Akshay Kumar Das

Akshay Kumar Das (Bengali: অক্ষয় কুমার দাস; 1903 - ?) was a Bengali Dalit politician of Pakistan, who served as a representative of East Pakistan in both the First and Second Constituent Assemblies, and held multiple ministries across the 1950s in governments formed by different political parties.

Das was born at Sullah, Sylhet in 1903.^[1] He was a lawyer by training, and practiced at the local court before joining politics.^[1] In the 1937 Assam Provincial Assembly Elections, he filed his nomination from Sunamganj, a dual-member constituency,^[a] from the Constitutionalist Party.^[3][2] Das won the reserved seat, unopposed.^[2][b] In February 1938, he was appointed as the Minister of Law in the Second Ministry of Muhammed Saadulah, as Muslim League entered into new coalitions to preserve power.^[3] Nonetheless, as the government fell in September with Congress poaching off coalition partners, Das switched sides to become the Minister of Excise and Agriculture under the premiership of Gopinath Bordoloi.^[3]

In 1939, with Congress governments resigning from across India in protest against United Kingdom's unilateral decision to enroll Indian forces in the World War II, Assam United Party — an amalgamation of Muslim League with all shades of parties opposed to Congress — formed a successful coalition under Saadulah; however, Das was left out from the cabinet.^[3] The Government fell again in December 1941 but after about seven months of Governor's Rule, Saadulah managed to regain the numbers; yet again, Das was not inducted.^[3] In March 1945, Congress came into an understanding with the League and formed an unprecedented coalition government with virtually no opposition; Das was brought back to the ministry and assigned the portfolios of Industries and Cooperative Development.^[3]

In the 1946 elections, he was re-elected unopposed but as a member of the Congress.^[4][c] He was subsequently elected^[d] by the Assembly to represent Assam at the Constituent Assembly of India.^[4][6] Das opposed Partition — unlike many of his Dalit compatriots — and lobbied for the inclusion of Sylhet in India but chose to stay in Pakistan after the referendum went against him, becoming a member of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.^[7][8] In Pakistan, he became the President of East Bengal Scheduled Castes Federation in the aftermath of Jogendra Nath Mandal's departure to India (1950) and gained significant political mileage.^[9]

In the 1954 East Bengal Legislative Assembly election, Das was re-elected from his seat.^[4] In September 1955, he was appointed as the Minister of State for Economic Affairs by Prime Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Ali where he continued until the government fell in September 1956.^[10] In October 1957, I. I. Chundrigar (from Muslim League) formed government and appointed him as the Minister of State for Caste Affairs but his government fell within 2 months.^[4] Feroz Khan Noon (Republican Party) formed the next government in December, 1957 and had Das appointed as the Minister of State for Finance.^[11]

Notes

1. In these constituencies —surpassing a threshold percentage of Scheduled Caste (SC) voters—, all Hindu candidates were enrollable as candidates but a seat was reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) in addition to the usual seat. Both the seats were electable through the same election under the one person, one vote system. The highest ranked SC candidate was declared winner to the "reserved" seat while whoever else polled the most (or second-most, in case the highest ranked SC candidate won the election) staked claim to the "general" seat. Only four SC candidates were allowed to run for election per constituency; otherwise, a primary election was held for the SC electorate to sieve out the top four candidates among all the SC contenders.^[2]
2. On the overall, he was defeated by Karuna Sindhu Roy, a member of the Communist Party of India.^[3]
3. Again, on the overall, he was defeated by Jatindra Bhadra of Congress.^[3]
4. The Cabinet Mission Plan had reserved one seat in the Constitution Assembly per million people of a province. These seats were distributed among Muslims, Sikhs, and General (Hindus and others) category in proportion to their share of population in the province and were to be elected by legislators of the particular community. Assam Province was allotted with ten seats, of which seven were reserved for General category and rest for Muslims.^[5]

References

1. Nūrujjāmāna, Mohāmmada (1968). Who's who. Eastern Publications. p. 144.
2. Return showing the results of Elections in India: 1937 (PDF). London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. November 1937. pp. 4, 100, 102.
3. "Press Infromation [sic] Bureau's Morgue and Ref Series: (1) Analysis of the Results of General Elections to the Central and Provincial Legislatures Held In 1945-46 (2) Indian Political Parties, and (3) Provincial Minstries 1937-45". Home Political, ID: HOME_POLITICAL_I_1945_NA_F-79-46. National Archive of India.
4. L., A. E.; N., M.; V., V. (1957). "PAKISTAN". Oriente Moderno. 37 (12): 832, 834. ISSN 0030-5472.
5. Rao, B. Shiva (1968). The Framing of India's Constitution: A Study. Nasik, India: The Indian Institute of Public Administration. pp. 93–95.
6. Rao, B. Shiva (1968). The Framing of India's Constitution: Select Documents. Vol. I. Nasik, India: The Indian Institute of Public Administration. p. 310.
7. Bhattacharjee, J.B. (1990). "The Sylhet Referendum (1947): Myth of a Communal Voting". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 51: 485. ISSN 2249-1937.
8. "Pakistan". The Commonwealth Relations Office List 1952. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1952. p. 171.
9. Asif, Ghazal (2 January 2020). "Jogendranath Mandal and the Politics of Dalit Recognition in Pakistan". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 43 (1): 119–135. doi:10.1080/00856401.2020.1689472. ISSN 0085-6401.
10. "Cabinet Expanded". Pakistan Affairs. 8 (26): 3. 10 October 1955.
11. L., A. E.; N., M.; V., V.; S., G. (1958). "PAKISTAN". Oriente Moderno. 38 (1): 64. ISSN 0030-5472.