The unparalleled leader of working class of Bengal Md. Ismail, a bachelor, passed away on Nov. 14.1990 at the age 80 at 8.15 a.m. in S.S.K.M. Hospital.
There is a controversy about his exact date of birth. According to him there was no system of recording the birthday in his family. He told that his elder brother informed him that he was born between 1908 – 1912. His year of birth recorded in the Book “Communism in India” published in the U.S.A. was 1912. According the record of the party congress he was born in 1910. Sramik Andolan, the Bengali mouth piece of CITU West Bengal, mentioned that he was born in 1908.
He was born in a landless peasant family of the village Unna in the district of Ranjitpura (U.P.). His father was Sk. Muhammod. Md. Ismail was the youngest of the four brothers & one sister. His father was a labour in a Cotton mill. When he died Md. Ismail was a baby of six years.
In the year 1923 at the age of 12/13 he came to Calcutta with his 2nd elder brother and stayed in the Bustee of Alimuddin Street with him. He joined a small workshop of a British owner. He had no interest in work.
Md. Ismail did not get any opportunity of formal education after passing Matriculation exam. In spite of this he educated himself by dint of his own labour and perseverance. Besides his mother tongue Urdu, he was capable of reading and writing Bengali and Hindi. While in jail he studied Bengali and Hindi. He used to deliver his speech in these languages. He was given the responsibility of the Urdu weekly of CPI published from Calcutta.
He entered the freedom movement through the Khilafat movement and came in contact of congress leaders. At the age of 18 he was arrested and jailed. He was elected to BPCC in 1939 and attended the Haripura Congress as delegate. He was elected to AICC too. He came in contact of Abdul Halim, a communist leader and was attracted to communist ideology. In 1935, got the membership of CPI and started his work among the working class. Condition of the Bidi workers at that time was deplorable. He organised them and brought some change of their condition. Thereafter he started to organise unorganised workers such as Fruit sellers, Rickshaw pullers, Bus workers. In 1938, he along with others transformed the Calcutta Tramways Workers’ Union into a militant organisation.
In 1945, Calcutta tramways workers went on a strike which continued for nine days. In 1953 strike against the fair increase of one paise, the role of tramways works’ union is to be remembered. Md. Ismile played a significant role in both these strikes. Since forties he was known as faithful and sincere friend of working class.
In 1945, he was elected to Calcutta Corporation as councillor from labour constituency. He was elected to parliament from Barrackpore constituency for three terms 1967, 1972 and 1980.
He was elected to the Working Committee of AITUC in 1935. He was one of the vice-presidents of AITUC from 1957 to 1970. When CITU was formed he was elected as president of the W.B. State Committee and vice-president of the All India CITU. Upto the last day of his life he adorned these posts. He was also one of the Vice Presidents of Bengal Chatkal Mazdoor Union. He was arrested in 1937 during the strike of Jute workers.
In the second congress of CPI he was elected to the Central Committee. In 1950, when the State Committee of CPI was dissolved and a new committee was formd Md. Ismail became the Secretary of W.B. State Committee of CPI. When the CPI was divided he joined the CPI(M) and was elected to the State Committee of W.B.
During his lifetime he was associated with a large number of unions and federations some of these were Railway Union, Calcutta Tramway Workers Union, Bus Workers Union, Jute Workers Union, Gas workers Union etc.
Md. Ismail used to live last part of his life in a room of Sramik Bhaban, 53, A. J. C. Bose Road, Calcutta. The small room was his office, his resting place and what not.
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