Muhammad Siddiq Khan (; known as M S Khan; 21 March 1910 – 13 August 1978) was the librarian of the Central Library of the

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (), also known as Dhaka University (DU), is a public university, public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established in 1921, it is the oldest active university in the country. The University of Dhaka w ...

and the founder of the university's Department of

Library Science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...

(now ''Information Science and Library Management''). In March 2004, the

Government of Bangladesh The government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh () is the central government of Bangladesh. The government was constituted by the Constitution of Bangladesh comprising the executive (the president, prime minister and cabinet), the ...

posthumously awarded him the

Independence Day Award The Independence Award (), formally known as the Independence Day Award or Swadhinata Padak (), is the highest state award given by the government of Bangladesh. Introduced in 1977 by President Ziaur Rahman, this award is bestowed upon Banglade ...

, the country's highest civil honor.

Early life and education

Khan was born on 21 March 1910 to a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work./ref> are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ...

Khan Mughal The Khan Mughal are a clan of the Chaghatai Mughal tribe found in and around Kashmir and Punjab, particularly near the mountains of the Pir Panjal Range and the city of Nabeel. They traditionally assert descent from the Barlas tribe of the Mughals ...

'' family in

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

whose ancestors were members of

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

aristocracy. His father, Israil Khan, had moved with his family from the village of Dhudhuria in Nagarpur,

Tangail Tangail (, ) is a city of Tangail District in central Bangladesh. A significant city in Bangladesh, Tangail lies on the bank of the Louhajang River, northwest of Dhaka, the nation's capital. Etymology ''Tangail'' originates from the Beng ...

to Rangoon,

British Burma British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

in order to tutor the children of the deposed Mughal Emperor

Bahadur Shah Zafar Bahadur Shah II, (Abu Zafar Siraj-ud-din Muhammad; 24 October 1775 – 7 November 1862), usually referred to by his poetic title Bahadur Shah ''Zafar'' (; ''Zafar'' ), was the twentieth and last List of emperors of the Mughal Empire, Mughal emp ...

. His father died when he was young whilst his mother, Bolonnessa Begum, got herself in a long-drawn-out litigation with his uncle on proprietary rights to his vast wealth and establishments. Khan spent his childhood in Rangoon and went to school there. He took the matriculation examination in 1925 and stood fifth in

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

with distinctions in four subjects. He passed his intermediate examination in arts in 1927 and stood first in

Rangoon University The University of Yangon (also Yangon University; , ; formerly Rangoon College, University of Rangoon and Rangoon Arts and Sciences University), located in Kamayut, Yangon, is the oldest university in Myanmar's modern education system and the b ...

with distinction in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

. In 1929, he received the B.A. honors degree in history from the university and stood first in the second class. In 1932 he got his B.L. degree. He was placed in the first class in the first-part examinations and in the second class in the second-part examinations. In 1936, he got his M.A. degree in history from the university and received the ''Yakub Abdul Ghani Gold Medal''. For this performance he also received the Jardin Prize.

Career

Completing his graduation program, Khan joined Rangoon University as a lecturer in history and political science in 1931 and worked there until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. His students included

Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947), known honorifically as '' Bogyoke'' Aung San, was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he w ...

, one of the architects of the independence of

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. When Rangoon came under fire from the advancing

Japanese army The , , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service branches. New military guidelines, announced in December 2010, direct t ...

, Khan escaped by trekking through the mountains to reach his village home. In 1943, he became an officer in the

Civil Defense Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from human-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency management: Risk management, prevention, mitigation, prepara ...

department of the government of

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

. The next year he joined as a liaison officer under the Industries Directorate of the Bengal government. In 1946, he became the general secretary of the Bengal

Red Cross Society The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the world's largest group of non-governmental organizations working on humanitarian aid, is composed of the following bodies: *The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is an indep ...

, a job he retained when moving to

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

after the

partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

in 1947. In 1950, he joined Debendra College in

Manikganj Manikganj is a town situated in Dhaka Division, Bangladesh. It is the headquarters of Manikganj District and Manikganj Sadar Upazila. Manikganj is a relatively pollution-free town of Bangladesh. The recent urbanization and highway built joining ...

as its principal. In 1953, Khan joined the

as a secretary to

Sayed Moazzem Hossain Syed Moazzem Hossain (1901–1991) was a Bangladeshi academic and Islamic scholar. He served as the vice-chancellor of the University of Dhaka. Early life and education Hossain was born on 1 August 1901, to a Bengali Muslim family of Syeds in ...

, the then vice-chancellor, who was succeeded by Walter Allen Jenkins eight months later. Jenkins sent Khan abroad in 1954 for further studies in

library science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...

. Khan arrived in London on 30 September 1954. He started regular course work as decided by Professor Irwin. After due completion of course work, Khan spent one academic year working intensively in selected university and other academic libraries in Great Britain. Irwin arranged a training program with several libraries at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, as well as the libraries of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

and

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

. Khan successfully completed his training. After completing a two-year course on the theory and practice of university librarianship in the London School of Librarianship and Archives, under the supervision of Irwin, during 1954–55 and 1955–56, Khan returned to his ancestral place. Upon return, he joined as the librarian of the Central Library of the university in June 1956, a position he held until his retirement in 1972. Khan introduced a diploma course for

and, along with Ahmad Hossain, founded the Library Association of East Pakistan. When the Department of Library Science was established in 1959, he was appointed the head of the department. In his 19 years of service to the library, he introduced the

Dewey Decimal System The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) (pronounced ) colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. ...

library classification A library classification is a system used within a library to organize materials, including books, sound and video recordings, electronic materials, etc., both on shelves and in catalogs and indexes. Each item is typically assigned a call number ...

and oversaw its implementation. He faced job-related financial troubles when he retired. Khan was the vice-president of the Pakistan Library Association (1957, 1958, and 1968) and the president for several tenures. He was the general secretary of the Pakistan Library Association from 1962 to 1965. He was a vice-president of the Asian Federation of Library Association from 1957 to 1960. Khan wrote a number of books, as well as columns for ''

Holiday A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. ''Public holidays'' are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are often ...

'' and ''

The Bangladesh Observer ''The Bangladesh Observer'', founded by Hamidul Huq Choudhury in 1949, was the oldest continuously published English-language daily newspaper in Bangladesh until it ceased publication in June 2010. History Since its inception as ''The Pakist ...

''. He published a news bulletin for the University of Dhaka and edited the ''Eastern Librarian'' as the founder editor until 1976.

Death and legacy

Khan died after prolonged illness on 13 August 1978 in

. He did not receive any honors during his lifetime. He was made a fellow of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

for his scholarly contributions. Nearly a quarter of century later the

Association introduced a gold medal in his name, an honor given to other distinguished figures such as

Maulana Bhasani Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani (12 December 1880 – 17 November 1976), also known reverentially as Maulana Bhashani, was a Bangladeshi politician and statesman who was one of the founder of the Awami League, the oldest and main political party in B ...

and

Abu Sayeed Chowdhury Abu Sayeed Chowdhury (31 January 1921 – 2 August 1987) was a jurist and the second president of Bangladesh. Besides that, he held the positions of the chairman of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the vice-chancellor of the Uni ...

. The government of Bangladesh posthumously awarded him the Independence Day Award, the highest civil honor of the country, in 2004. His daughter Shireen Rashid received the award. On 21 March 2010, Khan's 100th birthday, Library Association of Bangladesh has declared "21st March" as the ''Library Day of Bangladesh''.

List of publications

Khan wrote the following articles:

English

History

# "Captain George Sorrel's Mission to the Court of Amarapura 1793: An Episode in Anglo-Burmese Relations". ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Pakistan'', vol. II 1957, pp. 131–153 # "Badr Maqams of the Shrines of Badr Al-Din-Auliya". ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Pakistan'', vol. II 1962, pp. 17–46 # "A Chapter in the Muslim Struggle for Freedom: Establishment of Dacca University". ''The Dacca University Studies''.

Library science

# "The Oriental Manuscript Collection in Dacca University Library". ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. I No. 1, 1966, pp. 32–37 # "A Co-operative Acquisition Plan for Pakistan's Third Five-year Development Plan", 1965–70. ''Pakistan Librarianship'', 1963–64, pp. 93–101 # "College Library Authority and Organization". ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. III No. 4, 1969, pp. 7–21 # "The Challenge of McLuhan". ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. 5 No. 3–4, 1971, pp. 187–197 # "Marketing of Books in East Pakistan: Problems, Prospects and Projects". ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. II No. 1, 1967, pp. 49–62; vol. II No. 2, 1967, pp. 17–23; vol. II No. 3, 1968, pp. 51–61; # "Book Promotion in School Libraries". ''Pakistan Librarianship'', 1962–63, pp. 92–93 # "A Blueprint for University Library Development". ''Pakistan Librarianship'', 1963–64, pp. 160–170 # "Libraries in Pakistan". ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. II No. 1, 1967, pp. 1–14 # "Libraries in Education". ''East Pakistan Education Week'', 1968, pp. 34–50 # "University Librarianship To-day and Tomorrow". ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. III No. 1, 1969, pp. 21–28 # "The India Office Library: Who Owns It?" ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. I No. 1, 1966, pp. 1–10 # "Our Libraries and Our National Antiquities". ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. III No. 2, 1968,pp. 1–7 # "Comments on the Government of Pakistan's Third Five-year Development Plan—1965–1970". ''Pakistan Librarianship'', 1963–1964, pp. 55–56

Printing and publication

# " William Carey and the Serampore Books (1800–1834)". ''LIBRI'', vol. II No. 3, 1961, pp. 197–280

Editorial

# "Ahmed Hussain". ''The Eastern Librarian'', June 1970 # "The Bleak Horizon". ''The Eastern Librarian'', September 1967 # "Wanted – A national Advisory Commission on Libraries". ''The Eastern Librarian'', December 1967 # "Progress of Librarianship in East Pakistan: Decade of Progress". ''The Eastern Librarian'', June 1968 # "Who is an Expert?" ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. II No. 3, 1968 # "Import of non-book Reading Materials". ''The Eastern Librarian'', March 1969 # "Libraries and Postal Vagaries". ''The Eastern Librarian'', June 1970 # "Any one can run a library". ''The Eastern Librarian'', December 1967 # "A New Library System for Bangladesh". ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. VI No. 1-2 1971 # "The Death of A Library". ''The Eastern Librarian'', June 1967 # "Those who stand and serve". ''The Eastern Librarian'', March 1967 # "Books on Bonus". ''The Eastern Librarian'', June 1971 # "Brickbats – and no Banquets!" ''The Eastern Librarian'', March–June 1971 # "Pakistani Library Journals". ''The Eastern Librarian'', September 1966 # "Should Institutional Libraries Hold Import Licenses?" ''The Eastern Librarian'', September 1966

Preface

# ''Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference Volume of the Pakistan Library Association, November 1964'' # ''Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Conference Volume of the Pakistan Library Association, November 1965''

Book reviews

# ''Technical College Libraries: A Guide to Problems and Practice''. by K. W. Neal, published by the author at 41, Wychbury Road, Finchfield, Wolverhampton, UK 1965, pp. 159. and ''The Eastern Librarian'', vol. I No. 1966, pp. 49–50 # ''The Pakistan National Bibliography: Annual volume 1962'' # ''Oriental Dictionaries: A Selected Bibliography'' # ''Southern Asia'' # ''Libraries in the East: An International and Comparative Study''

Miscellaneous

# ''Felix Carey: A Prisoner of Hope'' # ''Import of Reading Materials from Abroad'' # ''A Comparative Study of Copyright Laws'' # ''Annual Report: Pakistan Library Association''

Bengali

Printing and publication

# বাংলা মুদ্রণ ও প্রকাশনার গোড়ার কথা (''Early History of Bengali Printing and Publication''). Bangla Academy, Dhaka. 1371 (Bengali Year), pp. 206, illustrated Price. 5.00

taka The taka (, , sign: , code: BDT, short form: Tk) is the currency of Bangladesh. In Unicode, it is encoded at . Issuance of banknotes 10 and larger is controlled by Bangladesh Bank, while the 2 and 5 govt. notes are the responsibility of the ...

(''

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

version'') # বাংলা মুদ্রণ প্রকাশকে কেরী যুগ (''Carry Period in Bengali Publication'').''Sahitya Protika. 5:1, 1368 (Bengali Year) pp. 153–268'' (''

version'') # বাংলা মুদ্রণের গোড়ার যুগের ইতিহাস (''Early History of Bengali Printing'') ''Gronthagar. 1369. pp. 243–268''(''

version'')

Library science

# গ্রন্থাগার সম্প্রসারণ ও জনপ্রিয়তা বৃদ্ধির উপায় (''Techniques of Library Extension and Popularization''). ''Pak Samachar, 1956''(''Bengali version'') # শিশু গ্রন্থাগার (''Children Library''). Boi. 2:10, 1959 # গ্রন্থ: গ্রন্থাগারিক ও গ্রন্থবিক্রেতা (''The Book: Librarian and Book Seller''). Porikrom. 2:2 October 1962

History

# ব্রহ্মদেশের ইতিহাসে মুসলমান (''Muslim in Burmese History''). Bangla Academy Potrika. 5:1, 1961. pp. 33–37.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Muhammad Siddiq 1910 births 1978 deaths Bangladeshi librarians University of Yangon alumni Recipients of the Independence Award 20th-century Bangladeshi people People from Tangail District