Birat Chandra Mandal was a member of the 1st National Assembly of Pakistan as a representative of East Pakistan. He had argued for the constitution of Pakistan to be secular. [1]
Mandal represented Bengal Depressed Classes Association at the All India Depressed Classes Association meeting at Shimla in 1930. [2] [3] He supported the creation of separate electorates for low caste and high caste Hindus. [4]
Mandal argued that Mohmmad Ali Jinah had said Pakistan would be a secular state. [5] [6] On 9 March 1949, he was made the law and labour minister of Pakistan. [7] He was a Member of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. [8]
Mandal died on 5 October 1964 in Kolkata, West Bengal. [9]
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was an Indian economist, jurist, social reformer and political leader who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution of India based on the debates of the Constituent Assembly of India and the first draft of Sir Benegal Narsing Rau. Ambedkar served as Law and Justice minister in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru. He later renounced Hinduism, converted to Buddhism and inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement.
Constituent Assembly of India was partly elected and partly nominated body to frame the Constitution of India. It was elected by the Provincial assemblies of British India following the Provincial Assembly elections held in 1946 and nominated by princely states. After India's independence from the British in August 1947, its members served as the nation's 'Provisional Parliament', as well as the Constituent Assembly. It was conceived and created by V. K. Krishna Menon, who first outlined its necessity in 1933 and enshrined it as an Indian National Congress demand.
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Events from the year 1964 in Pakistan.
The East Pakistan Provincial Assembly, known as the East Bengal Legislative Assembly between 1947 and 1955, was the provincial legislature of East Pakistan between 1947 and 1971. It was known as the East Bengal Assembly from 1947 to 1955 when the provincial name was changed. The legislature was a successor to the Bengal Legislative Council and the Bengal Legislative Assembly, which were divided between East Bengal and West Bengal during the partition of Bengal in 1947. It was the largest provincial legislature in Pakistan. Elections were held only twice in 1954 and 1970.
Jogendranath Mandal emerged as a prominent figure among the architects of the nascent state of Pakistan. He served as the inaugural Minister of Law and Labour, as well as the subsequent Minister of Commonwealth and Kashmir Affairs. Within the Interim Government of India, he had previously held the portfolio of law. Distinguished as a leader representing the Scheduled Castes (Dalits), Mandal vehemently opposed the partition of Bengal in 1947. His rationale rested on the apprehension that a divided Bengal would subject the Dalits to the dominance of the majority caste-Hindus in West Bengal (India). Eventually opting to maintain his base in East Pakistan, Mandal aspired for the welfare of the Dalits and assumed a ministerial role in Pakistan as the Minister of Law and Labour. However, a few years subsequent to the partition, he relocated to India, tendering his resignation to Liaquat Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, citing the perceived anti-Dalit bias within the Pakistani administration.
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The National Congress was a political party that mainly represented the Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The party championed secularism in the Muslim-dominated state, and its electoral and organisational strength was mainly based in East Bengal, later known as East Pakistan from 1955, and since 1971 as the independent state of Bangladesh.
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