Most Indians today have probably forgotten that the national flag was designed by a Muslim woman named Surayya Tyabji. Jawaharlal Nehru had assigned this task to Tyabji, who was an active member of the Indian National Congress (INC). It was her idea to replace the symbol of the charkha with that of the Ashoka Chakra at the centre of the flag. Tyabji felt that the charkha, a symbol of the INC, might appear partisan.
As contemporary Indians normalize a partisan gaze towards their surroundings and history, more and more such anecdotes are consigned to oblivion. Such an approach introduces filters, often linear and illogical, that condition us to identify friends as enemies and partners as adversaries. They also often lead to identification based on language, religion, food habits and even attire. But the fact of the matter remains that India’s political and social evolution has never been linear. It has always been a process of constant churning, in which communities and individuals emerge and disappear.
One such remarkable – yet largely forgotten – figure in India’s political history is Begum Mofida Ahmed (1921–2008). She was not only one of the first female MPs from Assam but also among the earliest Muslim women to enter Indian politics at the national level. Her election in 1957, during India’s second parliamentary elections, marked a significant moment for women’s representation in governance, particularly for Muslim women in independent India.
Mofida Ahmed contested from the Jorhat constituency in Assam, an area known for its diverse demographic composition, with a significant mix of tribal, Assamese and Bengali populations. Despite the presence of strong contenders from established parties – including the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI), the Praja Socialist Party (PSP), led by Jayaprakash Narayan, and the regional Sarbadal party – she emerged victorious. Securing 80,028 votes, amounting to 45.36 per cent of the total votes polled, Ahmed’s win was a decisive one, as her opponents each garnered less than 20 per cent of the vote share on average.
Her electoral success was more than just a political milestone; it was testament to the progressive shift taking place in Assam’s socio-political landscape. At a time when women in politics were a rarity, especially in states like Assam, Mofida Ahmed broke barriers, proving that leadership was not confined to gender or community-based expectations. Her victory also symbolized the trust she had garnered among a broad spectrum of voters, cutting across religious and ethnic lines.
Beyond electoral politics, Ahmed played a crucial role in advocating for women’s education, social upliftment and minority rights in Assam. Her tenure in Parliament saw her raise critical issues related to rural development, women’s empowerment and the socio-economic condition of marginalized communities. Yet, despite her significant contributions, her name has faded from public memory, overshadowed by more dominant political narratives.
A Long and Storied Career
Ahmed was not a one-shot politician; rather, she had a long political and public life. She joined the INC in 1943. In 1962, she contested from the same constituency as a sitting member, but was defeated by the PSP candidate, Rajendranath Barua, by 907 votes. After Nehru’s passing in 1964, a leadership issue rattled the INC. Factions appeared, and the party went into a mode of self-destruction. As Indira Gandhi tried to consolidate her position with Congress (I), regional satraps like K. Kamaraj, Devaraj Urs, Morarji Desai and Jagjivan Ram started to break away from the Congress stable. Each of them formed their own version or faction of the Congress party, usually by adding a suffix (such as their own name or an identifier) to the ‘Congress’ name, in order to distinguish their group from Indira Gandhi’s Congress (I). India went into a political tailspin, leading to frequent elections. Ahmed contested the 1971 by-election as a Congress (N) candidate for the Jorhat seat against Tarun Gogoi, who was representing Congress (J). She polled only 1.86 per cent of the votes and forfeited her deposit. It also marked the end of her political journey. Tarun Gogoi played his cards well, returned to the mainstream Congress and became Assam’s chief minister in 2001, five years after the end of the Hiteswar Saikia era.
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Parliamentary Career
Mofida Ahmed’s legacy is a reminder that the fight for gender equality in India is far from over. Her story deserves to be revisited, retold and reclaimed, so that she is not just a footnote in history but a symbol of what is possible when courage meets conviction. By no means was Ahmed a Parliament backbencher.
Mofida asked several questions in the Lok Sabha, ranging from the attack on the wife of an Indian diplomat in Congo, the arrest of Kashmiri Muslims in Tibet, steps taken by the Government of India to meet the danger arising out of a ‘jihad’ campaign by Pakistan against India, the illegal entry of Pakistanis into Assam, the United Kingdom associating itself with the European Common Market, to the British citizenship granted to Phizo, a Naga revolutionary and Naga Nationalist Council (NNC) chief who dreamed of making a free state for Nagas but died in exile.
She also brought forward issues like the services of sea mail delivery delayed by several months, offering a suggestion to the Roads and Transport Development Association on how to handle the movement of coal from the collieries, proposing the construction of the ship The State of Andaman in Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL), and discussing the utilization of forest produce in the north Andaman Islands by a firm in 1951. She focused on Assam-specific problems, such as the tea industry reeling under a drought and many gardens facing a massive crisis, the excise duty placed on Assam tea, the price hike on petrol and kerosene by Burmah Oil Company, the killing of two civilian drivers when several Naga hostiles ambushed two petrol tankers between Mao and Kohima on 20 September 1961, and the underground fire in the Pure Jharia Colliery endangering the safety of three adjoining mines. According to the records maintained by Parliament, she also led an enquiry on the Siliguri rail mishap of 11 August 1961, in which 30 people died on the spot and 91 were injured; she also led an enquiry on the fire at Alexandra Docks, Bombay – an unfortunate incident that took place on 8 August 1961.
A run through the archives reveals that she raised 650 questions during her five-year term. Among the most important ones were those on the naming of Saraighat Bridge over the Brahmaputra, on the Regional Research Laboratory in Jorhat, the rapid industrialization India was seeing then, railway lines in Assam and the Naga Bill (regarding the establishment of a centrally administered Naga Hill district, now known as Nagaland).
Ahmed was a member of the State Social Welfare Advisory Board, the Zonal Railway Users’ Consultation Council and on the Small Savings Advisory Board, among others. She was also on parliamentary committees such as the Direct Taxes Advisory Committee, the Central Advisory Board of Education, the P&T Advisory Committee (Eastern Division), the National Railway Users’ Consultation Council, the Central Waqf Board, the National Savings Advisory Board, the Assam Language Disturbances Enquiry Committee, the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), the Composition of the Joint Committee (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) on the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Bill, 1959, the Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) at the All India Radio (AIR) and the Site Selection Committee for Oil Refinery in Assam.
Ahmed was not only a trailblazing politician but also a dedicated social activist and philanthropist. Her deep commitment to national service was evident when, during the Chinese aggression of 1962, she donated her personal jewellery to the National Defence Fund – an act that underscored her unwavering patriotism. She was a firm believer in education as a means of empowerment, particularly for women, and took active steps to support academic excellence. To this end, she established the Nurbahar Begum Memorial Award, named after her mother, which has been awarded annually to the top-performing student in the BA examination at D.C. Barua Girls’ College, Jorhat.
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Retreat from Public Life
Despite her early prominence, Ahmed’s political career came to an abrupt halt following her defeat in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections. This loss, coupled with the death of her husband, Mohammed Ahsonuddin Ahmed, in 1975, led her to withdraw from public life. Once a vibrant figure in Assam’s political and social landscape, Ahmed now chose a life of solitude, retreating from the world she had once played an active role in shaping. The couple had no children, and after her husband’s passing, she gradually distanced herself from political and social engagements.
In 1976, Ahmed undertook the sacred pilgrimage of Hajj, marking a significant spiritual shift in her life. Following her return, she embraced a life of quiet devotion and self-reliance, even choosing to live without any domestic help.
Despite her withdrawal from public affairs, her commitment to social causes never waned. In her later years, she made the extraordinary decision to donate all her property to the Assam Falah Society, a Guwahati-based organization dedicated to promoting women’s education.
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Struggle and Humility in Political Life
There are reasons why we know so little about Ahmed. To begin with, she was a ‘low-profile’ politician; she kept such a low profile that it is now impossible to locate her statue, or bust, while walking down the bustling streets and squares of Jorhat, where she was born and brought up. Ahmed was born to a prominent Muslim family. Her father was Mohammad Barua Ali; not much is known about her mother. As Axomiya Musalmans, the family was well regarded in Assam’s social hierarchy – not only because they were well-assimilated within the Assamese socio-cultural milieu, but also because the members were mostly educated and worked as professionals, which explained their affluence when compared with other Muslim groups in Assam.
This excerpt from ‘Missing from the House: Muslim Women in the Lok Sabha’ by Rasheed Kidwai and Ambar Kumar Ghosh has been published with permission from Juggernaut Books.