Official / Public Life (Post-Independence)
As a Member of the Board of Revenue 1948 -1952
Subedar Amir Ali Khan was appointed as the Senior Member of the Board of Revenue. He served the state in this position until his retirement in 1952
As the senior most member of the Board of Revenue, Amir Ali Khan, with his vast repertoire of knowledge in all matters connected with land administration, law, revenue, general administration and jagir administration was instrumental not only in initiation of various reforms to the existing rules but was also the precursor of many Acts, Laws, Rules as well as recommending the conferment and delegation of powers to the various administrative heads within the hierarchy of the Department of revenue, under the various Acts, Laws, Rules that were enacted, promulgated and implemented even after his retirement.
Apart from Amir Ali Khan’s other achievements, his most significant and earliest action as the senior member of the Board of Revenue was his strong and strategic recommendation for the reinstatement of more than 300 out of 500 senior officers, most of them Muslims, who were put under suspension by the new administration after the Police Action. Amir Ali Khan knew very well that he will have to pay a price for championing the cause of Muslims so soon after the change of the dispensation from a Muslim dominated administration to a Hindu dominated one.
Amir Ali Khan realized, and rightly so, that the suspension of so many senior officers at one go had put the state administration in jeopardy, especially since the law and order machinery was in a state of flux after the Police Action.
Such lawlessness was being aggravated further due to the vacancies forcefully created by the vindictive suspension of 500 and odd Muslim officers of the Nizam’s Government by the new Indian dispensation, which created a power vacuum at the top.
Had it not been for the powerful presentation of these facts by the Subedar Saab as the senior member or second in command of the Board of revenue to the then Chairman of the Board of Revenue, Raja Sahab…………………… and the Raja Sahab’s full trust in whatever was put up in the file by Subedar Saab for further necessary action, his integrity and his secular credentials, the reinstatement of so many Muslim officers would not have been possible so soon after the Police Action and the increasing lawlessness would not have been nipped in the bud.
It is recalled by some old hands at the Board of revenue that when, after reading Subedar Saab’s noting on the file, the Raja Sahab…………………… commented, marking some of the names out of the suspended officers’ list, that at least these must be left out, the Subedar Saab wrote back, “They have suffered enough and must be reinstated now in the interests of the Government”
Upon Subedar Saabs follow up and the full support and recommendations of the Raja Sahab …………………….. The reinstatement was finally approved by the then Government. But Subedar Amir Ali Khan had to pay the price as he had rightly guessed. He was retired from service in 1952, a full three years before his term.
As Mayor of Hyderabad
As Mir Majlis, Majlis-e-Baladia, Hyderabad, (Mayor of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and first citizen)
Very few people know that Subedar Amir Ali Khan was the Mayor of Hyderabad, at one time. And in this capacity, he brought in a number of improvements in the city administration. He was instrumental Even After retirement from Service in the year this noble personality continued his activities with the same enthusiasm and zeal.
His personality at national level
As Chairman, All India Pensioners’ Association – 1960 to early 1980’s
Soon after his retirement as Member of the Revenue Board, In early 50’s barely did he plan to settle down at his home after his chequered career, punctuated with ups and downs, hordes of pensioners made a beeline at his residence, the ‘Subedar House’ in Chanchalguda literally rekindling his humanitarian spirit.
A lot of anomalies in the pay fixation of the pensioners were the vexatious issues which literally made the Subedar Saab lose his sleep. Meanwhile a misfortune had struck him on account of which his left leg had to be amputated. In spite of this serious disability which would have made any other lesser mortal to lose all hope and retire to his bed, Amir Ali Khan didn’t lie down; instead, he formed The All India Pensioners’ Association on…….., 19….. Of which he was chosen the President for life. Mr Narayan Shetty, IAS, who is still alive at 105 years and lives in Hyderabad, was elected vice president of this association. The office of the association was the guest house built within the Subedar House premises. The pensioners’ monthly meetings were regularly conducted in his house. Subedar Amir Ali Khan spent his own money to travel all the way to New Delhi in order to represent the pensioners’ case to then Prime Minister.
“When our President said Let’s go out of this office, we all got up and left.” – Mr. Narayan Shetty (Former Vice President, All India Pensioner’s Association).
On one visit to Delhi, when Mr. Morarji Desai (b. 29 February 1896 – d.10 April 1995) was the Prime Minister of India(1977–79) regarding Pensioner’s Plight, as narrated by Mr Narayan Shetty, IAS, Vice President of The Pensioner’s Association in the presence of Dr. Purushottam Reddy, Prabhakar Shetty and Farook Ali Khan. Amir Ali Khan, as the President of the pensioners association sought an audience with the Prime Minister and met him along with other pensioners in New Delhi and presented their proposals for pay fixation of the Govt. pensioners. Although Subedar Saab used all his persuasive powers to convince the Prime Minister but Mr. Morarji Desai, well known for his rigidity and fixed outdated ideas, did not agree to give his consent for approval to the measures submitted to him by the President of the All India Pensioners’ Association. Considering his upbringing and the positions of power he had enjoyed in his service and the respect he had always commanded both during his service years and after his retirement, Subedar Saab could not take the cantankerous arguments and rigidly condescending attitude of Mr. Morarji Desai, any more and particularly Morarji’s comment after reading the memorandum and listening to the pleadings of Subedar Amir Ali Khan, when he said: “I do not have any sympathy for your cause” upon which Subedar Amir Ali Khan gathered his walking stick and his 40 pound wooden prosthetic leg and in a huff, Subedar Saab left the Prime Minister’s office, the first person in the history of the PMO to do so. However the Subedar in him could not take defeat in his stride and he awaited an opportunity to present the Pensioner’s plight to the Prime Minister once again.
Fortunately for the Subedar Saab, the political upheavals during 1979-1980, gave him a breather since in 1979, Raj Narain and Charan Singh both Cabinet Ministers in the Morarji Desai led Government, pulled out of the Janata Party, forcing Desai to resign from office and retire from politics at the age of 83. Desai resigned in June 1979, and And Chaudhary Charan Singh (b.23 December 1902 – d.29 May 1987) became the sixth Prime Minister of the Republic of India, serving from 28 July 1979 until 14 January 1980 after Indira Gandhi promised that Congress would support his government from outside. However after a short interval, she withdrew her initial support and President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy dissolved Parliament in the winter of 1979.
In elections held the following January 1980, Congress was returned to power with a landslide majority.And Indira Gandhi (b.19 November 1917 – d.31 October 1984), became the Prime Minister of the Republic of India once again.
During the reign of Mrs. Indira Gandhi as prime minister, the Subedar Saab made another attempt in New Delhi after his request seeking an audience with the Prime Minister was granted and Subedar Amir Ali Khan met Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in New Delhi and presented his proposals for pay fixation of the Govt. pensioners to her. Painting a contrasting picture of her predecessor prime minister Moraji Desai. Mrs. Indira Gandhi was obviously briefed about the visitor, and the word was sent to her of Subedar Amir Ali Khan’s physical inability to walk the distance. Mrs. Indira Gandhi chose walking up to him herself from her official residence to the door of the car in which Nawab Saab had seated himself. She had arranged to set her table next to his car and lent her ear to him and appended her signature then and there on the Memorandum of Pension reform Proposals submitted to her by Subedar Amir Ali Khan. She also promised that she would attend to it immediately. It appeared that the P.M. was authorized to make such personal representatives and increase the pensions within the limit, and without reaching her cabinet for a final decision.
Subedar Amir Ali Khan had to take a few more trips to New Delhi for getting the pensioners relief. He finally succeeded in routing his proposals through proper channels and achieved restoration of full pensions to those pensioners who had sold a part their pension on retirement. This was a major and unprecedented achievements for hundreds of thousands of pensioners all over India who are benefiting from Subedar Amir Ali Khan’s untiring efforts even now without perhaps even being aware of it. His initiative made it possible now for a person to draw a lifetime pension every month without fail after retirement, which in many cases is many times more than the salary they were drawing during their services years. It was Subedar Amir Ali Khan’s untiring efforts that a multitude of people were made the beneficiaries of pension at all India level. Subedar Saab alone deserves all the accolades from all the beneficiaries of the pension schemes of the Government of India.He has been honored posthumously for this major achievement.
As an Educationist and Social Reformer
Whatever position Subedar Amir Ali Khan held in his career he rendered outstanding service to people by streamlining the administration in order to serve the people and the state, without disadvantaging one for the other.
Subedar Amir Ali Khan was the president of the Minhaj-ul-Sharqiyah Girls High School Committee. The School was operating from the Dewdhi and the owners of facility wanted the School to vacate the premises. This meant disrupting the education of the girls of the locality. Subedar Amir Ali Khan immediately swung into action and succeeded in obtaining a donation from Princess Durru Shehwar Trust for the purchase of the vacant land adjacent to the existing school. The school was renamed as Princess Durru Shehwar School and it is continuing to educate the girls of the area.
Subedar Amir Ali Khanwas also the president of famous School, Ashraf-ul-Madaaris.
He promoted and funded the Khwaja High School in Gulbarga.
More notably to most, Subedar Amir Ali Khan founded the Rehmatia Girls High School, in 1960 in his own palatial historic building Rehmath Mansion, at Chanchal Guda, Hyderabad, India cited as an example of his accomplishing the practically of his innovative ideas for the education for girls. The School was first of its kind, promoting equal educational opportunities for young girls at a time when education was seen as primarily for boys. The School is still functioning and thousands of girls have graduated and gone to become graduates from various colleges in the city and abroad.
