Born on August 2, 1910 in the village South Dharmapur of Chhagalnaiya subdistrict of Feni, Abdus Salam, son of Dula Mia Munshi, was recognized as an outstanding student very early in life. He obtained the First Position in Chittagong Division in the Matriculation Examination and then was again First among the Muslim students in the I.Sc. Examination of Calcutta University. He switched to English when he went to Presidency College, Calcutta for his undergraduate studies and got the Tony Memorial Gold Medal for being the best English graduate.
Salam worked as an English Professor for a brief period and then joined the audit service of the Government of Bengal. He rose to the position of Controller of Civil Supplies Accounts during the Second World War. After securing his first job he had married Fatema Khatun, daughter of Karimul Huq and Mahmuda Khatun of Paschimgaon, Laksam. One of his brother-in-laws, M. Shams-ul Huq, later became the Education Minister of Pakistan and still later, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh.
After the partition of India he opted for service to Pakistan, came to Dhaka (August 1947) and became the Deputy Accountant General of East Bengal. However, he found the domination of non-Bengalis in government service unbearable, and resigned to join the Editorial Section of the Pakistan Observer and soon became its Editor (1949). His fiery editorials analyzing and demonstrating the outrageous discrimination against East Bengal irked the government so much that they kept looking for an excuse to chastise him.
On February 12, 1952 Salam wrote an editorial comparing the nepotism of the PM of Pakistan, Khwaja Nazimuddin, with that of one of the early Caliphs of Islam. This was interpreted as blasphemy. The Editor was imprisoned and the paper was banned. It is interesting to note that not a single other newspaper or organisation protested this action at that time, not even those belonging to the supposedly secular left. After release on bail Abdus Salam had to look for another job, having left his family in the village home for the first time. He worked for brief periods for the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce, for Karnaphuly Paper Mills and for a commercial periodical published by the Ispahani family. When elections were held in East Bengal, he was nominated by the United Front as a member of Sher-e Bangla's Krishak Shramik Party and became a member of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly, winning the election by a huge margin. The ban on the Pakistan Observer was lifted and Abdus Salam again became its Editor.
After the promulgation of martial law in the country Salam incurred the wrath of the dictator General Ayub Khan, by writing many editorials showing the glaring discrimination against the people of East Pakistan and also for criticising Ayub's autobiographical book Friends, Not Masters.
Salam was elected President of Pakistan Council of Newspaper Editors and of the Press Club many times.
After the liberation of Bangladesh, Abdus Salam wrote an editorial entitled The Supreme Test giving the new government some constructive advice. Aspirants for his position immediately used this opportunity to poison the ears of Sheikh Mujib and he was forced to resign from a position he held since 1949. K.G. Mostafa managed to survive for only five days, but was booted out by the staff, after which Fatema Salam's cousin Obaid-ul Huq became the new Editor.
Salam spent a couple of years in great financial distress, until Sheikh Mujib, a neighbour on Dhanmondi Road No 32, asked his nephew Sheikh Moni to use his services in Moni's new English daily The Bangladesh Times. He wrote helpful articles, without becoming sycophantic like the rest of contemporary column writers.
When the government changed in the second bloody coup of 1975, Salam was interviewed by the new President to serve in his cabinet, but excused himself on grounds of ill health. Instead, he became the Founder-DG of the Press Institute, a position he held until death on February 13, 1977, exactly 25 years after his first arrest.
Less than a year before his death he was awarded one of the first Ekushey Padaks (21 February 1976).
