Category Personalities

               Though politics was Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed’s forte, he always showed keen interest in sports and many extracurricular activities.

                Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was an excellent tennis player and golfer. He was the president of the Assam Football Association. He was also elected as the president of the Assam Cricket Association for several terms. He also held the position of vice president of the Assam Sports Council.

                In April 1967, he was elected as the president of the All India Cricket Association. Other than these, he was also a member of the Delhi Golf Club and the Delhi Gymkhana Club since 1961.

               Though he was basically a sports enthusiast, he had excellent taste in music and fine arts too. He enjoyed the music of Ghaleb.

               A medical college, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College, has been named after him at Barpeta in Assam.

               During his stint in England, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed met Jawaharlal Nehru in 1925. Nehru’s progressive ideas influenced him very much. At Nehru’s request, Ali Ahmed joined the Indian National Congress. He actively participated in the Indian freedom struggle.

               He was a member of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee from 1936. He was later selected as a Minister of Finance, Revenue and Labour in Assam. In 1942, he supported the Quit India Movement, for which he was arrested in August.

               After India gained independence, Fakhruddin was elected to Rajya Sabha in 1952. He eventually became the Advocate-General of the Government of Assam. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1967 and again in 1971. He handled various portfolios, including food and agriculture, cooperation, education, industrial development and company laws.

              Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was chosen by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as the President of India. He was sworn in on 24th August 1974.  He was a multifaceted personality. His interest in sports was extremely popular.

              Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed’s tenure in the office was cut short by his sudden death due to a heart attack which he suffered on his return from a tour of the South-East Asian countries only a day before. He died on 11th February, 1977.

            Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was very much inspired by his father, who was a great patriot.

            Col. Zalnur Ali Ahmed was in the Indian Medical Service and served as an army doctor. Col. Ahmed opposed the bad treatment towards the Indians by the British. Ali Ahmed’s father Col. Zalnur Ali had to leave Assam while he was a bachelor doctor following an incident in Shillong.  

            Col. Zalnur Ali Ahmed and one of his Assamese contemporaries, Col. Sibram Bora, were allotted seats at a function in the Shillong Club away from the European guests.

The two Assamese Colonels boycotted the function in protest against the British behaviour towards the Indians.

This naturally provoked the British heads. They transferred Col. Zalnur Ali Ahmed to the distant North-West Province.

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed grew up hearing stories like these from his father, which made him bold enough to take the right decision of serving the nation and its people. He was always inspired by his father’s integrity and boldness.

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                 Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was born on 13th May 1905, at the Hauz Qazi area of Old Delhi, India. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and always lived in luxury.

                His father, Col. Zalnur Ali Ahmed, was the first Assamese person, and the first person from northeast India to have an MD (Doctor of Medicine) degree. His mother was a daughter of the Nawab of Loharu. Ahmed’s grandfather, Khaliluddin All Ahmed, was from Kacharighat near Golaghat, Assam, and hailed from a well-known Assamese family.

                 Ahmed was educated at the Government High School in Gonda district, United Provinces, and matriculated from the Delhi Government High School. He attended St. Stephen’s College and St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and subsequently became an active member of the Congress Party.

               Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was picked for the presidency by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Thus, in 1974, he became the second Muslim to be elected President.

               Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed is known to have issued the proclamation of the Emergency by signing the papers at midnight during Indira Gandhi’s tenure as the Prime Minister.

            Fakhruddin All Ahmed was the fifth President of India, in office from 1974 to1977. He had keen interest in many fields such as music, fine arts,  poetry and sports.

           He was the second President of India to die in office (on 11th February, 1977). Ahmed served as the President of India during the time of the Emergency.

          He met Jawaharlal Nehru in England in 1925. Inspired by Nehru, Fakhruddin All Ahmed joined the Indian National Congress, and actively participated in the freedom movement.

         He started Satyagraha on 14th December, 1940. In 1942, he was arrested for participating in the Quit India Movement, and was imprisoned for three and a half years.

He was elected to the Assam Assembly from 1957 to 1962, and again from 1962 to 1967. He remained the Minister of Finance, Revenue and Labour in the 1938 Gopinath Bordoloi Ministry.

          He joined the cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru at the Centre in January 1966. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971. In the central cabinet, he was given important portfolios relating to food and agriculture, cooperation, education, industrial development and company laws.

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            V.V. Giri was India’s first High Commissioner to Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He held the position from 1947 to 1951. In the first general election of independent India in 1951, he was elected from the Pathapatnam Lok Sabha Constituency, in the Madras State.

            On being elected to Parliament, Giri was appointed minister of labour in 1952. In 1954, he resigned from his cabinet position as the government opposed his famous ‘Giri Approach’.

            From June 1956-1960, he served as Governor of Uttar Pradesh, from 1960-1965, he was Governor of Kerala and from 1965-1967, he served as Governor of Karnataka.

            Giri was elected the third Vice President of India on 13th May 1967, a post he held for nearly two years till 3rd May, 1969. Giri was the first Vice President not to complete his full term in office, on account of being elevated to the office of the President, and was the third Vice President to be elected to the presidency.

            As an Acting President, he promulgated the ordinance that nationalized 14 banks and insurance companies. Later, Giri was sworn in as President of India on 24th August 1969, and held office till 24th August 1974.

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