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{{Use Indian English|date=August 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Mohammadali Carim Chagla
| image = Mohamed Ali Currim Chagla.jpg
| alma_mater = [[Lincoln College, Oxford]]
| birth_date = 30 September 1900
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1981|2|9|1900|9|30|df=y}}
| caption = Chagla in 1961
| office = 5th [[Minister of External Affairs (India)|Minister of External Affairs]]
| primeminister = Indira Gandhi
| term_start = 14 November 1966
| term_end = 5 September 1967
| predecessor = [[Swaran Singh]]
| successor = [[Indira Gandhi]]
| office2 = 4th [[Minister of Human Resource Development|Minister of Education]]
| primeminister2 = [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]<br/>[[Gulzarilal Nanda]] {{small|(Acting)}}<br/>[[Lal Bahadur Shastri]]<br/>Indira Gandhi
| term_start2 = 21 November 1963
| term_end2 = 13 November 1966
| predecessor2 = [[Humayun Kabir]]
| successor2 = [[Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed]]
| office3 = 4th [[High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom]]
| primeminister3 = Jawaharlal Nehru
| term_start3 = April 1962
| term_end3 = September 1963
| office4 = 6th [[Ambassador of India to the United States]]
| primeminister4 = Jawaharlal Nehru
| term_start4 = 1958
| term_end4 = 1961
| predecessor4 = [[Gaganvihari Lallubhai Mehta]]
| successor4 = [[B. K. Nehru]]
| office5 = Chief Justice of [[Bombay High Court]]
| term5 = 1947 - 1958
| successor5 = [[Hashmatrai Khubchand Chainani]]
| nationality = [[India]]n
| birth_place = [[Bombay]], [[Bombay Presidency]], [[British India]]
| predecessor3 = [[Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit]]
| successor3 = [[Jivraj Narayan Mehta]]
| party = [[All-India Muslim League]], [[Muslim Nationalist Party]]
}}
[[File:President John F. Kennedy with Ambassador of India, Mohamed Ali Currim Chagla.jpg|thumb|Chagla (left), as Ambassador to the United States, with President [[John F. Kennedy]] at the White House, 22 May 1961.]]
'''Mohammadali Carim Chagla''' (30 September 1900 – 9 February 1981) was an Indian [[jurist]], diplomat, and [[Cabinet Minister]] who served as [[Chief Justice]] of the [[Bombay High Court]] from 1947 to 1958.<ref name="frontline">{{cite news|last1=Chandrachud|first1=Abhinav|title=My dear Chagla|url=http://www.frontline.in/the-nation/my-dear-chagla/article5589838.ece|accessdate=8 September 2017|publisher=Frontline|date=7 February 2014}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Born on 30 September 1900 in [[Bombay]] to a well-off Gujarati [[Ismaili]] [[Khoja]] family, Chagla suffered a lonely childhood owing to his mother's death in 1905.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} His childhood was spent in their family mansion in near Nagdevi Street and Janjiker Lane, Khokha Bazar in Pydhonie. He later bought a mansion in Malabar Hill in 1934. He was educated at St. Xavier's High School and College in Bombay, after which he went on to study Modern History at [[Lincoln College, Oxford]], from 1918–21, taking a BA in 1921 and MA in 1925.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/m-c-chagla|title=M. C. Chagla {{!}} Making Britain|website=www.open.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-11-28}}</ref> In 1922, he was admitted to the Bar of the [[Bombay High Court]], where he worked with such illuminaries as Sir Jamshedji Kanga and [[Mohammed Ali Jinnah]], who would one day become the founder of [[Pakistan]].

== Career ==
Initially, like many nationalists, Chagla idolized Jinnah due to his then nationalistic views and held membership in the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]].{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} He worked under Jinnah in Bombay for seven years, often, as he recounts in his autobiography in a state of penury. However, he severed all ties to Jinnah after Jinnah began to work for the cause of a separate Muslim state.<ref name="roses">{{cite book|last1=Chagla|first1=M.C.|title=Roses in December|date=1 January 1982|publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan|location=Mumbai|edition=9th}}</ref> Chagla, along with others, then founded the Muslim Nationalist Party in Bombay, a party which was ignored and pushed aside in the independence struggle. He was appointed Professor of law to [[Government Law College, Bombay]] in 1927, where he worked with Dr. [[B.R. Ambedkar]]. He was appointed a judge to [[Bombay High Court]] in 1941, becoming Chief Justice in 1948 and serving in that capacity to 1958. All through, he continued to write and speak strongly for the Indian freedom cause and against the communal two nation ideology.<ref name="Hindu">{{cite news|last1=Iyer|first1=V.R.Krishna|title=A person par excellence|url=http://www.thehindu.com/2000/10/22/stories/1322078e.htm|accessdate=8 September 2017|work=[[The Hindu]]|date=22 October 2000}}{{dead link|date=April 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

In 1946, Chagla was part of the first Indian delegation to the UN. From 4 October to 10 December 1956, Chagla served as Acting Governor of the then state of Bombay, later broken up into the states of [[Gujarat]] and [[Maharashtra]]. Following his tenure as Chief Justice, he served as the one-man commission that examined the [[Finance Minister of India]], [[T. T. Krishnamachari]], over the controversial [[Haridas Mundhra]] LIC insurance scandal, which forced Krishnamachari's resignation as Finance Minister. Krishnamachari was quite close to Nehru, who became intensely angry at Chagla for his revelations of TTK's part in the affair, though he later forgave Chagla. From September 1957 to 1959, Chagla served as ad hoc judge to the [[International Court of Justice]] at [[The Hague]].

After retirement he served as Indian ambassador to the US from 1958 to 1961. Chagla then served as [[High Commission of India to the United Kingdom|Indian High Commissioner in the UK]] from April 1962 to September 1963. Immediately on his return, he was asked to be a Cabinet Minister, which he accepted, and he served as [[Education Minister]] from 1963 to 1966, then served as the [[Ministry of External Affairs (India)|Minister for External Affairs of India]] from November 1966 to September 1967, after which he left government service. He then spent the remaining years of his life actively, continuing to practice law into his seventies.

As Minister of Education under [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], Chagla was distraught by the quality of education in government schools:
:Our Constitution fathers did not intend that we just set up hovels, put students there, give untrained teachers, give them bad textbooks, no playgrounds, and say, we have complied with Article 45 and primary education is expanding... They meant that real education should be given to our children between the ages of 6 and 14 <ref name=ssa>[http://ssa.nic.in/quality-docs/RTE%20SSA%20Final%20Report.pdf/view Right to Education SSA Final Report], [[Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan]], Ministry of Human Resource Development, retrieved 3 April 2015</ref>

== Personal life and family ==
In 1930, Chagla married Mehrunissa Dharsi Jivraj, a lady of his own community and similar family background. Their marriage was harmonious and conventional. The couple had four children, two sons, Jehangir (b. 1934) and Iqbal (b. 1939) and two daughters, Husnara (b. 1932) and Nuru (b. 193x). Their son Iqbal Chagla became a lawyer; with his wife Roshan, he has a daughter (M.C. Chagla's granddaughter) Rohiqa, who is the wife of [[Cyrus Mistry]], the former chairman of [[Tata Sons]] in the period 2014–2016. Iqbal's son Riaz (b. c. 1970) was himself appointed a judge of the Bombay High Court in July 2017.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/when-the-countrys-best-legal-minds-came-together-to-celebrate-riyaz-chaglas-bombay-hc-appointment/articleshow/59466523.cms |title=When the country's best legal minds came together to celebrate Riaz Chagla's Bombay HC appointment|work=The Economic Times |date=6 July 2017}}</ref>

Chagla's younger daughter, Nuru, married Subbaram Swaminathan, a south Indian [[Hindu]] gentleman, son of politician [[Ammu Swaminathan]] and brother of captain [[Lakshmi Swaminathan]] and [[Mrinalini Sarabhai]].

Mehrunissa Dharsi Jivraj died in November 1961. Chagla survived her by nineteen years, dying in February 1981.

== Last years and death ==
[[File:MC Chagla 2004 stamp of India.jpg|thumb|Chagla on a 2004 stamp of India]]
In 1973, Chagla published his autobiography, Roses in December, with the help of his son Iqbal. He vehemently protested against the [[The Emergency (India)|Indian Emergency]]. He died on 9 February 1981, at the age of 80 of heart failure. He had been unwell for several years, and had suffered four [[heart attacks]]. True to his active and energetic nature, he had not let his health slow him down. On the day of his death, he went as usual to his club in Bombay and had a good time with his friends. He then slipped away to the dressing room and there, peacefully died. According to his wish, he was cremated instead of having a traditional Muslim burial. The Bombay High Court was closed to show respect for him, and several speeches were made in his memory, including one by former Prime Minister, [[Atal Bihari Vajpayee]].

In 1985, a statue of Chagla was unveiled and placed within the High Court itself, outside the Chief Justice's Court where he once served. The inscription on the statue plinth reads:

"''A great judge, a great citizen, and, above all, a great human being.''"

== Further facts ==

Though born a Muslim, Chagla was more of an agnostic.

The surname "Chagla" was not his original surname. In Chagla's autobiography, he recounted that in his youth, he was known as "Merchant" as both his father and grandfather were merchants. Hating the name due to its associations with money, he went to his grandfather one day and asked him as to what he should call himself. His grandfather promptly replied "Chagla" as his father, Chagla's great-grandfather, had had Chagla as his pet name, which in the [[Kutchi language|Kutchi]] language means "favourite". Chagla promptly adopted the new surname.

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

==Further reading ==
''Roses In December, an autobiography'', M.C. Chagla, Tenth Edition, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2000, {{ISBN|81-7276-203-8}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|M. C. Chagla}}
{{Wikiquote}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060615154616/http://hcbom.mah.nic.in/jmcc1.html M C Chagla]

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box|
before=[[Sardar Swaran Singh]]|
title=[[Indian Foreign Minister|Minister for External Affairs of India]]|
years=1966–1967|
after=[[Indira Gandhi]]
}}
{{succession box|title=[[Indian Ambassador to the United States]]|before=[[Gaganvihari Lallubhai Mehta]]|after=[[B.K. Nehru]]|years=1958–1961}}
{{end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chagla, MC}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1981 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Mumbai]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian judges]]
[[Category:Indian barristers]]
[[Category:Indian diplomats]]
[[Category:Indian Ismailis]]
[[Category:Indian agnostics|Chagla]]
[[Category:Judges of the Bombay High Court]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of India to the United States]]
[[Category:Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Founders of Indian schools and colleges]]
[[Category:Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Ministers for External Affairs of India]]
[[Category:Education Ministers of India]]
[[Category:Members of the Cabinet of India]]
[[Category:Leaders of the Rajya Sabha]]
[[Category:Chief Justices of the Bombay High Court]]
[[Category:All India Muslim League members]]
[[Category:Indian Shia Muslims]]
[[Category:Gujarati people]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian lawyers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian politicians]]

M. C. Chagla - Revision history

UpdateBot at 13:46, 8 May 2022