Abu Hussain Sarkar ( bn, আবু হোসেন সরকার; 1894 – 17 April 1969) was a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the ...

politician and lawyer. He served as the fourth chief minister of East Pakistan. Under his ministry, the

Bangla Academy The Bangla Academy ( bn, বাংলা একাডেমি, ) is an autonomous institution funded by the Government of Bangladesh, Bangladesh government to foster the Bengali language, literature and culture, to develop and implement nationa ...

was inaugurated and 21 February was recognised as ''

Shohid Dibosh Language Movement Day ( bn, ভাষা আন্দোলন দিবস ''Bhasha Andolôn Dibôs''), also called State Language Day or Language Martyrs' Day ( bn, শহীদ দিবস ''Shôhid Dibôs''), is a national holiday of Banglades ...

'' in memory of the Bengali Language Movement.

Early life and education

Sarkar was born in 1894, to 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 se ...

family in

Sadullapur Sahdullahpur is a village in Bihar in the Vaishali district. It is about five kilometers from the nearest town, Lalganj, Bihar, Lalganj. The name of its Panchayati raj in India, panchayat is the name of the village Sahdullahpur. The village is n ...

, Gaibandha, which was then under the

Rangpur District Rangpur ( bn, রংপুর) is a district in Northern Bangladesh. It is a part of the Rangpur Division. Geography Under the Rangpur Division (one of eight divisions) composed of eight districts of northern Bangladesh, the District of Rangpur ...

of 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 ...

. He was involved in the

Swadeshi movement The Swadeshi movement was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of 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 ...

, which disrupted his education and led to his arrest in 1911. He was later released and passed his matriculation in 1915. He then studied further, gaining a

Bachelor of Law Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

degree.

Career

Sarkar started his law practice in the Rangpur

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (un ...

. He joined 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 ...

but left it over differences. In 1935, he joined A K Fazlul Huq's

Krishak Praja Party The Krishak Sramik Party ( bn, কৃষক শ্রমিক পার্টি, ''Farmer Labourer Party'') was a major anti-feudal political party in the British Indian province of Bengal and later in the Dominion of Pakistan's East Bengal an ...

. He contested in the 1937 Bengal legislative elections, winning in the Gaibandha North constituency. After the independence of Pakistan, Sarkar played an important role in the formation of Krishak Sramik Party in 1953. In 1953, he was elected to the East Bengal Provincial Assembly from the United Front. In 1955 he held the post of minister of health in the government of Chaudhry Muhammad Ali. In June 1955, Sarkar was elected the chief minister of East Bengal. His government made 21 February as

and a public holiday. He started the construction of

Central Shaheed Minar The Shaheed Minar ( bn, শহীদ মিনার ''Shohid Minar'' lit. "Martyr Monument") is a national monument in Dhaka, Bangladesh, established to commemorate those killed during the Bengali Language Movement demonstrations of 1952 in ...

. As chief minister he also inaugurated the

. He resigned on 30 August 1956 over inflation of food grains and subsequent food shortages. From 1956 to 1958, Sarkar was the president of the Krishak Sramik Party and the leader of the opposition party. He played an important role in the formation of

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...

led by

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy ( bn, হোসেন শহীদ সোহ্‌রাওয়ার্দী; ur, ; 8 September 18925 December 1963) was a Bengali barrister and politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 t ...

. He campaigned for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.

Death

Sarkar died on 17 April 1969 in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

in the then

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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarkar, Abu Hussain 1894 births 1969 deaths People of East Pakistan Federal ministers of Pakistan Bengali politicians Krishak Sramik Party politicians Date of birth missing 20th-century Bengalis People from Gaibandha District Bengal MLAs 1937–1945 Chief Ministers of East Pakistan