Badruddin Umar

Badruddin Umar (, ; 20 December 1931 – 7 September 2025) was a Bangladeshi Marxist–Leninist theorist, political activist, historian, writer, intellectual, and leader of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist–Leninist) (Umar). was a prominent politician in the Indian subcontinent.

Early life Umar was born on 20 December 1931 to a Bengali family of Muslim zamindars in the village of Kashiara in Burdwan district, Bengal Presidency, British India. Although his father, Abul Hashim, and grandfather, Abul Kasem, opposed the Pakistan Movement, Hashim decided to move to East Pakistan and settled in Dhaka in 1950.

Education Umar received his MA in philosophy from University of Dhaka and his BA Honours degree in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) from the University of Oxford.

Career Umar began his academic career as a teacher at the University of Dhaka on a temporary basis. In 1963, he joined Rajshahi University as the founder-chair of the political science department. He also founded the department of sociology at the same university, but he resigned from his university positions during the hostile times of the then East Pakistan governor Abdul Monem Khan to become increasingly more active and engaged as a full-time leftist political activist and public intellectual to fight for the cause of oppressed peasants and workers in Bangladesh.

Activism and politics As a follower of Marxist–Leninist principles, Umar began writing anti-colonial articles in the 1970s. In the 1960s he wrote three groundbreaking books—Sampradayikata (Communalism, 1966), Sanskritir Sankat (The Crisis of Culture, 1967), and Sanskritik Sampradayikata (Cultural Communalism, 1969)—that theorise the dialectics of the political culture of 'communalism' and the question of Bengali nationalism, thus making significant intellectual contributions to the growth of Bengali nationalism itself. In 1969, Umar joined the East Pakistan Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist), and from February 1970 to March 1971, Umar edited the mouthpiece of the EPCP (M–L)—Shaptahik Ganashakti—which published essays and articles about the problems and prospects of the communist movement in Pakistan. He was president of both the Bangladesh Krishak Federation (Bangladesh Peasant Federation) and the Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir —the country's oldest organisation of progressive writers, intellectuals, and cultural activists. He was president of the Jatiya Mukti Council (National Liberation Council).

According to Umar, 80% to 90% of the written history of the 1971 war is false. He also stated that Sheikh Mujib wanted to be Prime Minister of Pakistan and that there were many self-contradictory statements in his 7 March speech.

Since 2009, the Awami League government has maintained a tight grip on Bangladesh, akin to an octopus, for over fifteen years. However, the people have now attained a level of freedom through a popular uprising that has not been experienced since 1972. Among the various mass uprisings that have occurred here since 1952, the uprising in July is the most extensive, profound, and aggressive against the rulers. They had a son and two daughters including Sara Umar.

Death

Umar died on the morning of 7 September 2025, at the age of 93. According to Jatiyo Mukti Council secretary Faizul Hakim Lala, his health deteriorated that morning, and he was taken to a specialised hospital in Shyamoli, Dhaka, where he died. He had previously been hospitalised on 22 July 2025 with respiratory distress and low blood pressure. After receiving treatment for ten days, he returned home the previous week.