Khan Bahadur Rana Talia Muhammad Khan,

O.B.E. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(14 December 1884 – 1959) was the first Muslim Inspector-General of Police in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, serving as Inspector-General of Police of

Patiala State Patiala State was a self-governing princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but ra ...

and the

North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followin ...

and a former British Indian Army officer. He served famously as Superintendent of Police, Kohat and District Officer, Frontier Constabulary, Hangu and, during the Second World War, as a Major in

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

's Own Corps of Guides,

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

(now the

Guides Cavalry The Guides Cavalry (Frontier Force) is an armoured regiment of the Pakistan Army which was raised in 1846 as The Corps of Guides. During more than a hundred and fifty years of military service, the regiment has earned the reputation of one of ...

in the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

Early life

Rana Talia Muhammad Khan was born on 14 December 1884 in a Muslim Naru

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

family in

Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, India, Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak, Patiala, Qila Mubarak ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

British Indian Empire The British Raj (; from Hindi language, Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Q ...

Police career

Rana Talia Muhammad Khan joined the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

(commonly known as the Imperial Civil Service (ICS) or British India Civil Service) as Deputy Superintendent of Police. A famous incident in his life, whilst serving as Superintendent of Police, Kohat, became the basis of a story in

M. M. Kaye Mary Margaret ('Mollie') Kaye (21 August 1908 – 29 January 2004) was a British writer. Her most famous book is ''The Far Pavilions'' (1978). Life M. M. Kaye was born in Simla, British India, and lived in an Oakland, Shimla, a heritage proper ...

's novel, ''

The Far Pavilions ''The Far Pavilions'' is an epic novel of British-Indian history by M. M. Kaye, published in 1978, which tells the story of an English officer during the British Raj. There are many parallels between this novel and Rudyard Kipling's ''Kim'' th ...

'', which was also made into a movie. The incident is narrated in Victoria Schofield's book ''Afghan Frontier: Feuding and Fighting in Central Asia''.Schofield, Victoria, ''Afghan Frontier: Feuding and Fighting in Central Asia'', London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks (2003) Schofield writes: :"In February 1923 over forty rifles were stolen from the police station in Kohat. The leader of the gang was Ajab Khan, a known rifle thief and suspected murderer of a British couple three years previously. After careful negotiations and secret meetings on the part of the Superintendent of Police, Rana Talia Muhammad, some rifles were returned. But those remaining with Ajab and his brother Shahzada were not surrendered, so Rana arranged for a raid on Ajab's house. The two brothers were away, but in order to escape the wrath of the British the other men disguised themselves as women; they might have avoided detection but for their large feet which gave them away. The rifles were discovered and to make matters worse, their women jeered at them for having tried to escape the danger by posing as women. (p. 130) He retired as Inspector-General of Police in 1937.The India Office and Burma Office List of 1945 (Volume 55), London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1945

Military service

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Rana Talia Muhammad Khan was called out of retirement by the British Indian Government and made a Major in

's Own Corps of Guides,

Recognition

For his meritorious services, Rana Talia Muhammad Khan was conferred the medal and title of "

Khan Sahib Khan Sahib is a compound of Khan (title), khan (leader) and sahib (master) - was a formal title of respect and honour, which was conferred mainly on Muslim, but also to Parsi, Irani (India), Irani, and Jewish subjects of the British Indian Empi ...

" and later "Khan Bahadur" by the British Indian Government. On 1 January 1945, for his meritorious services, Rana Talia Muhammad Khan, was conferred the title of "Additional Officer of the Military Division" of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) by King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...

Family

Rana Talia Muhammad Khan had three sons and three daughters. He was the father of Lieutenant General Bakhtiar Rana, Chief Martial Law Administrator (West Pakistan) and Commander,

I Corps I Corps, 1st Corps, or First Corps may refer to: France * 1st Army Corps (France) * I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * I Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French A ...

, Pakistan Army (1958–66) and father-in-law of

Amir Habibullah Khan Saadi Rai Amir Habibullah Khan Saadi (Urdu:رائے امیر حبیب الله خان سعدی) (1989–1909) was a Manj Rajput ruler of Talwan in Jalandhar District, Punjab, British India, and a military officer who became a freedom fighter in B ...

, the pre-1947 Indian freedom fighter and post-1947 Pakistani political leader.

Sources

* Schofield, Victoria, ''Afghan Frontier: Feuding and Fighting in Central Asia'', London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks (2003) * Schofield, Victoria, ''Every Rock, Every Hill: The Plain Tale of the North-West Frontier and Afghanistan'', London: Century Hutchinson (1987) *
"C.E. Bruce departure from Kohat (NWFP) in June 1923 - where he was Deputy Commissioner (with police here)"
Royal Geographic Society, 1923, Image number: S0015451

Notes

{{Authority control 1884 births 1959 deaths People from British India People from Patiala Inspectors general British Indian Army officers