Dada Amir Haider Khan

Dada Amir Haider Khan (2 March 1900 – 27 December 1989) was a communist activist of Pakistan, and revolutionary during the Indian independence movement.

[1] At this time, he met Joseph Mulkane, an Irish nationalist who introduced him to anti-British political ideas.

During his stay in USA, he was subjected to racist harassment and segregation attitudes when attempting to learn how to fly a plane in Southern Illinois, according to his memoirs.

He was dismissed from the ship after the great post-war strike of World War I and worked and traveled inside the United States.

He then became a political activist, worked with Anti-Imperialist League and the Workers Party (United States), which sent him to the Soviet Union to study at the University of the Toilers of the East.

[1][3] In March 1929, he escaped arrest in the Meerut Conspiracy Case[1] and made his way to Moscow to inform the Communist International (Comintern) on the situation in India and seek their assistance.

When the Pakistani government launched operation as a result of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case, Dada was moved to Lahore Fort and imprisoned with Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Fazal Din Qurban, Dada Feroz-ud-Din Mansoor, Syed Kaswar Gardezi, Haider Bux Jatoi, Sobo Gayan Chandani, Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal, Zaheer Kashmiri, Hameed Akhtar etc.

In 1958, when General Ayub Khan imposed martial law in Pakistan, Dada was arrested and interned in Rawalpindi jail with Afzal Bangash, Kaka Sanober and other comrades.

Dada spent his twilight years in the 1970s and 1980s in Rawalpindi, but whenever he found the time, he used to visit Lahore to meet his intimate friend Hussain Baksh Malang.

[2] There is hardly any book available that describes and records for the future generations the experiences of an Indian and events of his time (early 20th century) from a progressive viewpoint.

Dada discusses Bombay, Basra, Colombia, Rangoon, Port Said, Gibraltar, London, New York, Panama, Vladivostok, Shanghai, Manila, Madras, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Baltimore, Naples, Trinidad, Port of Spain, Yokohama and Moscow of his youthful days in a candid manner in his memoirs.