Abul Mansur's 32nd anniversary of death today
Today is the 32nd death anniversary of Abul Mansur Ahmad, a renowned litterateur, journalist and politician of the sub-continent, says a press release. One of the greatest satirist of Bengali literature, Abul Mansur Ahmad was also a renowned politician, lawyer and a very powerful journalist. He worked for Krishak, Nabajug and was editor of the Ittehad published from Kolkata in 1946 in undivided Bengal. He was a pioneer in modern and progressive journalism. A very successful politician, Abul Mansur Ahmad was the provincial education minister in the United Front Cabinet under Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq and the central commerce and industries minister of the Awami League government of prime minister Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1957. He was known for his strong stand in matters of interest of East Bengal. Abul Mansur Ahmad's publications include great satires like Aina, Asmani Purdah, Gulliverer Safar Nama and Food Conference. His works also include great writings on social and political history of Bengal. He has two autobiographical writings -- Atma Katha (about myself) and Amar Dekha Rajnitir Panchash Bachar (50 years of politics as I saw it). Abul Mansur Ahmad always propagated secularism in a manner unparalleled in the forties, fifties and sixties. His contribution towards opposition movement in the early days of Pakistan was extremely significant. He was one of the early leaders of Awami League. He wrote about the language issue from early forties and contributed to the Language Movement as editor of Ittehad. He was the author of the famous Ekush Dafa (21 points programme) election manifesto of Jukta Front (a grand coalition of the three giants of our politics, Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq, Moulana Bhashani and Shaheed Suhrawardy) in 1954 election through which Muslim League was ousted from power. The Ekush Dafa was the first comprehensive articulation of the political, economic and cultural demands of the Bengalis of the then eastern part of Pakistan. For his political work, he suffered jail terms on several occasions during Gen Ayub Khan's Martial Law in the late fifties and early sixties. Bangla Academy has recently published three volumes of Abul Mansur's collected works. Three more volumes are under print.
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