddin, a Punjabi politici ...

'' and ''

Daily Imroze ''Daily Imroze'' ( ur, روزنامہ اِمروز) is an Urdu language newspaper in Pakistan published daily from Karachi. This is one of the oldest newspapers of Pakistan that originally started publishing from Lahore in the newly independent P ...

'', but restricted to his village. He was shifted to Rawalpindi, when suspected influencing the military soldiers from his area. In 1958, when General

Ayub Khan Ayub Khan is a compound masculine name; Ayub is the Arabic version of the name of the Biblical figure Job, while Khan or Khaan is taken from the title used first by the Mongol rulers and then, in particular, their Islamic and Persian-influenced s ...

imposed martial law in

, Dada was arrested and interned in Rawalpindi jail with

Afzal Bangash Mohammad Afzal Khan Bangash ( ps, محمد افضل بنګش; April 16, 1924 — October 28, 1986) was a Pashtun people, Pashtun Marxist political activist serving as an office-bearer in the National Awami Party (NAP), and later, along with his col ...

, Kaka Sanober and other comrades. Dada spent his twilight years in the 1970s and 1980s in Rawalpindi, but whenever he found the time, he used to visit Lahore to meet his intimate friend Hussain Baksh Malang. He donated his own land, and with his own labour, built a boys' high school in his village, then built a girls school together with a science laboratory. These schools were later approved by the government and placed under government control.

Death and legacy

Dada Amir Haider Khan died on 27 December 1989 in

, Pakistan. There is hardly any book available that describes and records for the future generations the experiences of an Indian and events of his time (early 20th century) from a progressive viewpoint. Dada discusses

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

Port Said Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 6 ...

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

and

of his youthful days in a candid manner in his memoirs. A seminar was held in Karachi, in December 2008, to eulogise the role of this revolutionary. The seminar highlighted how Dada Amir Haider Khan played a role in spreading communist revolution across the world even though he and other communists like him have been banned from the history books of Pakistan. This seminar was organised by the

University of Karachi The University of Karachi ( sd, ; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (whic ...

's 'Pakistan Studies Centre'.Celebrating legendary revolutionaries: Activists vow to continue struggle
The Express Tribune (newspaper), Published 1 May 2016, Retrieved 31 October 2020

Bibliography

* ''Chains to Lose: Life and Struggles of a Revolutionary : Memoirs of Dada Amir Haider Khan'', Hassan Gardezi, Patriot Publishers, 1989. . * ''Chains to Lose: Dada Amir Haider''. Edited by Hasan.N.Gardezi. Pakistan Study Centre, Karachi University, 2007. (Two Volumes). * ''Bengali Harlem and the lost histories of South Asian America'', Vivek Bald, Harvard University Press, 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Dada Amir Haider 1900 births 1989 deaths Indian independence activists from Pakistan Pakistani communists People from Kallar Syedan Tehsil People from Rawalpindi District