বাংলার রাজনীতিতে ভিন্ন রাজনৈতিক ভাবনার নায়ক যোগেন্দ্রনাথ মণ্ডল : একটি ঐতিহাসিক সমীক্ষা / Jogendranath Mandal, a diverse thinker of Bengal Politics in mid-20th centuary : a historical review

Abstract

The political elite in East Bengal were drawn largely from an emerging middle-class lawyers, teachers and journalists- not landlords and trible chieftains. Bengalees were devided into so many caste, creed and groups. A sizeable nationalist served our nation for uprooting the colonial power. Jagendranath Mandal was a peominent schedule caste leader from Bengal and a significant figure in South Asian political history in mid twentieth centuary. After completing his study, Jogen Mandal practised law briefly but soon he entered politics to fight caste discrimination and advance the rights of Dalits. He was a teaching figure in organising the schedule caste in Bengal and became a member of the Bengal legislative Assembly in 1937 as an independent candidate. He founded and led the Bengal branch of All India Schedulted caste freedom. Jagen Mandal also worked closely with national leaders like B.R Amedkar to secure political space for dalit. But a significant change in his political ideology has been seen in late 1930’s and 1940’s. He started to believe that alliance with Muslim league would best serve Dalit interest in Bengali’s communal politics. After partition of India he migrated to Pakistan and served as 1^st minister of law and labour of Pakistan Government. History cannot remain silent on this political action of Jagendranath Mandal. He emerged as a major leader of namasudra community, advocating for social equality and political representation. He also believed that muslim-dalit co-operation could prolect marginalised untouchable hindus in muslim majority Bengal. Being a nationalist, he changed his outlook. He gradualy understood that the upper caste hindus dominated congress politics and they are not so much worried about schedule castes, namasudras and Bengali peasants. That is why Jogen Mandal left Indian natonal congress and gradually became the align of muslim league because he hoped that Dalits would gain safely and equality. But he became disappointed within a few days of becoming cabinet minister of Pakistan. In 1950, he resigned from the ministery and returned India and a great chapter of namasudra movement came into an end.