Astad Dinshaw (A.D.) Gorwala CIE, ICS (1900–1989) was an officer of 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 Raj, British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 3 ...

, and then publisher of ''Opinion'', a

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of ...

through which he doggedly opposed the

Indian Emergency The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency across the country by citing internal and external threats to the country. Officially issued by President Fakhruddi ...

, which lasted from 25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977. A

Parsi The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...

born in 1900, Gorwala entered the Indian Civil Service in 1924, sitting the exams in India. He was posted to several places during his service, including Sindh. As a Secretary to the Government of Bombay and its Director of Civil Supplies and Supply Commissioner, he was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Indian Empire The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes: #Knight Grand Commander (:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, ...

(CIE) in the 1944 imperial New Year Honours list.

Biography

Gorwala focused his writing on attacks on the individual by the agencies of the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

. He also fought a long battle against corruption. A year into the Indian Emergency, ''Opinion'' was ordered shut down, but Gorwala was able to print one last issue, in which he observed that, Gorwala was also critical of

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

's apparent naiveté in matters relating to the Soviet Union. Just before Nehru (at that time the Prime Minister of India) left for Moscow in 1955 (his first visit to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

since independence), Gorwala wrote, Gorwala also established Bombay's

food rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

system during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a system that still operates, though with reduced efficiency.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorwala, A. D. 1900 births The Emergency (India) Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Year of death missing Parsi people Indian civil servants Indian government officials