Jogendra Nath Mandal

Jogendra Nath Mandal Biography

Jogendra Nath Mandal, born in East Bengal, India was one of the leading Founding Fathers of Pakistan. He was Pakistan’s first labour and law minister, and also was a leader of the Scheduled Castes and an ally of the Muslim League. He belonged to Namasudra community, who were considered to be outside the Hindu caste system. Though he stayed in Pakistan for many years, he returned back to India because of anti-Hindu bias of Pakistani administration.

Jogendra Nath Mandal was born in Barisal district of Bengal Presidency, British India on 29 January 1904. His birthplace now belongs to Bangladesh. Little is known about his childhood days. He started his active political career in 1937 when he successfully contested Bakharganj North East Rural constituency in the Bengal legislative assembly. He defeated INC candidate, Saral Kumar Dutta. He was influenced a lot by Bengali leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose and Sarat Chandra Bose in those days. It was around that time when Mandal and B. R. Ambedkar established the Bengal branch of the Scheduled Castes Federation. Later he felt that dalits are being used as pawns by upper caste Hindus to fight against Muslims, and for the same reason he argued that the Dalits should not participate in violence against Muslims.

When the Muslim League joined the Interim Government of India in 1946, Jinnah nominated Mandal as one of the League's 5 representatives. Later he became one of the 69 founding members of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. When Pakistan was formed in 1947, he became the Minister for Law and Labour. After witnessing the step-motherly conduct of the Pakistani state towards its Hindu citizens he moved back to India in 1950 and submitted his resignation to Liaquat Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan. He spent the rest of his life at West Bengal. He passed away on 5 October 1968 aged 64.

Published: February 15, 2019

Updated: February 15, 2019