Monthly Archives: May 2021

Covid-19: Wajid Ali Shah’s scion passes away

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Kolkata, WEST BENGAL :

A file photo of Prince Anjum Qudr, Dr Kaukub Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza and Prince Nayyar Qudr posing for a photo with Meerza’s daughter, Manzilat Fatima, at Imambara Sibtainabadin Metiabruz, Kolkata, sometime during 1985-1986

Kolkata / Lucknow :

Kaukub Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza, the great-grandson of Awadh’s last monarch, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, and grandson of Nawab Birjis Quder, died of Covid-19 in Kolkata on Sunday afternoon, aged 87.

Considered an authority on Wajid Ali Shah’s literary and cultural contributions, he is survived by his wife, two sons and four daughters.

Meerza may be buried on Monday at the royal burial ground(Gulshanabad Imambara), about a kilometre from the Sibtainabad Imambarah in Metiabruz, where Wajid Ali Shah rests.

A popular figure in the billiards and snooker fraternity of  the country, Quder had graduated with honours in economics from St Xavier’s College in the same batch as Amartya Sen.  He studied political science and then a three-year law course.

Subsequently, he studied Urdu at CU, won a silver medal in 1962 and also earned a UGC Junior Fellowship for research on the “Literary & Cultural Contributions of Wajid Ali Shah” in the department of Urdu at Aligarh Muslim University. In 1967, he joined the department as a lecturer and earned a doctorate for his thesis.

Kaukub Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza’s daughter, Talat Fatima, is now translating his book from Urdu to English. “His research was extremely rich. This book, published in the late 70s, has a compilation of some 42 works of Wajid Ali Shah. Some of them are in Persian,” she said, adding that her father preferred to be addressed as “Dr Kaukub Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza” instead of using the title of a prince.

It was his academic interest in his forefather that had also got Satyajit Ray to get in touch with him during the making of “Shatranj ke Khilari”.

On Ray’s birth anniversary this year, his daughter, Manzilat , had tweeted: “There are a couple of letters that were exchanged between Bawa [her father] and Satyajit Ray during the making of Shatranj Ke Khilari.” On Sunday, she spoke about how Ray  had even visited their 11 Marsden Street residence that is popularly known as ‘House of Awadh’. “Ray could have gone to anyone else for information. But he chose to get in touch with my father. In fact, he had made many attempts to meet my father but the meeting never happened. Hence, it was through correspondence that he got the information regarding Wajid Ali Shah. I feel Ray had portrayed Wajid Ali Shah in the right light. Many often claim that Wajid Ali Shah had been exiled, but that isn’t true. He had left the kingdom of his own volition. I believe my father’s information helped him give authentic information about Wajid Ali Shah,” she said.

Quder was also a great connoisseur of food. A big photograph of him along with his two brothers hangs in the rooftop restaurant opened by his daughter. “He was happy when he saw how, in my capacity, I was upholding the family name. Awadhi food was already losing its identity. He was happy I was making the effort to popularize that food,” Manzilat said.

Incidentally, he was the chief referee of first World Snooker Championship held at the Great Eastern Hotel in Kolkata in 1963-64. He had remained the chief referee of the National Billiards & Snooker Championship till it left the Palm Court of the Great Eastern Hotel in the 70s .

“It was my father who coached me to play snooker and billiards. I became the first woman participant from India to play the games at the national level,” said Manzilat.

The rolling trophy of the IBSF World Snooker Championship, the MM Baig Trophy, was designed by him. In the 70s, he had also brought out a pioneering Billiards magazine, “The Baulkline”.

According to his son, Irfan Ali Mirza, “He was the founder-secretary of The Billiards & Snooker Federation of India, The West Bengal Billiards Association and The Uttar Pradesh Billiards & Snooker Association.

Sudipta Mitra, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Peerless Hospital and a student of Meerza, describes his mentor’s demise as a “huge loss”. “A part of our cultural history is lost with his demise. He came with pneumonia and was admitted to the ICCU. Unfortunately, he passed away today afternoon due to Covid pneumonia. Jawaharlal Nehru had initiated the idea of the government of India bearing the expense of his education. He was my research guide while writing the book titled ‘Pearl by the River: Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdom in Exile’,” Mitra said

The Peerless Hospital CEO, said according to his research, he was “the last royal pension holder”. “In 1892, the British government had created a royal pension book where only the lineage of Birjish and his wife, Mahtab Ara Begum, who was the granddaughter of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last  Mughal Emperor of India, was recognized.

Birjish, who was the only son of Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal, was the eldest surviving son of Wajid Ali Shah when the latter died in 1887. That is why this lineage has been recognized for royal pension,” Mitra said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Kolkata / by Priyanka Dasgupta and Yusra Husain / TNN / September 14th, 2020

‘Piya ka des’: 165 years on, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s legacy lives on in Kolkata

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Awadh, UTTAR PRADESH / Kolkata, WEST BENGAL :

The nawab, who was deposed by the British, came to plead his case with Governor General Lord Charles Canning, only to be imprisoned at Fort William.

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (Photo| Wikimedia Commons)

Kolkata :

Some 165 years ago, in the month of May, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah — the last ruler of Awadh — is believed to have written the now-famous lament “Babul Mora Naihar Chooto Jai…Mein Chali Piya ke Des” (O father, my home I leave behind…I go to my beloved’s land), as he made his way to Kolkata to live the next 31 years of his life in exile.

The nawab, who was deposed by the British, came to plead his case with Governor General Lord Charles Canning, only to be imprisoned at Fort William as the East India Company feared that he may turn into a rallying point for sepoy mutineers during the first war of Indian Independence, which broke out the very next year.

After he was freed two year later, Wajid Ali and many from his court who chose to join him in exile decided to live in his ‘Piya ke Des, gifting a legacy of music, dance, Urdu poetry, fashion and fusion cuisine to the syncretic culture of the metropolis.

“My great, great, grandfather Wajid Ali Shah, who landed here by steamer on May 13, could have chosen to live anywhere after he was freed…but he chose this city. We believe he fell in love with its culture and found remnants of his beloved Lucknow in Metiabruz or Matiaburj where he chose to settle,” said Shahenshah Mirza, 54, a civil servant and a history buff.

The nawab, over the years, built some 18 palaces and the landmark Sibtainabad Imambara in Calcutta, but his descendants live scattered as the British demolished the palazzos on one pretext or the other.

Mirza and his father, 86-year-old Sahebzada Wasif Mirza – the president of the Awadh Royal Family Association — now live in a modest though stately old house at Talbagan Lane, off Dargah Road, in the heart of the eastern metropolis.

“Just 500 of his followers came with him in 1856, but as news spread that he was building a Lucknow-like city within a city, at Metiabruz in Calcutta, many of his nobles, artisans and musicians followed and flourished here,” said Mirza.

Though much of the original mini-city which Wajid Ali built was taken over for Garden Reach shipyards, Metiabruz still exists and is now famous as a garment tailoring hub — reportedly accounting for Rs 15,000 crore worth of textile trade a year — mainly on account of the skilled tailors who came here as part of the Nawab’s entourage.

Wajid Ali, who used the pen name “Akhtarpiya” for his poetry, prose and thumris, was a known patron of arts, and with the destruction of Mughal cities in the aftermath of the 1857 revolt, Kolkata subsequently became the new cultural capital, attracting talent from all over north India.

As time progressed, Bengal’s zamindars and rich ‘bhadraloks’ (gentlemen) enthusiastically developed a taste for the Nawab’s leisure activities ‘mujra’ (music and dance soirees), kite-flying and pigeon games (kabootar baazi). “Even today some 3,000 people are engaged in the business of making kites in this city,” explained Mirza.

The nawab introduced the citys elite to Thumri, Dhrupad and Kathak. “Singers and dancers of the calibre of Bindadin Maharaj, Piyari Sahab, Gauhar Jaan, Malka Jaan, Jauhar Jaan came to settle here…Kolkata opened up to Kathak and thumris,” said well-known Shantiniketan-based musicologist Rantideb Maitra.

This, in later years, influenced the film industry and the dance and music forms became part of the pan-Indian culture.

The song ‘Babul Mora’ itself was popularised by Kolkata-based music director Rai Chand Boral when he got Kundan Lal Saigal to sing it for the movie ‘Street Singer’ in 1938, nearly 80 years after it was written.

“Kathak, though it started as a temple dance, had taken a stylised form under the Mughal patronage. When brought to Kolkata by Wajid Ali, who himself often danced as Krishna, it blossomed into a popular classical dance form,” said Shyam Banerjee, another musicologist and Urdu translator.

However, if the average Kolkatan remembers the Awadh ruler with fondness, it is because of the gastronomic legacy he left behind.

Said Manzilat Fatima, another of Wajid Ali’s descendants from his junior begum, Hazrat Mahal — who led mutineers in Lucknow and eventually escaped to Nepal — “He (Wajid Ali) tried to recreate Lucknow but with a difference…(among other things) his kitchen became an experimental centre for new dishes.”

Fatima (53), who runs the up-market restaurant Manzilat’s explained that experiments led to the inclusion of potato — then a rich man’s exotic vegetable favoured by Europeans — and eggs to Awadh’s Biryani. “New spices, coconut milk, mustard oil, all went into the making of Awadhi dishes and the result was the unique dum-pukht Kokata Biryani, now so popular all over,” she said.

The Nawab also set up a printing press in Metiabruz and came out with a weekly gazette in Urdu, adding to the literary and journalistic tradition of the city, which boasts of being the cradle to some of India’s oldest newspapers.

“We feel he was more popular in the city he chose to make his own than in Lucknow…When the legendary filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, asked my father how he saw Wajid Ali’s legacy, he had explained that it lives on, as is evident from the fact that ‘you chose to make your first Hindi movie – Shatranj ke Khilari – on a novel based on the the Awadh ruler’s life’,” added Mirza.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Kolkata / by PTI / May 23rd, 2021

COVID-19 vaccination: A madrassa in Kasaragod has some lessons to impart

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Thaikkadappuram (Neeleswaram Municipality), KERALA :

Madrassa and the Thaikadappuram Jama-ath Mosque. Photo by R Ayyappan

Since early March, when the vaccination drive began, municipality and health authorities were worried about the crowd in front of Thaikkadappuram Family Health Centre (FHC) along the coast in Kasaragod’s Neeleswaram Municipality. More than 350 people, most of them over 60 years of age and years of age and with comorbidities, came for vaccination daily to the Centre that was only recently elevated to a FHC.

But at that point, when Kerala was gearing up for an intense election campaign, there was a general impression that COVID-19 was on the wane. It was easy to brush aside worries.

However, when the second surge began in the middle of April, old worries returned. When the rains intensified by the second week of May, more space became a necessity.

“Along with those coming for vaccination, there were the regular patients. When it is windy and raining, which was almost always during the last fortnight, we could not let them stand outside. But it was also not right to let these two groups mingle,” said Dr Sarada, the FHC’s medical officer. Most were poor folk from the fishermen community.

Interiors of the madrassa being rearranged for the vaccination drive. Photo from R Ayyappan

Social distancing paradise

She asked the municipality for a place nearby to carry out the vaccination drive so that social distancing could be adhered to effectively. Many places, including an aided school, were identified. But all were slightly distant. “We wanted a place nearer,” Dr Sarada said.

It was then that the Muslim League’s Thaikadappuram Sea Road ward councillor Anwar Sadique suggested a madrassa nearby: Thaikadappuram Jama-ath Nusrath Madrasa of the Thaikkadappuram Jama-Ath Mosque. It is a large two-storeyed structure near a newly constructed beige-coloured mosque with pastel green domes.

Anwar talked to Neeleswaram Municipality chairperson T V Santha and vice-chairman P P Muhammed Rafi, both from the CPM. All three agreed the Nusrath Madrassa, run by the Thaikadappuram Jama-ath Committee, was the right place. It was near and spacious. Importantly, the Jama-ath members were were progressive.

Secular abode

“Last year, they had willingly agreed to convert the ‘madrassa’ into a quarantine centre for migrant labourers and those returning from the Gulf,” Anwar Sadique said. “We did not use it as the need did not arise then,” he said.

This time when they asked, the Jama-ath committee was more than willing. “We did not think twice when the health and municipality officials came to us with the request,” Jama-ath secretary A Mohammed Shafi, a retired postmaster, said. “The children were not coming anyway, of COVID. But even if there were classes, we had more than enough space in the building to accommodate the children,” Shafi said.

The Jama-ath has now left the entire ground floor, over 2000 sq ft, for the vaccination drive. “It is a large space of five classrooms and we have asked them to use all our facilities,” Shafi said. Dr Sarada said that the madrassa had enough room and chairs for people to be seated at a safe distance from each other. “It has a drinking water facility and also parking space,” she said.

The madrassa is also just a five-minute walk from the FHC, diagonally across the road from it. “It is easy to carry supplies from the FHC to the madrassa,” Dr Sarada said.

Thaikadappuram Jama-ath Nusrath Madrassa. Photo from R Ayyappan

Melting pot of faiths

The Jama-ath is particular that its gesture should not be seen as some kind of a favour. “We have told Jama-ath members not to exhibit any behaviour that could even remotely be considered as patronising or dominating. People from all faiths come for vaccination and we want all of them to feel at home here,” secretary Shafi said. “Moreover, there is nothing more holy than this. It is our duty. It does not cost us any money either,” he said.

The Jama-ath members were also not comfortable with a public function to mark the handing over of the ‘madrassa’ for the vaccination drive. “We didn’t want such a function but the municipality authorities lovingly insisted,” Shafi said. A small function, with municipal councillors and health workers in attendance, was held on May 25.

The Nusrath Madrassa will be used for the first time on May 29, when the FHC has scheduled 300 shots. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, during his customary sunset briefing on May 27, spoke of the Thaikadappuram model as an example of religious generosity.

source: http://www.onmanorama.com / OnManorama / Home> News> Kerala / by Ayyappan R / May 28th, 2021

Techie turns saviour, sets up helpline for Covid patients

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As many as six graduates have volunteered to work with the MHV, attending calls and assisting the needy.

Vijayapura (Bijapur), KARNATAKA :

For representational purposes

Vijayapura :

A 33-year-old techie from Vijayapura has set up a 24X7 helpline to assist Covid-19 patients in finding beds, oxygen cylinders and medicines. Zahoor Kazi, who works as a software engineer at a private firm in Bengaluru, started ‘Mercy Helpline Vijayapura’ (MHV) on May 14 in collaboration with doctors, activists and other software engineers.

As many as 10 doctors, settled abroad (the USA, the UK and the Middle East) and in the state, have agreed to provide free tele-consultation to the patients, mainly for those in home isolation.As many as six graduates have volunteered to work with the MHV, attending calls and assisting the needy. The team has set up a helpline number — 7848025025.

The MHV works round-the-clock and, on an average, receives 30 calls each day from Vijayapura, Bagalkot and Belagavi. It also collaborates with at least five NGOs that help people by supporting them financially in paying hospital bills, supplying grocery kits, cremating unclaimed bodies of Covid victims and other help related to Covid and black fungus.

Speaking to TNIE, Zahroor Kazi, said, “Our main objective is to help the needy in such tough times. We are working in coordination with district officials. We are also creating awareness on Covid-19.” The MHV has so far helped at least 15 patients in getting oxygen beds and about 10 people in getting ventilators. Also, 10 patients have availed the free tele-consultation services.

“Most people who call us are from urban areas. We want to reach out to those in villages too as they have limited knowledge of the disease. Now, frequency of calls to MHV has reduced owing to a dip in cases,” Kazi added.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Mahesh M Goudar / Express News Service / May 29th, 2021 

With hijab around her head, this Kerala Muslim girl has conquered Kalaripayattu

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When Arifa Kodiyil, a Muslim woman started learning Kalaripayattu at the age of five, it raised many eyebrows. Now, the five-time-national champion is an example to strong women who fight their ground.

Mallapuram, KERALA :

Arifa can effortlessly handle many weapons including, Urumi, Vaal and Paricha, katara (dagger), kathi, kuntham (spear), kuruvadi (blunt wood stick) and neduvadi.

Kochi : 

Kalaripayattu, the traditional martial art form that originated in Kerala, has always been a man’s game. But veteran Kalari trainer, Hamzathali Gurukkal brought a change to this custom when he decided to introduce his five-year-old granddaughter Arifa Kodiyil to the artform. The Malapuram-native didn’t have a good start. A Muslim girl learning Kalari did raise many eyebrows. 

Having turned 26 recently, hijab-clad Arifa slays her competitors, flashing her urumi with all might, following the footsteps of legendary warrior Arackkal Ayesha. “Growing up, I used to watch the men in my family practice and teach Kalari. I used to think everyone needed to learn Kalaripayattu. At the age of five, seeing my interest in the art form, my uppuppa decided to train me,” says Arifa. 

Road less taken
This five-time national champion was the first girl from Malapuram to master the art form. “Since I didn’t have any women to practice with, my brother Ashif used to spar with me. At most competitions too, I was the only girl, or rather, the only Muslim who represented Malapuram back in the day,” says Arifa. 

After the demise of Gurukkal Hamzathali, his son K M Haneefa Gurukkal runs the Hamzathali Gurukkal Smaraka Kalari. “When Arifa was introduced to Kalari lessons, many people from the community asked us to not let her perform on stage, that Kalari is not ideal for a woman to practice. We, as a family never paid heed to those words. We always asked our kids not to get bogged down by the comments,” says Haneefa. 

The ones who pointed fingers soon clapped for the family when they realised the importance of self-defence techniques. “We are living in a time when both genders need to know how to protect themselves. More parents have started sending kids in the age of four to our centre,” adds Haneefa.

 

A woman’s game
Arifa believes it is essential for women to learn martial arts. “In the women-only batch, around 50 girls are being trained at the gurukulam by my father, sister Anshifa, and me,” says Arifa.

Arifa claims that if you know the right moves, a woman can use anything — bag, umbrella, pen or purse — to protect herself. “After undergoing training in ‘Drishti’ a woman will be able to intimidate an attacker or an eve teaser with just a sharp gaze,” says Arifa. 

Arifa can effortlessly handle many weapons including, Urumi, Vaal and Paricha, katara (dagger), kathi, kuntham (spear), kuruvadi (blunt wood stick) and neduvadi. Kalaripayattu trainees can wield weapons only after gaining several years of practice in Meytaari, the first step of training which focuses on grip. 

Eyes Forward
Arifa, an optometry graduate is now living with her spouse in Chekkannor, Palakkad. Her sister, 21-year-old Ashifa, manages the women’s batch. Arifa steps in during special classes and competitions. “My students bagged gold at the recent state competition held in Thiruvananthapuram. Due to Covid, classes are being now conducted online. The training for the upcoming national event is underway,” said Arifa.  

The Central Government’s decision to include Kalaripayattu in the Khelo India Youth Games will benefit many students, says Arifa “It will be a major boost to Kerala’s centuries-old art form. A few of my students have secured scholarships as well,” says Haneefa.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Mahima Anna Jacob, Express News Service / May 29th, 2021

Bihar vegetable hawker turns Samaritan, distributes free masks, hand sanitizers to the poor, labourers

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The 41-year-old, Akhbar Ali, distributes them from the very cart on which he sells vegetables from early morning to 10 am daily. 

Bagaha (West Champaran District) , BIHAR :

41-year-old, Bihar vegetable hawker, Akhbar Ali, istributes facemasks and hand sanitizers for free among the poor people and labourers (Photo | EPS)

Patna :

A vegetable hawker now turned humanity-server now distributes facemasks and hand sanitizers for free among the poor people and labourers at Bagaha,  in Bihar’s West Champaran district.

He was moved from within at the sight of a poor man picking up a used face mask that was dumped at a roadside.

The 41-year-old, Akhbar Ali, distributes them from the very cart on which he sells vegetables from early morning to 10 am daily. 

“I called that man and asked why he had been picking up the mask. He told me for wearing on his face as he wanted to live in this world safely from Corona. And his this line moved me so much that I decided to distribute free masks and sanitizer from my cart among the poor people and labourers”, Ali said. The next day he went to the market, bought facemasks and hand sanitizers and started roaming with the items on his hand-pulled cart across the market. 

“I used to go where the migrant labourers came to work and the poor people lived in the town daily after 11 am to evening. Wherever I see the poor people without facemasks, I offer them free of cost and advise them to wear it for safety:” he said. 

He sells masks and other Corona safety-related items to people who can afford to pay for them but gives them away for free to poor people and labourers. 

He said that 50% of the total income he earns from vending vegetables is utilised for purchasing masks and sanitizers for poor people. Ali is simply only able to write and read his name but he said: “In the earning a human-being, both the country and the poor people have equal natural share and one must dedicate the share of ‘watan’ and ‘garib’ as an act of prayer to Allah”, he said. 

He has Hindi signs on display at his cart. One saying “Yahan free masks garibo aur majduro ko milta hai’ (“Here mask free of cost is given to poor and the labourers”) and some others with messages in Hindi asking people to maintain social distancing. 

“From vegetable hawker to humanity server, Ali has become here a name among the destitute and poor people, who seek face masks from him free”, Munna Kumar, a labourer, who was given a pair mask recently said. 

Ali estimates that till date more than 10,000 masks and sanitizers from his earning have been distributed among the poor people and the labourers at Bagaha. 

“Now, I sell vegetables till 10 am and thereafter go out with cart carrying masks and sanitizers to the poor people in the town”, he said. 
 
“Wherever I saw a poor man even on a bus without mask, I run towards him with a mask to give. I will keep serving the poor people-‘garib’ (poor) and “majduro” (labourers) till the corona continues”, he said.

 He has been doing it silently with a line of Mahatma Gandhi “the greatness of humanity is not being human but is being humane’

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Nation / by Rajesh Kumar Thakur, Express News Service / May 29th, 2021

The last Begum of Bhopal: How Begum Sultan Jahan fought patriarchy and educated a generation of women

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Bhopal, MADHYA PRADESH :

Born in 1858, Begum Sultan Jahan ascended the throne in 1901. While she was the fourth female ruler of Bhopal, she is credited with many firsts. She was known for ruling in the present with her eyes set on the future. Her progressive policies for women, at a time when they were shackled by the forces of patriarchy, have made her a feminist icon even today.

Begum Sultan Jahan was a pioneer in the field of education and even authored a book, Dars-e-Hayat, about the education and parenting of young girls.

Nearly a century ago, when the term feminism was not yet part of common parlance, the princely estate of Bhopal was run by a line of powerful women. In the absence of male successors, they initiated a matrilineal reign from 1819, which continued till 1926. These rulers are often referred to as the Begums of Bhopal.

During this era, they ruled with authority, dignity and bold reforms — disrupting the patriarchal system that had been laid down centuries before them.

The last Begum of Bhopal was Begum Sultan Jahan. She ruled from 1909 to 1926 after which she stepped down and was succeeded by her son.

Begum Sultan Jahan died on May 12, 1930 at the age of 71. She was known for ruling in the present with her eyes set on the future. Her progressive policies for women, at a time when they were shackled by the forces of patriarchy, have made her a feminist icon even today.

Apart from being a philanthropist and prolific writer, she was a symbol of women empowerment, known for taking up the cause of female education. She was the first female Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, which she had nurtured during its nascent stage, when it was still known as the Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College.

In a time when it was rare for women to venture out due to a strict purdah system, she famously constructed a Meeting Hall for Ladies in Lahore.

But above all, Begum Sultan Jahan was an astute ruler who restored the glory of her estate.

It is hard to find a female ruler who authored over 40 books, designed school curriculum, founded women’s clubs, travelled to Europe, met British officials with authority, funded almost all major institutions — both in the country as well as one in Saudi Arabia — and even headed a University as its first female Chancellor.

Interestingly, film actress Sharmila Tagore is the granddaughter-in-law of Nawab Hamid Ullah Khan, the youngest son of Begum Sultan Jahan.

Begum Sultan Jahan, the ruler of Bhopal

Born in 1858, Begum Sultan Jahan ascended the throne in 1901. While she was the fourth female ruler of Bhopal, she is credited with many firsts.

She was not one to stand on the sidelines. An incident from the early days of her regime is often cited to highlight her penchant for ruling from the front. When she took over as Queen, there was only Rs 40,000 in the treasury which was not enough to even pay the salary of her employees. Begum Sultan Jahan decided to tour her kingdom and interact with the village folk. After learning their concerns, she set up the municipality system and even introduced municipal elections.

She also constructed a walled city and a palace for herself. She took steps for improving public health, sanitation, and water supply in the walled city and implemented widespread vaccination drives for its residents.

Apart from being a philanthropist and prolific writer, she was a symbol of women empowerment, known for taking up the cause of female education.

Recognising that women needed a space exclusively for them to assemble and discuss ideas, she laid the foundation stone for a meeting hall in Lahore in 1913.

To encourage women and promote handicrafts, she organised an exhibition called ‘Numaish Masunuaat e Hind’ in Bhopal, where she displayed her own creations. Queens from other kingdoms, such as Gwalior, Jhanjhar, Sultanpur, Narsinghgarh and Gulburgah also participated and displayed their handiwork.

Begum Sultan Jahan as an educationist

She was a pioneer in the field of education and even authored a book, Dars-e-Hayat, about the education and parenting of young girls. There was a time when almost every city of the country had one or more educational institutes for girls which were funded by Begum Sultan Jahan.

To encourage parents to educate their daughters, she set up several schools. However, most initially resisted the idea, as at the time it was considered socially acceptable to teach their daughters at home.

Undeterred, she started the Sultania School and also improved the condition of two existing schools — Madarsa Bilqisia and Madarsa Victoria. She even revamped the syllabus and added subjects such as English, Urdu, Arithmetic, Home Science and crafts. These schools were meant for underprivileged children and hence their expenses were borne by the Bhopal estate. Even in those times, she got the Madarsa Sultania affiliated to the Allahabad Board. This Madarsa was well equipped and even had an ambulance and sections for medicine and nursing. Later she also started a nursing school called Lady Minto Nursing School.

Begum Sultan Jahan did not solely focus on uplifting Muslim girls. She famously founded the Barjeesiya Kanya Paathshala’ and even instituted a scholarship for the underprivileged students of Jain Shwetambar Paathshala.

Despite being a small princely estate, Bhopal had an education budget of one lakh rupees. The educational institutions she supported were not confined to Aligarh alone. She was also funding a Madarsa in Deoband, Nadwatul Uloom in Lucknow and even Madarsa Sultania in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Institutions such as Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi and some renowned colleges in Bombay (now Mumbai), and Calcutta (now Kolkata) received generous grants from her.

Begum Sultan Jahan established the Ladies Club in Bhopal with the aim of involving more women in her mission. She addressed the functions of the Ladies Club. Later, she even organised an event under the aegis of All India Women Association in Sadar Bhopal and established the Sultan Jahan Endowment Trust with a corpus of Rs three lakhs for helping needy students.

Begum Sultan Jahan also went as far as encouraging the rulers of other princely states to promote education. Even Lord Harding praised her efforts.

She authored 41 books, many of which were distributed for free. She also translated a number of English books into Urdu.

Begum Sultan Jahan and AMU

Around that time, more than 600 kilometres away from Bhopal, in the province of Uttar Pradesh, the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College was taking shape in Aligarh.

In 1910, while returning from Mussoorie, she stayed in Aligarh for the first time. During her visit, she donated Rs 50,000 for the construction of the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference, which still exists today and is known as Sultan Jahan Manzil.

A monthly grant of Rs 100 was sanctioned by her for the girls school started in Aligarh by Sheikh Abdullah, which is now known as the Women’s College of AMU. She designed the syllabus herself and offered it to the school authorities. It was done at a time when there was a paucity of funds and women ’s education had taken a backseat. Later, when MAO College became AMU, she was named its first Chancellor.

During AMU’s centenary celebrations on December 22, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Begum Jahan and her contribution to the historic institution — “The AMU has the rare distinction that Begum Sultan Jahan took over the responsibility of its founder chancellor. How daunting it would have been one hundred years ago!”

In 1910, she stayed in Aligarh for the first time. During her visit, she donated Rs 50,000 for the construction of the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference, which still exists today and is known as Sultan Jahan Manzil.

As Chancellor of the AMU, she addressed its first-ever convocation ceremony in 1922 amidst renowned scholars from across the country. She also arranged cars and lodging for 175 persons during the jubilee ceremony of the University. Begum Sultan Jahan visited Aligarh seven times, with her last visit being in 1929.

Her speech during the foundation stone laying ceremony of Sultania Boarding House in Women’s College reflects her vision. She said, “Today is the beginning of a new era in the history of Muslims. And, whenever, in the coming time, the history of this era is recorded, today’s programme will be remembered as one of its brightest chapters.”

Her prophecy came true. The school patronised by Begum Sultan Jahan has grown into a college drawing over 3,095 female students from across the country and overseas enrolled in 34 courses taught by 107 faculty members.

The women’s college attracts international students from more than 20 countries including, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia, Iran, UAE, Iraq, Yemen, Bangladesh, Libya, Nepal, Syria among others.

The Nasrullah Hostel for Boys in AMU, too, was constructed with her support. It is often said that whenever AMU needed help, Begum Sultan Jahan of Bhopal Estate was among the first to step up.

Following in her footsteps, her son Hamidullah Khan, who studied in Aligarh, founded a Science College in the city, and donated Rs two lakh to it.

(Nasir is Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Aligarh Muslim University; Fareed is Media Advisor, AMU)

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle> Art & Culture / by Faisal Fareed & Mohammad Nasir (Aligarh, UP) / May 27th, 2021

Why the victory of Ashraful Hussain in Assam is poetic justice

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ASSAM :

The young poet represents an unapologetic Miya voice, one that the state’s new chief minister has described as a threat to Assamese identity and culture.

Ashraful Hussain (Twitter/Ashraful Hussain)

In an act of poetic justice, the people of Chenga, a constituency in lower Assam, have sent AIUDF’s Ashraful Hussain, a young Miya poet, as their representative to the newly elected Assam assembly. He is only one of 126 MLAs but the significance of his presence is that he represents an unapologetic Miya voice — one that the state’s new chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has declared as a threat to the Assamese identity and culture.

It has been said that the organisational skills of Sarma forced the BJP to prefer him as the new chief minister over the outgoing one but his brazen anti-Muslim and anti-Miya stance in the last five years can be a reason as well. He has openly said that his party did not want votes of the Miya Muslim community and that he wanted another NRC to identify these “outsiders”.

Ashraful Hussain’s victory has to be understood in this context. The word “Miya” is a slur used to describe Muslims who migrated from East Bengal to Assam over several decades, starting from the 19th century, and who live on the Char Chaporis (shifting riverine islands) of Assam. But Ashraful and his fellow poets have reclaimed it and turned it into a badge of honour. A poem written in 2016 by Hafiz Ahmed, the president of the Char Chapori Sahitya Parishad, took Assam by storm and inspired fellow poets. He wrote, “Write down/I am a Miya/My serial number in the NRC is 200543/I have two children/Another is coming/Next summer. /Will you hate him/As you hate me?”

Younger voices like Ashraful Hussain found courage in these plain words of their elder. “Who are they? Why can’t they be allowed to speak and sing the way they do? Ashraful writes: “And though I was born in Assam and pride in/Calling myself an Assamese/The language doesn’t slide down my tongue/My father wears a blue-checked lungi/My mother wears a saree/My sister wears mekhela or churidar/And me, brother, I wear jeans pants.”

For this audacity to make themselves visible and lay a claim for a space in Assam’s cultural landscape, the Miya poets had to pay a price. In 2019, FIRs were lodged against them and they had to go into hiding. I recall a meeting at the Press Club in Delhi organised by the writers of Delhi in their support. Ashraful was supposed to read his poems there but he could not come.

These were the charges against them: The Miya poets were writing in an artificial language, there was nothing like a Miya dialect and they were fracturing the Assamese identity. The truth was that the Miya poets had broken the myth of one single Assamese voice. The people of the Char Chapori use dialects of Mymensingh, Pabna, Tangail, and Dhaka, regions now in Bangladesh, with the influence of Assamese as well as other local languages of Assam.

The question before the people Ashraful calls “choruwa, bhatiya, immigrant shaykh, neo-Asomiya, Mymensinghia” in one of his poems was to describe themselves. Who are they?

Shalim Hussain, a Miya poet, asked, “So what do we call ourselves then? If and only if it is impossible for us to be known simply as Indians or Assamese let us be called ‘Miya’. The difference between Miya and Bangladeshi must be clearly demarcated.” He explained, “… in Assam Miya is a derogatory term used for a specific community — Assamese Muslims of Bengal origin. ‘Miya’ is a matrix within which fall descendants of people who migrated from Tangail, Pabna, Mymensingh, Dhaka, and other districts of present-day Bangladesh. However, there is a class angle to the equation too. An educated Bengal-origin Assamese Muslim who also speaks Assamese might be able to camouflage his ‘Miyaness’. Since I am university educated and speak decent Assamese, I might not be called a Miya, at least until I make it explicit. My cousin, on the other hand, who drives a cycle-rickshaw in Guwahati, will always be one. My class privilege might protect me from the feelings of disgust reserved for my cousin.”

So, it was not for a literary career but to identify with their lesser privileged brothers, who have to face this slur daily, that Ashraful and his colleagues decided to call their poetry Miya poetry.

Ashraful is a soft-spoken, shy person but he has with great grit and determination stood for those who are threatened by the process of the NRC. His poetry gave voice to his people but in the real world of democracy, they needed representation where it mattered. So, he decided to go to his people and ask them, “If he sings for them, can he also be given the authority to speak for them as their representative?” The people of Chenga overwhelmed him with their mandate. A greenhorn in politics, he defeated AGP’s Rabiul Hussain and Sukur Ali Ahmed, a longtime sitting Congress MLA, by more than 50,000 votes.

In the assembly, he will take oath as the representative of his people after the man who wants them disenfranchised takes oath as the Chief Minister. Ashraful Hussain will have the company of his poetry to respond to the violent politics of erasure: “I have grown a bud and two leaves on my hands/I have learnt to write two lines/I have learnt to open my mouth and say/… In the name of my mother who died/In a detention camp, I swear/That this voice in my throat will grow louder/And some day rustle the folds in your ears. /I swear sir, I swear by my dead mother.”

Let us thank the people of Chenga and celebrate this vote for Miya poetry.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Opinion> Columns / by Apoorvanand / May 13th, 2021

Kerala ambulance staff praised for saving lives of mother and newborn

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, FREE : Healthcare / Assistance, Transport, Useful / HEALTHCARE, ,

KERALA :

Health Minister Veena George applauded the efforts of Ajeesh and Noufal in the middle of a raging pandemic, terming them a model for the state’s health department.

At 2:15 am, under the duo’s guidance, Kausalya gave birth to a boy inside the car without any major complications. (Photo Credit: Kerala health department)

An emergency medical technician (EMT) and an ambulance pilot came in for praise from Kerala Health Minister Veena George for their timely intervention in assisting a pregnant woman deliver her child in a car enroute the hospital.

Around 1:55 am on Tuesday, the family of Kausalya (20), a resident of Koviloor in Idukki district, set out for a hospital in a car after she developed intense labour pain. On the way, they requested for an ambulance of the Kanivu 108 network and a vehicle from the Vattavada Family Health centre with EMT BS Ajeesh and pilot Noufal Khan rushed out.

Somewhere near the Pampadum Shola National Park, the ambulance staff met Kausalya and her family. But by then, her condition had turned critical. When Ajeesh examined her, it became clear to him that she could not be transferred to the ambulance before delivering her child. Ajeesh, with the help of Noufal, then proceeded to make arrangements inside the car for childbirth.

At 2:15 am, under the duo’s guidance, Kausalya gave birth to a boy inside the car without any major complications. The mother and newborn were then transferred to the ambulance and ferried to High Range Hospital in Munnar and subsequently a private hospital in Adimali. Both mother and child are reported to be healthy.

Health Minister Veena George applauded the efforts of Ajeesh and Noufal in the middle of a raging pandemic , terming them a model for the state’s health department.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> India>Kerala / by Express Web Desk, Kochi / May 25th, 2021

Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, Founder Of Al-Ameen Educational Society Passes Away At 86

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Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :

Renowned educationist, founder of Al-Ameen Educational Society and Daily Salar newspaper, and former Pro-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan passed away Thursday evening in Bengaluru. He is survived by his wife, one son, and two daughters. He was 86.

Widely referred to as ‘Baba-e-Taalim’, Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan founded the Al-Ameen Educational Society in 1966. The Al-Ameen group of Institutions now number more than 200 in Karnataka and all over the country. In Bengaluru, the Al-Ameen institution has various colleges catering to varied streams from pre-university, degree, post-graduation Institute of Management, College of Pharmacy, and Law College to the Al-Ameen College of Education.

Born on 6 September 1935 in Trichy in Tamil Nadu, Dr Khan did his MBBS at Madras University, Chennai in 1963. After getting married he continued his postgraduate studies, M.S. specializing in surgery at Stanley Medical College, Chennai. He moved to Bengaluru in 1965.

In 1966 at the age of 31, he started the Al-Ameen Educational Society also sometimes referred to as the Al-Ameen Movement, which was a pioneering effort to impart education, especially within the state’s Muslim community.

Dr Khan was one of the founders, trustees of ‘Salar’, an Urdu daily newspaper from Bengaluru since 1964; he was also Pro-Chancellor/Treasurer of Aligarh Muslim University.

He is a recipient of several awards like Karnataka Rajyothsava award (1990), Kempegowda Award, Junior Jayees Award and Public Relation Society of India Award.

‘Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan Award’ given every year in recognition of exemplary services by members of the community is named after him.

source: http://www.thecognate.com / The Cognate / Home> News / by Shaik Zakeer Hussain / May 28th, 2021