Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
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| Rafi Ahmed Kidwai | |
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| Image:Rafi Ahmed Kidwai.jpg File photo of Rafi Ahmed Kidwai |
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| Place of birth: | Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Movement: | Indian Independence movement |
| Major organizations: | Indian National Congress |
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai (Hindi: रफ़ी अहमद क़िदवई), (1894 - 24 October, 1954) was an Indian independence activist and a socialist, sometimes described as an Islamic socialist. He came from Barabanki District of United Provinces, now Uttar Pradesh, in north India.
After attending M.A.O. College in Aligarh, Kidwai entered politics through the Khilafat movement, and after the passage of Government of India Act 1935, he held an office for the Indian National Congress.
In 1937, Kidwai became a minister for Revenue and Prisons in Govind Ballabh Pant's cabinet in United Provinces (UP) under the Provincial Autonomy Scheme. Under his stewardship, UP became the first province to curtail the zamindari system. In April 1946, he became the Home Minister of UP.
Kidwai was a major ally of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. After India gained independence from the British Raj in 1947, Kidwai became India's first Minister for Communications. (Kidwai and Abul Kalam Azad were the two Muslims in Nehru's central cabinet.)
After the first general elections in 1952, Nehru entrusted Kidwai with the portfolio of Food and Agriculture at a time when there was food rationing in the country.
Kidwai developed cardiac asthma, and died on October 24., 1954.
[edit] External source
Biography from the Government of India's Ministry of Information
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