Rafi Ahmed Kidwai

From Bharatpedia, an open encyclopedia


Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai 1969 stamp of India.jpg
Kidwai on a 1969 stamp of India
Personal details
Born18 February 1894
Barabanki, North-Western Provinces, British India
Died24 October 1954
(aged 60)
Delhi, India
EducationAligarh Muslim University

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai (18 February 1894 – 24 October 1954) was a politician, an Indian independence activist and a socialist. He hailed from Barabanki District of United Provinces, now Uttar Pradesh, in north India.

Early life[edit]

Rafi Ahmed was born in the village of Masauli, in Barabanki district (now in Uttar Pradesh).[1]

Death[edit]

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 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."[1]

Legacy[edit]

The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award was created in 1956 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in 1956 to recognize Indian researchers in the agricultural field. Awards are distributed every second year, and take the form of medals, citations, and cash prizes.[2]

In November 2011, the Postal Staff College in Ghaziabad was named as the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National Postal Academy.[3] There is also a street named after him in Kolkata.[4]

There is a street named after him in Wadala Mumbai.

The Parliament of India has a portrait of Kidwai in a Committee Room.[5]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Kidwai, Rafi Ahmad (1894–1954)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/94954. Template:ODNBsub
  2. ↑ "Merits & Awards". icar.org.in. Archived from the original on 3 June 2008. Retrieved 3 September 2008.
  3. ↑ A. Kumaraswamy (31 October 2011) rename of the Postal Staff College India. Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India.
  4. ↑ "Kolkata Yellow Pages". Retrieved 13 December 2011.
  5. ↑ Rafi Ahmed Kidwai. rajyasabha.nic.in.

Further reading[edit]

  • 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 links[edit]

Template:First Indian Cabinet

Information red.svg
Scan the QR code to donate via UPI
Dear reader, We kindly request your support in maintaining the independence of Bharatpedia. As a non-profit organization, we rely heavily on small donations to sustain our operations and provide free access to reliable information to the world. We would greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to consider donating to our cause, as it would greatly aid us in our mission. Your contribution would demonstrate the importance of reliable and trustworthy knowledge to you and the world. Thank you.

Please select an option below or scan the QR code to donate
₹150 ₹500 ₹1,000 ₹2,000 ₹5,000 ₹10,000 Other


Retrieved from "https://en.bharatpedia.org/index.php?title=Rafi_Ahmed_Kidwai&oldid=321314"