Anna Rajam Malhotra
Anna Rajam George was born on July 17, 1927 as the second of five children of Anna Paul and O. A. George, an educated progressive-minded couple hailing from Pathanamthitta district in south Kerala. A few years later, the family moved to Calicut, where George set up a small publishing business.
After completing her schooling and graduation in Calicut, Anna moved to Madras (now Chennai) to do her Masters in English literature from the Presidency College. She then worked briefly as a clerk at the AG’s office in Madras. In 1950, she decided to attempt the Indian Civil Service examination, and cleared the written round. Next came the interview, conducted by a distinguished board consisting of four ICS officers, headed by the UPSC chairman. They tried to dissuade her from joining the IAS, suggesting that she opt for the foreign service or central services instead, as these were “more suitable for women”. But Anna was determined not to be fobbed off with easier options. She convincingly argued her case and entered the IAS in 1951, choosing the Madras cadre.
During the rigorous IAS training, Anna neither got nor expected any concessions as a woman, but performed all the exercises her male counterparts did, including shooting and horseriding. Anna’s next challenge came when she joined duty, reporting to the Chief Minister of Madras, S. Rajagopalachari (known as Rajaji). Rajaji, who was opposed to the idea of women entering public service, did not want to give the new recruit a field posting, as he believed that she would be unable to handle law and order issues. He offered her a post in the Secretariat instead. Once again Anna refused to back down and argued that she was as good as any man, pleading for a chance to prove herself. Eventually, she was posted as Sub-Collector of Hosur district. This proved to be an eventful posting, filled with challenges that gave her ample scope to prove her mettle –including encounters with wild elephants and smugglers. As promised, the young SubCollector handled everything competently, prompting the same Rajaji to subsequently change his stand and praise her publicly as an example of progressive women.
After the adventurous stint in Hosur, Anna was posted back to Madras, where she went onto work under seven chief ministers over the years. Subsequently she was transferred to the central government and held key positions in the revenue, finance, agriculture, and education and culture ministries. At each stage, she had to fight ingrained gender bias from male colleagues and the public. But her indefatigable will - helped her to meet every challenge. Nothing – not even illness – could keep her down.
The story goes that as Additional Secretary for Agriculture under PM Indira Gandhi and a key figure in the Green Revolution, she accompanied the PM on an 8-state tour to review food production, despite being hampered by a fractured ankle. She also worked with Rajiv Gandhi on the Asian Games project in 1982.
Even as Anna was conquering new frontiers in her career, a romance was steadily brewing with her batch-mate, the brilliant IAS officer, Ram Narain Malhotra(who later became governor of the Reserve Bank of India). But this was the 1960’s, and both knew that the ultra-conservative society of the time would not take kindly to the union of a Punjabi Hindu and a Malayali Christian. So they waited – await that was to last a quarter of a century. It was only in 1977, when Malhotra after completing all family responsibilities and was working as the executive director of the IMF in Washington D.C., that they got married. Anna was then 50 years old. However, she had no regrets, telling friends that getting such an extraordinarily humane and good-hearted life partner had been “worth the wait”.
In 1985, Anna was given the charge of the Nhava Sheva Port Trust located in Navi Mumbai’s Raigad District. It was a very tough assignment, but Anna fought all odds to complete it before time in May 1989. Today known as the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), it is India’s first and largest fully computerised container port. In recognition of her sterling achievements, Anna Malhotra was awarded the country’s third highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan, in 1989. Her husband, R. N. Malhotra, also received the same award the following year. Even after retirement, Anna did not settle down to rest, but took up a challenging assignment –that of director of the Leela group of hotels, overseeing its many projects – that kept her as busy as before. This remarkable woman passed away on September 18, 2018, at the age of 91.
