Amjadi Bano [Begum Muhammad Ali]

Amjadi Bano was born in 1885 in the Rampur State. Her father, Azmat Ali Khan, held a high office in the State of Indore. She lost her father during her childhood and was brought up by her grandmother. In the absence of suitable institutions for the education of Muslim girls at that time she was educated at home.

In 1902, she was married to Maulana Muhammad Ali. She was fortunate in having in her husband a passionate lover of his country and a great Muslim leader.

In the beginning she devoted herself to social work and did not hesitate to work with men though she kept herself in veil throughout her life. "She was of the type," says Halide Edib Khanum, "of those Turkish women… who threw themselves into the service of their country, especially on the social side." During the Khilafat Movement, she toured the country with her mother-in-law and enrolled Muslim as well as non-Muslim women to support the movement. After the arrest of her husband, she continued to work for the movement and collected a huge sum for the Khilafat Fund. According to Maulana Muhammad Ali, about 40 to 45 lakh rupees were collected by his mother and wife during a period of two years. It was during this period that she became secretary of the All-India Women's Khilafat Committee.

In 1930, she accompanied her husband to London when the went to participate in the Round Table Conference and who was not keeping good health. His death in January 1931 was a terrible shock to her but she did not falter in her mission and continued the struggle.

In 1937, during the annual session of the All-India Muslim League held at Lucknow, she formed a separate section of the Muslim women to work under the All-India Muslim League. This body, however, did not materialize and it was in 1938 that the All-India Muslim League organized a women's central sub-committee to promote political consciousness amongst Muslim women and to bring them under the League banner. She served on this sub-committee with great devotion.

The Begum was a member of the committee which drafted the historic Lahore Resolution and also presided over the first annual session of the women's central sub-committee held in Habibia Hall at Lahore in 1940.

In the provincial elections of 1946, she was returned unopposed to the U.P. Legislative Assembly from the Muslim women constituency of Lucknow and remained a member of the working committee of the All-India Muslim League for the rest of her life. On her death on 28 March 1947, the Quaid-i-Azam declared that her death was undoubtedly a great loss for the nation in particular and the Muslim women in general.