Dada Amir Haider

Dada Amir Haider (1904-1986) was a communist actvist in India and Pakistan.

He was born in 1904 in a remote village called, Siahlian Umar Khan, in Rawalpindi district and orphaned at an early age. He was then put in a madrassah. In 1914 he joined British merchant navy in Bombay transferring to the United States Merchant Marine in 1918. At this time he met Joesph Mulkane, an Irish nationalist who introduced him to anti-British political ideas.

In 1920, he meets Indian nationalists and Ghadar Party members in New York. He Started distributing ‘Ghadar ki Goonj’ to Indians in sea ports around the world.

He was dismissed from ship after the great post war strike and worked and traveled inside the USA. He then became a political activist, works with Anti-Imperialist League and the who send him to the Soviet Union to study at the University of the Toilers of the East. In 1928 he completed the University course in Moscow and arrived in Bombay. Establishes contact with Ghate, Dange Bradley, senior communists in Bombay.

He escaped arrest in the Meerut Conspiracy Case and makes his way to Moscow to inform the Communist International (Comintern) on the situation in India and seek their assistance.

Dada attended the International Trade Union (Profintern) Congress as member of the presidium and also attended the 16th Congress of the CPSU in 1930. After his return to Bombay he was sent to Madras to avoid arrest as still wanted in the Meerut Conspiracy case. He carried on the political work all over South India under the pseudonym of Shankar. He also set up the Young Workers League.

In 1932, he was arrested by the British for bringing out a pamphlet praising the Bhagat Singh Trio and sent to Muzzafargarh jail, then transferred to Ambala jail. When he was released in 1938 he started open public political activity in Bombay. The left wing of Congress elected him to the INC Bombay Provincial Committee. He also attended the INC Annual General meeting in Ramgarh, Bihar.

He was rearrested in 1939 as Second World War breaks out. Later interned in Nasik jail where Dada writes the first part of his memoirs.

In 1942 he was the last of the Communists to be released after People’s War thesis. He worked for the Trade Union in Mumbai. He also attended the Natrakona (Mymansingh) All India Kissan Sabah in 1944.

Dada arrived in Rawalpindi on the eve of Pakistan to look after local party work. He organized a network all over Pakistan to hide, when wanted by the Government. Lahore was the nucleus of his activities. In Lahore, he use to take refuge in the house of a Sufi saint named Hussain Baksh Malang. He safely repatriated Hindu families during the partition riots.

In 1949, Dada was arrested from the Party office Rawalpindi under the Communal Act and released after 15 months. He got rearrested after a few months from Rawalpindi Kutchery for organizing the defense of Hassan Nasir and Ali Imam. When the Pakistani government launched operaton as a result of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case, Dada moved to Lahore fort and imprisoned with Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Fazal Din Qurban, Dada Feroz ud Din Mansur, Kaswar Gardezi, Hyder Bux Jatoi, Sobo Gayan Chandani, Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal, Zaheer Kashmiri, Hameed Akhtar etc. He was released after campaign in Pakistan Times and Imroze, but restricted to his village. He Shifted to Rawalpindi when seen influencing the military soldiers from his area.

In 1958 when Ayub imposes martial law, Dada was arrested and interned in Rawalpindi jail with Afzal Bangash, Kaka Sanober and other comrades.

Dada spends his twilight years in the 70s and 80s in Rawalpindi but, whenever founds time, use to visit Lahore to meet his intimate friend Hussain Baksh Malang. He donated his land and with his own labour built a Boys High School in his village, then builds a Girls School together with a science laboratory. These schools were, latter, approved and take up by the Government.

Dada passes away on 26 December 1986 in Rawalpindi.

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