Rafi Ahmed Kidwai

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
Kidwai on a 1969 stamp of India
Personal details
Born	18 February 1894 Barabanki, North-Western Provinces, British India
Died	24 October 1954(1954-10-24) (aged 60) Delhi, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Education	Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, now called Aligarh Muslim University
Khilafat Movement (1919-1922)

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai (18 February 1894 – 24 October 1954) was a politician, an Indian independence activist and a socialist. Kidwai served as a Minister of Communications in the first Cabinet of Independent India (First Nehru Ministry).

He hailed from Barabanki District of Uttar Pradesh, in north India.

Biography

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai was born on 18 February 1894 in a middle class Zamindar family in the village of Masauli, in Barabanki district (now in Uttar Pradesh). As a young man, after graduating from the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, he became politically active and was a regular member of Khilafat Movement in 1920. He also vigorously supported the Non-cooperation movement (1919-1922) in the Barabanki district. In 1946, he became the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

After the 1951-52 general elections in India, Jawaharlal Nehru made Rafi the minister of food and agriculture. At that time, there was food rationing all over India due to man-made food scarcity. Rafi worked very hard as a minister to solve that problem. He is said to have boldness and an imaginative approach in solving problems. Rafi also was a man of action and provided vigorous support to Nehru in the Indian National Congress national government.

Death

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai died in Delhi on 24 October 1954. He had heart failure after experiencing an attack of asthma while delivering a speech. His burial site, at his home village, was later covered by a Mughal-style mausoleum. According to historian Paul Brass, "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

The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award was created in 1956 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to recognize Indian researchers in the agricultural field. Awards are distributed every second year, and take the form of medals, citations, and cash prizes. In his famous autobiography, Jawaharlal Nehru mentioned that Rafi Ahmad Kidwai was part of District Congress Committee and had signed a book containing recommendations to solve agrarian problem in United Provinces of British India in 1931.

According to Parliament of India or Rajya Sabha website, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai profile says:

"An eminent patriot, valiant freedom fighter and brilliant administrator, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai was a man of drive, quick decisions and firm action".

Commemorative postage stamp

India Post issued a commemorative postage stamp On 1 April 1969 to acknowledge his services to India.

In November 2011, the Postal Staff College in Ghaziabad was named as the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National Postal Academy.

There is also a street named after him in Kolkata.

There is a road named after him in Wadala Mumbai.

The Parliament of India has a portrait of Kidwai in a Committee Room.

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai also played a major role in donating 20 acres of the campus land and Rs. 100,000 for the radiotherapy machine for the establishment of cancer care hospital in Bangalore Karnataka state, India which is named after him - Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.

Further reading

• 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)