Dudu Miyan

{{Short description|Bengali Muslim leader (1819–1862)}} {{Infobox religious biography | honorific_prefix = [[Mawlawi (Islamic title)|Mawlawi]] | name = Dudu Miyan | caption = | birth_name = Muhsin ad-Din Ahmad | birth_date = 1819 | birth_place = [[Madaripur District|Madaripur]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[Company rule in India]] | death_date = {{Death year and age|1862|1819}} | death_place = [[Dacca]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]] | known_for = [[Faraizi Movement]], [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]] | notable_works = | religion = [[Islam]] | denomination = [[Sunni]] | jurisprudence = [[Hanafi]] | movement = [[Faraizi]] | Sufi_order = [[Qadiri]] }} '''Muḥsin ad-Dīn Aḥmad''' (1819–1862), better known by his nickname '''Dudu Miyān''', was a leader of the [[Faraizi Movement]] in [[Bengal]]. He played an active role in the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]].

==Early life== Ahmad was born in 1819, to a [[Bengali Muslim]] family of [[Taluqdar]]s in [[Naria Upazila|Mulfatganj]], [[Madaripur District|Madaripur]]. His father, [[Haji Shariatullah]], was the founder of the [[Faraizi Movement]]. After initial paternal education, Ahmad was sent to [[Mecca]] in Arabia at the age of twelve for further studies. Although he never achieved the levels of scholarship attained by his father, he quickly proved himself to be a powerful leader of the [[peasant movement]]s against colonial indigo planters and wealthy landlords.<ref name="Volume 3 2018">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Kenneth W. |title=Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8HV4nHv8urgC&q=Dudu+Miyan&pg=PA21 |series=The New Cambridge History of India |volume=III.1 |year=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=May 4, 2018 |isbn=978-0-521-24986-7}}</ref>

==Movement== After the death of Shariatullah, Miyan led the movement to a more radical, agrarian character and was able to create an effective organizational structure.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} In his view land belonged to those who worked it. He established his own administrative system, and appointed a [[khalifa]] (leader) for each village. His policy was to create a state within the British-ruled state. He organised the oppressed peasantry against the oppressive landlords.<ref>{{cite book |author=U. A. B. Razia Akter Banu |year=1992 |title=Islam in Bangladesh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XyzqATEDPSgC&pg=PA37 |publisher=E. J. Brill |pages=37–38 |isbn=90-04-09497-0 |quote=In Dudu Miyan's view, land belong to those who exploited it ... His administrative reforms entailed the division of Faraidi settlement areas into small units ... In each of the village units Dudu Miyan appointed a unit khalifah ... Dudu Miyan developed what amounted to a virtual parallel government to that of the British ... [The Faraidi movement's] primary political goal was to protect the helpless Muslim masses from the miserable conditions created by despotic and capricious ''zamindars'' of rural Bengal.}}</ref> In 1838, Miyan called upon his followers not to pay revenue to [[zamindar]]s. Indigo Kuthis, were frequently attacked and ransacked by raiyats.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.importantindia.com/9674/faraizi-movement/ |title=The Faraizi Movement |date=December 11, 2013 |website=ImportantIndia.com |access-date=May 4, 2018 |archive-date=June 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627144400/https://www.importantindia.com/9674/faraizi-movement/ |url-status=usurped}}</ref> In retaliation, the landlords and indigo planters tried to contain Miyan by instituting cases against him. In 1838, 1844, 1847 he was arrested several times but released because he became so popular irrespective of religion with the peasantry that in those cases, courts seldom found a witness against him.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Hardy |author2=Thomas Hardy |title=The Muslims of British India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDw4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA56 |year=1972 |publisher=CUP Archive |pages=56– |isbn=978-0-521-09783-3}}</ref>

==Death== At the time of the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]], the British government arrested him as precaution and kept him in the [[Alipore Jail]], [[Kolkata]]. He was released in 1859 and rearrested and finally freed in 1860. In 1862, Miyan died in [[Dacca]] aged 42–43 years.<ref name="Volume 3 2018" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miyan, Dudu}} [[Category:1819 births]] [[Category:1862 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century Indian Muslims]] [[Category:Bengali Muslim scholars of Islam]] [[Category:Indian revolutionaries]] [[Category:Rebellions in India]] [[Category:People from Madaripur District]] [[Category:Bengal Presidency]] [[Category:Prisoners and detainees of British India]] [[Category:19th-century Bengali people]] [[Category:Sunni Muslims]] [[Category:Haji Shariatullah family]]