Syeda Anwara Taimur (24 November 1936 – 28 September 2020) was an Indian politician, who was the chief minister of the Indian state of

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

from 6 December 1980 to 30 June 1981. She died in Australia on 28 September 2020. She was a leader of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

party in Assam and a member of the

All India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from States and union territories of India, state-level Pradesh Congress Commit ...

(AICC).

Personal life

She graduated from

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Kh ...

with economics honors. Anwara was lecturer in Economics in Devicharan Barua Girls' College,

Jorhat Jorhat ( /) is a major city in Upper Assam division, Upper Assam and among the fastest growing urban centres in the state of Assam in India. Etymology Jorhat ("jor" means twin and "hat" means market) means two hats or mandis - "Masorhaat" and ...

in 1956.

Political career

In the history of Assam, she was the only

female An organism's sex is female ( symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and ...

and

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Chief Minister of the state. She was Chief Minister of Assam from 6 December 1980 to 30 June 1981. In Indian history also, Syeda Anwara Taimur was the first Muslim woman Chief Minister of any state. Her term as chief minister ended when the state was put under President's rule for six months. From 1983 to 1985 she was the PWD minister of the same state. She was an elected member of the Assam Assembly ( MLA) in 1972, 1978, 1983, and 1991. In 1988 she was nominated to the Indian Parliament (

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

). In 1991 she was appointed to the post of minister for agriculture in Assam. Anwara joined All India United Democratic Front in 2011. Anwara is among the notable names not included in the final draft of 2018 National Register of Citizens (NRC), for which, she later clarified that her family members may not have applied to get her name included in the list.

Death

Taimur died on 28 September 2020 due to cardiac arrest in Australia, where she stayed with her son for her last four years.

Positions held

Notes

Encyclopaedia of Scheduled Tribes in India: In Five Volumes by P. K. Mohanty Page 124.

References

External links

Profile on Rajya Sabha website
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Taimur, Anwara Aligarh Muslim University alumni 1936 births 2020 deaths Assam MLAs 1972–1978 Assam MLAs 1978–1983 Assam MLAs 1983–1985 Assam MLAs 1991–1996 Chief ministers of Assam Women members of the Assam Legislative Assembly People from Jorhat district Indian National Congress politicians from Assam Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha members from Assam Women chief ministers of Indian states Chief ministers from Indian National Congress All India United Democratic Front politicians 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians Indian Muslims Women members of the Rajya Sabha State cabinet ministers of Assam