Amullya Babu, who was famous for his secularism and outstanding contribution to the disadvantaged people of Madhupur, dedicated himself to the service of the suffering humanity. He was awarded with "Tamgha Khidmat" from the President of Pakistan in 1964 for his distinguished leadership and sacrifice to the country's development. Earlier, he was adjudged as the best Chairman in Tangail Sub-Division during 1962-63, while he was again adjudged as one of the hundred best Chairmen in East Pakistan in 1966. After independence, Amullya Babu received "President Award" ((Rashtropati Puroshkar) from the Government of Bangladesh in 1977 in recognition of his invaluable contribution to agricultural development.
Amullya Babu was born in a Bengali Hindu family to Durgesh Babu and Charu Bala at Madhupur of Tangail district on 7th March 1918. He was among ten sisters and four brothers while his father was the President of Madhupur Union Board during British rule and was famous for his sacrifice for the poor people in the society. The ancestors of this family belonged to the Jaminder of Baghutia (locally called Baghutiar Jaminder) which was in Manikganj district where they lost their all properties in the river Padma. After that they moved to Madhupur and settled in early nineteenth century. When he was only 12 Amullya Babu lost his mother, who died during childbirth. Amullya Babu matriculated in 1937 and immediately after his matriculation, he lost his father also. He married Mamata Devi in 1950 and they had four daughters and one son. From the very beginning of his life, Amullya babu was devoted to restoring the rights of the poor people. During famine of 1943, as a young community leader, along with other civilians, he was involved in maintaining gruel house to feed the hungry people for a couple of months. After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, Amullya Babu, being a Hindu, was advised by his friends, relatives, neighbours and well-wishers to move to India. But he refused all the requests and insisted on staying in Bangladesh, the land of his birth, and decided to serve the people who were around him from his boyhood.
He engaged himself in improving the socio-economic condition of the poor people and overall development of the rural area of Madhupur. He took up many programmes to develop the area and played an active role to make a hunger-free, happy and prosperous Madhupur. To ensure easy movement during night time as well as to maintain proper security at village level, in 1962, he arranged kerosene-lanterns on road-side to ensure lights, which covered 3 kilometres village roads through 3 hundred kerosene lanterns by using 3 hundred wooden poles, as there was no electricity at that time. This innovative model was appreciated by the policymakers during that period which was replicated in other unions also. He also developed pucca irrigation canals to irrigate thousands of hectares of rice crops in dry season through pumps, which were connected with the Bangshee river to use river-water instead of groundwater as one of the environment-friendly models. This was the first initiative in entire East Pakistan as public-private partnership approach where farmers received bumper crops in Boro season.
Amullya Babu believed in simple living and practical thinking. He believed in equality of all and continued this notion up to the end of his days, while no one can say which society they are coming from, or who is a Muslim, Hindu, Christian or Buddhist. For this reason, despite the area being a Muslim majority one, people of that area elected him Chairman of Madhupur Union Parishad in 1956 and he continued for more than 20 years and became one of the most successful chairmen in Bangladesh. In his whole life, he never requested any of his voters to vote him. The former State Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Abul Hasan Chowdhury stated: "I convey my respect to Amullya Kaka (as I used to call him) for only one particular trait of this great philanthropist, political leader, social worker and innovative personality: Although a Hindu by religion, Kaka never allowed his service to the community to be influenced by that. Hence, he was loved by all, while people belonging to different political parties and heads of different religious institutions equally respected and loved him".
Amullya Babu recognised the importance of education, especially for disadvantaged and tribal women. In order to extend female education, he donated 45 decimal of land to establish a residential girls' high school at Madhupur which is named as Madhupur Girls' High School in July 1970. The school campus is located at Madhpur in a safe environment for female students with residential facility which is adjacent to Tangail-Mymensingh highway. The present Headmaster of Madhupur Girls' High School Mr Bappu Siddique shared that "Amullya Babu was really a far-sighted person. With the establishment of the school with residential facilities, a huge number of female students from remote areas are being enlightened with higher studies and continuing their study in such a homely manner. This could not be possible for such female students from remote areas, if this residential facility was not available. Also a significant number of female students from tribal community of Madhupur forests are also enjoying these residential facilities for their study which is now treated as very effective and useful bridge for continuation of their higher studies".
During liberation war, the Pakistani army searched everywhere to kill him. When the Pak army took control over Madhupur town on 14th April 1971, Amullya Babu left his house along with family members and neighbours just before this incident, but only Boron Chakider, a guard of Madhupur Union Council stayed at his house as caretaker. As Boron Chakider was a non-Bengali and understood some Urdu, all the neighbours and he himself believed that Pakistani army will not kill him. However, after taking full control of Madhupur on 18th April 1971, the Pakistani troops moved to Amullya Babu's house on the same day where they found Boron Chakider as caretaker of the house. Pakistani army then ordered him to set fire to the house with petrol which they brought with them in their jeep. But Boron Chakider declined telling them that as he and his whole family fully depended on this house from their childhood, and took food year after year and even generation to generation, so he would never do such a treachery with this family. Pakistani army killed him instantly and plundered all the household assets and finally burnt the house totally.
Altaf Dafadar was a Muslim neighbour who prayed almost all the days in the mosque with fasting during liberation war for the safe life of Amullya Babu. He offered to sacrifice animal in the name of Allah, so that Almighty Allah might save Amullya Babu from Pakistani criminals. Just immediately after liberation war when Amullya Babu returned to his house safely, he performed his commitment. During the month of Holy Ramadan every year, Amullya Babu arranged "Iftar parties" almost every afternoon and invited his neighbours, officials and others to his house. Yaqub Ali Khan, Saman Khondoker and a number of Muslims were the most trustworthy persons who were always with him during liberation war while Sontosh Mrong, a tribal leader along with other tribal community, provided shelter to him and his whole family in their houses in Madhupur jungle. These are some examples of so many as to how the general people liked him. Amullya Babu was a very simple, hard-working, disciplined and dedicated person who donated generously to the poor and never disclosed it. He never worried about his family, although he was not so much.
Brigadier General Dr Dipak Kumar Paul Choudhury, who is the husband of Amullya Babu's youngest daughter, expressed thus: "Whenever I visited him I found him with a number of people almost every time (even up to midnight) with someone consulting with him the way to overcome his problem. He was behind the foundation of many educational institutions in his area, but was never interested to put his name as founder. I want to tell you an incident - he often asked me whether I had any chance to go abroad. I thought he was meaning UN Mission but one day he cleared it - not for UN Mission but for higher education. I was ashamed a lot".
Father Homrich, an American priest who is still living at Madhupur since 1960, stated that "Amullya Babu was the Chairman of Madhupur Union, when I came to Jalchatra Parish in 1960. He was busy all day helping the people day and night. Everyone loved him because of his concern for people. During the war in 1971, I kept him and his family in hiding in the teachers' house at Jalchatra Mission. I had around a hundred Hindu girls at the mission and the Pak Army killed all Hindus they could find. On 11th December 1971, we along with Amullya Babu and his whole family and other Hindu girls were liberated by the Captain Baljit Singh of Indian Armed Forces along with a hundred Freedom Fighters while they took over the responsibility of Jalchatra Mission as well as whole Madhupur".
Amullya Babu expired on 6th January 2006 at 88 years. He is counted in the top-tier of our icons. We must remember him because new generation does not know who he was. Amullya Babu's ideology and humanity are the source of inspiration for our present and future generations, through which they may serve their community as well as their nation.
The writer, Dr M G Neogi, is Consultant, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Email: mgneogi@gmail.com
Amullya Babu: A real patriot
M G Neogi | Published: September 13, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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