Death of President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905-1977)

President’s Secretariat NOTIFICATION New Delhi, the 13th February, 1977 No. 22-Pres/77—At eight fifty-two hours on the morning of Friday, February 11, 1977, death came to Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Fifth President of the Republic of India. A staunch nationalist, an illustrious statesman, he symbolized the best traditions of India’s composite culture serving the nation with exemplary dedication for over 45 years.

Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was born on May 13, 1905, in Delhi. After his early education in the Government High School at Gonda in Uttar Pradesh, and at Delhi, he passed the matriculation examination of Punjab University in 1921. He then joined St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, was admitted to St. Catherine’s College of Cambridge University. Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed had graduated from Cambridge in 1927 in History Tripos. After completing Law course, he was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in London.

On his return to India, he got himself enrolled as an Advocate of the Punjab High Court and later moved to Assam with his father in 1928. Except for a brief period when he practiced in Calcutta, Assam became the center of his political activities. His intense spirit of nationalism soon overtook his career, and in 1931, he became a Member of the Indian National Congress, which was then spearheading the struggle for the liberation of the country under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership. In 1937, he successfully contested the election to the Assam Assembly in the teeth of opposition from those ranged against the national movement.

Since 1936, Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was almost continuously a Member of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee, Working Committee of the Pradesh Congress Committee, and the All India Congress Committee. After the elections to the Provincial Assembly in 1938, he joined the first Congress Cabinet in Assam under the Chief Ministership of Gopinath Bardoloi in 1938-39. He was in charge of Finance and Revenue Departments. His tenure of office in the Bardoloi Cabinet was memorable for some of the radical agrarian measures which he piloted with commendable zeal. Being aware of the plight of poor farmers and in pursuance of the commitment to introduce land reform measures, Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was instrumental in providing 50 per cent remission in land revenue and initiated measures for the imposition of tax on agricultural income. He brought forward measures to tap alternative sources of revenue. His efforts resulted in augmenting the resources of the State even while affording relief to the peasantry.

When the Congress Government resigned in 1939 on the declaration of war, Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed also resigned his Ministership. He plunged into the Gandhian movement and offered individual Satyagraha in 1940 under the command of Mahatma Gandhi. He suffered imprisonment for one year.

Soon after his release, he was again taken as a security prisoner and was in detention continuously for a period of 3 1/2 years before being released in April 1945.

Although for a brief period he became Advocate-General of Assam in 1946, he was again involved in the nationalist movement and became a Member of the Congress Working Committee. In 1952-53, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha.

In the 1957 General Elections, he was again elected to the Assam Assembly, and in the following year, he joined the State Cabinet, holding charge of the portfolios of Finance, Law, Community-Development, Panchayat, and Local Self-Government. He was re-elected to the State Assembly in 1962 and continued to remain a Minister in charge of most of the previous portfolios.

He became a Member of Congress Parliamentary Board in 1964. In 1996, he was again elected to Rajya Sabha, and on 29th January 1966, he became a Member of the Central Cabinet, first in charge of Irrigation and Power and later of Education.

In the General Elections in 1967, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Barapeta constituency in Assam. On March 13, 1967, he was appointed Cabinet Minister for Industrial Development and Company Affairs.

As the Minister of Industrial Development and Company Affairs, he was responsible for evolving a new industrial policy designed to promote accelerated growth, a wider base for small and ancillary industries, paying special attention to backward areas, and selective in the matter of foreign collaboration. Another landmark during his tenure in this Ministry was the piloting of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act.

On June 27, 1970, he took over as Union Minister for Food and Agriculture. After the elections to the Lok Sabha in 1971, he was reassigned the same portfolio.

Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was widely traveled throughout the world. In 1955, he led the Indian Lawyers delegation to the USSR, and in 1957, he represented India at the United Nations. In 1964, he paid a visit to the United States and spent about 5 weeks visiting different parts of that country. As a representative of the Government of India, he visited Malaysia in 1965 to participate in the celebrations of their Independence Day and the inauguration of the International Mosque of Kuala Lumpur. In 1970, he visited Australia to attend the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization. He also led the Indian delegation to the Council’s Session of FAD in Rome in 1971 and 1973.

During the large influx of refugees from Bangladesh and the Sub