Lieutenant Colonel Saeed ul-Mulk Nawab Sir Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan, Nawab of Chhatari also generally referred to as

Nawab Nawab ( Balochi: نواب; ar, نواب; bn, নবাব/নওয়াব; hi, नवाब; Punjabi : ਨਵਾਬ; Persian, Punjabi , Sindhi, Urdu: ), also spelled Nawaab, Navaab, Navab, Nowab, Nabob, Nawaabshah, Nawabshah or Nobab, ...

of Chhatari (12 December 1888 – 1982) was

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of the United Provinces,

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

of United Provinces, President of the Executive Council of the Nizam of Hyderabad (i.e.

Prime Minister of Hyderabad __NOTOC__ This article lists the prime ministers of the Hyderabad State. In 1919, Asaf Jah VII ordered the formation of the Executive Council of Hyderabad, presided by Sir Sayyid Ali Imam, and with eight other members, each in charge of one o ...

) and

Chief Scout A Chief Scout is the principal or head scout for an organization such as the military, colonial administration or expedition or a talent scout in performing, entertainment or creative arts, particularly sport. In sport, a Chief Scout can be the prin ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Early life and family

He was born in a

Lalkhani The Lalkhani are a Muslim Rajput community, found in North India. They are a sub-division of the Bargujar clan of Rajputs, who converted to become Muslims. The community is found mainly in the districts of Aligarh , Bulandshahr,Badaun They a ...

family to Nawab Mohammad Abdul Ali Khan,Celebrities: a comprehensive biographical thesaurus of important men and women in India-by Jagdish Bhatia – 1952 Page 27. the Nawab of Chhatari on 12 December 1888 in Chhatari, United Province of British India. He did his education from

Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College ( ur, Madrasatul Uloom Musalmanan-e-Hind, italics=yes) was founded in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, initially as a primary school, with the intention of taking it to a college level institution, known as Muhammed ...

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Allygarh, and Kol) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district, and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the cap ...

. He was married to daughter of his own uncle Nawab Abdul Samad Khan Bahadur, the

Nawab of Talibnagar Talib Nagar is a village in Jawan Sikandarpur Block, Aligarh District of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located at a distance of 15.6 km from Aligarh. History Talib Nagar was a jagir during British India. It was owned by Nawabs belonging to t ...

. He had two sons, Rahat Saeed Khan and Farhat Sayeed Khan. The younger son, Farhat Sayeed Khan, was noted for his interest in

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, si ...

and he studied music at the Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata. The family moved to Pakistan shortly after the Partition of India, and the elder son (Rahat Saeed Chattari) became a Senator of the Pakistan National Senate.

Council to Government

From 17 May 1923 to 11 January 1926 the Nawab was a Minister in the Cabinet of the United Provinces, then in 1931 he returned as Minister of Agriculture there. Like other great Muslim

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

s, including the Raja of Salempur, was a trusted ally of the British administration of the United Provinces and was appointed acting Governor for some seven months, from April to November 1933. The Government of India Act 1935, formulated after a series of round table conferences, came into effect on 1 April 1937, and the Nawab of Chhatari, as leader of the National Agriculturist Parties, was invited to form a Cabinet, and was briefly chief minister during 1937. He soon stepped down to become Minister of Home Affairs in the United Provinces Government, with a salary of Rs. 2,500. Nawab Chhatari attended the first

Round Table Conference The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in Dec ...

, held in St. James's Palace in London on 12 November 1930. The Muslim Delegation was led by the Aga Khan and others, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Sir Mohammad Shafi,

Maulana Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; ar, محمد علي‎; 1874 – 13 October 1951) was an Indian writer, scholar, and leading figure of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. Biography Ali was born in Murar, Kapurthala State (now in Ludhiana district, Punja ...

, Dr Shafat Ali, Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, the Nawab of Chhatari, and

Fazlul Huq Fazlul Haq ( ar, فضل الحق) is a male Muslim given name, meaning ''bounty of the Truth'', referring to ''Al-Haqq'', one of the Names of God in Islam. Both parts of the name are subject to varying transliteration, as the first part may be writ ...

. The Nawab of Chhatari was a member of India's National Defence Council from July to August 1941. He resigned from this to accept the post of President of the Hyderabad Executive Council, effectively Prime Minister of the important princely state of

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

Disquiet with Jinnah

The Nawab of Chhatari attended the third open session of the

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when a group of prominent Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests on the Indian subcont ...

, held in the Pandal at Lalbagh,

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

, on Sunday, 17 October 1936, with

Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...

presiding. The meeting was also attended by

Maulana Shaukat Ali Shaukat Ali (10 March 1873– 26 November 1938; Urdu: مولانا شوكت علي) was an Indian Muslim member of the Khilafat Movement. He was the elder brother of the renowned political leader Mohammad Ali Jouhar. Early life Shaukat Ali was ...

, Moulana Hasrat Mohani, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Dr Syed Husain, Raja Gazanfar Ali Khan, Khan Bahadur Kuli Khan,

, Nawab Jamshed Ali Khan, and others.

Prime Minister of Hyderabad

Nawab of Chhatari was appointed President of the Executive Council of the Nizam of Hyderabad (i.e.

) in August 1941. He served on this post from September 1941 to 1 November 1947. On 6 September 1941, Nizam of Hyderabad, praised Nawab of Chhatari as able administrator. In 1944 Nawab of Chhatari was granted the title of Saeed-ul-Mulk by H.E.H. The Nizam of Hyderabad. On 25 November 1945, Nawab of Chhatari laid the foundation stone of the Institution of Engineers (India), A.P. State Center (Visvesvarayya Bhavan). In 1946 the Nizam of Hyderabad suggested to the

Viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...

that the Nawab of Chhatari should be appointed Governor of the Central Provinces and Berar.

Chhatari delegation

On 11 July 1947, after the

Nizam The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

had seen the pending Indian Independence Bill, which did not offer the possibility of

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 192 ...

status to any of the princely states, an option he had pressed for, he decided to send a delegation to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

headed by the Nawab of Chhatari to meet the Viceroy,

Lord Mountbatten of Burma Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of Germa ...

. On 17 August 1947 the Nawab wrote to Mountbatten expressing the wish to enter into negotiations on the future of Hyderabad. In August 1947 Sir Walter Monckton, a Constitutional advisor to the Nizam and the Nawab of Chhatari, tendered his resignation to the Nizam, prompted by an attack by Razakars and

Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen ( en, All India Council for Unity of Muslims) ( AIMIM) is an Indian political party based primarily in the city of Hyderabad. It is also a significant political party in the Indian States of Telangana ...

, but the resignation was not accepted. On 27 October 1947 Razakars and Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen staged a demonstration at the houses of the members of delegation, Monckton, the Nawab, and Sir Sultan Ahmed, making it impossible for them to leave for

as intended. The discussions that followed bore no fruit, and on 1 November the Nawab of Chhatari, finding his position intolerable, resigned as President of the Executive Council. Monckton also insisted on resigning. On 21 December 1947

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

held talks with the Nawab of Chhatari,

H. S. Suhrawardy Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy ( bn, হোসেন শহীদ সোহ্‌রাওয়ার্দী; ur, ; 8 September 18925 December 1963) was a Bengali barrister and politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 t ...

Brijlal Nehru Brijalal Nehru (5 May 1884 – 27 May 1964) was a noted civil servant and member of the Nehru family. He was the son of Pandit Nandlal Nehru (the elder brother of Motilal Nehru) and the cousin of Jawaharlal Nehru. Nandlal Nehru was Diwan of ...

Rameshwari Nehru Rameshwari Nehru (née ''Rameshwari Raina''; 10 December 1886 – 8 November 1966) was a social worker of India. She worked for the upliftment of the poorer classes and of women. In 1902, she married Brijlal Nehru, a nephew of Motilal Nehru and ...

Sheikh Abdullah Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah (5 December 1905 – 8 September 1982) was an Indian politician who played a central role in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir Abdullah was the founding leader of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (later re ...

, Begum Abdullah, Dr.

Saifuddin Kitchlew Saifuddin Kitchlew (15 January 1888 – 9 October 1963) was an Indian independence activist, barrister, politician and later a leader of the peace movement. A member of Indian National Congress, he first became Punjab Provincial Congress Comm ...

, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the Prince of Kutch, the Maharaja of Bhavnagar, Anantrai Pattani and others. In a radio speech on 23 September 1948, the Nizam said "In November last, a small group which had organized a quasi-military organization surrounded the homes of my Prime Minister, the Nawab of Chhatari, in whose wisdom I had complete confidence, and of Sir Walter Monkton, my constitutional Adviser, by duress compelled the Nawab and other trusted ministers to resign, and forced the Laik Ali Ministry on me. This group headed by

Kasim Razvi Syed Kasim Razvi (also Qasim Razvi; 17 July 1902 – 15 January 1970) was a politician in the princely state of Hyderabad. He was the president of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party from December 1946 until the state's accession to India i ...

had no stake in the country or any record of service behind it. By methods reminiscent of Hitlerite Germany it took possession of the State, spread terror ... and rendered me completely helpless."'

Public life

He served as Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University from December 1965 to 6 January 1982 and as Chief Scout of the All India Boy Scouts Association from 1955 to 1982.

Time line

Autobiography

*''Yad-e-Ayyam'' (1949) is the autobiography of Nawab of Chhatari Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan. In this book, the writer has given glimpses of his life and experiences in a direct and artless manner.''Yad-e-Ayyam'' (Google cache version)
/ref>

References

External links

Karwaan-e-Aligarh : Nawab Chattari

Text of Memorandum submitted by 14 Muslim leaders of India to Dr Frank P. Graham, United Nations Representative 14 August 1951

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chhatari, Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan 1888 births 1982 deaths People from Aligarh Governors of Uttar Pradesh Indian Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire Indian knights Scouting and Guiding in India Place of death missing Administrators in the princely states of India Indian royalty 20th-century Indian Muslims Uttar Pradesh politicians Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University alumni Prime Ministers of Hyderabad State