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118 and he had not long to wait for an appointment. In 1849 at the age of twenty-one he was appointed a Deputy Magistrate by Sir Herbert Maddock, Deputy Governor of Bengal. Beginning in the then lowest grade of Deputy Magistrates on the pay of Rs. 200 a month, he was posted to the head-quarter station of the 24-Parganas. For over twenty-five years he remained in the subordinate Executive Service and it is one of the most striking features of Abdul Latif's career that though he held so comparatively humble an official position he exercised such widespread influence and was so universally acknowledged as one of the foremost leaders of Muhammadan society not only in Bengal but throughout India. It speaks much for the individuality and force of character of the man himself.

For three years Abdul Latif remained at Alipore, learning the work of a Deputy Magistrate, and at the end of that period he was invested with first class powers and was also made a Justice of the Peace. In 1853, he received promotion in the ordinary course of service and was chosen as the first subdivisional officer of the newly formed subdivision of Kalaroa, then a part of the 24-Parganas District. For a year he remained there, taking a keen interest in the unfortunate differences which had arisen between planters and ryots in the indigo districts and which eventually led to the appointment of the famous Indigo Commission by the Lieutenant-Governor,