Kunwar Mohammad Ashraf

Kunwar Mohammad Ashraf (24 November 1903 – 7 June 1962) was a Marxist historian and leader of the Communist Party of India.

His works included articulating Muslim engagement with politics using a creative way during the late colonial and post-independence periods.

[1] He was born to a Muslim Rajput[citation needed] family in Uttar Pradesh, Aligarh district, Hathras tehsil, Daryapur village on 24 November 1903.

Ashraf got admitted to MAO College, Aligarh, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts in Arabic logic and history.

He created a record by passing LLB in first class in 1926 While working in the Non-Co-operation Movement, he met Shaukat Usmani in 1922 who introduced him to socialism.

In the mean- time, he along with Srinivas Iyyengar, Md Ali, Saklatvala and others founded the London Committee of the Indian National Congress.

He was included in the central executive of the Congress Socialist Party, along with Jaiprakash Narain, EMS, Acharya Narendra Dev, Z A Ahmed, Sajjad Zaheer, Ram Manohar Lohia, Ashok Mehta, etc.

He became a centre of attraction of student meetings all over the country, and played a very important role in the guidance of the AISF work.

Dr Ashraf along with other Communist leaders was interned in Deoli Detention Camp 1940 onwards.

Dr Ashraf was asked by the party to shift to Pakistan in 1948 after ‘Awami Daur’ was closed down.

[citation needed] Ashraf died on 7 June 1962, in Berlin due to heart attack.

[2][3][4] He was cremated and honoured with burial in the Pergolenweg Ehrengrab section of Berlin's Friedrichsfelde Cemetery.