LaRoseDermaAgeDefying at 15:02, 4 April 2026

2026-04-04T15:02:36Z

New page

{{Short description|Former Premier of British Punjab}}
{{protection padlock|small=yes}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = Sir Nawab Malik
| name = Khizar Hayat Tiwana
| image = File:Malik Khizar Hayat Khan Tiwana.png
| order =
| office = 2nd [[Premier of the Punjab]]
| term_start = 30 December 1942
| term_end = 2 March 1947
| monarch =
| president =
| governor_general =
| governor = [[Bertrand Glancy]] [[Evan Meredith Jenkins]]
| majority =
| predecessor = [[Sikandar Hayat Khan (Punjabi politician)|Sikandar Hayat Khan]]
| successor = ''Governor rule''
| birth_name = Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1900|08|07|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Sargodha district|Chak Muzaffarabad]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], [[British Raj|British India]] ({{small|now in [[Punjab, Pakistan]]}})
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1975|01|20|1900|08|07|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Butte City, Glenn County, California|Butte City]], [[California]], [[U.S.]]
| party = [[Unionist Party (Punjab)|Unionist Party]]
| relatives = [[Shahzadi Umerzadi Tiwana]] (daughter)
 Sahibzadi Tiwana (daughter) Malik Nazar Hayat Tiwana (son) Malik Omar Hayat Tiwana (Grandson) Malik Muhammad Qamar Hayat Tiwana (Greatgrandson)
| occupation =
| profession =
| known_for =
| alma_mater = [[Aitchison College]]
| allegiance = {{flag|British India}}
| branch = [[British Indian Army]]
| unit = [[15th Lancers|17th Cavalry]]
| service_years = 1916–1923
| rank = [[Captain (United Kingdom)|Captain]]
| battles = [[World War I]] [[Third Anglo-Afghan War]]
}}

Sir '''Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana''' (7 August 1900 – 20 January 1975){{efn|{{langx|pa|{{nq|ملک خضرحیات ٹوانہ}}}}; [[Gurmukhī]] ਸਰ ਖ਼ਿਜ਼ਰ ਹਯਾਤ ਟਿਵਾਣਾ}} was a [[British Raj|British Indian]] statesman, landowner, army officer, and politician belonging to the [[Punjab Unionist Party]]. He served as the [[Prime Minister of the Punjab|prime minister]] of the [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab Province]] of [[British India]] between 1942 and 1947. He opposed the [[Partition of India]] and the ideology of [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]]. The Muslim League plotted to oust Tiwana from office and after this, Punjab was plunged into communal violence supported by the Muslim League.

== Early life ==
Khizar Hayat Tiwana was born at Chak Muzaffarabad, in the [[Shahpur District]] of the [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab Province]] during [[British Raj]] in 1900. He was born into the feudal [[Tiwana family of Shahpur]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jinnah |first=Mahomed Ali |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WXlCAAAAYAAJ&q=jat |title=Jinnah-Wavell Correspondence, 1943-47 |date=1986 |publisher=Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab |language=en}}</ref> He was owner of 1,800 Murabba (45,000 acres) of agriculture land. His father [[Malik Umar Hayat Khan|Sir Umar Hayat Khan]] was also a wealthy landowner and soldier who was an elected member of the [[Council of India|Council of the Secretary of State for India]]. Sir Umar Hayat was a close friend to King [[George V]]. He was educated at [[Aitchison College]] in [[Lahore]].{{sfn|Talbot|2013|p=i}}
Unlike his father, Sir Khizar was a religious person and is believed to be a follower of [[Sufism]]. He started managing his Kalra Estate at young age.
His father Sir Umar Hayat was fond of cars, greyhounds and extravagant lifestyle. He was the first person to own cars in Shahpur district in 1920s. However, Sir Khizar was a much more calculated person; though he loved horses a lot. He owned the largest stud-farm at that time in Punjab with around 300 horses and mares. He was a renowned horse breeder. He had a huge horse breeding facility at his farmland at Khizarabad, near Bhalwal. Sir Khizar enjoyed playing polo. He had a private polo ground at his Kalra Palace. It was once visited by [[Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst|Lord Hardinge]], the [[viceroy]] of British India. [[Lord Malcolm Hailey]], the Governor of Punjab was among his close friend and a regular visitor at Kalra Estate. Sir Khizar had numerous palaces and properties in [[Sargodha]], [[Lahore]], [[Delhi]] and [[Simla]].

== Military career ==
At the age of 16, Tiwana volunteered for war service, and on 17 April 1918 he was commissioned into the [[17th Cavalry]] as a temporary honorary [[second lieutenant]] in the Indian Land Forces.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31013 |date=15 November 1918 |page=13508}}</ref> In addition to his few months of [[World War I|First World War]] service, Khizar also briefly served in the [[Third Anglo-Afghan War]] which followed, earning a mention in dispatches. He was advanced to honorary second lieutenant on 21 November 1919<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31773 |date=10 February 1920 |page=1699}}</ref> and was promoted to the honorary rank of captain on 17 April 1923.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=32975 |date=19 September 1924 |page=6910}}</ref> He thereafter assisted his father in the management of the family estates in the Punjab, taking responsibility for them while his father was in [[London]]. He was promoted to honorary [[Major (rank)|major]] on 17 April 1936<ref>''The London Gazette'', Issue 34295, 19 June 1936, [http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/34295/pages/3925 p. 3925]</ref> and to honorary [[lieutenant-colonel]] on 12 January 1943.<ref>''The London Gazette'', Issue 35857, 12 January 1943 (Supplement), [http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/35857/supplements/259 p. 259]</ref>

== Entry into politics ==
Tiwana was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1937. He immediately joined the cabinet of [[Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan]] as Minister of Public Works and Local Self Government.{{sfn|Talbot|2013|p=70}} Tiwana lacked public speaking skills and administrative experience and obtained the position largely through his father's reputation and the standing of his family.{{sfn|Talbot|2013|p=70}} Despite this, he became a trusted member of the cabinet and was entrusted with the home portfolio responsible for dealing with the police and law and order.{{sfn|Talbot|2013|p=70}} At the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] he had been placed in charge of the Manpower Committee of the Punjab War Board and the Civil Defence Departments.{{sfn|Talbot|2013|p=70}} In 1940 he was responsible for handling the Unionist Party's dealings with the [[Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi|Allama Mashriqi]] and for arranging security at the [[All-India Muslim League]] sessions in Lahore.

In his native constituency, he engaged in political rivalry with [[Nawab]] Muhammad Hayat Qureshi, a prominent supporter of [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah|Jinnah]] and the incumbent President of the [[All India Muslim League]] for [[Shahpur District|Shahpur]] District. Sir Allah Buksh Tiwana was a relative and close political advisor to Sir Khizar Hayat.

His achievements included overseeing reform of the [[Panchayati raj in India|panchayat]] system by extending their administrative, fiscal and judicial functions, and ensuring improvements to infrastructure and irrigation networks.{{sfn|Talbot|2013|p=76}} He steadfastly supported pro-unionist agrarian policies, and sympathized with their efforts to promote communal harmony.{{sfn|Talbot|2013|p=76}}

== Premier of the Punjab ==
[[File:M.A. Jinnah, Master Tara Singh, and Khizar Hayat Tiwana.jpg|right|thumb|Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana (right), Premier of the [[Punjab region|Punjab]], with [[Sikh]] leader [[Master Tara Singh]] (centre), and [[Mohammad Ali Jinnah]], leader of the [[All India Muslim League]] at the [[Simla Conference]] called by viceroy [[Lord Wavell]] in June 1945.]]
{{Original research section|date=March 2023}}

=== 1942–1946 ===
In 1942 [[Sikandar Hayat Khan (Punjabi politician)|Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan]] unexpectedly died creating a vacancy as Premier. The position was eyed by the three dominant Muslim factions, the Noon-Tiwana, Daultanas and the Hayats.<ref name=AJ>{{harvnb|Jalal|1994}}{{page needed|date=March 2023}}</ref> Tiwana was unanimously selected as his successor on 23 January 1943.<ref name=AJ/>

Tiwana assumed control during the height of the [[Second World War]]. Many Punjabi soldiers had been killed, others returned maimed, and demobilised soldiers were not being immediately allotted parcels of land in the canal colonies. To feed Bengalis suffering the [[Bengal famine of 1943]], the central government in Delhi instructed Tiwana's government to introduce rationing in the Punjab and fix grain prices which in turn affected landowner's financially.{{sfn|Shah|1997|p=131}} A war weariness descended over the Punjab, and food shortages, fixed prices, and their support for conscription, damaged attitudes towards Tiwana's government from rich and poor Muslim alike.{{sfn|Shah|1997|p=131}}

Like Sikandar, Tiwana was staunchly opposed to the idea of [[Pakistan]] created by the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]], yet unlike his predecessor was less willing to compromise or bow to the dictation of its leader [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]].{{sfn|Moon|1962|p=39}} Jinnah increasingly sought to enforce the Sikandar-Jinnah pact and wield influence over the government claiming that as the Muslims of the Unionist party also belonged to the Muslim League, the Punjab government was a League government and should submit to directives of the Muslim League leadership.{{sfn|Moon|1962|p=39}} In April 1944 Jinnah demanded that the name of the Unionist Party be changed to the Muslim League Coalition Party.{{sfn|Hardy|1972|p=234}} Tiwana rebuffed these demands asserting that his government was a coalition between Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, rather than a Muslim League government{{sfn|Moon|1962|p=39}} Tension with Jinnah simmered until Tiwana was expelled from the Muslim League later that year.{{sfn|Moon|1962|p=39}} This opened a rift within the Unionist Party, with Muslim members now forced to choose between Tiwana and the Muslim League.{{sfn|Moon|1962|p=39}} Following this clash, the Muslim League waged an increasing vitriolic campaign against him, denouncing him as a 'quisling' and 'kafir'. Mock funerals were held outside his official residence and he was greeted wherever he went with black flags of protest.{{sfn|Talbot|2013}}

Tiwana suffered a further blow in January 1945 with the death of [[Chhotu Ram|Sir Chhottu Ram]], the Unionist leader of the Hindu Jats in south eastern Punjab. Ram was a pillar of the Unionist Party and greatly respected by Muslims in the province.{{sfn|Moon|1962|p=39}} Jinnah increased the pressure on Tiwana at the [[Simla Conference]] of 1945. Convened by the [[Viceroy of India]] [[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|Lord Wavell]], the conference was to put together an interim government in India following the war. Jinnah insisted that any Muslim nominee to the government must be selected by the Muslim League, as only they spoke for the entirety of Muslims in India. This was seen as an attempt to undermine the influence of the Unionist Party, and its ability to represent its Muslim constituency.{{sfn|Moon|1962|p=39}} In September 1945, [[Feroz Khan Noon|Sir Feroz Khan Noon]], a member of the Noon-Tiwana faction, resigned from the Unionist party and urged Tiwana and other Unionists to join the Muslim League.<ref name=AJ/> Noon had previously been a key ally for Tiwana, assuring him that he would help heal his rift with Jinnah and urging him to not divide the Punjabi Muslims - the heart of Muslim India.<ref>Firoz Khan Noon to Tiwana Hayat Khan, 21 August 1945, SHC/Punjab vol. IV, 15.</ref> Noon's defection opened the gates for further defections from the party. Other defectors included Sikandar's son, [[Shaukat Hayat Khan]] and [[Mumtaz Daultana]], who both realigned their families support towards the Muslim League.

=== 1946–1947 ===
At the [[1946 Indian provincial elections|Indian provincial elections of 1946]], the Muslim League won seventy nine seats to the [[Punjab Legislative Assembly (British India)|Punjab Assembly]], and reduced the Unionists to just ten. Despite this crushing defeat for Tiwana and the Unionists, the Muslim League were unable to form a government as they lacked an absolute majority. Tiwana struck a deal with the [[Indian National Congress|Congress Party]] and [[Shiromani Akali Dal|Akali Dal]] and was invited to form a coalition government. His cabinet included [[Muzaffar Ali Khan Qizilbash|Sir Muzaffar Ali Khan Qizilbash]], [[Bhim Sen Sachar]] and [[Baldev Singh]].{{sfn|Korson|1974|p=20}} The coalition proved a disaster, as for the first time a predominately non-Muslim government held power. From the outset the Muslim League organised a programme of civil disobedience and disruption to the province.<ref name=JHK>{{harvnb|Korson|1974|p=19}}</ref> The Muslim League argued it was an example of Hindu connivance to defeat the interests of the Muslim community.{{sfn|Moon|1962|p=72}} Tiwana was portrayed as a traitor, clinging to power and office without regard for the interests of the Muslims.{{sfn|Moon|1962|p=72}}

Tiwana remained [[opposition to the partition of India|opposed to the partition of India]] to the end.<ref name="Mansingh2006">{{cite book |last1=Mansingh |first1=Surjit |title=Historical Dictionary of India |date=2006 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810865020 |language=English |quote=Both Sikander Hayat Khan and his successor, Khizr Hayat Khan Tiwana, vehemently opposed the idea Partition when it was mooted in the early 1940s, partly because as Punjabi Muslims they did not agree with Jinnah on the need for a Pakistan and largely because the thought of partitioning Punjab, as an inevitable consequence, was so painful.}}</ref><ref name="SinghFenech2014">{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Pashaura |last2=Fenech |first2=Louis E. |title=The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies |date=2014 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780191004124 |language=English|quote=Khizr Hayat Khan Tiwana, a Unionist, who was the last Premier of the unified Punjab opposed Jinnah and the 1947 partition of India from a Punjabi nationalist perspective. }}</ref> He felt that Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus of the Punjab all had a common culture and was against dividing India to create a religious segregation between the same people.<ref name="Talbot1996"/> Tiwana, himself a Muslim, remarked to the separatist leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah: "There are Hindu and Sikh Tiwanas who are my relatives. I go to their weddings and other ceremonies. How can I possibly regard them as coming from another nation?"<ref name="Talbot1996">{{harvnb|Talbot|2013|loc=pp. 77, 303: "Khizr was opposed to the division of India on a religious basis, and especially to suggestions about partitioning Punjab on such a basis. He sincerely believed that Punjabi Muslims had more in common with Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs."}}</ref> He refused to accept the [[two-nation theory]], and believed that a Muslim majority government in the Punjab would be an important guarantee of the rights of Muslims in a minority province.<ref name=JHK/> Tiwana advocated for amity between the religious communities of undivided India, proclaiming March 1 as Communal Harmony Day and aiding in the establishment of a Communal Harmony Committee in Lahore presided over by Raja Narendra Nath with its secretary being Maulvi Mahomed Ilyas of [[Bahawalpur (princely state)|Bahawalpur]].<ref name="Talbot1996"/> As a last ditch attempt to avoid partition, Tiwana attempted to convince the British to accept his proposal for an independent Punjabi state, a separate entity to both India and Pakistan.<ref>Pashaura Singh, Louis E. Fenech, The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies, OUP Oxford, 27 March 2014, p. 486.</ref>

He was made a [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India]] in the [[1946 New Year Honours]]<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=37407 |page=7 |date=28 December 1945}}</ref> and was a member of the Indian delegation to the ''Paris Peace Conference'' in the summer of 1946. Due to the boycotts engulfing the Punjab, he resigned as Premier on 2 March 1947. [[Evan Meredith Jenkins|Sir Evan Jenkins]], as [[List of governors of Punjab (British India)|Governor of the Punjab]] assumed direct control of the Punjab until the day of partition, 14 August 1947.<ref name=JHK/>

== Later life ==
He retired from politics following his resignation, and lived for a time in [[Simla]] and [[Delhi]] following independence. He returned to the Kalra Estate, [[Jhawarian]] in the newly created Pakistan in October 1949.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/remembering-khizar-hayat-tiwana/371749.html |title=Remembering Khizar Hayat Tiwana |website=www.tribuneindia.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307221116/http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/remembering-khizar-hayat-tiwana/371749.html |archive-date=2017-03-07}}</ref>

In 1951, [[Mumtaz Daultana]] targeted those who were against the [[Pakistan movement]] by proposing a law confiscating without redress, all land grants issued during the premiership of Tiwana.<ref name=RDL>Roger D. Long, Gurharpal Singh, Yunas Samad, Ian Talbot, State and Nation-Building in Pakistan: Beyond Islam and Security, Routledge, 8 October 2015, p. 27.</ref> In Tiwana's hometown of [[Shahpur, Punjab|Shahpur]], this would amount to 10,000 acres. Alarmed by these measures, Tiwana appealed to the British government without success.<ref name=RDL/> In 1954, Daultana would confiscate all the private canals owned by Tiwana under the guise of the Punjab Minor Canals Bill.<ref name=RDL/>

During his stay in United States Tiwana, reflecting on the creation of [[Bangladesh]], echoed his [[opposition to the partition of India]], particularly the division of the [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab Province]], stating: "I still think a Punjabi Muslim has more in common with a Punjabi Hindu or Sikh than with a Bengali (or any non-Punjabi really) and I think the separation of East Pakistan proved that."{{sfn|Talbot|2013|p=173}}

He died in [[Butte City, Glenn County, California|Butte City]], [[California]], on 20 January 1975.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/25/archives/nawab-tiwana-exminister-of-punjab-led-unionists.html | title=Nawab Tiwana, Ex-Minister of Punjab, Led Unionists | newspaper=The New York Times | date=25 January 1975 }}</ref> [[Indira Gandhi]], [[Zulfikar Ali Bhutto]] and [[Louis Mountbatten]] shared condolences. His coffin was draped not in the Kalra tricolour.{{sfn|Talbot|2013|p=173}}

== References ==
{{Notelist}}
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{citation |last=Jalal |first=Ayesha |author-link=Ayesha Jalal |title=The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D63KMRN1SJ8C |year=1994 |orig-date=1985 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-45850-4}}
* {{cite book |author=Hardy |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Hardy (historian) |title=The Muslims of British India |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-521-08488-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDw4AAAAIAAJ}}
* {{cite book |last=Korson |first=J. Henry |title=Contemporary Problems of Pakistan |publisher=BRILL |year=1974 |isbn=978-90-04-47468-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJxjEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA20}}
* {{cite book |last=Moon |first=Penderel |author-link=Penderel Moon |title=Divide and Quit |publisher=University of California Press |year=1962 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.3199 |via=archive.org}}
* {{citation |last=Shah |first=Mehtab Ali |title=The Foreign Policy of Pakistan: Ethnic Impacts on Diplomacy 1971-1994 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7czT4fipTyoC |date=1997 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-86064-169-5}}
* {{cite book |first=Ian |last=Talbot |title=Khizr Tiwana, the Punjab Unionist Party and the Partition of India |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-136-79036-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jEldAgAAQBAJ}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiwana, Khizar Hayat}}
[[Category:Aitchison College alumni]]
[[Category:People of the Third Anglo-Afghan War]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India]]
[[Category:Indian Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Indian knights]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian Muslims]]
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:Tiwana family|Khizar Hayat]]
[[Category:Punjab, Pakistan MLAs 1947–1949]]
[[Category:People from Punjab Province (British India)]]

Khizar Hayat Tiwana - Revision history

LaRoseDermaAgeDefying at 15:02, 4 April 2026