Eight minarets of Hamid Manzil, a magnificent building that houses the world’s famous Rampur Raza Library located some 200 kilometers from New Delhi, is a great symbol of pluralism in India.
The first part of the library minaret at the bottom is built in the shape of a Mosque; the part just above this resembles a Church, the third part reflects the architectural design of a Sikh Gurudwara, and the top-most part is built in the shape of a Hindu temple.
The religious symbols
This spirit of inclusiveness promoted in the princely State early on continues to inspire the people of this Uttar Pradesh district to live in harmony.
Rampur also famous for the Rampuri Chaku (knife), is one of the few princely states in India where no major communal riots or disturbances ever took place during the British colonial era or in the years afterward.
What makes the symbolism of the building remarkable is that it was constructed between 1902-05 much before India got its Independence and the nawabs were in the power of the 15-gun salute Princely State. They consciously chose to keep the sequence of symbolism with a secular spirit.
The unique architecture of the library building tells a long story about the nature and politics of the erstwhile Rampur Princely state. The interior of the building is also inspired by European architecture. The architect of the building was French architect W.C. Wright, who made the structure on the instructions given by Nawab Hamid Ali Khan.
The interiors of the library
The Nawabs of Rampur were Rohilas, who had their origin in Roh, Afghanistan, and were renowned for their secular and liberal outlook. They patronized the arts, culture, and education, and were known for their love of music, poetry, and architecture. They also promoted social and religious harmony by patronizing scholars and religious leaders from all faiths, including Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. Raza library continues to be one of the most important cultural institutions in India and houses a vast collection of rare manuscripts, books, and other artifacts.
The library is now managed by the Government of Uttar Pradesh but remains closely associated with the Nawab family. Its minarets capture the true soul of the syncretic traditions of India. The Rampur Raza Library collection was started by Nawab Faizullah Khan in 1774. But the building came up much later.
The library initially had the personal book collection of Nawabs of Rampur who were patrons of the arts and avid collectors of books and manuscripts. Over the decades, the library has grown to become one of the largest collections of rare books and manuscripts in the country.
The library houses a vast collection of 17,000 manuscripts, including 150 illustrated ones with 4413 illustrations and about 83,000 printed books besides 5,000 miniature paintings in albums, 3000 specimens of calligraphy, and 205 palm leaves. Many rare and valuable texts are in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, and other languages. The collection includes works on a wide range of subjects, including history, philosophy, science, literature, and religion.
The Raza Library is also home to several rare artifacts, including miniature paintings, coins, and other objects of historical and cultural significance. The library has a conservation lab that works to preserve these artifacts and ensure that they are protected for future generations. Nawab Murad Ali Khan, the son of the last nawab Murtaza Ali Khan has been on the board of the library management. His brother Nawab Kazim Ali Khan was also involved.
He has been MLA for five straight terms from the Suar constituency. He has twice been a Minister in Samajwadi as well as the Bahujan Samaj Party Government of Uttar Pradesh. He has continued the legacy of his ancestors in furthering a tolerant and secular culture in his region. Maulana Azad was the first MP from Rampur, who also became the first education minister of independent India. The Nawabs of Rampur were particularly famous for their patronage of Urdu poetry and music.
The general view of the library
Nawab Yousuf Ali Khan learnt poetry from Mirza Ghalib, who had been employed by his court. The nawabs were avid collectors of musical instruments, and many famous musicians and singers, including Ustad Allauddin Khan and Ustad Faiyaz Khan, were associated with the Rampur court.
The Rampur-Sahaswan gharana of classical music is named after the princely state and continues to be popular among music enthusiasts in India. Even though Rampur was a predominantly Muslim state, the Nawabs encouraged the development of Hindu temples and other places of worship for non-Muslims.
They also supported interfaith marriages and were known for their efforts to bridge the gap between different communities in their state. Rampur Raza Library is today one of the biggest symbols of India’s syncretic heritage and continues to attract visitors from across the world.
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Stories / by ATV / Posted by Shaista Fatima / February 22nd, 2023
A museum in Bhatkal is a treasure trove of Nawaiti culture and heritage.
Ajaib Shabbir with a writing desk which also acts as a jewel box | Subhash Chandra NS
Bhatkal (Uttara Kannada):
There stands a heritage building in Bhatkal. This 150-year-old edifice is home to a very unique museum. Within its halls is a trove of artefacts, which visitors want to touch and feel. But Ajaib Shabbir stands guard with his eyes roving around, warning people against doing so. “Do not touch anything! Just look at them,” he repeats every now and then, concerned about the safety of the property. In the museum is the collection of a community’s culture, that of the Nawaitis.
The old house — a unique Nawaiti museum — was opened by the Navayathi Mehfil. On entering, visitors are greeted by a replica of an old boat with a mast. On entering another room, there are old brass, porcelain, and other artefacts made of tin and iron. Just below the high-beam lamps, hang at least two dozen lanterns collected over a hundred years.
“These have been collected from various people in Bhatkal, who have preserved them like treasure. I requested them that these be displayed in a museum and they obliged. Many families like those of Damudi Abdulla and Saeed Shoupa, and others, donated their collections. A few even lent them,” says Shabbir, whose brainchild is this museum.
Pointing out to some of the lanterns, he says these were our means of lighting before the advent of electricity in Bhatkal, sometime in the 1960s. Then turning to a visitor, he describes a writing desk nearby, saying, “This would act as a writing desk and a jewellery box. It’s a 100-year-old design. You can hide your valuables and lock it, and then cover it with materials for writing to use as a desk.”
Moving on, there are areca cutters, hookahs, and coconut graters in designer brass, which look like they are from another era. Explains Shabbir: “The use of these tools in households stopped several decades ago… Maybe when I was a child. These are all very valuable.”
The porcelain products displayed at the museum are among his most valued possessions, and he reminisces how his forefathers collected them from various places. Lifting one of the exhibits, he says, “This plate is from Holland. It was in the possession of a family here.” He adds, “We have materials from Italy, Yemen, England and other European countries, contributed by various families. We are all proud of them,” he says.
Large copper pots, both carved and uncarved, pans, kettles and other products are displayed too. The latest exhibit to join the collection is about 50-years-old, while the oldest is at least 150 years. “We do not look at our exhibits as old articles. They are aimed at explaining how we lived in our past, and the place we came from. That’s why we placed a replica of the ship in which legendary historian Ibn Batuta came to Bhatkal. We consider him as our pioneer,” said businessman and philanthropist Jaan Abdul Rehman Motisham.
Replicas of several old mosques have also been highlighted in the museum. One of the mosques, said to be the second oldest in the country, has undergone several changes except to crucial parts inside, and in its dome.
“These are some replicas of old mosques, how they were in the days gone by,” he says, adding that this museum is a symbol of co-existence as both Muslim and Jain communities have been living in harmony here. Likewise, the Basti constructed by Chennabhaira Devi, the queen of Gerusoppa, is a living holy spot where the devout come and worship.
Preserving culture
The Navayathi Mehfil, which began the museum, came into existence 20 years ago, with an aim to preserve Nawaiti culture, language and social life. The language spoken by the community is a unique mix of Marathi, Urdu and Konkani.
Communal harmony
Nawaitis share a special bond with the Jain community, and both have coexisted in Bhatkal for centuries. According to studies, Nawaitis claim that they have a 1,400-year-old culture. Accordingly, they came with horses for trade and immediately liked Betkal (the name for ancient Bhatkal), the place where they landed. According to Ajaib Shabbir, their culture matches with Yemenis, Arabs and Jains. They consider Ibn Batuta, the great traveller who visited the court of the Vijayanagara Rayas, as their pioneer.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Subhash Chandra NS / Express News Service / February 05th, 2023
Sikander Mirza Changezi, Founding Member of Shah Waliullah Public Library, showing the Diwan [book] of the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Diwan-e-Zafar. Photo: Video Screengrab.
Located in a narrow lane in front of Jama Masjid, Old Delhi, Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library is home to around 25,000 books including rare works in Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Arabic and English.
When the area witnessed communal riots in 1987, a group of young individuals formed the Delhi Youth Welfare Association (DYWA) in Shahjahanabad – today’s Old Delhi, to help people with food and medicines.
With time, the group started expanding its activities to education and opened a library in 1994. This library was named after the revered Islamic scholar, Hazrat Shah Waliullah, who was a Muslim reformist in 18th century India.
Reporter, Camera & Edit: Oohini Mukherjee, Zeeshan Kaskar.
Special thanks: Taqi Mohammed, Mohammad Naeem, Sikander Mirza Changezi.
source: http://www.himalmag.com / Himal, South Asian / Home> Culture> India> Video / by Oohini Mukherjee and Zeeshan Kaskar / October 04th, 2022
The Awami Idara continues to be a welcoming, convivial space for local readers. Photo courtesy: Gautam Sharma
The Awami Idara, rooted in a working-class Muslim neighbourhood, connects the long history of Southasian Muslim labour activism to political movements and events across Mumbai, Southasia and beyond.
Upon entering the Awami Idara (People’s Institution) library in the summer of 2022, I first met the older members of the library peering over their newspapers. Having visited many other Urdu libraries dotted across India, I did not find the welcoming elderly newspaper readers surprising. More unusual, however, was a small but imposing bust of Vladimir Lenin perched above them all, and a hammer and sickle. The iconography reflected the library’s Marxist leanings, and its historical connections with the Soviet Union and transregional leftist movements. This history sharply distinguishes what is by reputation Mumbai’s largest Urdu library from many other Urdu collections in India.
Indeed, the distinctive mission and history of the Awami Idara are apparent from the moment one enters the library. Open from 6 to 10 pm, the library’s hours reflect its historically intended audience – labourers who worked at mills and factories during the day and read and gathered in the evenings. The library is located near the centre of a residential, working-class Muslim neighbourhood in Mominpura, Mumbai. Founded in 1952, it is surrounded by both homes and small-scale mills and factories, and seems designed not to impress visitors but to provide a welcoming, convivial space for local readers. While many readers visit the library to read newspapers or socialise, the walls are lined with thousands of Urdu books which, according to the library’s internal catalogue, are shelved in a strict numerical fashion and bound in uniform yellow covers.
The library for Muslim mill workers continues to survive in an era of right-wing Hindu nationalism. Photo courtesy: Amanda Lanzillo
In recent years, several newspaper and media reports have celebrated the unique and unusual nature of the Awami Idara, particularly the fact that a leftist library aimed at Muslim mill workers continues to survive and adapt in an era where right-wing Hindu nationalism flourishes. Others focus on the shifting religious ideologies evident in the surrounding neighbourhood, expressing surprise at the lack of conflict between Muslim movements claiming religious orthodoxy – most notably local proponents of the Ahl-i Hadith movement – and the left-leaning library. The fact that the largest and oldest Urdu library in Mumbai is a leftist organisation that once boasted strong ties with the USSR does sometimes seem incongruous in today’s political environment.
The Awami Idara is part of a long history of Southasian Muslim labour activism and an often-overlooked Indian Muslim left, rooted in the mills and factories of cities like Mumbai. The yellow-bound volumes lining the walls of the library hold wider histories, connecting the mill worker-readers of the Awami Idara to both local and transregional histories of the left.
Working-class readers
The Awami Idara and its collections force us to question our assumptions about how Muslim workers conceptualised their communities, neighborhoods and social and political connections. As the historian Arun Kumar argues, labourers’ efforts to avail themselves of night libraries – like the Awami Idara – and night schools in urban India from the early twentieth century more broadly belie our assumptions about labourers’ presumed illiteracy and lack of interest in education.
Many of the materials held by the Awami Idara – particularly those collected by the library in its early years, in the 1950s and 1960s – address readers as labourers, emphasising a reader’s identity as a mazdoor (worker). During my visits in May and June 2022, among the first texts to catch my eye was a volume titled Mashīn aur mazdoor (The machine and the worker). First published in 1941, and updated in 1946, it reflects regional debates about the role of the working class in the years immediately preceding independence and Partition, and its presence in the Awami Idara suggests the continued relevance of these debates in the post-Partition India of the 1950s.
” Founded in 1952, it is surrounded by both homes and small-scale mills and factories, and seems designed not to impress visitors but to provide a welcoming, convivial space for local readers.“
Published in Lahore, Mashīn aur mazdoor was authored by Abdul Bari Alig, often remembered today as an early mentor and teacher of Saadat Hasan Manto, and about whom Manto authored a notable biographical sketch. Bari was also the proprietor of several leftist newspapers in Punjab, and his writing ranged from a biography of Karl Marx and translation of his works to a history of Islamic civilisation and a treatise on the French Revolution, as well as a 450-page account of the rise of the British East India Company.
In Mashīn aur mazdoor, Bari suggests that workers might engage with “changing means of production” wrought by the industrial revolution and the rise of machines to shift the “distribution of power and ownership.” The text also highlights the contribution of Indian labour movements to the freedom struggle, and imagines new roles for Indian workers in the wake of British control. Bari maintaines that “socialism and communism are gaining ground in the political debates of India today. The working class of India is realising its political and economic importance.” For readers at the Awami Idara, the text suggests that labourers shaped the Indian past, and calls on them to exert political influence in a post-colonial, industrial and independent state.
The Awami Idara in historical context
Like many texts held in the Awami Idara, Bari’s Mashīn aur mazdoor suggested that Indian labourers sought to understand their own positionality in regional economic and political events and movements. Far from being illiterate or uneducated about their economic and social experiences, readers at the Awami Idara likely found, within the walls of the library, written polemics and debates that they used to make sense of their own experiences as both workers and political actors.
” Across the subcontinent, readers and writers from a wide range of religious communities continued to engage with Urdu.“
As a library and physical centre of workers’ intellectual culture, the Awami Idara was unique in Mumbai, and reflected the consolidating social influence of leftist organisations in the city’s working-class neighbourhoods in the 1950s. However, at the time of its founding, it was also part of a long tradition of working-class organisation in Mominpura and neighbouring areas around Byculla – such as Madanpura, Agripada and Nagapada – that stretched back to the late nineteenth century. The construction of textile mills in these neighbourhoods in the late nineteenth century drew in migrants both from elsewhere in Mumbai and across India, with Muslim workers developing extensive settlements around Byculla.
By the 1890s, textile mill workers in Byculla and surrounding neighbourhoods succeeded in organising and regularly shutting down mills to demand better wages and working conditions. Later, in the 1920s and 1930s, communist and socialist organisations in the city sought to provide formal sites for the education of workers in the neighbourhood. For instance, in 1934, the leftist Young Workers’ League of Mumbai rented a room in Byculla to serve as a labour centre in the area.
A book with the seal of the library. Photo courtesy: Amanda Lanzillo
These many years of experience with labour agitation, organisation and strikes meant that readers in the neighbourhood already possessed forms of social and political connection to movements that connected them with other workers across Southasia. Key speeches, texts and arguments likely circulated within the new labour centres, the mills themselves and the workers’ neighbourhoods, long before the establishment of the Awami Idara library. In the primarily Muslim neighbourhoods that the library now serves, these leftist speeches, texts and arguments may have even circulated through some of the same networks and communities that served to sustain Islamic religious knowledge and practice.
Language and religion in the collections
Some texts held by the Awami Idara suggest readers’ interests in Islam and comparative religion. But most mid-twentieth-century Urdu texts held in the Awami Idara are more directly concerned with readers’ class and labour identities. For instance, in Mashīn aur mazdoor, Bari does not address his readers explicitly or exclusively as Muslims, although in other works he is interested in the forms of social organisation reflected in the Islamic past.
The plurality and religious diversity of Urdu writing held at the Awami Idara is not surprising. Over the course of the early twentieth century, some religious nationalist articulations had sought to distinguish the scripts of Hindustani by religious identity – associating Hindi, written in the devanagari script, with Hindus and Urdu, written in nastaliq, with Muslims. But this simplistic imagination contradicted the realities of Southasian readerships. Across the subcontinent, readers and writers from a wide range of religious communities continued to engage with Urdu. The authors of leftist Urdu texts framed their readers primarily as members of a shared class community, responsible for contributing to their fellow workers’ economic and political uplift.
That said, most of the readers at the Awami Idara were from Muslim backgrounds, though they likely differed in their degrees of religiosity (or lack thereof). The Muslim membership of the Awami Idara reflected the surrounding neighbourhood but was also indicative of an often-overlooked demographic reality of both pre and post-Partition urban India. In many of British India’s largest cities, Muslims made up a significant percentage of the industrial working class, and in several cases they formed the majority of regional migrants recruited to industrial mills in the early twentieth century.
Social solidarities in Muslim working-class neighbourhoods
This fact has often formed the basis of academic studies of “communalism” and conflict among mill labourers and other working-class communities. Scholars have sought to understand whether religious differences spurred labour solidarity and cohesion failures in industrialised Indian cities. But these debates have often overlooked how community institutions in working-class Muslim neighbourhoods contributed to labour movements, class-based identities and localised solidarities.
Popular imaginations of neighbourhoods and communities such as Mominpura have changed significantly over time. The academic Robert Rahman Raman has argued that, in Mumbai, there has been a significant shift over the course of the twentieth century in whether neighbourhoods are popularly seen as “working class” with primarily Muslim residents or “Muslim” with primarily working-class residents. Moreover, the anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen has noted that, beginning from the 1960s, mill work and other forms of industrial labour in these neighbourhoods were reorganised, contributing to the marginalisation of Muslim labourers from the organised industrial economy. In the wake of the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai, many Muslims who lived elsewhere fled to Muslim-majority neighbourhoods such as Mominpura to escape violence.
As a result, areas that were historically considered labouring neighbourhoods have come to be known as “Muslim ghettos,” even in cases where their economic and religious demographics have not changed significantly. Despite these shifting external understandings and processes of ghettoisation, across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, neighbourhoods like Mominpura have continuously provided a space for Muslim labourers to build local communities and debate their engagement with the broader political world.
Bringing the world to Mominpura
The Awami Idara also provided a space for members of these communities to debate and build an understanding of how their own experiences as labourers fit into global workers’ movements beyond the borders of Mumbai and the newly created nation-state of India. Another text that immediately caught my eye as I paged through the library’s extensive catalogue was a collection of the journal Naya Parcham (New Flag). Nayā Parcham was an Urdu periodical published in Mumbai in the late 1940s and early 1950s, around the same time as the foundation of the library. The journal was associated with the Progressive Writers’ Movement, and compiled by the prominent Urdu writers Rajinder Singh Bedi, Vishwamitter Adil, Muhammad Haider Asad and Zamir Niazi. While it served partially as a space for publishing the works of the Progressive Writers’ Movement, Nayā Parcham also focused on explaining the principles of socialism and Marxism to Urdu readers and keeping them apprised of global leftist movements.
” Popular imaginations of neighbourhoods and communities such as Mominpura have changed significantly over time.“
Issues of Nayā Parcham were donated to the Awami Idara in the 1950s by the city’s Nawjavan Party, which maintained offices nearby in neighbouring Mandapura. Like the editors of Nayā Parcham, the local leaders of the Nawjawan Party sought to reach Mumbai’s working-class communities, and to provide them with information about global leftist and working-class struggles.
One 1949 issue of Nayā Parcham held by the Awami Idara, for instance, was devoted entirely to the 1949 Chinese Revolution, with articles as well as lessons that Indians might take from the Chinese educational system. Opening with a “salaam” to “the New China,” the issue celebrated that “today the People’s Liberation Army of China covers one-third of China’s territory and leads more than half of its population.” The issue featured three Urdu translations of Chinese poems in praise of the revolution. This emphasis on global revolutionary poetry reflected efforts to reach Urdu readers – and potentially listeners – through literary language highlighting shared social and emotional experiences and desires.
A poem titled Chīn kī bahār (China’s Spring), pronounced:
“China’s spring is being rejuvenated on the battlefield
And this battlefield is uniting the entire world.”
The Awami Idara. Photo courtesy: Gautam Sharma
Poems and articles celebrating the global success of leftist movements encouraged readers at the Awami Idara to understand their struggles as not bound by their neighbourhood, city or nation, but as part of a ‘battlefield uniting the entire world.’ The special issue on the Chinese Revolution reflected the global and transregional outlook of the publication and its intended readers. The experiences of the left across Southasia were of particular interest for Nayā Parcham. Published in the wake of Partition, the magazine especially focused on uniting the left across the newly created border.
It featured, for instance, regular dispatches and notes from Pakistan, addressing Indian readers as Southasian comrades, as shared participants in a class struggle that continued to unite readers across the newly established border. In June 1949, it included a letter from Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, the secretary-general of the Progressive Writers’ Movement for Pakistan, who gained renown for his literary contributions over the subsequent decades. He addressed his article to “Friends! Comrades! And companions!” across the border.
” The Awami Idara also provided a space for members of these communities to debate and build an understanding of how their own experiences as labourers fit into global workers’ movements beyond the borders of Mumbai and the newly created nation-state of India. “
The letter was aimed in part at members of the Progressive Writers’ Movement in India, seeking to ensure continued exchange between the two wings of the movement, now divided by a border. But it also reflected Qasmi’s hopes for “lovers of progress” and leftist movements across the subcontinent, including workers’ movements. He admonished his readers not to forget the shared “yoke of colonialism” that had oppressed the subcontinent. Indeed, he argued that imperial influence, in the form of European capitalism, continued to contribute to the “suffering of all of our pride, our honour, our freedom.” Even across the border, he suggested, the struggle for progress could continue to unite the residents of the two new nations.
Texts like the Nayā Parcham provided working-class Muslim readers in Mumbai – who engaged with these writings throughout the 1950s and even later – connection to larger communities and struggles. They suggested that fights for progress and the rights of workers were not divided by borders within Southasia or beyond it or limited to specific urban localities. By collecting and making these texts accessible, the Awami Idara encouraged readers in Mominpura to participate in workers’ movements that would contribute not only to their own uplift, but also to shared Southasian and global progress.
Plural interests
Not all the materials held in the Awami Idara offer an explicitly leftist point of view or focus primarily on the experiences and political aims of the working class. On the contrary, the library’s early collections suggest that mid-twentieth century Muslim mill workers possessed many interests. In addition to finding magazines, books and newspapers that situated them within global working-class struggles, mill workers also used the library to read everything from novels to travelogues, religious treatises to poetry collections. While the founders and supporters of the library aimed to educate mill workers through leftist publications, they also recognised the demand for a wide range of literature among Mumbai’s working-class Muslim readers.
Published in the wake of Partition, Nayā Parcham especially focused on uniting the left across the newly created border.
Other materials also focused on the needs and interests of labourers, but from a technological perspective rather than an economic-political perspective. Indeed, I was first drawn to the library through my efforts to trace the development of Urdu-language technical manuals and treatises, in trades ranging from papermaking to metal plating. The library boasts several such manuals, reflecting the efforts of workers to expand their knowledge of their trades and perhaps move up in factory or workshop hierarchies. Whether or not texts were aimed primarily at workers, throughout the second half of the twentieth century the library collected printed Urdu materials from across India and Pakistan. In doing so, it built an eclectic collection that also tied its Mumbai neighbourhood to trans-Southasian worlds of Urdu literature and writing.
The Awami Idara and its collections offer an important reminder that people – including working-class people – hold multiple political, social and religious identities simultaneously. The books and journals held at the library demonstrate that Muslim labourers in Mumbai were aware of Southasian and broader global political currents, and sought to understand their place within them. While rooted in a highly local space – a unique library and its walls of bound volumes in Mominpura – the Awami Idara provided a space for Mumbai’s Muslim labourers to consider their connections and commitments to political movements and events across Mumbai, Southasia and beyond.
source: http://www.himalmag.com / Himal, South Asian / Home> Culture> Essay> India / by Amanda Lanzillo / January 09th, 2023
When the English imprisoned Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862), the last Indian Moghul Emperor, in the Jail of Rangoon in 1857, instead of Indian Flag, Union Jack started hoisting at Dehli’s Red Fort and Queen Victoria became the full-fledged ruler of India without any obstacle, at that time, many country patriots came into field united to fight against the British rule.
Maulana Muhammad Qasmi Nanautavi (1832-1879) was one of them too.
In 1857, one Fatwa for Jihad against the English was issued.
The Fatwa carried the signature of 34 prominent Ulama. One among them was Maulana Nanautavi himself. As other elders had participated in the Jihad of Shamli in 1857, Maulana Nanautavi also had participated personally with his colleagues. Briefly in the battle of Shamli, Nanautavi and his colleagues got defeated to British forces.
He was a far sighted scholar. He comprehended that the British has not only occupied India and would attack the Indian culture, but even the faith of Indians would be at risk. Therefore, while on the one hand, he started fighting against the English, he began debating with clergyman on the other. But to that time, the freedom wasn’t destined for India, so he didn’t succeed in the mission.
In this situation, intending to free India from the British rule, in the company of some friends, Maulana Nanautavi adopted another policy to establish a Madrasa on 21st May, 1866 (a famous learning centre of Indian Subcontinent, Darul Uloom, Deoband) beneath a pomegranate tree in Chattah Masjid of Deoband. So that the trained products of the Madrasa would sacrifice themselves to preserve the country and Islam both in British India. Alhamdulillah, Nanautavi succeeded in his mission and a good number of Darul Uloom’s product gave sacrifices for the sake of Indian freedom and Islam.
The noted Islamic scholar Maulana Manazir Ahsan Gilani (1892-1956) quoted in his book, “Ihaatae Darul Uloom Men Beete Huwe Din” (The Days Passed in the Campus of Darul Uloom) from his teacher and the first graduate of the seminary, Shaikhul Hind Mahmood Hasan Deobandi (1851-1920) saying:“Did my teacher (Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi) establish this seminary only for the teaching and learning? The seminary was established before me, as far as my knowledge goes, my teacher established this one in 1866 to compensate the defeat of 1857 from the British. I have chosen the same mission for which it was established before me.”
Very few people know the fact: “In the meeting of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind at Kolkata in 1926, the participants included graduates of Darul Uloom, Deoband and they supported the group which called for complete independence of India from the British rule.
Indian National Congress was to declare complete independence as its goal three years later, in its session at Lahore.” (Wikipedia, Darul Uloom Deoband)The famous freedom fighter, Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdu Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988), who visited Darul Uloom, during his visit to India in 1969, had said, “I have had relation with Darul Uloom since the time, Shaikhul Hind Maulana Mahmood Hasan, was alive. Sitting here, we used to make plans for the independence movement, as to how we might drive away the English from this country and how we could make India free the yoke of slavery of the British Raj. This institution has made great efforts for the freedom of this country.” (Wikipedia, Darul Uloom Deoband)Due to the great interest in India’s freedom struggle, Shaikhul Hind became an icon of Indian independence movement. Though he was a teacher of Darul Uloom, but made much effort to start an armed revolution against British rule from the both inside and outside India.
He started a programme to train volunteers and his students in the seminary from India and abroad for that goal. The most eminent among those who joined the movement were his students: Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi (1872-1944), Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani (1879-1957), Maulana Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari etc.Shaikhul Hind sent Maulana Sindhi to Kabul and Ansari to the North-West Frontier Province to mobilize the popular support and recruit volunteers. And he with Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani travelled to Hijaz (KSA) to secure Turkish support. Getting the Turkish governor, Ghalib Pasha’s signature on a declaration of Jihad against the British, he planned to return to India via Baghdad and Bluchistan to start the rebellion.When Shaikhul Hind planned to return, the Silken Letter Movement was captured by Punjab CID.
Due to this movement, Shaikhul Hind was arrested in Hijaz. He was imprisoned in Malta, where he was tortured mercilessly, for more than three years.
Here it seems necessary to mention that what was the Silken Letter Movement. Shaikhul Hind wanted an armed revolution against the British rule, as I mentioned. So, he needed arms and ammunition. He and his colleagues, therefore, travelled to different countries to seek support from the anti-British countries; such as Afghanistan, Turkey and Russia. During the visiting different countries, letter exchanged between Shaikhul Hind and his colleagues, containing the outlines of the plan to recruit the volunteers for army and to establish a national government were written on silk piece of cloth. That is why the movement was known as the Silken Letter Movement/Tahreeke Reshmi Rumal (in Urdu)/Silk Letter Conspiracy (according to British government).When he returned to India, after release, was conferred upon by the title of Shaikhul Hind, leading leader of India.
Now he issued a Fatwa making it a duty of all Indian Muslims to support and participate with Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and the Indian National Congress, who had prescribed a policy of non-cooperation and mass civil disobedience through non-violence.
He died on November 30, 1920 wishing to get martyrdom for India’s freedom.
Though Shaikhul Hind was no more, but he left a good number of students, who followed the footprint of their elders and worked tirelessly for the freedom of India.
Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi (1872-1944), a 1891’s graduate of Darul Uloom, was also among them. He was the most active and prominent member of India’s freedom movement. He was among those leaders of Darul Uloom who left India, following the commandment of Shaikhul Hind, during World War 1, to get support of the anti-British central powers for an armed revolution against British rule.
Maulana Sindhi reached Kabul to rally the Afghan Amir Habibullah Khan.
After a period of time, he offered his support to Raja Mahendra Praratab’s plans for revolution in India with German support. He joined the Provisional Government of India formed in Kabul on 1st December, 1915. In this government, he was nominated the Minister for India. It was declared a revolutionary government in exile, which was supposed to take the charge of independent India, if the British government has been overthrown according to the plan. But unfortunately, in 1919, the provisional government was dissolved under the diplomatic pressure to Afghanistan.
He stayed in Afghanistan for 7-year nearly.
Then visiting Soviet Russia,he reached Turkey, where he issued the charter for the independence of India from Istanbul.
He left Turkey for Hijaz and remained there until 1929. He journeyed from a country to country for the sake of India’s independence. He died on 22nd August, 1944, at Deenpur in Pakistan.
Shikhul Islam Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani (1879-1957) was also one of the Shaikhul-Hind’s students and graduate and latter Professor of Hadith at Darul Uloom, Deoband.
Though he had been not convicted, but he accompanied Shaikhul Hind to Malta voluntarily, to take care of him. He stayed in Malta three years upto the release of Shaikhul Hind. Returning to India, he actively became involved in the freedom struggle. He had been imprisoned several times by the British authority for his participation in the freedom movement. It was he who dared to issue a Fatwa in the meeting of Indian National Congress at Karachi that working as British army and police is Haraam. After this Fatwa, he was rewarded two years rigorous imprisonment. He never stepped down from the freedom struggle movement, until India got freedom.
At the time of independence, the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress were at logger heads on partition of united India. On that occasion, Madani opposed the partition thoroughly. He journeyed the different provinces of India along with Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958) and Mahatama Gandhi to assure the people safety and security and tried his level best to stop them to migrate from India to Pakistan. Many people targeted him, but he never conformed to the opinion of the partition.
After the independence, he was served a ministry, but he refused and restricted himself under the four walls of Darul Uloom and Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind for teaching and social works.
Like Madani and Sindhi, there were hundreds of Darul Uloom’s graduates, who actively took part in the freedom struggle of India. To mention the works of those patriots, the volumes and volumes are required.
It’s sorrowful matter that historians of modern India ignored completely the role played and efforts made by Darul Uloom for India’s freedom struggle. Today, most of the people aren’t aware of this historical institution. Some people know that Darul Uloom is a conservative seminary that produces merely Maulanas or a factory that only issues Fatwaas. And some say that Darul Uloom is “a Station of Terrorism” and “it produces terrorists”. This one is a famous opinion among Hindu fundamentalists, while the fact is otherwise as I stated in the essay.
It’s a bird’s eye view of the role of Darul Uloom, Deoband in India’s freedom struggle.
One who is interested on the topic, should go through the book, “Taarikhe Darul Uloom” (History of Darul Uloom).
May Allah accept the works of the seminary!
source: http://www.millattimes.com / Millat Times / Home> Special Column / by Khursheed Alam Dawood Qasmi , Email: qasmikhursheed@yahoo.co.in / August 15th, 2022
Syed Imtiazuddin with his collection of autographs
Syed Imtiazuddin of Hyderbad has turned his hobby of collecting autographs of famous personalities into a body of work that is bound to be of great historic value for the future generations.
His collection of autographs of important world and Indian personalities has reached up to 200 so far.
The famous people whose signatures are part of Syed Imtiazuddin’s proud collection include Nobel laureates, politicians, writers and poets of Urdu and English, the heads of state and prime ministers of many countries, and film stars.
His passion for collecting the signatures of important and famous people transcends borders. Syed Imtiazuddin says he had to be patient while waiting for the signatures of famous personalities to whom he wrote letters requesting the same inside India and abroad.
Syed Imtiazuddin narrated an interesting incident from his student days. He was a 7th-grade student at Gandhi Bhavan Middle School, Nampally, Hyderabad. He says it was triggered when he was learning a chapter on India’s renowned Nobel laureate, Physicist-scientist Sir C.V. Raman. Dr. Raman discovered what is now known as the ‘Raman Effect.’
Dr Rajendra Prasad’s signature in Urdu
When the school teacher was imparting the lesson on the life of Sir C. Raman in the classroom, Imtiaz Ahmed thought of if only he could write to the great scientist. He tried to search for his mailing address with no success.
Finally, he did write to Sir C V Raman and posted it to on the address: Sir CV Raman, Bangalore.’ In the postcard addressed to the scientist, he wrote, ‘I was very impressed when I read about you today and I want your signature.’
To his pleasant surprise, a few days later he received a letter from Sir CV Raman. Dr Raman appreciated his passion.
Syed Imtiazuddin says that this was the first ‘happy and memorable day’ for him and it sparked his passion for getting autographs from celebrities.
After receiving Raman’s reply letter and signature, his happiness knew no end.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s signature
Syed Imtiazuddin said that he passed the class 10 examination from a famous school – Chadar Ghat High Schoo and graduated from Osmania University.
He worked in the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Department (APSEB) and simultaneously completed his MBA. He retired as Superintending Engineer in year 2001.
The famous poet of Hyderabad, Shaz Tamkant was Syed Imtiazuddin’s elder brother. Shaz Tamkunat was invited to mushairas in Delhi, Lucknow, and other states of the country
Syed Imtiazuddin says, “When Shaz went to Delhi to participate in Mushaira, he also carried an autograph book with him, in which he obtained the signatures of many well-known poets.”
Seeing this, I also decided to follow him. In late 1957, I wrote to the former President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasad expressing my desire to meet him. I received a reply from the Rashtrapati Bhawan that the President is due to visit Hyderabad in June 1958 and I would come to him there at his residence.”
A glimpse of Syed Imtiazuddin’s collection
“As the day of my meeting with Dr Rajendra Prasad was approaching, my anxiety knew no bounds. When I got the message that Rajendra Prasad had come to Hyderabad, I reached Hyderabad Resident with my elder brother Shaz Tamkant and met Rajendra Prasad. I was very happy to meet him. Even Rajendra Prasad appreciated my passion. He had already kept his signatures – in Hindi and English – on an expensive paper ready for me.”
The President also penned his signature in Urdu on his request.
Syed Imtiazuddin is fond of Allama Iqbal’s poetry. He is invited for delivering talks in the ‘Mahfil Iqbal Shanahi’ held every Wednesday.
Syed Imtiazuddin obtained the signatures of more than 200 personalities including Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India and first Governor-General of India.
Apart from them, the forty-second president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, the second president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the former president of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito, the Thirty-fifth US President John F. Kennedy, Indonesia’s first President Abdul Rahim Sukarno.
Signature of Writer T S Eliot
Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, former King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan, famous American actress Elizabeth Taylor, her husband, famous Hollywood actor Richard Burton, Mother Teresa, and Charlton Heston, the hero of the famous American film The Ten Commandments.
Syed Imtiazuddin also obtained signatures from Pakistan’s first Nobel laureate Dr. Abdus Salam. Many of these personalities presented him with their photo as a gift.
Among the Indian leaders’ collection, Syed Imtiazuddin has the signatures of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, VK Krishna Menon, Moraraji Desai, V. V. Giri, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy.
Syed Imtiazuddin says he feels literature, film, and sports are close to human life and this is the reason why most of his collection relates to personalities from these fields.
He has an unenviable collection of signatures of TS Eliot, American writer John Steinbeck, British mathematician and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell, Novelist Ernest Hemingway, Dr. AJ Cronin (Scotland), American writer Pearl S. Buck, English writer Aldous Huxley, Josh Malihabadi, Rashid Ahmad Siddiqui, Jigar Moradabadi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Khalilur Rahman Azmi, Sohail Azimabadi, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Qaratul Ain Haider Krishna Chandra, Rajendra Singh Bedi, Maulana Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi and Maulana Abdul Majid Dariyabadi.
Besides he has the signatures of Bollywood legends Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and Amitabh Bachchan.Syed Imtiazuddin said he used to study at an American library near the famous Muazzam Jahi Market in Hyderabad. While going through the book “Who’s Who in America” made him familiar with many top personalities.
Syed Imtiazuddin says success comes only if a person has passion and true dedication to a cause.
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> India / by Abdul Rahman Pasha, Hyderabad / by awazthevoice.in / November 26th, 2022
Deputy commissioner (DC) of Dakshina Kannada Dr Rajendra K V visited the museum of numismatist Yasir at Kalladka on the afternoon of Friday and was mesmerized by the collection of rarest of rare currency notes, coins and artefacts.
Dr Rajendra was stunned by the way Yasir explained the minute details of the collection of fancy number currency notes, coins and other unique items.
The DC appreciated the unique collection and said that students must visit the museum of Yasir at Kalladka, which has got several interesting collections.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Karnataka / by Mounesh Vishwakarma / Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (MS) / October 22nd, 2022
Hoovakuvakallu (Belepuni Village, Bantwal ),Mangaluru, KARNATAKA :
Mangaluru :
Ismail Kannathur (50) is the finest epitome in the society who has proven that being not educated is not a curse, but there is a scope to share knowledge.
Ismail, a scrap dealer by profession, has a collection of over 2,000 books at his residence. He runs a scrap shop at Hoovakuvakallu in Balepuni village in Bantwal. Ismail is not well-educated and studied only up to the first standard. But, he knows the importance of education and knowledge. Knowing the importance of books, Ismail has built a small library at his residence. He has been in the scrap dealing business for 25 years. When he gets good books in his business, he collects and preserves them. Initially, Ismail was a fruit vendor, but due to his helping nature, his business incurred loss. Later, he turned into a scrap dealer as per the suggestion of one of his friends. In the beginning, though he had no experience in scrap dealing, later through hard work, he gained experience.
Ismail is an active social worker. He has helped several people in distress. Whenever an accident occurs in the vicinity, Ismail has rushed several victims to the hospital. Moreover, he has helped poor girls in their marriage by raising funds.
Speaking to daijiworld.com, Ismail said, “I have collected several good books. My intention is to set up this library. I am not educated, but let others be educated by reading books. In the past, I have given over 2,000 books to several people. Some take it by paying a small amount, and though I refuse, they thrust a few currency notes into my shirt pocket. But, many take books free of cost. Some teachers and students also take books from me. As I am not well-educated, I have educated my five children.”
He also said that a person had motivated him to set up a library with the books available.
Ismail has arranged books on wooden shelves at his residence. The public can borrow them.
Ismail is also known as ‘Gandhi’ for his social service. He has been felicitated by many organizations and institutions for his active cleanliness drive. Ismail, for several years, has been involved in the cleanliness drive in the locality. He has helped several poor and downtrodden people. Ismail also actively works for various social causes including helping the police department in tracing thieves who rob offering boxes of temples and masjids.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Top Stories / by Deekshith DV / by Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru / September 22nd, 2022
Telangana and Iran entered for the repair, conservation, digitalization and cataloguing of Urdu and Persian historical manuscripts and documents.
Hyderabad:
The Telangana State Archives and Research Institute on Wednesday entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Noor International Microfilm Centre, Culture House of the Islamic Republic of Iran, New Delhi for the repair, conservation, digitalization and cataloguing of Urdu and Persian historical manuscripts and documents, a common heritage between India and Iran.
The Telangana State Archives and Research Institute has a collection of rare and historical records dating back to 1406 A.D. pertaining to the Bahmani, Qutb Shahi, Adil Shahi and Mughal dynasties that ruled over the region.
The Institute houses more than 43 million documents, of which eighty percent of the records are in the classical Persian and Urdu languages owing to them being the official languages of the erstwhile dynasties of the Hyderabad Deccan region.
The records also include the original copies of GOs, gazettes etc of unified Andhra Pradesh from 1956 to 2014.
India and Iran have enjoyed a shared history which has influenced both cultures and civilisations. The documents housed in the Telangana State Archives are important historical artefacts of both countries.
This initiative, carried out by the Noor International Microfilm Centre which is housed in the Culture House of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in New Delhi, will bring millions of historical documents to life, and give future generations a glimpse of the state’s rich heritage.
It will also be a valuable asset for scholars from other countries who collaborate with Telangana State Archives for their research on the medieval and modern history of India and Telangana.
The entire process will be done at no cost to the state and will be entirely borne by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The MoU exchange ceremony took place at T-Hub Phase 2.0, in the presence of Telangana IT minister K.T. Rama Rao and Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Ali Chegeni
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> Telangana / by News Desk / September 07th, 2022
The book “Aligarh Muslim University: The Making of the Modern Indian Muslim” by Mohammed Wajihuddin sheds light on AMU and its role in determining where the Muslim community stands in modern-day India.
The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) completed a hundred years in December 2020. In December 1920, the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental (MAO) College founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in 1877, was transformed into AMU. Sir Syed also established the All India Mohammedan Educational Conference to infuse the subcontinent’s Muslims with a spirit of modernism. This helped prepare the community, devastated in the aftermath of the Revolt of 1857, for new challenges.
Zakir Hussain, AMU alumnus, its former Vice-Chancellor and a former President of India, said over fifty years ago, ‘The way Aligarh participates in various walks of national life will determine the place of Muslims in India’s national life. The way India conducts itself towards Aligarh will determine largely, the form which our national life will acquire in the future.’
Read an excerpt from the book below.
With AMU turning a hundred, one is beholden to the MAO College Fund Committee’s first meeting on 10 February 1873. The fund committee was formed a year earlier, in 1872. Addressing the meeting, Syed Ahmad Khan’s son Syed Mahmood (1850–1903), had said: ‘I think what we mean to found is not a College but a university, and I hope the members will consent to my proposal that instead of the word “College”, the word “University” may be substituted.’
Since the formal opening of MAO College was getting delayed, the fund committee began a school called Madrasatul Uloom Musalmanan-e-Hind on 24 May 1875 at Aligarh. The school was a precursor to MAO College, which metamorphosed into AMU in 1920, and during whose foundation-stone-laying ceremony on 8 January 1877, presided over by Viceroy of India Lord Lytton, Sir Syed had observed:
… this is the first time in the history of Muhammedans of India that a college owes its establishment not to the charity or love of learning of an individual nor to the splendid patronage of a monarch, but to the combined wishes and the united efforts of a whole community. It has its origin in causes which the history of this country has never witnessed before.
So, what were the causes Sir Syed alluded to?
The large-scale killings and destruction in the wake of the failed 1857 Mutiny had unsettled Sir Syed, a judicial official in the East India Company. Muslims, who had borne the brunt of British repression heavily because the British held them responsible for the rebellion, had become fatalists. Irrationality, an obsession with obsolete and redundant social mores, rigidity in religious practices and a refusal to adapt to the new realities made them misfits in the era that the British Raj heralded. On close scrutiny, Sir Syed found that the reasons for the Muslims’ unfathomable desolation lay mainly in their educational backwardness and resistance to modern, scientific thinking. Therefore, he saw a panacea for the community in modern, scientific learning. He began thinking about ways and means to bring his community out of the stupendous self-pity it wallowed in.
A visit to England in 1869 enabled Sir Syed to see first-hand the education system of the West, including that at Oxford and Cambridge. With the dream of an Indian college modelled on Oxbridge before his eyes, he returned to India and set out to realize that cherished dream. He quit his job in Benares and made Aligarh, then a small mofussil town 100 miles off Delhi on the Delhi–Calcutta route, his home. Since Sir Syed had saved several family members, including women and children, of some senior British officials during the 1857 Mutiny from Indian rebels and was among the defenders of British rule in India, no roadblocks in his path to founding his college remained permanent.
In Aligarh, he set up a residential college which would become the heartbeat of Muslims, as well as of a large swathe of undivided India. Alongside the college project, Sir Syed began the herculean task of social and religious reform. For this he established the Tahzibul Akhlaq or Mohammedan Social Reformer, a magazine in Urdu, which began hitting at the obscurantist, obsolete views that fettered the community. Other magazines were specially published to counter the views spread by the Tahzibul Akhlaq. Some of Sir Syed’s religious views were unpalatable to the ulema and against accepted Islamic beliefs, and earned him the wrath of the orthodox elements in the community. He had to face the fury of fatwas. A maulvi even went all the way to Mecca to fetch a fatwa of kufr, declaring him an infidel. Sir Syed only chuckled at the serious drive to declare him a heretic, kafir or infidel, as it gave some of his tormentors an opportunity to visit Islam’s holiest places. Sir Syed’s debt to India in general and Muslims in particular lies not just in the college that he established but in the overall impact he left on the lives of Indians, especially Muslims.
Over 123 years after his death, Sir Syed is not considered a heretic, a naturi (one who propagated the belief that Islam is compatible with nature), a British stooge—epithets that some of his own community members hurled at him in his lifetime. Today, the orthodox ulema publicly say that Sir Syed, like any other person, is merely accountable to God for his lapses, and that his achievements and noble works outweigh his shortcomings and will pave his way to paradise.
Tomes have been penned on Sir Syed, MAO College, AMU and the movement Sir Syed and his associates like Mohsinul Mulk, Viqarul Mulk, Maulana Shibli Nomani, Maulana Zakaullah, Altaf Hussain Hali, Nazir Ahmad, and Chiragh Ali launched. This was called the Aligarh Movement, and it can only be described as the trigger for the Muslim renaissance in the subcontinent in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is easy to do a panegyric while evaluating the 100-year-long journey of a university which was born in the tumultuous times of India’s freedom struggle of the 1920s.
The circumstances in which Jamia Millia Islamia came up deserve some detailing. In 1920, Mahatma Gandhi gave a call for the boycott of government and government-aided schools and colleges. Muhammad Ali opposed MAO College as it was pro-government, since it received government grants. Gandhi, Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali tried to persuade the pro-government elements at Aligarh to join the nationalist movement and turn the college into a nationalist institution. The pro-government group at Aligarh opposed the presence of Gandhiji and the Ali brothers at the campus as they were trying to persuade students to join their movement. On 12 October 1920, Mahatma Gandhi addressed the students and left. But the real drama happened on 13 October, when the Ali brothers suddenly appeared at a meeting being held at the students’ union. Since they had been witness to Gandhiji being hooted and booed the previous day, the Ali brothers didn’t speak but said they had only come only to say goodbye to the students of their alma mater. And they wept too because they had seen Gandhiji being booed. Present there was also Zakir Hussain, who had done his MA in economics from AMU and was a part-time teacher at the university. Zakir Hussain had arrived from Delhi the same day; he was running a fever and didn’t want to speak. But he couldn’t hold back his own tears when he saw the Ali brothers weeping. He stood up and declared that he had decided to resign from his teaching assignment at MAO College and forego the scholarship being given to him. This tilted the balance and changed the mood. Many students joined him in boycotting government institutions. In his biography Dr Zakir Hussain, M. Mujeeb, a colleague and friend of the professor, says that Hussain went to Delhi, where he met Dr M.A. Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Muhammad Ali and many others and ‘assured them that a large number of teachers and students would leave the MAO College to join a national institution, if one was established. The leaders could ask for nothing better. On 29 October 1920, the Jamia Millia Islamia came into existence, and Maulana Mahmudul Hasan of Deoband delivered an address indicating its aims and ideals.’
Excerpted with permission from Aligarh Muslim University: The Making of the Modern Indian Muslim, Mohammed Wajihuddin, HarperCollins India. Read more about the book here and buy it here.
source: http://www.thedispatch.in / The Dispatch / Home> Book House / by Mohammed Wajihuddin / January 25th, 2022
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