Dasarathi Tah was a politician and journalist in the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state

States and territories of India

India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

 of West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

.

Early life

Dasarathi Tah did not have the benefit of any formal education and was a completely self-educated person. Politically inclined from his younger days, he joined the Congress Party

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 in 1930 and actively participated in many political movements such as the Salt Satyagraha

Salt Satyagraha

The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagrahah began with the Dandi March on March 12, 1930, and was an important part of the Indian independence movement. It was a campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly in colonial India, and triggered the wider...

, personal satyagraha

Satyagraha

Satyagraha , loosely translated as "insistence on truth satya agraha soul force" or "truth force" is a particular philosophy and practice within the broader overall category generally known as nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. The term "satyagraha" was conceived and developed by Mahatma...

, flood prevention in the Damodar

Damodar River

Damodar River originates near Chandwa village, Palamau district, on the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the Jharkhand state in eastern India, and flows eastward for about 592 km through the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal to the estaury of the River Hooghly...

, and the canal movement. During the Quit India Movement

Quit India Movement

The Quit India Movement , or the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...

 he was involved in the occupation of Jamalpur

Jamalpur, Bardhaman

Jamalpur is an administrative division in Bardhaman Sadar South subdivision of Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Jamalpur police station serves this block...

 police station. He was sent to jail several times for his political activities.

Elections

He won elections to the West Bengal state assembly from Raina

Raina (Vidhan Sabha constituency)

Raina is an assembly constituency in Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The seat is reserved for scheduled castes.-Extent:As per orders of the Delimitation Commission, No...

 constituency in 1951, 1957 and 1967. While he contested on a Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party

Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party

The Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party was a socialist political party of India. Although the party is now defunct and doesn't contest election anymore, it is logged with the Election Commission of India as having contested the very first parliamentary elections in 1951 in India...

 ticket in 1951, he fought the other elections on a Praja Socialist Party

Praja Socialist Party

The Praja Socialist Party was an Indian political party in existence from 1952 to 1972. It was founded when the Socialist Party, led by Jayprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh , merged with the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party led by J.B. Kripalani...

 ticket.

Journalist

Dasarathi Tah was a pioneering journalist. He edited and published the weekly Damodar before independence and then started the daily Damodar after independence. Both were the earliest in their category in Bardhaman district

Bardhaman District

'Bardhaman district is a district in West Bengal. The headquarter of the district is Bardhaman, though it houses other important industrial towns like Durgapur and Asansol...

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