Jogendra Nath Mandal

Jogendra Nath Mandal

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Jogendra Nath Mandal

Minister of Law and Justice

In office

15 August 1947 – 8 October 1950

Monarch George VI

Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Khawaja Nazimuddin

Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan

Minister of Labour

In office

15 August 1947 – 8 October 1950

Monarch George VI

President Liaquat Ali Khan

Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Khawaja Nazimuddin

Minister of Commonwealth and Kashmir Affairs

In office

1 October 1949 – 8 October 1950

Monarch George VI

Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Khawaja Nazimuddin

Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan

Personal details

Born 29 January 1904

Bengal, British India

Died 5 October 1968 (aged 64)

Bangaon, West Bengal, India

Citizenship British Indian (1904–1947)

Pakistani (1947–1950)

Indian (1950-1968)

Nationality Indian/Pakistani

Political party Muslim League

Occupation Politician

Jogendra Nath Mandal (Bengali: যোগেন্দ্রনাথ মণ্ডল; 29 January 1904 – 5 October 1968), was one of the central and leading Founding Fathers[1][2] of modern state of Pakistan, and legislator serving as country's first minister of law and labour, and also was second minister of commonwealth and Kashmir affairs.[3] An Indian and later Pakistani statesman who served as the first minister of law and labour in Pakistan. As leader of the Scheduled Castes (Dalits), Jogendranath had made common cause with the Muslim League in their demand [citation needed] for Pakistan, hoping that the Scheduled Castes would be benefited from it and joined the first cabinet in Pakistan as the Minister of Law and Labour. He migrated to India a few years after partition [4] after submitting his resignation to Liaquat Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, citing the perceived anti-Hindu bias of Pakistani administration. [5][6]

Early life

Jogendra Nath Mandal was born in Barisal district of what was then Bengal Presidency, British India, present Bangladesh in 1904. Little is known of his early years other than that he was from a family of the Namasudra community. The Namasudras were considered to be outside the Hindu caste system but had begun a movement to claim a status within it.[7]

Political career in India (1937-1947)

Mandal began his political career as an independent candidate in the Indian provincial assembly elections of 1937. He contested Bakharganj North East Rural constituency for a seat in the Bengal legislative assembly and defeated Saral Kumar Dutta, the president of the district committee of the Indian National Congress (INC) and nephew of the Swadeshi leader, Ashwini Kumar Dutta.[7]

Mandal was considerably influenced around this time by both Subhas Chandra Bose and Sarat Chandra Bose. When the former was expelled from the INC in 1940, Mandal became involved with the Muslim League (ML), which was the only other significant national party, and became a minister in the cabinet of the ML chief minister, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.[7]

It was also around this time that Mandal and B. R. Ambedkar established the Bengal branch of the Scheduled Castes Federation, which itself aspired to political power. While the Namasudra community was being courted by the Hindu Mahasabha, and politics in the province was dominated by the oppressed Dalit and Muslim people, Mandal saw a distinction between communal affairs and political disputes involving the INC and ML. When rioting broke out in 1946, he traveled around East Bengal to urge Dalit people not to participate in violence against Muslims. He argued that the Dalits were being used as pawns by caste Hindus of the INC in their dispute with the ML.[7]

Political career in Pakistan (1947-1950)

Following the partition of British India on 15 August 1947, Mandal became a member and temporary chairman of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, and agreed to serve as the new state's first Minister for Law and Labour – becoming the highest-ranking Hindu member of the government.[citation needed] From 1947 to 1950 he lived in the port city of Karachi, the then capital of Pakistan.

Return to India (1950)

In 1950, Mandal came back to India after submitting his resignation to Liaquat Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, citing the perceived anti-Hindu bias of Pakistani administration.[8][9][10] He mentioned incidents related to social injustice and biased attitude towards non-Muslim minorities in his resignation letter.[11]