about my grandfather...
Istafa Husain - The third child of Sheikh Murtaza Husain of Gorakhpur, Istafa Husain, who from the very beginning had nationalist leaning, was born in 1911. His initial education was in Gorakhpur at Government Jubilee College and St Andrews College. For the higher education, he attended Lucknow University, from where he completed his M.Sc and LLB. Those days in Lucknow, the politics was in the air. There he came in contact with Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma and K Raghurammaiyya, who were his contemporaries. At an early age he got married to Amina Khatoon, daughter of one of the most prominent businessman of Gorakhpur, Mian Rahmatullah. One of his brothers-in-law, Niamatullah Ansari participated in the freedom struggle, and was later elected as a MLA from Gorakhpur.
After completing his education in Lucknow, he went back to Gorakhpur to practice law in Gorakhpur Civil Court. He was interested in the issues related to small farmers and marginalized people of the society. His contact with Professor Shibban Lal Saxena, who was an influential congress leader of that time, brought him closer to Maharajganj and Pharenda, from where he started his formal political career. After Independence when the election of District Board happened for the first time, he was elected from Pharenda on Congress ticket. Before this, he also got elected as the Gram Sabha Pradhan of Bhelumpur or Karmaura. In 1952, for the first assembly election after independence, he won the Gorakhpur seat on Congress ticket. He won by a big majority and then again by a bigger majority in 1957. He was elevated to the position of Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Home and Information, when Sampoorna Nand became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Then in 1966 and in 1972, he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Council in Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad. In November 1973, when Chief Minister Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, formed his eleven member's cabinet, he was assigned as a Cabinet Minister in-charge of the small scale industries. Apart from political appointments, he was also a member of the Aligarh Muslim University and Agra University courts. Locally in Gorakhpur, he was in the Executive Committee of Gorakhpur University and was the founder member of Madan Mohan Malviya Engineering College and Janata Inter College in Bhatuli, Maharajganj. For life, he was the President of the school named after his father, Sheikh Murtaza Husain Memorial Higher Secondary School. During the time of his death in 1987, he was the member of Uttar Pradesh Minorities Commission. It is not out of place to mention that in spite of being in public life for decades he maintained an unblemished record.