Syeda Anwara Taimur (24 November 1936 – 28 September 2020) was an Indian politician, who was the chief minister of the Indian state of

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

from 6 December 1980 to 30 June 1981. She died in Australia on 28 September 2020. She was a leader of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

party in Assam and a member of the

All India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from state-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousan ...

(AICC).

Personal life

She graduated from

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

with economics honors. Anwara was lecturer in Economics in Debicharan Barua Girls College,

Jorhat Jorhat ( ) is one of the important cities and a growing urban centre in the state of Assam in India. Etymology Jorhat ("jor" means twin and "hat" means market) means two hats or mandis - "Masorhaat" and "Sowkihat" which existed on the opposite ...

in 1956.

Political career

In the history of Assam, she was the only

female Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gamet ...

and

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Chief Minister of the state. She was Chief Minister of Assam from 6 December 1980 to 30 June 1981. In Indian history also, Syeda Anwara Taimur was the first Muslim woman Chief Minister of any state. Her term as chief minister ended when the state was put under

President's rule In India, President's rule is the suspension of state government and imposition of direct Union government rule in a state. Under Article 356 of the Constitution of India, if a state government is unable to function according to Constitutional ...

for six months. From 1983 to 1985 she was the PWD minister of the same state. She was an elected member of the Assam Assembly ( MLA) in 1972, 1978, 1983, and 1991. In 1988 she was nominated to the Indian Parliament (

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

). In 1991 she was appointed to the post of Minister for Agriculture in Assam. Anwara joined

All India United Democratic Front The All India United Democratic Front (also known as AIUDF and ''Sarva Bharatiya Sanyukt Ganatantric Morcha'') is a political party active in the Indian state of Assam. It is the 3rd largest political party in Assam Legislative Assembly after B ...

in 2011. Anwara is among the notable names not included in the final draft of 2018

National Register of Citizens The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register of all Indian citizens whose creation is mandated by the 2003 amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Its purpose is to document all the legal citizens of India so that the illegal immigrant ...

(NRC), for which, she later clarified that her family members may not have applied to get her name included in the list.

Death

Taimur died on 28 September 2020 due to cardiac arrest in Australia, where she stayed with her son for her last four years.

Positions held

Notes

Encyclopaedia of Scheduled Tribes in India: In Five Volumes by P. K. Mohanty Page 124.

References

External links

Profile on Rajya Sabha website
, - , - Aligarh Muslim University alumni 1936 births 2020 deaths Assam MLAs 1972–1978 Assam MLAs 1978–1983 Assam MLAs 1983–1985 Assam MLAs 1991–1996 Chief Ministers of Assam Women members of the Assam Legislative Assembly People from Jorhat district Indian National Congress politicians from Assam Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha members from Assam Women chief ministers of Indian states Chief ministers from Indian National Congress All India United Democratic Front politicians 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians Indian Muslims Women members of the Rajya Sabha {{Assam-INC-politician-stub