A. G. Mehta

A. G. Mehta was a Ugandan member of parliament, barrister and the eldest son of a prominent Indian industrialist.[1] The Honourable A.G. Mehta was elected as the first Asian-Indian mayor of Uganda's capital Kampala in 1968 and was a close colleague of Uganda's first prime minister Milton Obote; with whom he jointly fought for the country's independence at the Uganda Constitutional Conference in 1961.[2][3][4] He is credited with drafting elements of what would become the first Constitution of Uganda.[5]

Mehta and wife Savita Radia (left) in the city council of Kampala, Uganda, 1968
The Honourable
A.G. Mehta
Mehta in 1968
Mayor of Kampala, Uganda
In office
1968 (1968) – 10 March 1969 (1969-03-10) (died in office)
Preceded byW.Y. Nega
Succeeded byNakibinge
Member of Parliament
In office
1960 (1960)–1968 (1968)
Personal details
Born1 February 1927 (1927-02)
Masaka, Uganda
Died10 March 1969 (1969-03-11)
Political partyUganda People's Congress
SpouseSavita Radia
Children6
Alma materQueen Mary University of London, School of Law

Education

A.G. Mehta was educated as a barrister at Queen Mary University of London, School of Law, in West London, and was legally permitted to practice law in the United Kingdom, Uganda and Kenya.[6][7][8]

Political career

Member of Parliament

As an member of parliament, A.G. Mehta attended the Uganda Constitutional Conference at Lancaster House in 1961 as part of the Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) delegation alongside Milton Obote.[9] The conference was also attended by then Governor of Uganda, Sir Frederick Crawford, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Iain Macleod.[10] Recommendations produced by Mehta and other conference attendees resulted in the first Ugandan Constitution, which took effect on 9 October 1962.[5]

Mayor of Kampala

A.G. Mehta was elected as the first Indian mayor of Uganda's capitol city, Kampala, in 1968.[3][11] One week before his untimely death in 1969, Mehta opened the first exhibition on the Baháʼí Faith in the National Theatre of Uganda, where his opening address, attended by numerous East-African dignitaries, advocated pointedly for the unity of mankind.[12]

Family

A. G. Mehta was born the eldest son of the Mehta family, one of Kampala's longest-standing and most prominent Indian families originally hailing from Porbandar, Gujarat, India.[1] The Mehta family were amongst the first multi-millionaires in East Africa with numerous agricultural businesses including the production of cotton and coffee.[13]

Following his death in 1969, Mehta's widow and five surviving children were exiled from Uganda by his former colleague, Idi Amin.

Mehta's granddaughter is Maya Asha McDonald, a British art historian and journalist known best for her 2022 op-ed on Russian President Vladimir Putin.[14][15]

Publications and institutions

A.G. Mehta's role in establishing the first Constitution of Uganda in 1962 is recorded in Ali AlʼAmin Mazrui's 1978 book Political Values and the Educated Class in Africa published by the University of California Press.[16]

Images of Mehta's political career can be found in the British Library and were digitised by the Endangered Archives Programme.[17]

References
  1. Nair, Savita (2018). "Despite dislocations: Uganda's Indians remaking home". Africa. 88 (3): 492–517. doi:10.1017/S0001972018000190. ISSN 0001-9720. S2CID 149923975.
  2. Uganda Constitutional Conference, London, September-October 1961: basic papers on the Uganda courts. The National Archives: Records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and predecessors. 1961.
  3. "Meet Kampala's Mayors since Independence". New Vision.
  4. National Assembly, Uganda (1968). Official Report. Entebee: Uganda Govt. Printer.
  5. "Uganda Constitutional Conference, 1961". New Vision. October 2016.
  6. Kenya Gazette. 1968-02-09.
  7. Kenya Gazette. 1967-02-17.
  8. Kenya Gazette. 1969-02-07.
  9. Great Britain, ed. (1961). Uganda: report of the Uganda Constitutional Conference, 1961 and text of the agreed draft of a new Buganda agreement initialled in London on 9th October, 1961. Cmnd. London: H.M.S.O.
  10. Mukholi, David (1995). A complete guide to Uganda's Fourth Constitution : history, politics, and the law. Kampala, Uganda: Fountain Publishers. ISBN 9970-02-084-6. OCLC 34471548.
  11. Government, Kampala (2019). "Statistical Abstract for Kampala City" (PDF). Kampala Capital City Authority: 16.
  12. Bahai News (August 1969). "Mayor of Kampala Speaks at First Bahai Exhibit" (PDF). Bahai News Published by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahai's of the United States (461): 17 – via Bahai Media Archive.
  13. Gregory, Robert G. India and East Africa a history of race relations within the British Empire 1890-1939. Clarendon Press. OCLC 1248076126.
  14. McDonald, Maya Asha (2022-03-10). "Three Years Ago, I Had Dinner With Vladimir Putin. What He Told Me Makes Me Fearful for Ukraine's Cultural Heritage". Artnet News.
  15. "My dinner with Putin: What a Canadian learned from her strange encounter with Russia's president". Ottawa Citizen. 2022-03-17.
  16. Mazrui, Ali A. (1 Oct 1978). Political Values and the Educated Class in Africa. University of California Press. p. 347.
  17. "Photo 24, EAP656/3/1/2". British Library, Endangered Archives Programme. 1964. Archived from the original on 2022-01-13.
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