Syed Mujtaba Ali

Syed Mujtaba Ali (, ; 13 September 1904 – 11 February 1974) was a Bengali writer, journalist, travel enthusiast, academic, scholar and linguist. He lived in Bangladesh, India, Germany, Afghanistan and Egypt.

Early life and education Syed Mujtaba Ali Khandakar was born on 13 September 1904 to a Bengali Muslim Syed family of Khandakars in Karimganj, Sylhet district, British Raj. His father, Khan Bahadur Syed Sikander Ali, was a sub-registrar. He traced his paternal descent to Shah Syed Ahmed Mutawakkil, a Sufi Pir and a Syed of Taraf, though apparently unrelated to Taraf's ruling Syed dynasty. Ali's mother, Amatul Mannan Khatun, belonged to the Chowdhuries of Kala and Bahadurpur, a Muslim branch of the Pal family of Panchakhanda. His paternal family's ancestral home is Khandakar Bari in Uttarsur Village of Bahubal Upazila of Habiganj District. Mujtaba was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom being the writer Syed Murtaza Ali. In the same year 1921, he went to Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan and graduated in 1926 with B.A. degree. He was among the first graduates of the Visva-Bharati. He studied for a brief period in Aligarh Muslim University. Later, he moved to Kabul to work in the Education Department (1927–1929) as a professor. His name was struck off the evacuation list by Francis Humphrys, first British Minister to the Amir of Afghanistan, Amānullāh Khān, after he criticized the airlifting of Europeans before British Indian citizens. He was a prominent activist and supporter of Bengali as the national language of East Pakistan.

After a brief stint at University of Calcutta in 1950, Ali became Secretary of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and editor of its Arabic journal Thaqafatul Hind. She served as the headmistress of Sarkari Agragami Girls' High School in 1948.

Death and legacy In 1972, after the Independence of Bangladesh, Ali returned to Bangladesh. He died on 11 February 1974. Extracts from his literary works are included in the curriculum of school level, secondary, higher secondary and graduation level Bengali Literature in both Bangladesh and India, particularly in the states of West Bengal and Tripura. He was awarded Ekushey Padak, the second highest civilian award in Bangladesh in 2005 by the Government of Bangladesh.

Awards Narsinghadas Prize (1949) Ananda Puraskar (1961) awarded by Anandabazar Group Ekushey Padak (2005) by the Government of Bangladesh