Nahid Islam pays tribute to Jogen Mandal, Abul Hashim, invokes their politics for today’s Bangladesh

National Citizen Party (NCP) Convenor and Opposition Chief Whip Nahid Islam has paid tribute to Jogendranath Mandal and Abul Hashim on their death anniversaries, invoking the two political figures’ ideas on communal coexistence, social justice and Bengal’s political identity.

In a post on his verified Facebook page, Nahid described Mandal as a “national leader of Bengal,” a pioneer of the Dalit emancipation movement and one of the architects of the Pakistan movement.

Mandal, a Namasudra leader born in Barisal in 1904, allied with the Muslim League in pre-Partition Bengal, believing that Dalits and Bengali Muslims shared similar experiences of economic and social marginalisation.

Nahid highlighted Mandal’s political alliance with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his role in helping BR Ambedkar enter India’s Constituent Assembly from the Khulna-Jessore constituency.

Mandal later became Pakistan’s first law and labour minister.

Nahid said Mandal had trusted Jinnah’s pledge that Dalits would enjoy full political and human rights in Pakistan. That vision, however, eventually collapsed as Pakistan moved away from those commitments and minorities faced persecution.

Mandal resigned from the government in 1950 and subsequently moved to India.

“Pakistan’s communal policies and failure to honour its commitments shattered Jogen Mandal’s vision of a Dalit-Muslim alliance,” Nahid wrote.

But he argued that Mandal’s political thinking remained relevant, both in confronting Hindutva politics in the subcontinent and in imagining coexistence among Muslims, Hindus, Dalits and other communities in Bangladesh.

In the same Facebook post, Nahid also paid tribute to Abul Hashim, describing him as a “national leader of Bengal,” an architect of the idea of an independent, undivided Bengal and an important political thinker.

Hashim was a prominent Muslim League organiser who, alongside Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and others, became associated with the proposal for a sovereign, undivided Bengal during the turbulent period of 1946-47.

Nahid said Hashim’s politics went beyond the interests of a single party or religious community and sought political and economic emancipation for Bengal’s people.

He argued that Hashim’s legacy also carries significance for present-day Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s conception of the state, Nahid said, should not be confined solely to religious or linguistic identity, or to geopolitical structures inherited from colonial rule.

Instead, he called for a state vision grounded in the wider geography of the Bengal delta, its multiple languages and cultures, “Islam’s principles of equality and justice,” democracy and social justice.

“May Bengal’s sense of dignity, the sovereignty of its people and the aspiration to build a just and democratic state remain ever alive,” Nahid wrote.

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