This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde was once quoted as saying, “I hate to say there are female and male ways of dealing with power because I think each of us has a male and a female part. But based on my own experience, women will tend to be inclusive, to reach out more, to care a little more.”
One of the greatest examples of such a life, perhaps was the late Begum Hamida Habibullah, who recently left for her heavenly abode. She has left a void in the city of Nawabs that no one else can fill.
A tireless campaigner for women’s rights, she wore multiple hats not just as a social worker, but also as an educator and a politician.
Hamida passed senior Cambridge with Distinction in 5-Subjects before going on to get a gold medal in B.A. from Osmania University.
An ex UP minister and a well known face in the state capital, she was daughter of the late Nawab Nazir Yar Jung Bahadur, Chief Justice of the Hyderabad High Court.
She had taken her marriage vows with none other than Major General Inayat Habibullah, founder commandant of National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Pune.
As a crusader for women empowerment she has served in different capacities at E-Niswan College which was founded by her mother-in-law, the late Begum Inam Habibullah. Her association with SEWA Lucknow (Self Employed Women’s Association), an organization for upliftment & improvement of women, All India Women’s Conference, Nari Sewa Samiti Lucknow, Cheshire Homes India Lucknow and Sainik Kalyan Board Lucknow are worth noting.
She was also the co-founder of non-governmental organization, Prajwala A member Of Executive Council of Lucknow University, from 1974-80. She was the president UP Urdu Academy, founder president and re-elected 1972-76 and in 1982.
Furthering women’s education in the region is recognised as her true calling. She was the president of the Avadh Girls’ Degree College (AGDC), Lucknow’s first English degree college for girls, from 1975. She was also president, from 1975, of Talimgah-E-Niswan College, founded by her mother- in- law, the late Begum Inam Habibullah.
She joined politics with Congress after her husband returned from the army in 1965 and went on to become an MLA from UP’s Haidergarh seat in Barabanki from 1969 to 1974.
From 1971 to 1973, she was a Minister of State in U.P. government and a Rajya Sabha member from 1976 to 1982. She held the Social and Harijan Welfare, National Integration & Civil Defence, and Tourism ministries.
Begum Hamida served as a member, executive committee, of the UPCC until 1980. She was also elected to the All India Congress Committee from 1969. She headed the Mahila Congress in UP during 1972-76. Later, she went on to become a Rajya Sabha member from 1976 until 1982.
Born on November 20, 1916, Hamida was just 30 when India became independent and was a witness to modern India’s political history, stretching from British rule to the bloody partition. She saw the creation of India as it is today, glory days of the Congress and emergence of the saffron wave.
During a life span of over a century she travelled extensively to U.K. U.S.S.R, Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Iraq, Bangladesh, China, Malasiya, etc. She attended conferences in Czechoslovakia and Sweden as a member of Parliament. On being invited by King Abdul Azeez of Saudi-Arabia she performed Haj with her husband in 1951.
She also had the rare fortune of visiting Pakistan leading a delegation of 20 women entrepreneurs. And being in china for the World Women’s Conference with an Indian Delegation in 1996 and much more.
As a leading light of city and a person who gave to the society as much as she got in life, she will be terribly missed by all in the City of Nawabs.
Comments