President Dr Mohammed Ifraan Ali receiving the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award from Indian President Droupadi Murmu.
Guyanese President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali was conferred today with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA).
The award is India’s highest honour for members of the Indian diaspora.
Indian President Droupadi Murmu presented Ali with the award at a special ceremony in Indore, India
President Dr Mohammed Ifraan Ali after receiving the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award. Photo: Office of the President
Ali, Trinidadian judge, Justice Frank Arthur Seepersad and Suriname’s Dr Dewanchandrebhose Sharman are the three Caribbean nationals of Indian origin, who were presented with the PBSA this year.
Popularly known as Frontier Gandhi, Badshah Khan, Bacha Khan and Fakhr-e-Afghan, his indomitable political spirit has found a place in all of his names.
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (L) with Gandhi at King Edward’s College, NWFP, in 1938 | Wikimedia commons
Buried under the historical violence of Pakistan’s tribal belt is a sliver of peace—and it is because of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a lifelong pacifist who mobilised Pathans against British colonialists in India. Popularly known as ‘Frontier Gandhi’, Badshah Khan, Bacha Khan and Fakhr-e-Afghan, his indomitable political spirit has found a place in all of his names, a reminder of peace, secularism and unity even 35 years after his death in January 1988.
Born into a wealthy Sunni Pashtun family in Pakistan’s Utmanzai in 1890, Khan hailed from the landowning Mohammadzai clan. He devoted his life and resources to upending poverty and promoting education and Hindu-Muslim harmony. But his biggest contribution to the Indian subcontinent, perhaps, came with the ‘Khudai Khidmatgar’, or Servants of God, movement in 1929—the beginning of mass mobilisation against an exploitative British Raj.
Khan’s innate ability to unite the masses non-violently turned him into a ‘powerhouse Muslim leader’ from the erstwhile North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Crackdowns, custodial violence and imprisonment only hardened his anti-colonial stance, laying the foundations for a spiritual resilience which is talked about to this day.
“It is my inmost conviction that Islam is amal, yakeen, muhabat – selfless service, faith, and love,” Khan had said. He had also urged Pathans to “arise and rebuild” their “fallen house.”
Powerhouse Pathan
While Khan’s life was fraught with hurdles and clashes with the colonial government, his political fervour refused to die. For instance, in 1921, he was asked to lead the Khilafat Committee in Peshawar as its president. During his tour of the province, he delivered speeches and emphasised the need to eliminate British imperialism in South Asia. He was subsequently jailed and tortured by the British for three years.
“When Abdul Ghaffar came out of jail in 1924, he was frail and worn-out in body, but his spirit was unvanquished. His blue eyes were proud of their suffering, determined and cold. The Pathans looked at Abdul Ghaffar with admiration; they had found their leader, thanks to the British,” writes documentary filmmaker Dinanath Gopal Tendulkar, in his book Abdul Ghaffar Khan: Faith is a Battle.
Khan led the Khudai Khidmatgar movement with the call to lay down arms and use civil resistance to challenge British rule. This massive movement involved 100,000 Pathans who took an oath to join the movement: “Since God needs no service, I promise to serve humanity in the name of God. I promise to refrain from violence and from taking revenge. I promise to forgive those who oppress me or treat me with cruelty. I promise to devote at least two hours a day to social work.”
Within a short time, they established a network in the province, particularly in neglected rural areas.
The leaders of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement put great emphasis on discipline. The volunteers were organised and drilled in a military fashion, given the ranks of generals, colonels, captains, etc. They even wore identical shirts in shades of brown or dark red. This move invited extensive propaganda from the British Indian government, which equated Khidmatgars to the Bolsheviks. But Khan never left his non-violent ideals.
“There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of non-violence. It is not a new creed,” Khan had once declared, as per his biographer Eknath Easwaran.
Friendship with Gandhi, relationship with Congress
Khan is also often remembered in history for his curious and close friendship with M.K. Gandhi. The link that connected the two has its roots in the 1919 Rowlatt Act. Khan stood up against the Act—which promoted indefinite imprisonment without a trial—and mobilised 50,000 people in Utmanzai to raise their voices in protest.
Scholars have differentiated how Khan and Gandhi approached their respective philosophies of non-violence. In popular discourse, it is often portrayed that Gandhi heavily inspired Khan’s ideals of non-violence. But J.S. Bright, a biographer of Khan, thinks differently.
Bright also said that in Gandhi’s case, his ideals received more publicity and that he should be called “Indian Khan” instead.
Khan never supported Partition
In December 1929, Ghaffar Khan and other prominent members of the Khudai Khidmatgar attended the Lahore Session of the Indian National Congress to raise awareness of the volatile situation in the NWFP.
Impressed with the Congress’s support, Khan endorsed the party’s programme of complete independence and non-payment of taxes and revenues.
But when it came to the issue of Partition, Khan felt “betrayed” by the Congress Working Committee. Owing to the violence and realpolitik, most Congress leaders agreed to the Partition plan laid out by British viceroy Louis Mountbatten, with the Congress Working Committee overwhelmingly ratifying it. Only four leaders held out – Gandhi, Khan, Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan.
“You have thrown us to the wolves,” Khan said in resentment, according to an article about his death published in Los Angeles Times.
The Pashtuns were only given the choice of going with India or Pakistan; independence was out of the question. Convinced that his participation in the decision-making referendum would lead to violence and bloodshed among Pathans, Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars left the ball in the Muslim League’s court.
The NWFP eventually voted to join Pakistan, where Khan fought for a better deal for the frontier region and advocated for the province’s autonomy. For this, he spent years in prison.
After 17 years of isolation and imprisonment in Pakistan, Khan went on to live in Kabul in the mid-1970s.
He spent his last years in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, visiting India occasionally for medical treatment, mainly for arthritis. Khan died on 20 January 1988 of complications from a stroke while under house arrest in Peshawar and was laid to rest in Jalalabad.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)
source: http://www.theprint.in / The Print / Home> The Print Profile / by Shania Mathew / January 20th, 2023
An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran
by Carla Power
Henry Holt. 336 pp. Paperback, $19
Since Sept. 11, 2001, popular media has tended to represent Islam as monolithic and menacing, a faith whose adherents spend their time plotting to murder infidels, oppress women and instill sharia law in Western democracies. While the actions of groups like the Islamic State seem to confirm the worst stereotypes, the worldviews of extremists do not account for the belief systems of the majority of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, who are, by journalist Carla Power’s account, “people as diverse as Pathan tribals and Kansan surgeons.”
Weary of the stereotypes and “blithe generalizations about ‘the Islamic world’ and ‘the West,’ ” Power, who holds a degree in Middle East studies from Oxford and has worked as a foreign correspondent in Muslim countries, decided to strike back. “If the Oceans Were Ink” is a unique account of the Islamic faith that focuses on the perspective of Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a scholar and imam whom Power has known for more than 20 years. It is an unusual book, simultaneously an exploration of faith and of Islam as it is lived by those who know it most intimately.
The journalist became acquainted with the imam in the 1990s, when both were conducting research on Islamic scholars and mystics at a think tank, the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Their paths crossed during the intervening years, as Akram achieved renown as a religious scholar and Power established herself as a successful journalist. After years of reporting on strongmen, politics and identity in Muslim societies, Power decided that she wanted “to explore the beliefs behind that identity and to see how closely they matched my own.” She asked Akram if he would take her on as a student. Over the years, Power had developed great respect for his scholarship, particularly his extensive biographical dictionaries on early Islam’s female scholars, whose lives have almost disappeared from the scholarly record. Through this work, Akram hopes to remind Muslims of the importance of women’s education and contributions to society.
Power turns what could have been a dry account of a series of interviews into a vibrant tale of a friendship and of her search for meaning through the contemplation of another religious tradition. Above all, her goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of the Koran, whose “limitless possibilities” are best represented in the words of the Sura that give her book its name: “If the oceans were ink, for (writing) the words of my Lord, the ocean would be exhausted, before the words of my Lord were exhausted.”
Akram and Power meet regularly at Akram’s office, at an Oxford coffee shop, and at the study groups and lectures he leads for the local community. She gets to know his family and his followers well, and is particularly impressed by a group of outspoken, educated Muslim women who debate Akram and even cause him to change his position on controversial issues. Inspired by their time together, Power writes that “studying with a man who saw everything from tea leaves to algebra as gifts from God, I was struck by a new seam of gratitude running through me. I’d emerge from a lesson not with faith, but with what I suppose a fashionable guru would call mindfulness.”
Power skillfully navigates multiple layers of cultural interpretation that make subjects such as veiling so controversial in the West. Akram explains to her that, in Islam, modest dress is not meant to make women invisible but rather allows them “to be present and visible, with the power of their bodies switched off.” However, geopolitics has added additional layers of complexity. From the time of Algerian colonialism until 21st-century Afghanistan, Western military occupation has often been linked to the unveiling of Muslim women. “In the months after the Taliban’s fall, the Western press would rush to capture women shedding their veils. It was as though this transition from burqaed lump to woman was a 21st-century Pygmalion myth: a breathing of life into Afghanistan’s people.”
In contrast to some of his students, Akram eschews politics. He urges his students to focus solely on taqwa, or God-consciousness. Throughout the book, Akram disdains the idea of Islam as a tool to reach political ends, believing that those Muslims with the goal of a state governed by sharia law have a “deep envy of the West’s power and geopolitical supremacy.” Not all of his students agree with him, especially those espousing the need to participate in the revolutions against dictatorships that have wracked the Middle East since 2011. Yet to Akram, the concerns of this world are insignificant compared with the importance of becoming close to the divine.
As Power wraps up her studies with the imam, she concludes that they share many values, including ethics, democracy, equality and human rights. She envies Akram the feeling that prayer “could feel like returning to ‘the arms of your mother, when you are a child.’ ” For Akram, she writes, “existence was a circle, with God at its end, beginning, and every point in between.” For the pious individual, life, from birth to death, is a cycle of return, with the words of God at the center. Yet although the year leaves her with an enhanced appreciation of the complexity of the Koran — even to call the Koran a book is to limit it; “it is a place to which the faithful return, again and again,” she writes — she is ultimately unable to embrace Akram’s sense of religious conviction.
“If the Oceans Were Ink” should be mandatory reading for the 52 percent of Americans who admit to not knowing enough about Muslims. Years of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the media are beginning to take a toll on Muslims in the United States. According to a 2011 poll by the Pew Research Center, 6 percent said they had been victimized by hate crimes in the preceding year. FBI statistics for reported hate crimes against Muslims are five times higher since 9/11. Most recently, the killing of three Muslim students in North Carolina, ostensibly over a parking dispute, has also been alleged to be a hate crime. A Zogby poll released by the Arab American Institute in 2014 showed that only 27 percent of Americans reported favorable opinions of Muslims, down eight points from a poll in 2010. Yet among those polled who reported knowing Muslims firsthand, favorability was 33 percent higher.
Akram, steeped in religion but also thoughtful and open to dialogue, emerges from these pages as a complex and likable man, and it is hard to imagine readers not being moved by Power’s humanistic, evenhanded portrayal of him. “If the Oceans Were Ink” is a welcome and nuanced look at Islam through the eyes of an individual who lives his faith with every breath. It goes a long way toward combating the dehumanizing stereotypes of Muslims that are all too common in the United States today.
By Rachel Newcomb / Rachel Newcomb is associate professor of anthropology at Rollins College, where she also directs the Program in Middle Eastern and North African Studies.
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com / Washington Post / Home> Opinion / by Rachel Newcomb / April 30th, 2015
Jamdahan Village (Jaunpur District), UTTAR PRADESH / London, U.K. :
Mohammad Akram Nadwi is a renowned Islamic scholar, theologian, author and professor of Arabic and Islamic studies. He is known for his extensive knowledge of the Quran, Hadith, and Islamic law, as well as his ability to convey complex concepts in a clear and accessible manner.
Early Life and Education
Mohammad Akram Nadwi was born in India in 1963. He comes from a family with a long tradition of Islamic scholarship, and from a young age, he showed a strong interest in Islamic studies. He began his formal education by studying the Quran and Hadith under the guidance of local scholars and his father.
In 1975, Nadwi traveled to the city of Lucknow, India to study at the famous Nadwatul Ulama, an Islamic university and seminary. He studied under some of the most renowned scholars of his time, including Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi and Maulana Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Hasani. He earned a degree in Islamic studies and later completed his PhD in Islamic theology from the University of Lucknow. Thereafter he was sent to England as Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi’s representative, becoming a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.
Personal Life
Mohammad Akram Nadwi is married and has children. He is known for leading a simple and humble lifestyle, and is dedicated to spreading the teachings of Islam to as many people as possible.
Career
After completing his studies in India, Nadwi began teaching at various universities and Islamic institutions in the United Kingdom, including the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and the Markfield Institute of Higher Education. He has also taught at universities in India and the United States.
In addition to his academic work, Nadwi is also a respected speaker and lecturer. He has delivered speeches and lectures at various conferences and events around the world, and is known for his ability to convey complex Islamic concepts in a clear and accessible manner.
Muhammad Akram Nadwi is also a founder of Al-Salam Institute, UK where he also serves as a principal. The Institute is dedicated to the traditional Islamic sciences and provide a platform for the authentic Islamic scholarship to be studied and transmitted.
Books
Mohammad Akram Nadwi is a prolific author, who has written several books and articles on various Islamic topics. Some of his most notable works include:
“Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam” – This is a 43-volume biographical dictionary of female scholars of Hadith, and is considered one of the most comprehensive works on the subject. It is the first book of its kind in the Muslim world, and provides valuable insight into the role of women in the study and transmission of Islamic knowledge.
Madrasah Life: A Student’s Day at Nadwat al-‘Ulamā’
Al-Fiqh Al-Islāmī According to the Hanafi Madhab Rites of Purification, Prayers and Funerals Vol 1
Abū Ḥanīfah His Life, Legal Method & Legacy
Shaykh ‘Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī Nadwī: His Life & Works
Ibn Ḥazm on the Lawfulness of Women Attending Prayers in the Mosque
Journey to Andalus – Translated and edited by Dr. Abu Zayd.
Lessons Learned: Treasures from Nadwah’s Sages
Remembering Beautiful Days In Jerusalem
Foundation To Ḥadīth Science: A Primer on Understanding & Studying Hadith – Translated and edited by Dr. Abu Zayd.
He is also the subject of the best-selling book: If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Qur’an (2015).
Overall, Mohammad Akram Nadwi is a respected and influential Islamic scholar, known for his extensive knowledge of the Quran, Hadith, and Islamic law, as well as his ability to convey complex concepts in a clear and accessible manner. His work has helped to promote understanding and harmony within the Muslim community, and his lectures and writings continue to inspire and guide people on their spiritual journey.
source: http://www.thecognate.com / The Cognate / Home> Famous Muslims / by The Cognate News Desk / January 12th, 2023
In a ceremony held at Chowmahalla Palace which was attended by close family members, Azmat Jah was coronated as successor to Mir Barkat Ali Khan Mukarram Jah Bahadur.
Hyderabad:
Azmat Jah, a professional photographer and filmmaker who worked with leading Hollywood directors, has taken over as successor of his father Mukarram Jah, the eighth and last formal Nizam of Hyderabad who passed away in Turkey last week.
In a ceremony held at Chowmahalla Palace which was attended by close family members, Azmat Jah was coronated as successor to Mir Barkat Ali Khan Mukarram Jah Bahadur.
Mukarram Jah’s first wife and Azmat Jah’s mother Princess Esra, sister Shekhyar and some other family members attended the ‘Dastar Bandi’ or coronation.
It was at the same palace that Mukarram Jah was coronated at in 1967 after the death of his grandfather and seventh Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, who was the last ruler of Hyderabad State.
‘No official status’
His coronation will have no official status or title of ninth Nizam as the government of India had abolished princely titles and privileges in 1971. As per the wish of his late father, he will be the caretaker of Nizam’s properties and Nizam Trusts.
According to sources, Mukarram Jah desired that his eldest son becomes his successor. It is believed that the coronation as successor will be symbolic but significant for legal purposes.
Mir Mohammed Azmat Ali Khan, also known as Azmat Jah, was born in London on July 23, 1960. He had early education in London and later studied at the University of Southern California.
A professional photographer and filmmaker, he has worked with leading Hollywood directors such as Steven Spielberg and Richard Attenborough.
Mukarram Jah Bahadur, the titular eighth Nizam of Hyderabad who passed away in Turkey on January 14, was buried at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad on January 18 with full state honours.
Mukarram Jah, grandson of last Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur, passed away in Istanbul at the age of 89.
Born to Prince Azam Jah and Princess Durru Shehvar, the imperial princess of the Ottoman Empire, on October 6, 1933 in France, Mukarram Jah was coronated as Asaf Jah the Eighth on April 6, 1967, after the passing away of Mir Osman Ali Khan in February 1967.
Mukarram Jah was called Prince of Hyderabad till 1971, when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi abolished all titles. He was also said to be India’s richest person till the 1980s. He lived most of his life in Turkey and Australia.
source: http://www.ummid.com / Ummid.com / Home> Education & Career / by IANS / January 22nd, 2023
(L-R) Guyanese President HE Mohammed Irfaan Ali , Indian American businessman, Lutfi Syed Hassan and former chairman of CII, Madhya Pradesh, Mr Praveen Agarwal.
Guyanese President HE Mohammed Irfaan Ali converted the official visit into a business interactive opportunity for Guyanese business delegation.
President Mohammed Irfaan Ali was focused on educating the audience of the humongous investment opportunities Guyana offers to friendly nations like India in many facets of developments taking place in the Co-Operative Republic of Guyana.
Indian American businessman, Lutfi Syed Hassan, remained one of the key movers behind the grand event held at The Park Hotel Indore. Mr Hassan serves as the Honorary Consul General to the Southwestern United States. Along with Mr Hassan, former chairman of CII, Madhya Pradesh, Mr Praveen Agarwal also one of the prominent faces of the Business Meet which saw the participation of as many as over 50 successful Indian firms participated in the Business Meet.
Business community from Guyana and India attending the Meet.
A day after the business meet, MoUs were signed between Guyanese & Indian manufacturing companies as a precursor to many other positive developments to follow through.
“The key is for all these successful Indian firms who attended Meet .. to visit Guyana in the near future to monetize on the opportunities the president has laid out. There is a new awakening taking place about Guyana across the world. The sooner you get there, the better it is for companies to situate themselves in the most business friendly environment the beautiful country of Guyana offers,” the co-organizer, Mr Hassan stated.
On the sidelines of the Meet President Ali attended a lunch meeting with the PM Modi on 9th January and an award ceremony was felicitated to him by the President on 10th January.
Meanwhile, President Ali on Thursday was honored for his hard work, dedication, and responsible approach to leadership and development with an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy and Management Studies.
The degree was conferred to him by his alma mater, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in Delhi, India during a special ceremony.
During his 5 days official visit the President visited Indore, Delhi, Kanpur and Bangalore.
Guyana received a huge boost in terms of recognition as the top emerging economies of the world with a 57% GDP growth last year.
Hassan, a resident of Houston, Texas for the past 40 years originally hails from Hyderabad and has been associated with Democratic Party for the past 28 years.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Economy / by Special Correspondent / January 18th, 2023
“Nizam Mir Barkat Ali Khan Siddiqi Mukarram Jah, Asaf Jah VIII or simply Prince Mukarram Jah Bahadur was really an exceptional person, my special brother. At his best he had a very sharp mind, an exceptional memory and the powers of concentration.
“We were at a social function, possibly a dinner at a marriage with musicians playing and people dinning at their tables and others dancing on the floor. It was crowded and noisy. Seated at our table my special brother reached into a pocket inside his jacket, took out a bunch of plain foolscap paper and started writing. He hardly took time to pause and think, and with total concentration filled several sheets completely undistracted by the hubbub around us.
Exclusive to Siasat.com
“When he had finished and put the papers away I asked my special brother what he had been writing; he said: It was a report I had to compile, and it has to be in tomorrow. When I asked him how he wrote the report without notes or back-up papers, he just tapped the side of his head, meaning all he needed was in his memory.
“My brother was the second best extemporary speaker I ever heard, and I have had listened to many off the cuff speeches in my time, and by the best of them, from Pandit ji and Mrs. Gandhi downwards. He would sometimes take a pre-prepared speech to a function, but he often set it aside and talked from the heart, winning the rapt attention and the appreciation of his audience.
Full Mir Barkat Ali Khan Mukarram Jah Asaf Jah VIIIs Coronation Gaddi Nashini Ceremony (Complete)
“More often my brother spoke without any prepared speech and he enjoyed it, and so did the listeners. I was sitting next to him on the podium once and while an earlier speaker was ploughing through his material, my brother seemed to pick up on something just said and lent towards me and asked: what is a good word for citizen in Urdu, and I said, ‘shehri’.
“When he was asked to address the gathering my brother stood and delivered a ringing speech, totally off the cuff, on the rights of a shehri and his obligations and duties responsibilities that got a standing cheer when he finished. “So who was the best extemporary speaker I ever heard? Our grandfather. But he and my brother were both exceptional.
“My brother was also an exceptional engineer. He could and did build vehicles entirely from the drawings/diagrams in his head. He could fix any machine and get it working better than before. However, his was a gift to be exercised as a one-off each time…it had to be something new he created or a new, difficult mechanical problem that he would solve. It did not interest him to put his gift to work in a systematic manufacturing way or on commercial lines.
(Left)Muffakham Jah and Mukarram Jah
“And my brother was an exceptional gymnast. We see the young people now-a-days on the television doing those fantastic leaps and turns and summersaults at the Olympics; well I saw it all seventy years ago being performed just as well by my special brother.
“At school he was the captain of the gym team as he was at Cambridge University, getting a half blue for it. Only a half, as athletics was then considered a minor sport.
“After Cambridge my special brother attended Sandhurst, the British military academy, and graduated with honours and was offered a commission in the Royal Engineers of the British Army. He did not accept that and returned to Hyderabad as our grandfather wanted him at home.
“But then Pandit ji wanted him in New Delhi, and kept him as a guest in his own home for months and took him with him to functions and other events. He wanted to groom my brother and wanted the country to benefit from his services. Pandit ji suggested to my special brother that he should start by joining the Indian Foreign Service, hinting that he would soon be invited to take the post of an Ambassador in a suitable country.
“I am not sure why that offer did not get taken up. I think our grandfather, again, said that my brother should stay close to home. By then my grandfather must have been feeling his age, and wished my brother to be prepared for future responsibilities in Hyderabad.
“If my brother inherited the gift of making extemporary speeches from our grandfather, he must have inherited his gift of making people laugh from our father. They both had the gift of making people double up with laughter and of telling humorous anecdotes as only the exceptionally gifted story tellers could.
“They could make you laugh till the tears rolled down your cheeks.
“Now again, tears, but for My special brother.
May God grant him eternal peace.”
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Featured News / by Muffakham Jah, Special Contributor / January 17th, 2023
He was officially called the Prince of Hyderabad until 1971.
File photo
Hyderabad:
Nizam Mir Barkat Ali Khan Siddiqi Mukarram Jah, Asaf Jah VIII, the grandson of Hyderabad’s last Nizam Osman Ali Khan passed away last night at 10:30 pm in Istanbul, Turkey.
As per his desire of being laid to rest in his homeland, his children are scheduled to travel to Hyderabad with the mortal remains of the late Nizam on Tuesday.
On arrival, the body will be taken to The Chowmahalla Palace and after completing the required rituals the burial will take place at the Asaf Jahi family tombs.
Apart from the titular Nizam of Hyderabad since the death of his grandfather in 1967, he was the chairperson of Nizam’s Charitable Trust and Mukarram Jah Trust for Education & Learning (MJTEL).
Born to Azam Jah and Princess Duru Shehvar
He was born to Azam Jah, son of Mir Osman Ali Khan, and Princess Duru Shehvar, daughter of the last Sultan of Turkey (Ottoman Empire) Sultan Abdul Mejid II on October 6, 1933.
After completing his initial studies at the Doon School in Dehradun, he studied at Harrow and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He also studied at the London School of Economics and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Until the 1980s, he was the richest person in India.
Eighth Nizam of Hyderabad
On June 14, 1954, Mir Osman Ali Khan designated him as the successor designate. His succession was recognized in principle by the Government of India. He was officially called the Prince of Hyderabad until 1971 when the titles and the privy purses were abolished by the Indian Union.
Prince Mukarram Jah first married Princess Esra of Turkey with whom he has two children—Prince Azmat Ali Khan and Princess Shehkyar. He later married Ms Helen Simmons of Australia with whom he has one son Prince Alexander Azam Khan. He too is said to be living in London. Still later he married Manolya Onur with whom he has a daughter Niloufer. His fourth wife is Jamila Boularous. Their daughter is Zairin Unnisa Begum.
In Hyderabad, he has many properties including Falaknuma Palace, Khilwat Palace, King Koti and Chiran Palace.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> Hyderabad / by Sameer Khan / January 15th, 2023
The Rs 15-crore, 40,000 sqft modern facility that can accommodate 300 people was opened last week.
Yusuffali M A and Punalur Somarajan bring two wheelchair-bound inmates to the prayer hall of Gandhibhavan.
Kochi:
In September 2016, after laying the foundation stone of his proposed mall in Thiruvananthapuram, Lulu Group chairman and managing director Yusuffali M A visited Gandhibhavan, a destitute home for senior citizens and children in Pathanapuram, Kollam. The sight of elderly women left orphaned by their children troubled the UAE-based businessman, who runs 255 stores and shopping malls in the Gulf and other parts of the globe.
“He could not fathom how aged mothers could be abandoned in a destitute home by their children. And this troubled him no end,” a confidant said. The next few months and years saw Yusuffali visiting the inmates of Gandhibhavan at regular intervals and supporting them with their medical, food and other requirements. In the process, he supported the home with around Rs 7.5 crore for the medical, food, and clothing needs of the inmates.
Around the same time, Yusuffali also got personally involved in setting up a three-storey elderly home for the women of Gandhibhavan. The Rs 15-crore, 40,000 sqft modern facility that can accommodate 300 people was opened last week. Gandhibhavan, founded by Dr Punalur Somarajan, a public figure who lost his mother early in his life, will be run as earlier with Yusuffali as its mentor.
Gandhibhavan building
inauguration of the new building, constructed over three years, was also unique: it was carried out by three aged mothers of the care home, and no politician was invited. The ‘griha pravesh’ (housewarming) was completed when Yusuffali and Somarajan helped two inmates in wheelchairs into their respective rooms. The billionaire has also provided adjustable side-rail beds, furniture, two lifts, a laboratory, pharmacy, library, prayer rooms, dining hall, a doctor’s consulting room, and modern waste-management facility, among others, for the elderly home.
“The responsibility of taking care of aged parents rests with their children. Only 15 women of Gandhibhavan are unwed. The remaining women had grown-up children, who had abandoned them. I built the new facility so that their sunset years will be spent at a good place and in abundance,” Yussufali said at the opening of the new home.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / January 12th, 2023
Sheikh Asif, founder, Thames Infotech, holding one of his books
Breaking the stereotype of a company chief, Srinagar’s Asif Sheikh, a school dropout, is the CEO and founder of Thames Infotech, a Manchester-based company with a turnover of Rs 5 crore! He has just turned 28.
“I believe that a person who works hard, with dedication and honesty is always successful; he can never give up even when many a time one loses the courage to carry on. There were setbacks and at the time I did seem to lose courage, but I did not give up,” Sheikh Asif told Awaz-the Voice in a telephonic interview.
Asif’s success is extraordinary given his poor educational background and reaching a position that many persons with degrees from top-end colleges aspire to.
Besides being a successful entrepreneur, Asif is also a professional web designer, developer, graphic designer, digital marketer, and writer. He also gives back to society by giving free tuition to students from all over the world.
Sheikh Asif’s work profile is interesting: he worked with a tour and travel company, sold medical equipment for a company, and with telecom companies like Airtel, Vodafone, and Aircel.
Sheikh Asif deliving a talk on business
In the year 2000, Sheikh Asif was 8 years old when his father’s health deteriorated. His father was a head constable. Due to his father’s illness, the family was reduced to penury. Sheikh Asif says that his father’s illness remains a mystery as the family consulted experts and eminent doctors but nobody could diagnose it.
Sheikh Asif told Awaz-the Voice that his mother sold most of the household assets and took loans to pay for his father’s treatment.
Recalling those days, Asif says that he can never forget one particular day when he was studying in the eighth grade and was to write his exam, but he had no pen. “I was leaving for the examination hall and was worried. My mother came to know the reason for my worry, she sold a copper dish from her kitchen to buy me a pen.”
He says that his mother often sold household goods for the family, especially to meet the needs of the children.
The conditions at home were not conducive for Sheikh Asif to continue his studies. He left school and started working to support his family.
“I went against my mother’s wishes, as she wanted me to become a doctor most parents in Kashmir do, but I gave up my studies to support my financially broke family,” said. He was 15 years old in 2008 when he started earning for his family by doing odd jobs.
Sheikh Asif
Sheikh Asif was always fascinated by computers and spent a lot of time on them. Due to this, he got his first job as a data entry operator with a local tour and travel company at the age of 16. He earned a salary of Rs 1500.
Sheikh Asif said seeing his interest his father took a loan from a bank to buy him a computer. The turning point in his life came as he watched an interview with Microsoft founder Bill Gates on BBC.
He took full advantage of his computer and yet the challenge was the lack of a high-speed broadband facility in Kashmir. While the rest of the world was running 4G internet, in his locality only 2G internet was available.
He left his first job within two months and started working in a local shop as a salesman for four years. Here he honed his skills and learned all the basics including graphics designing, web designing, etc.
Again there was a rough patch in his life as in the 2014 Kashmir floods, his house was washed away. He used all his savings in rebuilding his house. The family had to start from scratch as all their household belonging had got damaged and washed away.
In the year 2014, he quit his job and started his business, but it turned out to be a year full of troubles for him.
Sheikh Asif’s Srinagar office
However, fortunately, the next year Asif got an opportunity to work in Delhi, and the exposure there opened his mind to a bigger canvas.
“The 2014 flood severely damaged our house and we had to repair or renovate it periodically for four consecutive years after the flood and finally had to sell the house in 2018,” he said.
In the meantime, he worked with OLX from April 2015, and from there he was offered a job at Trimax Printing and Graphics, a UK-based company owned by Tajinder Singh. He was working for the company Hayes Harlington. The company runs an online general store and it had no element of graphic designing till then.
Sheikh Asif told Awaz-The Voice: “I worked for Chanda Trimax Printings & Graphics. Meanwhile, the killing of a militant in Kashmir saw the valley under lockdown for nearly three months. For this reason, I left for Delhi.”
When he met Tajinder Singh in Delhi, the latter was facing issues with his business. His business was suffering due to low sales. Having seen his latent, Tajinder Singh offered him a job at Hayes, Harlington, UK, where Tajinder’s brothers were already working.
Sheikh Asif says he consulted his mother before picking the UKL job. He signed an agreement to work for 18 months and an assured return flight ticket to India.
“They told me that they had changed the name of Trimax Printings & Graphics to Thames Infotech on June 6, 2016,” Asif said.
He set foot on foreign soil for the first time in the first week of November 2016. However, the business did not show positive results there either, thus Tajinder’s brother advised him to find a part-time job in the UK to meet his expenses.
“When I was looking for a part-time job, I met Rizwan, a Kashmiri man originally from Baramulla district in North Kashmir, who came to Manchester in 2000 and now runs a restaurant, Riz Spices.
Sheikh Rizwan offered him a space in his restaurant to set up a part-time business. “Two months later I met another man, Hamza Salim, a senior software engineer at Google, who asked me to build a website for his tech company, on the condition that only if he liked my work I would be paid,” he said.
After approving his website design, Hamza Salim offered him 50 percent equity in his firm.
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During this time, Asif meet many people including natives and others, and kept looking for opportunities.
One such person was Rudrigo Ruiz Karvajal, who frequented the restaurant. He offered me a place that was quite conveniently located. He told me that his father had started his business from there.
“I got my first order for a logo for which I was paid 500 pounds and I was only expecting 30-40 pounds. They gave me another order to build a website for which I was paid 7000 pounds.”
“I was wondering if it’s a dream. Never expected such high remuneration. This order was from the largest food chain in London called Zabka.”
On June 9, 2016, Asif took over the Thames Infotech Manchester UK company which has a current turnover of Rs 5 crore.
It has an office at Advent Colony in Naugam, Srinagar, Kashmir. He employs 35 locals including 32 in UK and 3 in Kashmir for website designing and development, digital marketing, graphics designing, personal branding, social media handling, etc.
Sheikh Asif told Awaz-The Voice that our company is a leading web designing company and has won the 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 awards as the Three Best Rated UK, and Best IT Service Provider Award 2018, 2019 organized by Top Developers USA, he claims.
Sheikh Asif said that he received the first award in the year 2003, less than one year after his launching of his company.
So far, Asif has trained around 1000 students, helped 40 businesses through the Covid-19 pandemic, and has published three books – Digitization In Business, Online Business Idea, and Start a Business.
Sheikh Asif was named Entrepreneur of the year 2022 by The Fireboxx. There he was honored by Google as a Digital Marketing Expert in 2018.
To the youth, Sheikh Asif says they must never lose hope and always keep their focus on business. Secondly, they must avoid drugs. They shouldn’t waste their lives by getting immersed in romantic liaison and heartbreaks; these are temporary phases of life and not a goal. “Your personality is your work,” he says.
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Youth / by Shah Imran Hasan, New Delhi / December 17th, 2022
