Venu ji yes at 00:35, 22 March 2026

2026-03-22T00:35:03Z

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{{Short description|Pakistani politician}}
{{use Pakistani English|date=May 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Dhirendranath Datta
| native_name = ধীরেন্দ্রনাথ দত্ত دھریندر ناتھ دتا
| native_name_lang = bn
| image = Dhirendranath datta.jpg
| caption =
| office = [[Ata ministry|Health and Social Welfare Minister of East Pakistan]]
| term_start = 19 September 1956
| term_end = 7 October 1958
| predecessor =
| successor =
| office1 = [[Leader of the Opposition (Pakistan)|Leader of the Opposition of Pakistan]]
| term_start1 = 7 May 1948
| term_end1 = 7 July 1955
| leader1 = [[Liaquat Ali Khan]] [[Khawaja Nazimuddin]] [[Mohammad Ali Bogra]]
| predecessor1 = [[Kiran Shankar Roy]]
| successor1 = [[Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy]]
| office2 = [[Leader of the Opposition (East Pakistan)|Leader of the Opposition of East Bengal]]
| term_start2 = 15 March 1948
| term_end2 = 7 May 1948
| leader2 = [[Khwaja Nazimuddin]]
| predecessor2 = ''position created''
| successor2 = [[Basanta Kumar Das (Pakistani politician)|Basanta Kumar Das]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1886|11|2}}
| birth_place = [[Brahmanbaria]], [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date =
| death_place =
| citizenship = [[British Raj|British India]] (1886-1947) [[Pakistan]] (1947-1971) [[Bangladesh]] (1971)
| occupation = {{hlist|Lawyer|politician}}
| party = [[Pakistan National Congress]]
}}
'''Dhirendranath Datta''' (2 November 1886 – disappeared 29 March 1971)<ref name="dream">{{cite web |url=http://opinion.bdnews24.com/2016/11/02/dhirendranath-duttaour-dream-maker/ |title=Dhirendranath Dutta...our dream maker |publisher=bdnews24.com |type=Opinion |date=2 November 2016 |access-date=2 November 2016 |author=Ahsan, Syed Badrul}}</ref>
was a [[Bengali people|Bengali]] lawyer and politician from [[East Bengal]] who was a member of the 1st [[Constituent Assembly of Pakistan]]. He is best known for proposing [[Bengali language|Bengali]] for the national language of Pakistan in the Assembly. He was also active in the politics of undivided [[Bengal]] in [[Partition of India|pre-partition]] India.<ref name=pedia>{{cite web |last1=Salam |first1=Muhammad Abdus |title=Datta, Dhirendranath |url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Datta,_Dhirendranath |website=Banglapedia |access-date=26 July 2015}}</ref>

==Early life==
Datta was born in an aristocratic [[Kayastha]] family on 2 November 1886 in [[Ramrail]], in [[Brahmanbaria District]],<ref name="Prothom">{{cite news |date=3 November 2007 |script-title=bn:শ্রদ্ধাঞ্জলি:এই দেশ এই মাটি যাঁর অস্তিত্ব |trans-title=A Tribute to this Country |work=[[Prothom Alo]] |language=bn}}</ref> Bengal Province (in today's Bangladesh). His father Jagabandhu Datta was a mukhtiyer (lower ranked pleader) who introduced Dhirendranath to the legal profession from an early age. Dhirendranath completed matriculation from [[Comilla Zilla School]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} He graduated from [[Surendranath College|Ripon College]] in 1908.<ref name="Nuruzzaman1968">{{cite book |last=Nuruzzaman |first=Mohammad |title=Who's Who |year=1968 |publisher=The Eastern Publications |oclc=46205 |pages=274–275}}</ref> Later he obtained a law degree from [[Calcutta University]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

==Early career==
Datta began his career as a school teacher after passing intermediate, he eventually became assistant headmaster of the Bangora High school in [[Comilla]]. After obtaining law degree, he started law practice as an advocate. He joined the [[Comilla District Bar Association]] in 1911. Quite early in his legal career, he established himself as a successful lawyer in the Comilla district. He practiced law earnestly and uninterruptedly from 1911 to 1920. Dhirendranath's reputation as a lawyer was akin to legend due to the service he provided for the poor.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rahman |first=Mohammad Afzalur |title=Dhirendranath Dutta: Portrait of a patriot |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/views/in-focus/news/dhirendranath-dutta-portrait-patriot-2224291 |work=The Daily Star |date=8 November 2021}}</ref> He continued to practice until he was advised to give up his profession in favor of politics by his political comrade [[Chittaranjan Das]]. He was very active in the local community and was a leader of the relief effort following devastating floods in 1915. He formed the ''Mukti Sangha'', a welfare organization, after becoming inspired by [[Mahatma Gandhi]]. Datta's relief work continued up to the [[Bengal Famine of 1943]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

==Political activism==
Along with many politically active Bengalis of his time, Datta took a firm stand following the [[Bengal Partition of 1905]]. He chose to vehemently oppose partition, working closely with other anti-partition activists such as [[Surendranath Banerjee]] and [[Rabindranath Tagore]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} He took part in the [[Non-cooperation movement (1919–1922)|Non-cooperation movement]] in 1921. He was imprisoned multiple times, including in 1932 for 13 months.<ref name="Nuruzzaman1968" />

Datta joined the [[Indian National Congress]] and was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1937. He was imprisoned for 9 months for his participation in the [[Quit India]] movement of 1942. He was reelected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1946.<ref name="Nuruzzaman1968" />

Datta firmly opposed the creation of Pakistan and partition of India on religious lines; but when it became clear that partition of Bengal was inevitable and that his home district of Comilla would be in the new Muslim majority state, he opted to remain in [[East Bengal]] (unlike many other Hindu leaders), and as a result, was invited to be part of the constitutional committee to draft the legislative framework of the new country before the actual independence of Pakistan.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

===The Pakistan era===
Datta continued to represent his constituency as a Hindu member of the renamed [[Pakistan National Congress]] (seats were allocated by a quota according to religion). On 23 February 1948 in the Pakistan Constituent Assembly in [[Karachi]], he made a speech calling for Bengali to be made one of the official languages of Pakistan,<ref name="Banglapedia">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Language_Movement |title=Language Movement |encyclopedia=Banglapedia – The National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh |access-date=26 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307033428/http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Language_Movement |archive-date=7 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> in what was to become the action he will be most remembered for by his compatriots.

In 1954, he moved an adjournment motion against the declaration of Governor's Rule in East Pakistan, and was seen as the ''de facto'' face of protest and democracy.

[[File:1954 east bengal cabinet.jpg|thumb|Datta at the 1954 cabinet standing second from right]]

He served as the Minister of Health and Social Welfare (East Pakistan) in [[Ataur Rahman Khan]]'s cabinet (1956). Because of his alleged links to the emerging underground Bengali Nationalist movement, supposed members of which included [[Sheikh Mujibur Rahman]], he was barred from participation in national election through the imposition of EBDO (Elective Bodies Disqualification Order). After this, he refrained from active politics but kept on supporting the rising nationalist movement from behind.

==Assassination by the Pakistan Army==
Due to Datta's continued defiance of state discrimination and authoritarianism in Pakistan, at the onset of the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]], three days after the arrest of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Datta was arrested at his house in Comilla on 29 March 1971, and taken with his son, Dilip Kumar Datta, to [[Moynamoti]] Cantonment and [[torture]]d to death.<ref name="Prothom"/> For this reason, he is referred to as "Shaheed buddhijibi" (martyred intellectual) as a sign of respect.<ref name=pedia/>

==Personal life==
Datta had 2 sons, Sanjib and Dilip Kumar Datta.<ref name=dream/>

==See also==
*[[Shaheed Dhirendranath Datta Stadium]]

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [http://www.nvo.com/ghosh_research/nss-folder/historyoflanguageday/ Article on the history of the Bangladesh Language Movement]

{{Language Movement}}
{{1971 Bangladesh genocide}}
{{Liberation of Bangladesh}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Datta, Dhirendranath}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1971 deaths]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi Hindus]]
[[Category:Bengali language activists]]
[[Category:Pakistani Hindus]]
[[Category:Surendranath College alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:People from Brahmanbaria Sadar Upazila]]
[[Category:Politicians from Chittagong Division]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Independence Award]]
[[Category:Pakistani torture victims]]
[[Category:People from Comilla]]
[[Category:Bengal MLAs 1946–1947]]
[[Category:East Bengal MLAs 1947–1954]]
[[Category:Pakistani MNAs 1947–1954]]
[[Category:Surendranath Law College alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan]]
[[Category:Comilla Zilla School alumni]]
[[Category:Asian politicians assassinated in the 1970s]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi politicians assassinated in the 20th century]]
[[Category:20th-century Bangladeshi politicians]]
[[Category:Politicians assassinated in 1971]]
[[Category:Bangladesh National Congress politicians]]

Dhirendranath Datta - Revision history

Venu ji yes at 00:35, 22 March 2026