Member of The Viceroy's Executive Council
The British trusted Usman and considered him loyal. He served as a member of the Indian Defence Council in 1941–42 and as the Vice-Chancellor of Madras University from 1940 to 1942.
On 2 July 1942, the Viceroy of India, Lord Linlithgow, expanded his Executive Council to nineteen members, bringing in Usman, Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, B. R. Ambedkar, Sir Jogendra Singh, and Sir J. P. Srivastava. This took the number of Indian members of the Council to fourteen, with five Europeans. Usman was made the member for Posts and Air.
Usman's political views, according to the next Viceroy, Wavell, were "such that even a hardened Tory might regard as reactionary", and Wavell later noted in his journal that Usman "believed that God never meant India to be independent".
At a conference of Post Masters General shortly after the end of the Second World War, Usman said of the need to improve postal and telegraph services "We have won the War. We have now to win the peace."
Read more about this topic: Mohammad Usman Of Madras
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