Shah Nawaz Khan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1914-01-24)24 January 1914 |
| Died | 9 December 1983(1983-12-09) (aged 69) |
| Allegiance | British India (until 1942) Azad Hind (1943 – 1945) |
| Battles / wars | |
| Spouse | Karim Jaan |
| Children | Mahmood Nawaz Khan Akbar Nawaz Khan Ajmal Nawaz Khan Mumtaz Begum Fehmida Khanum Lateef Fatima Khan (adopted) |
| Relations | Shah Rukh Khan (nephew)[1][2] Zaheer-ul-Islam (nephew) |
Shah Nawaz Khan (January 1914 – 9 December 1983) was an Indian politician who served as an officer in theIndian National Army (INA) duringWorld War II.
He was profoundly influenced bySubhas Chandra Bose's speeches asking POWs to join the Indian National Army and to fight for a free India, Khan led the army intoNorth-Eastern India, seizingKohima andImphal which were held briefly by the INA under the authority of the Japanese.[3] In December 1944, Shah Nawaz Khan was appointed Commander of the 1st Division atMandalay.
After the war, he wastried, convicted for treason, and sentenced to death in a public court-martial carried out by theBritish Indian Army. The sentence was commuted by theCommander-in-chief of the Indian Army following unrest and protests in India.
After the trial, Khan declared that he would henceforth follow the path of non-violence espoused byMahatama Gandhi and joined theCongress party. Having successfully contested thefirst Lok Sabha in 1952 fromMeerut, Khan had an illustrious parliamentary career. He was elected four times to theLok Sabha fromMeerut constituency in1951,1957,1962 and1971.
As he states in his autobiography, Khan was born into aPunjabiJanjuaRajput[4] family on 24 January 1914 inMatore, a village now in theRawalpindi District of Pakistan.[5][6][7] His father Lt. Tikka Khan served in theBritish Indian Army for some 30 years, being associated with the58th Vaughan's Rifles (Frontier Force) military unit, other relatives having also served in the armed forces, Shah Nawaz Khan writing that his family might have been "the most miltarized" in India.[5]
He was the cousin of Bollywood actorShah Rukh Khan's father Mir Taj Mohammed Khan, although according to Shah Rukh Khan his paternal grandfather,Mir Jan Muhammad Khan, was an ethnicPashtun fromAfghanistan.[8][9] However, Shah Rukh Khan's cousins, who still live in Peshawar, have refuted the notion that the family is Pashtun or that his grandfather moved from Afghanistan, as they speakHindko, a dialect ofPunjabi.[10][a]
Other relatives served in thePakistan Army, including his nephew Lieutenant-General (r)Zaheer-ul-Islam, who was the Director-General of theISI between 2012 and 2014.[13]
He got his military education at thePrince of Wales Royal Indian Military College.[14] He was commissioned into the14th Punjab Regiment.
Khan, who rose to the rank of captain in the Indian Army,[3] was captured by the Japanese after thefall of Singapore in 1942. A prisoner of war in Singapore, he was profoundly influenced bySubhas Chandra Bose's speeches asking POWs to join theIndian National Army and to fight for a free India.[15] He later stated:[15]
It will not be wrong to say that I was hypnotized by his personality and his speeches. He placed the true picture of India before us and for the first time in my life I saw India, through the eyes of an Indian.
Impressed by Bose's patriotic speeches, Nawaz joined the INA in 1943. He was included in the Cabinet of theProvisional Government of Free India formed by Bose. Later, Bose decided to select a regiment consisting of the cream of the INA and send it to action to spearhead the advance into India. Khan led the army into North-Eastern India, seizingKohima andImphal which were held briefly by the INA under the authority of the Japanese.[3] In December 1944, Shah Nawaz Khan was appointed Commander of the 1st Division atMandalay.
Khan was tried, along with GeneralPrem Sahgal and ColonelGurbaksh Singh Dhillon and Brigadier Habib ur Rehman of Panjeri (Bhimber) for "waging war against the King Emperor" in a public court martial at theRed Fort in Delhi. They were defended bySir Tej Bahadur Sapru,Jawaharlal Nehru,Asaf Ali,Bhulabhai Desai,Kailash Nath Katju and others based on the defence that they should be treated as prisoners of war as they were not paid mercenaries but bona fide soldiers of a legal government, the Provisional Government of Free India, or theAzad Hind Government, "however misinformed or otherwise they had been in their notion of patriotic duty towards their country" and as such they recognized the free Indian state as their sovereign and not the British sovereign.[16] During the trial, Khan cited the differential treatment meted out to Indian versus British soldiers in the Indian Army. In his testimony, Khan testified that no Indian officers were given the command of a division and only one was allowed to command a Brigade.[17] Khan was given the death sentence by the court but that sentence was reduced tocashiering by the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army.[18]
After the trial, Khan declared that he would henceforth follow the path ofnon-violence espoused by Gandhi and he joined theCongress party.[17] In 1946, Major General Shah Nawaz Khan accompaniedMahatma Gandhi andAbdul Ghaffar Khan to restore peace and provide succour to theNoakhali riot victims.[19]
In 1956, the government constituted a committee to look into the circumstances aroundSubhas Chandra Bose's death with Khan as the head. The committee included Bose's elder brother Suresh Chandra Bose. The committee began its work in April 1956 and concluded four months later when two out of the three members (excluding Suresh Chandra Bose) concluded that Bose had died in the airplane crash atTaihoku (Japanese for Taipei) inFormosa (now Taiwan), on 18 August 1945. They stated that his ashes were kept in Japan'sRenkoji Temple and should be relocated to India.
Having successfully contested the first Lok Sabha in 1952 from Meerut, Khan had an illustrious parliamentary career becoming:
He was elected four times to theLok Sabha fromMeerut constituency in 1951, 1957, 1962 and 1971. He lost in the 1967 and 1977 Lok Sabha election from Meerut. Though his entire family remained in Pakistan, he chose to live in India, along with one of his sons. During the 1965 war, his son Mahmud was a Pakistan Army Officer and the opposition demanded he be removed from the government. ButLal Bahadur Shastri, as Prime Minister, refused to accede and reminded them of his selfless service to India as an Officer of theINA.
Khan's political views were leftist, supporting land reforms and public distribution. But his support for permanent separate personal laws for religious communities led to his defeat in the 1967 elections againstJan Sangh. In 1969, theIndian National Congress split, leading him to side withIndira Gandhi. The 1971 "Gareebi Hatao" campaign brought him again as MP from Meerut. In 1977, theJanata Party led to his defeat and ended his career in Parliament.
He remained as head of Congress Sewa Dal until his death in 1983.[20] He was buried in a garden near to theRed Fort andJama Masjid with full state honours.[21]
Shah Nawaz Khan is a 1987 Indianshort documentary film directed by J. S. Bandekar and produced by theFilms Division of India. It covers his life and contributions to theIndian independence movement.[22]
In the 2005 movieNetaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero, Khan was portrayed by actorSonu Sood. In the 2017 filmRaagdesh on theRed Fort Trials, he is portrayed by actorKunal Kapoor.
He also contributed in the development ofSubhas Chandra, a 1966 Indianbiographical drama film on the life of Subhas Chandra Bose.[23]
Shah Nawaz was born to a family of Janjua Rajputs in Rawalpindi. His father had been the leader of the Janjua clan and served in the Indian Army for thirty years.
Shah Nawaz Khan, son of Shri Tikka Khan, retired Captain, Indian Army, was born at village Matore in Rawalpindi, Punjab (now Pakistan) on 24th January 1914.
Khan's paternal grandfather, Meer Jan Muhammad Khan, was an ethnic Pashtun (Pathan) from Afghanistan
There is a strong misperception about Shah Rukh's identity who is widely considered as a Pathan. In fact, his entire family speaks Hindko language. His ancestors came from Kashmir and settled in Peshawar centuries back, revealed Maqsood. This may disappoint many of Shah Rukh's Pashto speaking fans who consider him a Pathan by origin. Shah Rukh's family also contradicted the claim that his grandfather Jan Muhammad was from Afghanistan.
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