Haji Mohammad Danesh: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Indian politician}}

{{EngvarB|date=March 2017}}

'''Hajee Mohammad Danesh''' (1900 – 28 June 1986) was a Bangladeshi politician and [[Communism|communist]] activist.

Hajee Mohammad Danesh was born to a [[Bengali Muslims|Bengali Muslim]] peasant family in the village of Sultanpur in the [[Dinajpur District, Bangladesh|Dinajpur district]] of what was then the [[Bengal Presidency]] of [[British India]], and now a part of Bangladesh.<ref name="F">{{cite book |last=Sarker |first=Mahfuzur Rahman |year=2012 |chapter=Danesh, (Hajee) Mohammad |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Danesh,_Hajee_Mohammad |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> Danesh studied at the [[Aligarh Muslim University]], where he obtained a master's degree in history in 1931.<ref name="C">{{cite book|title=The Quarterly Review of Historical Studies, Volume 34|pages=82–83|publisher=Institute of Historical Studies (Kolkata, India)|year=1994}}</ref> He also earned a degree in law in 1932 and joined the bar of the Dinajpur district court.<ref name="C"/>

In the 1930s, Danesh became active in the communist organisations of Bengal, especially the Bengal provincial organisation of the [[Communist Party of India]].<ref name="F"/> He was arrested twice in 1938 by the government of Bengal for his participation in the [[Tebhaga movement]], an agitation in northern Bengal against ''[[zamindars]]'' landlords for landless peasants and sharecroppers who sought a greater share of the yield, most of which was surrendered to the ''zamindars''.<ref name="F"/><ref name="C"/> Danesh was one of the few Muslim communist leaders of the struggle, and worked to mobilise the Muslim peasantry in favour of the movement.<ref name="D">{{cite book|title=Agrarian structure, movements and peasant organisations in India, Volume 1|publisher=V.V. Giri National Labour Institute|year=2004|isbn=978-81-7827-064-7}}</ref> In 1945, he joined the [[All India Muslim League]], but was later expelled for his participation in the continuing Tebagha movement, and re-arrested by the Bengal government in 1946.<ref name="F"/><ref name="E">{{cite book|title=The Quest for Modernity and the Bengali Muslims, 1921–1947|author= Soumitra Sinha|publisher= Minerva Associates|year=1995|isbn=978-81-85195-68-1}}</ref> After the partition of India and Bengal in 1947, Danesh remained in his home district of Dinajpur, which fell in Muslim-majority [[East Bengal]], which became part of the newly created Muslim state of [[Pakistan]]. Danesh briefly left active politics, to work as a professor of law at the Dinajpur Surendranath College.<ref name="F"/>

Hajee Mohammad Danesh died on 28 June 1986, in Dhaka.<ref name="F"/> The Agricultural Extension Training Institute was renamed in his honor as the [[Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University]].

[[Category:Bengali Muslims]]