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From the Constituent Assembly to Parliament, N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar Left His Mark
A distinguished administrator and a civil servant, Ayyangar held seven titles until 1947 including the title of Diwan Bahadur, the highest title awarded by a British viceroy.
This article is part of a series by The Wire titled ' The Early Parliamentarians ', exploring the lives and work of post-independence MPs who have largely been forgotten. The series looks at the institutions they helped create, the enduring ideas they left behind and the contributions they made to nation building.
Narasimha Gopalaswami Ayyangar was an Indian civil servant, statesman and parliamentarian who served as the prime minister of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir (1937-1943) and later a minister in the first cabinet of independent India.
Ayyangar was elected to the Council of States in 1943, where he served until 1947. During his term, he was the chairman of the 'Committee for the Indianisation of Army' and co-authored the Sapru Committee Report on constitutional reforms in 1945.
In 1946, Ayyangar was elected from Madras State to the Constituent Assembly of India, which convened in December 1946. He was also appointed to the seven-member drafting committee that formulated the Indian Constitution.
Early life
Ayyangar was born on March 31, 1882 in Tanjore District of Madras Presidency. He studied at the Wesley School, and at the Presidency and Law Colleges in Madras, whereafter, for a short period in 1904, he was an Assistant Professor in Pachaiyappa's College.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.
In 1905, Ayyangar joined the Madras Civil Service. He served as a Deputy Collector till 1919, and was promoted Collector and District Magistrate in 1920. He was the Registrar-General of Panchayats and Inspector of Local Boards for seven years from 1921. During this time many villages panchayats were organised in the districts of Ramnad and Guntur. Then for three years, he was Collector and District Magistrate in Anantapur.
Following that he was Inspector of Municipal Councils and Local Boards till 1932. Ayyangar served as Secretary to Government in the Public Works Department from 1932 to 1934. Finally, he served as a member of the Board of Revenue until 1937.
A distinguished administrator and a civil servant, Ayyangar held seven titles until 1947 including the title of Diwan Bahadur, the highest title awarded by a British viceroy. Other titles conferred on him by the British government were a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in the 1935 Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours list, a Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) in the 1937 Coronation Honours list and a knighthood in 1941 New Year Honours list.
Work on Kashmir
From 1947-1948, Ayyangar served as cabinet minister without portfolio looking after Kashmir affairs, in the first cabinet under Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru himself held the overall charge for Kashmir. The move caused frictions with the home minister Vallabhbhai Patel, who should have normally been responsible for Kashmir along with all other princely states. Soon after the accession of Jammu and Kashmir in October 1947, Ayyangar led the delegation representing India in the United Nations Security Council over the Kashmir dispute in 1948, and later he drafted the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that granted autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.
Ayyangar's connection with Kashmir extended until his last days. In 1952, Nehru appointed him as India's representative in the ongoing negotiations and discussions about Kashmir at Lake Success, Geneva, and elsewhere he expounded India's cause with a clarity and comprehension.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Ayyangar's tenure as Dewan in Kashmir was a difficult period. The attempt of the Kashmir Committee to overthrow the Maharaja had culminated in an uprising that took a communal turn.
During the hearings in the Supreme Court on the abrogation of Article 370, in August 2023, Ayyangar's 'commitment' to the people of J&K in the Constituent Assembly of India was mentioned.
Life as a parliamentarian
Ayyangar also served as minister of state, railways and transport from 1948-1952, and finally, he served as defence minister from 1952-1953. In the year 1952, he was elected to Rajya Sabha and was the leader of the House in Rajya Sabha from May 13, 1952 to February 10, 1953.
During his tenure as railway minister, the railways experienced considerable growth and expansion in services and equipment. He was the main architect in the regrouping of the Indian Railways into six zonal systems – Central, Eastern, Northern, North-eastern, Southern and Western. The railway budget also reported surplus earnings at this time.
In 1949, he presented his report on the "Reorganisation of the Government Machinery" in an effort to streamline government services and maintain efficiency in the public sphere.
He recommended the establishment of four standing committees, and, as a result of this report, the Defence Committee, the Economic Committee, the Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Committee, and the Administrative Organisation Committee were formed by the Union government.
As defence minister, Ayyangar passed away in Madras at the age of 71 on February 10, 1953, and was survived by his wife, a daughter and a son, G. Parthasarathy, who was the Assistant Editor of The Hindu, and later became a distinguished diplomat.
On Ayyangar's death, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru paid a moving and befitting tribute to him in the Rajya Sabha on February 11, 1953. He said, 'We had come to rely upon him in so many matters that, as often happens, he became, in his own way, a kind of institution in Government to whom all turned for advice whenever any difficulty arose. And so we took this institution for granted. When un-towards events take place, they rather shake up the whole fabric of things. So it has been in this case, and though we grieve for him, in reality we grieve for ourselves, because he is not there for us to turn to."
Qurban Ali is a trilingual journalist who has covered some of modern India's major political, social and economic developments. He has a keen interest in India's freedom struggle and is now documenting the history of the socialist movement in the country.
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