Matin passes away, mission lives on

His father Abdul Jalil and mother Amena Khatun moved to Darjeeling in 1930 after their house was eaten by the Jamuna.

Six years later, Matin sat for the entrance examination from there and passed the intermediate examination from Rajshahi Government College in 1943.

At the end of the World War II, Matin took the British army's entrance tests from Kolkata's Fort William and received commission.

He went to Bangalore from there but by then, the war had ended.

However, in 1945, he got admitted to BA pass course at the Dhaka University and completed his honours two years later. He did his masters in international relations.

He came to be known as ‘Bhasha Matin’ (language warrior Matin) for his role as the convenor of all-party state language movement committee in 1952.

The veteran played an active role in forming the Chhatra Union after the Language Movement and became its president later. He then got involved in communist movement.

Matin was appointed the secretary of the Communist Party’s Pabna district unit in 1954, but joined Maulana Bhasani’s NAP three years later.

He formed the ‘East Pakistan Communist Party’ a year later.

In 1992, he took an active part in forming the Workers Party of Bangladesh and resigned in 2006.

He joined Workers Party again three years later, when it was reformed under Haider Akbar Khan Rono. Matin remained with it, although Rono later moved to the Communist Party of Bangladesh. The veteran has authored several books on the Language Movement. Of them, ‘Bangali Jatir Utsya Sandhan and Bhasha Andolan’ (in search of the Bengali’s root and the Language Movement), ‘Bhasha Andolan Ki Ebong Keno’ (what is Language Movement and why it took place), and ‘Bhasha Andolaner Itihash’ (the history of Language Movement) are well known. Apart from these, his autobiography has also been published. He was given the prestigious 'Ekushey Padak' in 2001 for his contribution to the Language Movement. Abdul Matin received numerous other awards including the Sher-e-Bangla national award and Bangla Academy fellowship.