Rajasthan
Tonk: For kin of Tonk’s ex-nawabs, battle on for pension, rights | Jaipur News
Sitting in a worn-out wooden sofa in his home, a run-down building with shattered windowpanes and crack-ridden floors and walls in Tonk‘s bustling Kafila Market, seventy-year-old Mustaq Ali Khan asked his son to retrieve a briefcase from an old iron trunk.
The briefcase contains a file that has important documents, including an inheritance certificate bearing the seal of the last Nawab of Tonk, Mohammed Ismail Ali Khan, dating back to 1969.This certificate is irrefutable evidence of Mustaq Ali Khan’s royal ancestry and esteemed lineage within the Anjuman Khandan-E-Amiriya (AKA).
Khan’s house stands right next to Tonk’s historic Jama Masjid at Kafila Market, which was once the main thoroughfare during the Nawabs’ reign. In the years since India’s Independence, his only surviving entitlement from the royal past has been a monthly pension of Rs 1,000 from the state government under a special agreement between the Nawab and the Union government as part of Tonk’s merger in 1947.
AKA members, who number more than 8,000, including 4,000 adults and nearly 2,000 pensioners, represent are direct descendants and close relatives of those bygone rulers. The poll issues for the families of AKA members include a betrayal of promise by CM Ashok Gehlot. In 2018, Gehlot had assured the head of AKA, Aftab Ali Khan, that the pension would be raised from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 for every beneficiary, but it has remained unfulfilled.
“The government is not granting AKA members any privilege, getting which is our right. This pension, the only source of livelihood for many of the 2,000 AKA families, is received in lieu of the properties given to the state of Rajasthan for administrative and revenue purposes under the Jagir Establishment Act, 1958. It is not a pension but a retainership sum, to which the AKA members were entitled since 1944 as granted by the then ruler, the Nawab,” said Sahabzada Rahat Khan, a member of AKA.
The change in rules for issuing inheritance certificates has caused indignation among the AKA members. Until 2013, the certificates were issued by Aftab Ali Khan, who uses the title of Nawab. These certificates hold importance not only in proving the lineage but also in registering for the pension.
“Now, the rules say that an application must be filed with the collectorate, which takes a call on the inheritance certificate. Since 2013, the DM has not issued a single certificate. Those who successfully got it after that was only through the court,” said Sahabzada.
The AKA members used to be a privileged class in Tonk, but most of them have lost their means of livelihood due to poor education over the years, added Sahabzada.
AKA patron Aftab Ali Khan expressed disappointment over the condition of the royal family’s descendants. He said he had met Gehlot before the 2018 assembly polls over two issues: raising of the pension amount and reinstating the Nawab’s right to issue inheritance certificates for inclusion of a new member after the death of a head pensioner.
“Family members of the pensioners struggle to get the certificate from the DM’s office and end up spending thousands of rupees to get it through the courts. Successive governments’ attitude towards AKA violates the promises made to us during Tonk’s merger with the Indian republic,” said Aftab Ali Khan. AKA will have high hopes from the next government that is formed in Rajasthan after the polls, he added.
The briefcase contains a file that has important documents, including an inheritance certificate bearing the seal of the last Nawab of Tonk, Mohammed Ismail Ali Khan, dating back to 1969.This certificate is irrefutable evidence of Mustaq Ali Khan’s royal ancestry and esteemed lineage within the Anjuman Khandan-E-Amiriya (AKA).
Khan’s house stands right next to Tonk’s historic Jama Masjid at Kafila Market, which was once the main thoroughfare during the Nawabs’ reign. In the years since India’s Independence, his only surviving entitlement from the royal past has been a monthly pension of Rs 1,000 from the state government under a special agreement between the Nawab and the Union government as part of Tonk’s merger in 1947.
AKA members, who number more than 8,000, including 4,000 adults and nearly 2,000 pensioners, represent are direct descendants and close relatives of those bygone rulers. The poll issues for the families of AKA members include a betrayal of promise by CM Ashok Gehlot. In 2018, Gehlot had assured the head of AKA, Aftab Ali Khan, that the pension would be raised from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 for every beneficiary, but it has remained unfulfilled.
“The government is not granting AKA members any privilege, getting which is our right. This pension, the only source of livelihood for many of the 2,000 AKA families, is received in lieu of the properties given to the state of Rajasthan for administrative and revenue purposes under the Jagir Establishment Act, 1958. It is not a pension but a retainership sum, to which the AKA members were entitled since 1944 as granted by the then ruler, the Nawab,” said Sahabzada Rahat Khan, a member of AKA.
The change in rules for issuing inheritance certificates has caused indignation among the AKA members. Until 2013, the certificates were issued by Aftab Ali Khan, who uses the title of Nawab. These certificates hold importance not only in proving the lineage but also in registering for the pension.
“Now, the rules say that an application must be filed with the collectorate, which takes a call on the inheritance certificate. Since 2013, the DM has not issued a single certificate. Those who successfully got it after that was only through the court,” said Sahabzada.
The AKA members used to be a privileged class in Tonk, but most of them have lost their means of livelihood due to poor education over the years, added Sahabzada.
AKA patron Aftab Ali Khan expressed disappointment over the condition of the royal family’s descendants. He said he had met Gehlot before the 2018 assembly polls over two issues: raising of the pension amount and reinstating the Nawab’s right to issue inheritance certificates for inclusion of a new member after the death of a head pensioner.
“Family members of the pensioners struggle to get the certificate from the DM’s office and end up spending thousands of rupees to get it through the courts. Successive governments’ attitude towards AKA violates the promises made to us during Tonk’s merger with the Indian republic,” said Aftab Ali Khan. AKA will have high hopes from the next government that is formed in Rajasthan after the polls, he added.
