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

Nawab Nawab is a royal title indicating a ruler, often of a South Asian state, in many ways comparable to the Western title of Prince. The relationship of a Nawab to the Emperor of India has been compared to that of the Kingdom of Saxony, Kings of ...

of Chhatari (12 December 1888 – 6 January 1982) was

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

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 ter ...

of United Provinces, President of the Executive Council of the

Nizam of Hyderabad Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the ruler of Hyderabad State ( part of the Indian state of Telangana, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka). ''Nizam'' is a shortened form of (; ), and was the title bestowed upon Asaf Jah I wh ...

(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 ...

) and Chief Scout of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Early life and family

He was born in a Muslim Rajput

Lalkhani The Lalkhani are a Muslim Rajput community, found in North India. They are a sub-division of the Bargujar Rajput family who adopted Islam. The community is found mainly in the districts of Aligarh, Hathras, Bulandshahr, and Badaun. The Lalkh ...

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 was educated at

Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (, lit. "Science School for the Muslims of India") was founded in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, initially as a primary school, with the intention of turning it to a college level institution. It was inspired by t ...

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Koil) 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 capital, New Delhi. ...

. He was married to a daughter of his uncle Nawab Abdul Samad Khan Bahadur, the Nawab of Talibnagar. 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 Indian classical music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It may also be called North Indian classical music or ''Uttar Bhartiya shastriya sangeet''. The term ''shastriya sangeet'' ...

and he studied music at the Sangeet Research Academy at Calcutta. A part of the family moved to Pakistan shortly after the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

, and the elder son (Rahat Saeed Chattari) became a senator in the Senate of Pakistan, the upper house of the nation's bicameral parliament. The Nawab, Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan of Chhatari, stayed in India and remained in public service until his death in 1982. His younger son, Farhat Sayeed Khan worked in India, and rose to be the Sales Director of Tata Iron and Steel Co. Ltd.

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 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 ...

zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

s, including the Raja of Salempur, he 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 The Government of India Act 1935 (25 & 26 Geo. 5. c. 42) was an Act of Parliament (UK), act passed by the British Parliament that originally received royal assent in August 1935. It was the longest act that the British Parliament ever enact ...

, 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 in 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 De ...

, held at

St. James's Palace St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace in London, England. The palace gives its name to the Court of St James's, which is the monarch's royal court, and is located in the City of Westminster. Although no longer the principal residence ...

in London on 12 November 1930. The Muslim Delegation was led by the

Aga Khan Aga Khan (; ; also transliterated as ''Aqa Khan'' and ''Agha Khan'') is a title held by the Imamate in Nizari doctrine, Imām of the Nizari Isma'ilism, Nizari Isma'ilism, Ismāʿīli Shia Islam, Shias. The current holder of the title is the ...

and others, including

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 187611 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 inception of Pa ...

, Sir Mohammad Shafi, Maulana Muhammad Ali, Dr Shafat Ali, Sir

Muhammad Zafarullah Khan Sir Chaudhry Mohammad Zafarullah Khan (6 February 1893 – 1 September 1985) was a Pakistani diplomat and jurist who served as the first foreign minister of Pakistan. After serving as foreign minister he continued his international career and ...

, the Nawab of Chhatari, and

A. K. Fazlul Huq Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq (26 October 1873 – 27 April 1962), popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla, was a Bengalis, Bengali lawyer and politician who served as the first and longest Prime Minister of Bengal, prime minister of Bengal during the Britis ...

. 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. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

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 founded in 1906 in Dhaka, British India with the goal of securing Muslims, Muslim interests in South Asia. Although initially espousing a united India with interfaith unity, the Muslim L ...

, held in the Pandal at Lalbagh,

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

, on Sunday, 17 October 1936, with Jinnah presiding. The meeting was also attended by Maulana Shaukat Ali, Moulana

Hasrat Mohani Syed Fazl-ul-Hasan (1 January 1875 – 13 May 1951), known by his Takhallus, pen-name Hasrat Mohani, was an List of Indian independence activists, Indian independence activist and a poet in Urdu. .Together with Swami Kumaranand, he is regarded ...

, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Dr Syed Husain, Raja Gazanfar Ali Khan, Khan Bahadur Kuli Khan, Fazlul Huq, Nawab Jamshed Ali Khan, and others.

Prime Minister of Hyderabad

Nawab of Chhatari was appointed President of the Executive Council of the

(i.e.

) in August 1941. He served on this post from September 1941 to 1 November 1947. On 6 September 1941, the

, praised Nawab of Chhatari as an able administrator. On 25 November 1945, the Nawab of Chhatari laid the foundation stone of the Institution of Engineers (India), A.P. State Center (Visvesvarayya Bhavan). In 1946, the

suggested to the

Viceroy of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 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 in their capacity as the Emperor of ...

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

Chhatari delegation

On 11 July 1947, after the

Nizam Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the ruler of Hyderabad State ( part of the Indian state of Telangana, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka). ''Nizam'' is a shortened form of (; ), and was the title bestowed upon Asaf Jah I ...

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

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

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, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

headed by the Nawab of Chhatari to meet the Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten of Burma. On 17 August 1947, the Nawab wrote to Mountbatten expressing the wish to enter into negotiations on the future of

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state in the Deccan region of south-central India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and the ...

. 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, but the attempted resignation was not accepted. On 27 October 1947, Razakars and Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen staged a demonstration at the houses of the members of the delegation, Monckton, the Nawab, and

Sir Sultan Ahmed Sir Syed Sultan Ahmed, KCSI (1880–1963, Patna, Bengal Presidency, British India) was an Indian barrister and politician who had a highly successful practice as a barrister, having victories over Motilal Nehru, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Sarat Chan ...

, 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,

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

held talks with the Nawab of Chhatari,

H. S. Suhrawardy Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (8 September 18925 December 1963) was an East Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 to 1957 and before that as the Prime Minister of Bengal from 1946 to ...

Brijlal Nehru Brijalal Nehru (5 May 1884 – 22 May 1965) 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 o ...

, Rameshwari Nehru,

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 and President of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Confer ...

, Begum Abdullah, Dr.

Saifuddin Kitchlew Dr. 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 ...

Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad (20 July 190715 July 1972) was an Indian politician who served as the prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 1953 to 1964. Bakshi was a founding member of the National Conference and rose to be the second in command t ...

, 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 Monckton Walter Turner Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, (17 January 1891 – 9 January 1965) was a British lawyer and politician. Early years Monckton was born in the village of Plaxtol in north Kent. He was the eldest child of paper manu ...

, 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 Muhammad 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 Annexation in 1948. He was als ...

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."'

Recognition

As a personal distinction, Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan was created "Nawab of Chhatari" in the

1915 Birthday Honours The 1915 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were ...

list for India. He was further honoured as a Member of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

1918 Birthday Honours The 1918 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to ...

, and as 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

1921 Birthday Honours The 1921 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of the King, and were ...

. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) in the

1928 Birthday Honours The 1928 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were ...

, awarded a second knighthood as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in the

1933 New Year Honours The 1933 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were a ...

and received a final knighthood in the

1946 Birthday Honours The 1946 King's Birthday Honours, celebrating the official birthday of King George VI, were announced on 13 June 1946 for the United Kingdom and British Empire. The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new ...

as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE). In 1944, he was granted the title of Saeed-ul-Mulk by the

Public life

He served as Chancellor of

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 ...

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 people Aligarh Muslim University alumni Prime ministers of Hyderabad State