Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury


Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury was a Bengali politician who was Minister of Education and a Member of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly.

Early life

Chowdhury was born in 1894 in a well reputed zamindar family in Batagram, Comilla, Tripura, British Raj. He was son of Tofazzal Ahmad Chowdhury, alias Anu Mia Chowdhury, an influential zamindar of that time. He studied in the famous Hare School and St. Xavier's Collegiate Schools in Calcutta. He graduated from Rajshahi College, and finished law school in Calcutta University in 1919.

Career

Chowdhury was a prominent leader in the Anti-British Liberation movement of Indian sub-continent. He was involved in the Khilafat Movement and Non-cooperation Movement as an activist and leader of the All India National Congress. From 1937 to 1941, he was the general secretary of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee, while Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was the president. He was one of the closest allies of Netaji and played an instrumental role in organizing Bengal Congress at that time. Ashrafuddin Chowdhury also played a vital role in formation of Forward Bloc with Netaji and was a vital member in the founding Working Committee of All India Forward Bloc, which was the party's highest forum for whole India. He supported Indian Nationalism and Hindu-Muslim unity. He was also the first non-British chairman of the District Board of Tippera and was a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly. During 1921- 1947, he served several terms of imprisonment as a political prisoner, opposing the British Raj. In the 1940s he joined the Nikhil Banga Jamiat-i-Ulama-i-Hind. In 1954 he was elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly from Comilla as a candidate of Nizam-i-Islami Party. He was Minister of Education in the cabinet of Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq. in 1954 and became the Education Minister again in the cabinet of Abu Hussain Sarkar.

Death

Chowdhury died on 25 March 1976.