Dudu Miyan

Dudu Miyan (1819–1862) was a militant leader of Faraizi Movement and peasant uprising in Bengal. He played active role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Dudu Miyan
Born
Ahmed Ahmad

1819
Died1862
Dacca, British India
(now Dhaka, Bangladesh)
NationalityBengali
Known forFaraizi Movement, Indian Rebellion of 1857

Early life

Dudu Miyan's real name was Muhsinuddin Ahmad. His father Haji Shariatullah was also a top leader of Faraizi movement. Miyan was born in 1819 in Faridpur district, British India. He was educated by his father and then at the age of twelve was sent to Mecca for further studies. Although he never achieved the levels of scholarship attained by his father but quickly proved himself a supreme leader of peasant movement against the indigo planters and landlords.[1]

Movement

After the death of Shariatullah, Miyan led the movement to a more radical, agrarian character and able to create an effective organizational structure. In his view land belonged to those who worked it. He established his own administrative system, and appointed a khalifa (leader) for each village. His policy was to create a state within the British-ruled state. He organised the oppressed peasantry against the oppressive landlords.[2] In 1838, Miyan called upon his followers not to pay revenue to zamindars. Indigo Kuthis, were frequently attacked and ransacked by raiyats.[3] In retaliation, the landlords and indigo planters tried to contain Miyan by instituting cases against him. In 1838, 1844, 1847 he was arrested several times but released because he became so popular irrespective of religion with the peasantry that in those cases, courts seldom found a witness against him.[4]

Death

At the time of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British government arrested him as precaution and kept him in the Alipore Jail, Kolkata. He was released in 1859 and rearrested and finally freed in 1860. In 1862, Miyan died at Dacca.[1]

References

  1. Volume 3, Kenneth W. Jones (1989). Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India. ISBN 9780521249867. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  2. U. A. B. Razia Akter Banu (1992). Islam in Bangladesh. E. J. Brill. pp. 37–38. ISBN 90-04-09497-0. In Dudu Miyan's view, land belong to those who exploited it ... His administrative reforms entailed the division of Faraidi settlement areas into small units ... In each of the village units Dudu Miyan appointed a unit khalifah ... Dudu Miyan developed what amounted to a virtual parallel government to that of the British ... [The Faraidi movement's] primary political goal was to protect the helpless Muslim masses from the miserable conditions created by despotic and capricious zamindars of rural Bengal.
  3. "The Faraizi Movement". ImportantIndia.com. December 11, 2013. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  4. Hardy; Thomas Hardy (1972). The Muslims of British India. CUP Archive. pp. 56–. ISBN 978-0-521-09783-3.
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