Hucheshwar Gurusidha Mudgal (2 September 1899, Hubli – 19??) was an Indian political activist, journalist, and parliamentarian. He is best known for his involvement with Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in the United States and for later serving as a member of India's Provisional Parliament.
Early Life and Education
Mudgal was born in Hubli, in what is now the state of Karnataka, India. He immigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in New York City, where he remained for seventeen years. He studied at the City College of New York and Columbia University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree.
Career in the United States
During his time in New York, Mudgal became a prominent figure in Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. He worked as a reporter and acting managing editor for the Daily Negro Times and contributed to Negro World, the official newspaper of the UNIA. His work placed him at the intersection of the South Asian diaspora and the African-American civil rights and Pan-Africanist movements of the 1920s and 1930s.
Return to India and Political Career
Mudgal returned to India in 1937. He later became a member of the Provisional Parliament of India (the legislature that preceded the first elected Lok Sabha in 1952) as a member of the Indian National Congress. In 1951, he was involved in a corruption scandal—one of the earliest cash-for-query cases in Indian parliamentary history—and was forced to resign.
Later Life
Mudgal published an article about the Marathi classical singer and theatre actor Bal Gandharva in The Times of India in 1967. The exact date and circumstances of his death are not recorded.
