Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai | |
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 Kidwai on a 1969 stamp of India
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 18 February 1894 Barabanki, North-Western Provinces, British India |
| Died | 24 October 1954 (aged 60) Delhi, India |
| Education | Aligarh Muslim University |
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai (18 February 1894 – 24 October 1954) was a politician, an Indian independence activist and a socialist. Kidwai served as a Minister of Communications in the first Cabinet of Independent India (First Nehru Ministry). He hailed from Barabanki District of Uttar Pradesh, in north India.
Early life
Rafi Ahmed was born in the village of Masauli, in Barabanki district (now in Uttar Pradesh).
Kidwai died in Delhi on 24 October 1954. He had heart failure after experiencing an attack of asthma while delivering a speech. His burial site, at his home village, was covered by a Mughal-style mausoleum. According to historian Paul Brass, "A formidable fund-raiser for Congress movements and elections, he distributed his largesse to all and sundry, but died in debt, leaving behind only a decaying house in his home village."
Legacy
The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award was created in 1956 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to recognize Indian researchers in the agricultural field. Awards are distributed every second year, and take the form of medals, citations, and cash prizes. In his famous autobiography, Jawaharlal Nehru mentioned that Rafi Ahmad Kidwai was part of District Congress Committee and had signed a book containing recommendations to solve agrarian problem in United Provinces of British India in 1931. Kidwai thus, looked at agricultural problems closely.
In November 2011, the Postal Staff College in Ghaziabad was named as the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National Postal Academy. There is also a street named after him in Kolkata.
There is a street named after him in Wadala Mumbai.
The Parliament of India has a portrait of Kidwai in a Committee Room.
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai also played a major role in donating 20 acres of the campus land and Rs. 100,000 for the radiotherapy machine for the establishment of cancer care hospital in Bangalore Karnataka state, India which is named after him - Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.