18th February 1895 (Born) 24th October 1954 (Died)
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Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Rafi Ahmed Kidwai | |
|---|---|
| Born | 18 February 1894 Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Died | 24 October 1954 |
| Organization | Indian National Congress |
| Movement | Indian Independence movement |
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai (Hindi: रफ़ी अहमद क़िदवई رفیع احمد قدوائی Urdu ), (18 February 1894 – 24 October 1954) was a politician, an Indian independence activist and a socialist, sometimes described as an Islamic socialist.[1] He hailed from Barabanki District of United Provinces, now Uttar Pradesh, in north India.
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[hide]Early life[edit]
He was born on 18 February 1894 in the village of Masauli, in Barabanki district, United Provinces, India, the eldest of four sons of Imtiaz Ali Kidwai, a middle-class zamindar (or landowner) and government servant, and his wife, Rashid ul-Nisa, who died during his early childhood. He received his early education from a tutor at the home of his uncle, Wilayat Ali, a politically active lawyer, and in the village school. He attended the Government High School, Barabanki, until 1913. He then attended the Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh, where he graduated BA in 1918. He began work towards the degree of LLB, but, swept up by the khilafat and non-co-operation movements in 1920–21 (the first of Mahatma Gandhi's major all-India satyagraha, or non-violent civil resistance, movements) and jailed for his participation, he never completed it. He married Majid ul-Nisa in 1919. They had one child, a son, who died at seven years of age. Late Rafi Sahab had five brothers, he himself was the eldest. other brothers were Late Shafi Ahmad Kidwai, Late Mehfooz Ahmad Kidwai, Late Ali Kamil Kidwai and Late Hussain kamil Kidwai.Now Fareed Kidwai s/o late Mehfooz Ahmad Kidwai is a MOS in UP govt. Other surviving nephews are Rishad Kamil Kidwai s/o Late Mehfooz Ahmed Kidwai, Mumtaz Kamil Kidwai s/o Late Ali Kamil Kidwai and Hasan Javed Kidwai s/o Husain kamil Kidwai.
Politics (pre-independence)[edit]
After attending Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh, Kidwai entered politics through the Khilafat movement.
After his release from jail in 1922 Kidwai moved to Allahabad, where he became attached to the Nehru family, as private secretary first to Motilal Nehru, then to Jawaharlal, to whom he remained devoted thereafter. In 1926 he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly of British India. Kidwai, a virtuoso politician, took the leading organizational role in numerous ventures: in the election campaign of the Swaraj Party (an electoral offshoot of the Congress) as chief whip of the Congress in the central legislative assembly from 1926 to 1929; in the satyagraha and agrarian no-tax movement in the United Provinces in 1930–31; as general secretary of the United Provinces Congress committee in 1931, then president, from which position he led the organisation of the campaign for the provincial assembly elections of 1937; in his subsequent organisation of the 1946 elections; and in many other roles.
After the passage of the Government of India Act 1935, he held an office for the Indian National Congress.
From 1930–31 until the independence of India in 1947 Kidwai was, alongside Govind Ballabh Pant, the leading figure in Congress politics in the United Provinces and in the governments formed in that province under the terms of the Government of India Act of 1935 in 1937 and 1946. As revenue minister in the first government he was responsible for piloting the United Provinces Tenancy Act, which modified some of the burdens of the tenantry, presaging the post-independence abolition of the zamindari land system. In the 1946 government he was second to Pant as home minister. Kidwai had been Pant's political manager.
In 1937, Kidwai became a minister for Revenue and Prisons in Govind Ballabh Pant's cabinet in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (UP) under the Provincial Autonomy Scheme. Under his stewardship, UP became the first province to curtail the zamindari system. In April 1946, he became the Home Minister of UP.
Politics (post-independence)[edit]
Nehru called Kidwai to join him in the central government as minister for communications on 15 August 1947.
Kidwai was a major ally of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. After India gained independence from the British Raj in 1947, Kidwai became India's first Minister for Communications. (Kidwai and Abul Kalam Azad were the two Muslims in Nehru's central cabinet.)
After the first general elections in 1952,Mr.Kidwai elected from Bahraich. Nehru entrusted Kidwai with the portfolio of Food and Agriculture at a time when there was food rationing in the country.
In Delhi Kidwai, ever the political operative, soon became embroiled in the national struggle for power between Nehru and the supporters of Sardar Patel. He was one of the principal founders of the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, which broke away from the Congress to contest the elections of 1952 on its own. However, Kidwai vacillated, resigned briefly from the Congress, then returned to it to contest and win a parliamentary seat, after which he rejoined Nehru in the central government on 13 May 1952 as minister for food and agriculture. In this role he was credited with implementing several measures that prevented a major food crisis. He also played a critical role in the Kashmir imbroglio in 1953, involving the displacement of Sheikh Abdullah from the prime ministership of the state.
Kidwai was the only prominent Congress Muslim politician in the thoroughly communalised political atmosphere of his home province. All his followers were secular-minded Hindus from many different castes, whose political views ranged from conservative to socialist. Kidwai himself held to no ideology other than his devotion to the cause of Indian emancipation from British rule, though, like his mentor, Jawaharlal Nehru, he was loosely associated with those on the putative left of the Indian spectrum. While generous to all who sought his help, he was also a clever, manipulative, and conspiratorial political opponent in factional conflicts within the Congress organisation, who at times engaged in legally dubious tactical moves against his rivals. A devoted band of followers in the United Provinces remained loyal to him throughout his life. In a humorous play on English, they proclaimed themselves 'Rafians', though after his departure to the central government they were reduced to a small minority in the provincial party organisation and dispersed in factions within and parties outside the Congress.
Death[edit]
Kidwai suffered heart failure, precipitated by an attack of asthma, in the midst of a speech at a public meeting in Delhi and died shortly thereafter, on 24 October 1954. He was buried in his home village, Masauli, where a Mughal-style mausoleum was built over his grave. A formidable fund-raiser for Congress movements and elections, he distributed his largesse to all and sundry, but died in debt, leaving behind only a decaying house in his home village.
Legacy in Modern India[edit]
Since 1956 Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award is given by ICAR once every two years to a scientist who has made outstanding research contributions in the field of agriculture, animal husbandry and allied sciences(i.e. fisheries, aquatic sciences, and public health microbiology). The award consists of a Gold medal, a citation, and a cash prize of 300,000 Indian rupees.[2]
In Nov 2011, Government of India decided to rename the Postal Staff College, Ghaziabad after him as Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National Postal Academy.[3] The National Academy is entrusted with the task of imparting training to the officers of Indian Postal Service selected through Civil Services Examination conducted by the UPSC. The Academy is in the same league as its counterpart Administrative and Police academies named after stalwarts like Lal Bahadur Shastri and Sardar Patel.[4]
In Kolkata, a major street has been named after him to glorify this hero of the Indian independence movement.[5] His Statue is also located in Indira Nagar,Lucknow and Krishi Bhawan, NEW DELHI to honour his service towards the nation
In his honour,Veteran educationist Sri Asad Ali Farooqui established RAFI AHMAD QIDWAI INTER COLLEGE in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh.The college was started in 1958 as a junior high school and later became an inter college.Recently Rafi Ahmad Qidwai Inter College completed 50 years of its establishment.Sri Asad Ali Farooqui became the Founder and the first principal of the college and after retiring in 1992, now serves as the president of the college commiittee.
Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology is named after him.He played a major role in donating 20 acres of the Campus land and Rs. 100,000 for the Radiotherapy machine.
References[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Paul R. Brass, Kidwai, Rafi Ahmad (1894–1954), politician in India in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(2004)
- M. Bassien, ed., Who's who in legislature, 1 (1953)
- M. Weiner, Party politics in India: the development of a multi-party system (1957)
- P. N. Chopra, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai: his life and work (1960)
- S. Sunder and S. Shyam, Political life of Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, 1: 1887–1945 (1960)
- Sampurnanand, Memories and reflections (1962)
- A. P. Jain, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai: a memoir of his life and times (1965)
- P. R. Brass, Factional politics in an Indian state: the Congress Party in Uttar Pradesh (1966)
- S. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru: a biography, 2: 1947–1956 (1979)
- V. Menon, From movement to government: the Congress in the United Provinces, 1937–42 (2003)
- M. Hasan, From pluralism to separatism: qasbas in colonial Awadh (2004)
External source[edit]
- Biography from the Government of India's Ministry of Information
- IndianMuslims.info
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Categories:
- First Indian Cabinet
- Indian Muslims
- Indian independence activists from Uttar Pradesh
- Aligarh Muslim University alumni
- Indian socialists
- People from Barabanki district
- 1st Lok Sabha members
- Members of Central Legislative Assembly of India
- 1954 deaths
- Prisoners and detainees of British India
- 1894 births
- Members of Constituent Assembly of India
- Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh
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