Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari
{{Short description|Indian civil servant and politician (1894–1948)}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
:{{small|To be distinguished from his ancestor of the same name, Akbar Hydari.}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = Sir
| name = Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1894|10|12|df=yes}}
| birth_place = British India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1948|12|28|1894|10|12|df=yes}}
| death_place = Waikhong, Manipur, Dominion of India
| nationality = Indian
| office = Governor of Assam
| term_start = 4 May 1947
| term_end = 28 December 1948
| predecessor = Henry Foley Knight (acting)
| successor = Ronald Francis Lodge (acting)
| occupation = Civil servant, politician
| parents = Akbar Hydari
Amina Hydari
| spouse = Sigrid Westling
}}
Sir Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari KCIE, CSI (12 October 1894 – 28 December 1948) was an Indian civil servant and politician. He was the last British-appointed Governor of the province of Assam, who also continued in the role after Indian independence.
Early life
Hydari was born to Amina{{cite web|title=Lady Hydari Club|url=https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/32100|website=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|publisher=dome.mit.edu|access-date=6 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506183235/https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/32100|archive-date=6 May 2017}} and Sir Akbar Hydari, a Sulaimani Bohra Muslim family, on 12 October 1894. He was one of seven children.{{cite web|title=Sir Mohammed Saleh Mohammed Akbar Hydari|url=https://www.meherbabatravels.com/personalities/sir-akbar-hydari/|publisher=meherbabatravels.com|access-date=6 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506191215/https://www.meherbabatravels.com/personalities/sir-akbar-hydari/|archive-date=6 May 2017}} The lawyer and eminent Congressman Badruddin Tyabji was his granduncle. He completed his studies in Bombay and Oxford.
Career
Hydari entered the Indian civil service in 1919, beginning his career in the Madras Presidency. In June 1924, he was appointed as an undersecretary in the Department of Education, Health and Lands of the Government of India. He then served as Agent to the Governor-General in Ceylon from October 1927 to June 1929 dealing with welfare and rights of the large Indian labour force in the plantations.{{cite book|last1=Peebles|first1=Patrick|title=The Plantation Tamils of Ceylon|date=2001|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9780718501549|page=148}} After the creation of Imperial Council of Agricultural Research in 1929, he became its secretary.{{cite web|title=Hydari, Sir (Muhammad Saleh) Akbar|url=http://www.rulers.org:80/indexh3.html|publisher=rulers.org|access-date=6 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812212414/http://www.rulers.org/indexh3.html|archive-date=12 August 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}
Hydari, in the position of joint secretary to the delegation from the Indian princely states first and later as the adviser to the Hyderabad delegation led by his father, visited London for the Round Table Conferences.{{cite news|title="Serious Loss to the Administration"|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sc4-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=cUwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=7008%2C8494423|access-date=6 May 2017|work=The Indian Express|date=31 December 1948}} Speaking at the second conference on the state's behalf, he called for "work[ing] in harmony ... for the Greater and United India".{{cite book|title=Indian Round Table Conference Proceedings|date=1931|publisher=Government of India|page=[https://archive.org/details/indianroundtable029616mbp/page/n29 16]|url=https://archive.org/details/indianroundtable029616mbp|access-date=6 May 2017}} On the discussions that followed the second conference, he was a member of the Federal Finance Committee and the Consultative Committee.{{cite news|title=Round-Table Committee|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/maltribune19320203-1.2.123|access-date=6 May 2017|work=Malaya tribune|date=3 February 1932}}
Subsequently, Hydari returned to the Department of Education, Health and Lands as its joint secretary and then served as the secretary of the Labour Department. During the early stages of World War II, he represented India on the Eastern Group Supply Council, a body set up to co-ordinate the build-up of supplies in the British colonies and dominions east of Suez. He was then placed on special duty in the Foreign Affairs Department. In 1945, he was appointed a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council and was given the charge of Information and Broadcasting Department.{{cite news|title=Sir A. Hydari Passes Away|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sM4-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=cUwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6774%2C8349269|access-date=6 May 2017|work=The Indian Express|date=30 December 1948}}{{cite news|title=Information Department to be on Reduced Scale|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/indiandailymail19460315-1.2.18|page=2|access-date=6 May 2017|newspaper=The Straits Times|date=16 March 1946}}{{cite book|author=M. Epstein|title=The Statesman's Year-Book: Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1946|date=2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=9780230270756|edition=83|page=112|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sk_ODQAAQBAJ|access-date=6 May 2017}} Upon the formation of an Interim Government of India in 1946, Hydari was given the charge of labour, works, mines, power, information and arts, and health.
In January 1947, he was appointed as the Governor of Assam, succeeding Sir Andrew Gourlay Clow.{{cite news|title=New Governor of Assam|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/indiandailymail19470128-1.2.61|page=4|access-date=6 May 2017|work=The Straits Times|date=28 January 1947|location=London}} He took office on 4 May and he continued to hold the post following independence. With the Naga movement on during the time, in its demand for an independent State, Hydari signed a nine-point agreement with Naga National Convention in June that year.{{cite web|title=Naga-Akbar Hydari Accord (Nine Point Agreement)|url=http://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IN_470628_Naga-Akbar%20Hydari%20Accord.pdf|website=South Asia Terrorism Portal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517075409/http://www.ipcs.org/TheNaga-AkbarHydariAccord1947.pdf|archive-date=17 May 2008|publisher=peacemaker.un.org|access-date=6 May 2017}}{{cite web|last1=Kashyap|first1=Samudra Gupta|last2=Swami|first2=Praveen|title=Explained: Everything you need to know about Nagaland insurgency|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/everything-you-need-to-know-about-nagaland-insurgency-and-the-efforts-to-solve/|work=The Indian Express|access-date=6 May 2017|date=4 August 2015}}
Personal life
Akbar Hydari married Sigrid Westling,{{cite web|title=Sir Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari,K.C.I.E., C.S.I., I.C.S|url=http://www.pib.nic.in/archive/docs/DVD_01/ACC%20NO%20001-BR/RAS-1947-01-25_005.pdf|website=Press Information Bureau|publisher=pib.nic.in|access-date=10 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510034057/http://www.pib.nic.in/archive/docs/DVD_01/ACC%20NO%20001-BR/RAS-1947-01-25_005.pdf|archive-date=10 May 2017}} a Swedish woman, and they had three children together: son and namesake Akbar Hydari III (1919–1998){{cite web|title=Biographical Data: Akbar Hydari|url=http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/biography/viewentry.php?id=226|publisher=salaam.co.uk|access-date=10 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030105101551/http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/biography/viewentry.php?id=226|archive-date=5 January 2003}} and two daughters. His son, also called Akbar Hydari, was an industrialist and served as the Chairman of Western India Match Company (WIMCO) Ltd. from 1964 till the 1980s,{{cite book|title=India Who's Who 1984|year=1984|publisher=INFA Publications|page=142a|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.133563|access-date=10 May 2017}} later, as the director of Facit Asia and as the Honorary Swedish Consul in Madras.{{cite web|title=When the postman knocked…|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/When-the-postman-knocked%E2%80%A6/article16160464.ece|work=The Hindu|access-date=10 May 2017|date=6 November 2016}}
Death
Hydari died from a stroke on 28 December 1948 while on a visit to Manipur, in a dak bungalow at a village called Waikhong, {{convert|30|mi|km}} away from Imphal. He was on a tour of Manipur with his wife and son; his tribal adviser N. K. Rustomjee and military secretary Major Dhamija. His body was carried in procession in a coffin draped in the National and Governor's flag to the cemetery of the Imphal Cantonment in the Kangla Palace.{{cite web|last1=Ahmed|first1=Syed|title=Kangla Fort holds the historic graveyard of Akbar Hydari|url=http://twocircles.net/2011nov18/kangla_fort_holds_historic_graveyard_akbar_hydari.html|publisher=twocircles.net|access-date=6 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506185929/http://twocircles.net/2011nov18/kangla_fort_holds_historic_graveyard_akbar_hydari.html|archive-date=6 May 2017|date=18 November 2011}} A three-day mourning was observed in Manipur.
References
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{{succession box
| before=Henry Foley Knight, acting
| title=Governor of Assam | years=1947–1948
| after=Ronald Francis Lodge, acting
}}
{{end}}
{{Tyabji family}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hydari, Muhammad Saleh Akbar}}
Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire
Category:Companions of the Order of the Star of India