Tassaduq Ahmad, born Tassaduq Ahmad Chowdhury, MBE was a

British-Bangladeshi British Bangladeshis ( bn, বিলাতী বাংলাদেশী, Bilatī Bangladeshī) are people of Bangladeshi origin who have attained citizenship in the United Kingdom, through immigration and historical naturalisation. The term c ...

politician, social worker, and activist.

Early life

Ahmad was born on 2 April 1923 in

Golapganj Upazila Golapganj Upazila ( bn, গোলাপগঞ্জ), previously known as Gulabganj, is an upazila of Sylhet District in the Division of Sylhet, Bangladesh. Geography Golapganj Upazila (Sylhet District) area 278.34 km2, located in bet ...

Sylhet District Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট), located in north-east Bangladesh, is the divisional capital and one of the four districts in the Sylhet Division. History Sylhet district was established on 3 January 1782, and until 1878 it was part of Bengal Pro ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. His father, Madris Ahmad Chowdhury, was a bureaucrat. In 1943, he removed

Chowdhury Chowdhury is a title of honour, usually hereditary, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is an adaption from Sanskrit. During the Mughal rule, it was a title awarded to eminent people, while during British rule, the term was associate ...

from his name due to the name being a

Zamindar A zamindar (Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

title. He was the General Secretary of All Assam Muslim Students Federation and campaigned in the

1947 Sylhet Referendum The 1947 Sylhet referendum was held in the Sylhet District of the Assam Province of British India to decide whether the district would remain in Undivided Assam and therefore within the post-independence Dominion of India, or leave Assam for E ...

which resulted in Sylhet District being separated from Assam and joined to East Bengal (present Bangladesh).

Career

Ahmad worked as a journalist in the ''Daily Pakistan Observer'' (which became

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 also worked at the '' Daily Sangbad.'' Ahmad was involved in the 1952 Bengali Language movement and had to flee

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

for Great Britain after the government tried to detain him for his involvement in the movement. Ahmad published two newspapers in England, ''Desher Dak'' and Eastern News. He opened a restaurant called the Ganges in Gerrard Street,

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

, London. He was given an MBE, Member of British Empire, by the British government in 1989.

Death

Ahmad died on 8 December 2001.

References

1923 births 2001 deaths {{Bangladesh-politician-stub People from Golapganj Upazila Politicians from Sylhet Division British people of Bangladeshi descent Bangladeshi diaspora British Muslims