Begum Mafida Ahmad, former M.P. from Jorhat, Assam, passed away on January 17 at Jorhat Mission Hospital. She was 88.
Begum Mafida was born in a well-known Muslim family of Jorhat town in November 1921. She studied up to class six only. But she was a regular reader of magazines like Radiance Viewsweekly, The Statement and The Telegraph.
She was married to Md. Ahsonuddin Ahmad. Her husband was B.Sc. (distinction) and Divisional Accountant of P.W.D. of Assam. Her husband expired on January 26, 1975. They had no children.
Begam Mafida performed Hajj in 1976. Begum Ahmad had been spending a solitary life since 1975. She got no servant also. She performed almost all her day to day work herself. She was so punctual, disciplined that she could show her records or documents within 5/10 minutes. She once showed me one hand written poem which was written by her cousin at her marriage ceremony.
She joined Indian National Congress in 1943. She was elected to Lok Sabha in 1957 defeating stalwarts like Shanker Barua, famous writer Syed Abdul Malik and well-known advocate Nalini Phukan. Jorhat was a non-Muslim dominated constituency. She and Maimoona Sultan of Bhopal were the first Muslim women MPs.
She raised 650 questions in Parliament during her 5-year term. Among her important questions, those on the nomenclature of “Soraighat Bridge” over the mighty river Brahamputra, Regional Research Laboratory at Jorhat, Rapid Industrialisation in India, Railway lines in Assam (now N.E.), Naga bill ( Establishment of a centrally administered Naga Hill district, now Nagaland), were remarkable.
Begum Ahmad was member of State Social Welfare Advisory Board, Zonal Railway Users’ Consultation Council, Small Saving Advisory Board and several other boards and committees. She was also on several parliamentary committees such as Direct Taxes Advisory Committee, Central Advisory Board of Education, P&T Advisory Committee (Eastern Division), National Railway Users’ Consultation Council, Central Waqf Board, National Savings Advisory Board, Assam Language Disturbances Enquiry Committee, All India Congress Committee, Composition of the Joint Committee (Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha) on the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Bill 1959, Programme Advisory Board (A.I.R.), and Site Selection Committee for Oil Refinery in Assam.
Having a literary bent of mind, she penned four books namely Biswadeep Bapuje, Bhartar Nehru, Mehtab-e-Islam and Noor-e-Hasana. She wrote a lot of articles both religious and political which were published in various news papers and magazines.
She was a social activist and philanthropist. She donated her pearl set (golden) to defence fund during the Chinese aggression. Her affection to education was highly encouraging. She started an award in her mother’s name: Nurbahar Begum Memorial Award for securing the highest marks among the honours candidates appearing from D.C. Barua Girls’ Collage, Jorhat in the B.A. Examination each year.
Towards the end of her life she donated all her property to “Assam Falah Society Guwahati” for imparting female education. Mrs. Ahmad was a regular reader of the Viewsweekly and a well-wisher as well.
She was buried in Jorhat Qabristan same evening.