Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday announced that the name of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital in Barpeta will be changed to Barpeta Medical College and Hospital. He added that since Ahmed was the President of India and the first person from Assam to hold the office, the state government would dedicate another institution in his name.
Ahmed was the fifth President of India, serving from August 24, 1974, to February 11, 1977. He was only the second Muslim, after Zakir Husain, to occupy the post. Ahmed died of a heart attack while in office, as Husain had earlier in 1969.
Today, Ahmed is largely a forgotten figure, often recalled mainly as the President who signed the Proclamation of the Emergency in 1975, which was declared by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
A frequently cited reference to him in books is the iconic cartoon by Abu Abraham, published in The Indian Express just after the Emergency proclamation, depicting Ahmed signing the document while sitting in a bathtub.
Ahmed had also been a freedom fighter and politician long before assuming the position of the President. Former Assam CM Gopinath Bordoloi and Ahmed resigned from the Assam government in 1940 on the call of Mahatma Gandhi to offer individual Satyagraha against the British for forcing India into World War II without the consent of Indian leaders. Ahmed was jailed for one year for this act.
After his release, Ahmed was detained again as a security prisoner during the Quit India Movement and was released only in April 1945. He later lost to a Muslim League candidate in the 1945 election to the Assam Assembly. A year later, he became the Advocate General of Assam.
Much later, during the Indo Pakistan War of 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh, Ahmed — then a Union minister — was sent to Muslim-majority countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates to explain India’s position.
Early Life
Although his family had roots in Kakharihat in the Golaghat subdivision of Assam, Ahmed was born in Delhi on May 13, 1905, to Colonel Z A Ahmed. He lived in several parts of India, completing his schooling in Gonda in Uttar Pradesh and later in Delhi, from where he passed the matriculation examination of Punjab University in 1921.
He then joined St Stephen’s College in Delhi and soon went to England to study at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
After returning to India, Ahmed enrolled as an advocate in the Punjab High Court of undivided India. In 1928, he moved to Assam, where he spent most of his professional life, apart from practising as a lawyer for a brief period in Kolkata.
Stint in Congress
Ahmed joined the Indian National Congress in 1931 and won an election from a reserved Muslim seat in 1935. From 1936 until he became President in 1974, he remained associated with the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee and the All India Congress Committee.
Between 1938 and 1939, he served in the Congress government of Gopinath Bordoloi in Assam as Finance and Revenue Minister. In this role, he granted a 50% remission in land revenue and imposed a tax on agricultural income, according to a PIB release dated August 20, 1974, issued ahead of his swearing-in as President.
Post-Independence role
Around the time of Independence, Ahmed became a member of the Congress Working Committee. In 1952–53, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha, and in 1955 he led a delegation of Indian lawyers to the USSR. In 1957, he served as a delegate to the United Nations. In the same year, he was elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly and joined the state Cabinet in 1958. He held several portfolios, including Finance, Law, Community Development, Panchayat, and Local Self-Government.
From 1964 to 1974, Ahmed was a member of the AICC and the Congress Parliamentary Board. In 1965, he represented India in Kuala Lumpur during the celebrations of Malaysia’s Independence Day, which also marked the inauguration of an international mosque and airport.
Ahmed was again elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1966 and was appointed Union Minister of Irrigation and Power. On November 14, 1966, he became Union Education Minister.
He won the 1967 Lok Sabha election from Barpeta in Assam and was appointed Union Minister for Industrial Development and Company Affairs. In 1970, he became Union Agriculture Minister and retained the same portfolio after winning the 1971 elections.
In 1969, Ahmed was inadvertently caught in a diplomatic setback. India had been invited to the inaugural summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Rabat, Morocco, with Ahmed leading the Indian delegation. However, Pakistan ensured that the Indian delegation was denied entry, reportedly citing the September 1969 Ahmedabad riots.
Ahmed was also actively involved in sports administration. He served as president of the football and cricket associations of Assam and was also president of the All India Lawn Tennis Association.