Jogendra Nath Mandal

Jogendra Nath Mandal (Bangla: যোগেন্দ্রনাথ মণ্ডল) (1906–1956) was an Indian Dalit politician who served as the first minister of law and labour of Pakistan. He was the highest-ranking Hindu in the Pakistani cabinet.

Political career

Mandal became a strong critic of mainstream political parties such as the Indian National Congress, which he saw as lukewarm in its commitment to secure Dalit political rights. He strongly supported the British proposal made in 1934 to grant separate electorate voting system for Dalits - a plan widely criticized for creating political divisions within Hindu society. Mandal attacked the Congress for its opposition, as well as the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi's fast-unto-death in opposition to the plan, which he believed was inherently divisive and would create conflicts between Hindus. When Dr. Ambedkar agreed with Gandhi, the Congress and Hindu community leaders to reject the plan in favour of intensified social reform and increased representation within the Congress, Mandal was disillusioned.

A critic of the Congress, Mandal grew close to Muslim politician Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his Muslim League. Mandal increasingly subscribed to Jinnah's views and leadership, which he believed would secure extensive rights for religious and ethnic minorities, as well as socially depressed classes across India. In 1936, he was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly as a leader of a Dalit bloc and linked with the League. Mandal continued to support Jinnah and the League despite its adoption of a demand in 1940 for a separate Muslim state called Pakistan, and its Direct Action Day agitation in 1946, which degenerated into widespread communal violence. Mandal agreed with the League's rejection of the plans proposed by the British Cabinet Mission to transfer power to Indians, citing insufficient power for the League and minorities. When the League later agreed to enter the interim government in a coalition with the Congress, Mandal was nominated by the League to head the law ministry. This nomination of a Hindu by an avowedly Muslim party was strongly criticized across the political spectrum as a devious reaction to the rejection of Jinnah's demand for the exclusive right to appoint Muslims.

Political career in Pakistan

Following the partition of India on August 15, 1947 Mandal became a member and temporary chairman of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, and agreed to serve as the new state's first Minister for Law and Labour - becoming the highest-ranking Hindu member of the government. From 1947 to 1950 he would live in the port city of Karachi, which became Pakistan's capital. Mandal strongly supported Jinnah's ideal of a secular state in Pakistan.

However, Mandal grew increasingly disillusioned with Pakistan following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 and a communal crisis in East Pakistan, where his origins lay, and where close to 4 million Hindus were forced to flee into India within the space of a few years. When Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan publicly supported a proposal to make Islam the official state religion, Mandal denounced it as a rejection of Jinnah's secular vision for Pakistan. Mandal continued to attack the proposed Objectives Resolution, which outlined an Islamic state as completely disregarding the rights of religious and ethnic minorities. He grew increasingly isolated, and came increasingly under verbal and physical attack; fleeing to Kolkata, he sent his letter of resignation in October 1950. In his resignation letter, he openly assailed Pakistani politicians for disregarding the rights and future of minorities, as well as the vision of Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

References

• Rajmohan Gandhi, Patel: A Life (1992)
• "The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia" (2000)
• University of Southampton archives
• SACW