Editing Iskander Mirza (section)

==Origins==

===Ancestral roots and family background===

{{Main|Mir Jafar|Nawab of Bengal}}

Sahibzada Iskandar Ali Mirza<ref>{{cite web | url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Sahibzada+Iskander+Ali+Mirza | title=Sahibzada Iskander Ali Mirza }}</ref> was born in [[Murshidabad]], [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]], in [[British Indian Empire|India]] on 13 November 1899,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lentz |first1=Harris M. |title=Heads of States and Governments |year=2013 |orig-year=First published 1994 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-26497-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwfKAgAAQBAJ&q=iskandar+mirza+born+13+November+1899&pg=PA1896 |page=606 |access-date=20 January 2018 |language=en}}</ref> into an elite and wealthy aristocrat family who were titled as [[Nawab of Bengal]] and later after 1880, [[Nawab of Murshidabad]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Baxter |first=Craig |author-link=Craig Baxter |year=1997 |title=Bangladesh: From a Nation to a State |location=Boulder, CO |publisher=Westview Press |pages=23, 64 |isbn=978-0-8133-2854-6 |quote=Members and collaterals of the [Murshidabad] nawab family have been prominent in Pakistani politics, including Iskandar Mirza ... Mirza was a member of the Murshidabad family of Sirajuddaulah."}}</ref> Mirza was the eldest{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} child of Nawab Fateh Ali Mirza and Dilshad Begum (1875–1925).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Salīm |first1=Ahmad |year=1997 |title=Iskander Mirza: Rise and Fall of a President |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sCNuAAAAMAAJ&q=Fateh+Ali+Mirza |location=Lahore, Pakistan |publisher=Gora Publishers |pages=15, 18 |oclc=254567097 |access-date=20 January 2018 |language=en}}</ref> From his grandfather's ancestral roots, he was of [[Sayyid|Syed]] [[Arabs in India|Iraqi Arab descent]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Streissguth |first1=Thomas |year=2008 |title=Bangladesh in Pictures |publisher=Twenty-First Century Books |isbn=978-0-8225-8577-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cwk281bnHa8C&q=mir+jafar+arab&pg=PA27 |page=27 |access-date=31 March 2017 |language=en}}</ref> The Nawab of Murshidabad family was an influential and wealthy feudal family in Bengal, with close ties to the [[Monarchy of the United Kingdom|British monarchy]]. His father, Fateh Ali Mirza, belonged to the ruling house of Murshidabad, grandson of the first Nawab [[Mansur Ali Khan]].{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} He was the descendant of [[Mir Jafar]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hasina |first1=Sheikh |title=Secret documents of intelligence branch on father of the nation, Bangladesh : Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman 1948–1971 : declassified documents |date=2020 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=9780367467968}}</ref> Mirza's mother belonged to the [[Bombay]]-based [[Tyabji family]] of [[Cambay State|Cambay]] and was the niece of [[Indian National Congress|Congress]] president [[Badruddin Tyabji]] of the [[Sulaymani Bohra]] community.<ref>{{citation|title=Tyabjis – early members of new Indian middle class|author=Khan, Danish|year=2014}}</ref>

===Education, military and political service in British India (1920–47)===

[[File:Iskander Mirza, in British Indian Army.JPG|thumb|200px|left|Iskander Mirza as [[Second Lieutenant|2nd-Lt]] in the [[British Indian Army]], [[1920 in India|ca.1920]].]]

==== Education ====

Mirza grew up and completed his schooling in [[Bombay]], attending the [[Elphinstone College]] of the [[University of Mumbai|University of Bombay]], but left the university to attend the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst|Royal Military College]] in Sandhurst when he was selected by the British [[Governor-General of India|Governor-General]] for the [[King's Commissioned Indian Officer|King's Commission]].<ref name="Gora Publishers, Salim">{{cite book |last1=Salīm|first1=Aḥmad |year=1997 |title=Iskander Mirza: Rise and Fall of a President |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sCNuAAAAMAAJ&q=first+indian |location=Lahore, Pakistan |publisher=Gora Publishers |pages=17, 20 |access-date=31 March 2017 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Routledge, Khan">{{cite book |last1=Khan |first1=Feisal |year=2015 |title=Islamic Banking in Pakistan: Shariah-Compliant Finance and the Quest to make Pakistan more Islamic |publisher=Routledge |page=26 |isbn=978-1-317-36652-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1pACwAAQBAJ&q=iskander+mirza+university+of+bombay&pg=PT58 |access-date=31 March 2017 |language=en |quote=Mirza ... attended Bombay University before joining the British Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, as its first Indian cadet.}}</ref><ref name="Story of Pakistan-2003d">{{cite web |title=Teething Years: Iskander Mirza |url=http://www.storyofpakistan.com/person.asp?perid=P015 |website=Story of Pakistan |date=June 2003 |access-date=1 February 2012}}</ref>

==== Military Service ====

Mirza was the first Indian graduate of the military college, and gained his [[Commissioned officer|commission]] in the [[British Indian Army]] as a [[Second Lieutenant|2nd Lt.]] on 16 July 1920.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mirza|first1=Humayun|title=From Plassey to Pakistan: The Family History of Iskander Mirza, the First President of Pakistan|date=2002|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=9780761823490|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gf8vAQAAIAAJ&q=iskander+mirza+graduated |page=132 |access-date=31 March 2017|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Story of Pakistan-2003d" /><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32005 |supp=y|page=8141|date=3 August 1920}}</ref> As was customary for newly commissioned British Indian Army officers, he was initially attached for a year to the second battalion of the [[Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)]].<ref name="Story of Pakistan-2003d" /> On 16 July 1921, he was promoted to lieutenant and was assigned to command a platoon on 30 December 1921.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32665|page=2819|date=7 April 1922}}</ref>

His military career was spent in the [[Indian Army Corps of Military Police|Military Police]].<ref name="Story of Pakistan-2003d" />  In spite of hailing from [[United Bengal|Bengal]], his military career was mostly spent in the violent [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|North-West Frontier Province]] of India, participating in the [[Waziristan campaign (1919–1920)|Waziristan war]] in 1920.<ref name="Story of Pakistan-2003d" /> After the campaign, he was transferred to the [[Poona Horse|17th Poona Horse]] (Queen Victoria's Own), as an army inspector but left active service to join the [[Indian Political Service]] (IPS) in August 1926.<ref name="Story of Pakistan-2003d" /><ref name="record_list">{{cite book|pages=353|title=The India Office and Burma Office List: 1945|publisher=Harrison & Sons, Ltd.|year=1945}}</ref>

==== Indian Political Service ====

His first assignment was a posting in [[Aligarh]] in what is now [[Uttar Pradesh]] as an [[Assistant commissioner of police (India)|assistant commissioner]] before posting as a [[Political officer (British Empire)|political agent]] in [[Hazara region|Hazara]] in the [[North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955)|North West Frontier Province]].<ref name="Story of Pakistan-2003d" /><ref name="record_list" /> He received his promotion to [[Captain (land)|captain]] on 17 October 1927.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33367|page=1935|date=16 March 1928}}</ref>

During his time spent fighting for the [[British Raj|British Empire]] against [[Waziristan campaign (1919–1920)|Pashtun Freedom Fighters in Waziristan]], he learnt to speak [[Pashto]] fluently for his deployment in the [[North-West Frontier Province|North-West Frontier]].<ref>''Mohammad H.R. Talukdar''  [https://books.google.com/books?id=gUZAPwAACAAJ Memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy] Dacca University Press (1987) ''"after serving in the army for some time and being wounded in a skirmish with the Pathans, joined the political service and spent most of his professional life among the Pathan s as a British political agent in the tribal areas. '''He spoke Pushto fluently''' and had learned the art of offering suitable inducements and of playing off one party against another." pg. 102''</ref> From 1928 to 1933, Mirza spent time as a political agent in the troubled [[Tribal belt (Pakistan)|Tribal Belt]], having served as an [[assistant commissioner]] in the districts of [[Dera Ghazi Khan District|Dera Ismail Khan]] in April 1928, [[Tonk district|Tonk]] in May 1928, [[Bannu district|Bannu]] in April 1930, and [[Nowshera district|Nowshera]] in April 1931.<ref name="record_list"/> In 1931, Captain Mirza was appointed a district officer and was later posted as deputy commissioner at Hazara in May 1933, where he served for three years until a posting to Mardan as assistant commissioner from October 1936 (deputy commissioner from January 1937).<ref name="record_list"/> Promoted to major on 16 July 1938,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34539|page=5055|date=5 August 1938}}</ref> he became the political agent of the Tribal Belt in April 1938, stationed at Khyber. He remained there until 1945.<ref name="record_list"/><ref name="Story of Pakistan-2003d"/>

Mirza was appointed and served as the political agent of [[Odisha]] and North West Frontier Province from 1945 until 1946.<ref name="Electronic Gov't">{{cite web |title=President Iskandar Mirza |url=http://www.president.gov.pk/index.php?lang=en&opc=2&sel=4&pId=1 |website=Ministry of Information and Public Broadcasting |publisher=Government of Pakistan |access-date=1 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116103426/http://www.president.gov.pk/index.php?lang=en&opc=2&sel=4&pId=1 |archive-date=16 January 2014}}</ref> He was promoted to [[lieutenant-colonel]] on 16 July 1946.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37747|page=4946|date=4 October 1946}}</ref> His ability to run the colonial administrative units had brought him to prominence that prompted the British Indian Government to appoint him as the Joint Defence Secretary of India in 1946.<ref name="Electronic Gov't"/> In this position, he was responsible for dividing the British Indian Army into the future armies of Pakistan and India.<ref name="Electronic Gov't"/> Around this time, he became closer to [[Liaquat Ali Khan]] and began formatting political relations with the politicians of the [[All India Muslim League|Muslim League]].<ref name="Story of Pakistan-2003d" /> About him [[Abdul Ghaffar Khan]] wrote: ""According to my instructions the mass movement was launched. A Muslim Deputy-Commissioner, Janab Iskander Mirza, avowing his traditional loyalty to the British, excelled his masters, beating to death Syed Akbar, a Khudai Khidmatgar. He went to the extent of poisoning vegetables in a Khudai Khidmatgar camp. Those who ate them were taken seriously ill. I would rather not expose his other crimes but would rather produce him before the Almighty, whom we all have to face on the Day of judgement."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tendulkar |first1=D. G. |author-link=Dinanath Gopal Tendulkar |year=1967 |title=Abdul Ghaffar Khan: Faith is a Battle |publisher=Gandhi Peace Foundation |location=Bombay |pages=355 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mzI6AQAAIAAJ |access-date=22 June 2020}}</ref>