'Justify'>Muhammad Siddiq Khan () widely known as M S Khan was born in a respectable family of Dhuburia, Tangail, Bangladesh. His grandfather Jalaluddin Khan alias Chamu Khan was one of the nine recipients of Shahi Firman from the Mughal emperors. He was born in Rangoon on 21 March, 1910.His father died when he was still very young, leaving his widow Bolonnessa Begum in a long-drawn-out litigation with his uncle on proprietary rights to his vast wealth and establishments. He was the Librarian of University Central Library of Dhaka and the founder of the Library Science Descipline in Dhaka University. He is calld the father of the Library and Information Science in Bangladesh."M S Khan"/>

Siddiq Khan spent his childhood in utter financial straits owing to the death of his father. He went to school in Yangon and made a mark as a talented student. He took the Matriculation examination in 1925 and stood 5th in Burma with distinctions in four subjects. He passed his Intermediate in arts in 1927 and stood 1st in the University with distinction in English. For this brilliant performance he was rewarded the Jardin Prize. He graduated from Rangoon University in History with honors and stood first in the second class in 1929. He obtained his M A in 1936 and was awarded the Yakub Ghani Gold Medal. He also did a B L degree in 1931.
Working life

After the completion of his academic life, M S Khan joined the Rangoon University as a lecturer in History and Political Science in 1931. He was a faculty of this University until the outbreak of the World War II. This was a period that he seemed to have enjoyed most: he taught with gusto and had among his students such a distinguished person as Aung Sung, the father of the Burmese nation.

The World War II broke out and as Yangon came under fire of the advancing Japanese army, he left Yangon and took the Burmese trail trekking hundreds of miles through difficult mountainous terrain. He saw human misery at its worst, even mothers abandoning their babies behind overcome by hunger and exhaustion.

M S Khan, rendered penniless by a devastating War, came back to his village home and from there he headed for Kolkata (Formerly Calcutta) in search of fortune. In 1943, he became an officer in the Civil Defence department of Bengal government. In 1944 he joined as Liaison Officer under the Industries Directorate of the Bengal government. In 1946 he was made the General Secretary of Bengal Red Cross Society.

The partition of India in 1947 was yet another blow on Siddiq Khan's career. He had to move to Dhaka though he retained his job with the Red Cross (Presently Red Crescent Society). In 1950 he joined Manikganj Debendra College as its principal.

In 1953 when he became the secretary to the Vice-Chancellor, Dhaka University (Formerly Dacca University), Dr. Moazzem Hossain whom he served only for eight months. Dr. Hossain was impressed by his scholarship and his command over English and he had this to write about him: "Mr. M S Khan possesses a scholarly temperament and is widely read.... In my opinion his services may be better utilized as a teacher and research worker in the Department of History of this University." Dr. Hossain was succeeded by Dr. W A Jenkins who also was much impressed by his near native competence in English and his range of reading. Dr. Jenkins sent him abroad to get higher training in Library Science in 1954.

M S Khan arrived in London on 30 September 1954. He was 44 years of age and was out of touch with regular course work for about 20 years. Yet, on reaching London he started regular course work as decided by Professor Irwin.

After completing a two year course on the theory and practice of university librarianship in London School of Librarianship and Archives, under the supervision of Professor Irwin, during 1954-55 and 1955-56, Muhammad Siqqiq Khan returned home and joined as Librariana of Dhaka University in June 1956. He served that position till his retirement in 1972. He ran into problems with his provident fund and the last days of his life were spent in dire financial problems. He used to write columns and reviews for the Holiday and Bangladesh Observer even in his frail health. He wrote some of the best book reviews during this period.

Honours and award

M S Khan did not receive any honours during his life-time though he was held in high esteem in the world of scholarship. Two of his extended articles were published abroad. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society for his scholarly contributions.

He was a Vice-President of Pakistan Library Association (1957, 1958, and 1968) and President of the East Pakistan Library Association for several tenures. He was the General Secretary of Pakistan Library Association from 1962-1965. He was a Vice-President of Asian Federation of Library Association from 1957-1960. Nearly a quarter of century later the Tangail Association introduced a gold medal in his name, the notable among others in the same distinguished list of being Maulana Bhasani and Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury.

'Justify'>In March 2004 the Bangladesh government posthmously awarded him the highest civil award Swadhinata Padak which was received by his daughter Mrs. Shireen Rashid."M S Khan"/>

He was constantly switching jobs restless to find out the significance of his own life. When destiny held out the prospects of his becoming a teacher and a librarian at Dhaka University (Dacca University), he instinctively chose the latter. Here was a chance for him to create a meaningful future that would influence the lives of his countrymen for generations to come. By his wide reading he knew about the changes that had taken place in the systematization and arrangement of resource material in the western world under the new cataloguing and classification system initiated by Melvil Dewey.So his first vocation was to adopt this new system for the biggest storehouse of knowledge of his country and to make resource material easily accessible to its readers. He completed this job to his own satisfaction during the 19 years he served as Librarian.

M S Khan believed in human action for its own sake as long as that action meant good for his fellow country men. He was not deterred by criticisms once he resolved to accomplish something meaningful for his society. He once again instinctively felt that mere organizing one single library would not be enough for his country; he must arrange for an army of librarians who would constantly update accessibility of knowledge through the advanced scientific systems. So he needed to think of a Library Movement in the then East Pakistan (Presently Bangladesh) keeping in line with national and international perspectives. He along with Mr. Ahmad Hossain set up the Library Association of East Pakistan and introduced a Diploma Course for the budding librarians. He was convinced that the Diploma course was not enough to cope with the growing need of having trained librarians for all the libraries in East Pakistan (Presently Bangladesh). So he moved the Dhaka University (also known as University of Dhaka) authorities who agreed to set up the Department of Library Science in 1959 and he became its founder Head. It makes him the father of Library and Inforamtion Science of Bangladesh.

M S Khan was never seen beating his own drum, but he helped build the image of the institutions he served by creating appropriate literature for awareness among the clientele. He used to bring out a news bulletin from Dhaka University.10 Later he brought out the Eastern Librarian to promote the Library Movement and he held the post of its editor until 1976. He had few friends and he was rarely seen talking about his achievements.

Muhammad Siddiq Khan breathed his last, after prolonged illness, on 13 August 1978.

See Also

• Abbas abu saleh
• Amos Raviv
• C. R. Karisiddappa
• John Simkin
• Wendelin Fraser