People bade a tearful adieu to Bhopal’s first plastic surgeon Dr. Zaheer-ul-Islam when he passed away here on Wednesday last.
Bhopal:
People bade a tearful adieu to Bhopal’s first plastic surgeon Dr. Zaheer-ul-Islam when he passed away here on Wednesday last. He was in his late eighties. He is survived by his wife and a large number of relatives and friends to mourn his loss.
Dr. Zaheer-ul-Islam was laid to rest in the graveyard near Bhopal Talkies late in the evening after his Namaz-e-Janaza was performed in the courtyard of historic Sufiya Masjid.
Hundreds of people of Bhopal expressed their heartfelt tributes to him. He was known for his work as well as his cheerful behaviour and smiling face.
Education and Career
Dr Zaheer took his MBBS degree from Indore Medical College and did specialisation in Plastic Surgery from Patna Medical College.
In the cases of plastic surgery, 40 years ago, when different types of techniques were not available, in that era, the record of successful operation of big plastic surgeries remained in the name of Dr. Zaheer.
Pioneer in sex reassignment surgery
He was a pioneer and credited with Madhya Pradesh’s first sex reassignment surgery which was the biggest achievement of his life.
In 1977 he performed a surgery to change the sex of a girl to make her a boy. He changed the gender of a girl named Munnibai to Munnalal.
In the history of plastic surgery, Dr. Zaheer, who was honoured with many conferences and awards at international level, was also called abroad.
Dr. Zaheer served in Bhopal’s Hamidia Hospital associated to Gandhi Medical College (GMC), for nearly 30 years. Along with this, he also taught at GMC. From there he took voluntary retirement.
A poet and aerial photographer too
Apart from this he was a multifarious personality with a poetic blood flowing in his veins. He paid poetic tributes to his near and dear ones who departed this world by composing “Qata’t” which was published in Nadeem, an Urdu daily newspaper. Just 24 hours before he went to eternal sleep he recited the last “Qat’a’” of his life in a video recording saying:
“Mere janaze pe pura shahar tha sharik; ek tum nahin the jiska mujh ko intezar tha”.
He was also an expert aerial photographer with a passion to document the evolving city of lakes.
GMC golden jubilee celebrations were held in 2005. Dr. Zaheer was scriptwriter for the documentary ‘Down the memory lane’. For the poet it came naturally. His passion for aerial photography made him many friends and some dubbed him as ‘would be pilot’.
Dr. Zaheer’s aerial photography of Bhopal dates before the age of the internet and satellite imagery. He welcomed anyone who wanted to use his pictures for publication. As early in 2000, Dr Zaheer digitized his collection for preservation. He also was one of the first to use videos in medical conferences for demonstration.
According to GMC’s Assistant Professor Dr. S. K. Patne plastic surgeon Dr. Zahir was one of our favourite teachers in the medical college and was the first to showcase aerial photographs of the GMC campus, proving college building was designed in shape of medical cross from the top.
source: http://www.ummid.com / Ummid.com / Home> Inda / by Pervez Bari / July 30th, 2022
On the occasion of 74th Independence Day, let us remember these Muslim women who proved their strength, enthusiasm and determinism in the fight for freedom.
These women broke the stereotype of Muslim women in the society, who are merely perceived to be clad in Burqha and were never let out of the house. They participated in the India’s struggle for independence and emerged victorious.
Begum Hazrat Mahal (1830–1879)
Begum Hazrat Mahal, a prominent woman of 1857 rebellion, was born in 1830 Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh. Her actual name was Muhammadi Khanum. Her father is Gulam Hussain of Faizabad. At her tender age itself, she showed good talent in literature.
She was married to Wajid Ali Shah, the Nawab of Awadh. They were blessed with a son Mirza Birjis Khadir Bahadur. On 13 February, 1856, the British troops imprisoned Wajid Ali Shah. They sent him to Calcutta on 13 March and occupied Awadh illegitimately. This irked the people and native rulers.
They revolted against the British under the leadership of Begum Hazrat Mahal. The native rulers and people met at Chavani area of Lucknow, the capital of Awadh on 31May, 1857 and declared independence. They taught a lesson to the British troops and wiped out their power in Lucknow. Later, Begum Hazrat Mahal declared her son Birjis Khadir as the Nawab of Awadh on 7 July, 1857.
As the King’s mother, she gathered 1,80,000 troops and renovated the Lucknow fort spending huge amount of money. She established a high level committee for the good governance of the state. Hazarat Mahal ruled the state on behalf of her son for about ten months and challenged the British force by inspiring patriotism among the people and the fellow native rulers. She issued a historic statement on 31 December, 1858 challenging the proclamation issued by the Queen Victoria on November 1, 1858.
But, when Delhi, the prime center for the First War of Independence was captured, the British troops surrounded and attacked Lucknow in March 1859. There was a fierce battle between the Company troops and the Begum troops. When defeat became inevitable, Begum Hazrat Mahal retreated to the Nepal forests along with the co-revolutionary leaders like Nana Sahib Peshwa and others.
The British rulers offered her huge amount of money and luxurious facilities in order to bring her back to Lucknow. But, the Begum denied them and made it clear that nothing else was acceptable to her except Independent Awadh state. Begum Hazarath Mahal was struggling for the independence of her state till her last breath. She passed away at Khathmound of Nepal on 7 April, 1879. In 1984 Government of India released a postal stamp in her honour.
Abadi Bano Begum (1852-1924)
Abadi Bano Begum, who took active part at par with men in the Indian National Movement, was born in 1852 in Amroha village, Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh. She was married to Abdul Ali Khan of the Princely State Rampur.
Though she lost her husband at a young age, she did not remarry. She had two sons Moulana Mohammed Ali and Moulana Showkath Ali, who were famous as ‘Ali Brothers’. She nurtured her children, into becoming memorable leaders of the Indian Independence Movement. Her involvement in the freedom movement began with the Home Rule Movement, to which she rendered moral and most importantly, financial support.
When the British government detained the Ali Brothers in Chindanwad village, under the Indian Defence Regulations, she went along with them. When a police official proposed for the surrender of her sons, she bluntly refused saying, ‘If my sons agree to the proposal of the government, I will kill them by strangulation. I hope God will bestow enough energy into this old woman’s hands’. Abadi Bano met Mahatma Gandhi in 1917 for the first time.
There after Mahatma Gandhi always addressed her ‘Ammijan’, and all other freedom fighters followed Gandhi’s address. She helped Mahatma Gandhi and other Khilafath leaders financially for undertaking all India tours.
She attended the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League sessions in 1917, held at Calcutta. She spoke in those meetings emphasising that complete freedom could be achieved through unity between Hindus and Muslims.
She also played a constructive role in the Khilafat and Non[1]Cooperation Movement in 1919. She declared in several meetings that ‘it was her ambition that even the dogs and cats of her country should not be under the slavery of the British’.
The fact that the British government official records treated her as a ‘dangerous person’, which established the kind of challenge she hurled at the colonial rule.
Apart from participating in politics she also guided several women’s organisations all over India. So intensely patriotic and nationalist that Abadi Bano Begum who played an active role in national movement without caring old age, ill health and cruel atrocities of police, breathed her last on 13 November, 1924.
BIBI AMATUS SALAM (1907-1985)
Bibi Amatus Salam, who strongly believed that freedom from the slavery of British could be achieved, through the Gandhian methods only, was born in 1907 in Patiala of Punjab in Rajputhana family.
Her father was Colonel Abdul Hamid and her mother Amatur Rehaman. Amatus Salam was the younger sister of six elder brothers. Her health was very delicate since her childhood. She was inspired by her eldest brother, freedom fighter Mohammad Abdur Rashid Khan.
Following the footsteps of her brother, she decided to serve the people of the country.
Amatus Salam participated in the Khadi Movement and attended the meetings of the Indian National Movement along with her brother. She was attracted towards the Non[1]Violence theory of Mahathma Gandhi and Sevagram Ashram.
She decided to join Sevagram Ashram, and went there in 1931. She joined Ashram and followed the strict principles of the Ashram. With her selfless service she became very close to Gandhi couple.
They considered Amatus Salam as their beloved daughter. During the Indian National Movement, she went to jail along with other women in 1932 despite her illness with the permission of Gandhi.
After being released from Jail, she reached Sevagram and took over the responsibilities as Personal Assistant of Gandhi. She said that besides achieving independence, harmony between the Hindus and Muslims, Welfare of the Harijans and Women were her life ambitions. When communal riots erupted, she toured North-West Frontier, Sindh and Noukhali areas as an ambassador of Gandhi.
She held Satyagraha for 20 days to normalize the situation in those areas. After Independence, she rededicated herself to the Public Service. She published an Urdu Magazine called ‘Hindustan’ to promote national integration and communal harmony. When Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan toured in India in 1961, she travelled with him as his personal assistant. When India was at war with
China in 1962 and with Pakistan in 1965, she took all the pains in reaching the mountains or war area along with her adopted son Sunil Kumar to encourage our soldiers and to serve them. Bibi Amatus Salam, who spent all her life following the Gandhian ideology, breathed her last on 29 October, 1985.
HAJARA BEGUM (1910-2003)
Hajara Begum, who fought against the British to liberate the Nation and worked for the welfare of the toiling masses of the country, was born on 22 December, 1910 at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. She came to know about the sacrifices of the freedom fighters who were fighting against the British from her father, who was a police officer.
After the failure of her marriage, she went to London to pursue her higher education, where she got acquainted with the anti-British forces. This led her to decide to fight against the British Imperialist forces to liberate the nation. She had to face the anger of the British Government as she was criticizing their acts in several International fora.
She returned to India and joined as a lecturer in the Karamat Hussain women’s College at Lucknow in 1935.
She also worked along with famous poet Sajjad Zahir in the formation of All India Progressive Writers’ Association.
She got married to a nationalist leader Dr. Zainul Abedeen Ahmed in 1935 and in the same year both of them took membership in the Indian National Congress. Since the police were after them for their anti-British activities, they resigned their jobs and dedicated themselves totally to the Indian National Movement.
While participating in the activities of the Indian National Congress, Hajara Begum also campaigned for the Communist Party without the knowledge of the Police. She actively took part in the election campaign in those days, and as a result of this a number of Congress leaders could get elected. She attended a secret political workshop at Kotthapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in 1937.
She spoke on different subjects in the workshop as a lecturer. Hajara Begum was against the gender bias since her younger age. She fought against all types of inequalities successfully. She left the Indian National Congress in 1940 along with her husband. Since then, she played a vital role in organizing the unorganized labour sector.
She became very popular as ‘Hajara Aapa’ in the circles of toiling people and women. The Soviet Union honoured her with ‘Supreme Soviet Jubilee Award’ in 1960 in recognition of her work for the downtrodden people on the eve of the birth centenary of Lenin. Hajara Begum, who spent her entire life in the service of the country, breathed her last on 20 January, 2003.
Syed Naseer Ahamed can be contacted at Phone: +91 94402 41727
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Featured News / by Nihad Ahmed / Input by Syed Naseer Ahmed / August 15th, 2020
After the Second World War, soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) were captured by the British forces. They were charged with treason and tried by tribunals as war criminals. Indians protested against this treatment given to the freedom fighters of Azad Hind Fauj.
In February, 1945, soldiers and officers of the Royal Indian Navy mutinied in Mumbai and Karachi. English officials including the Viceroy took this mutiny as a sign of leaving India. The British forces killed many to quell the mutiny, many of which were Muslims.
Here, we are sharing names of the few Muslims we know, who attained martyrdom for taking part in the mutiny or supporting it.
Abdul, Ali, Din Mohammad: born 1929, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Nagpada, Bombay, on 23 February 1946, died the same day.
Abdul Aziz: born 1921, domestic servant, hit by bullet in the premises of his employers as a result of firing by the police at Bombay on people demonstrating in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Abdul Razak: born 1916, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound on 22 February 1946 in firing by the police near Crawford market, Bombay, died on 24.2.46.
Abdul Rehman: born 1911, employee of private firm, hit by a bullet as a result of firing by the police at Doctor’s Street, Bombay, on people demonstrating in support of the revolt by rating of the Royal Indian Navy on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Abdul Gani: born 1901, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by police at Bombay on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Abdul Karim: born 1926, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police near Crawford Market, Bombay, on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Abdul Sattar, Mohmmad Umar: born 1924, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police on 22 February 1946 at Bombay, died the same day.
Abdulla, Abdul Kadar: born 1921, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Bern- bay on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Abdulla, Safi: born 1933, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound on 22 February 1946 in firing by the police at Fort, Bombay, died in hospital the same day.
Adamji, Mohamed Hussain: born 1924, son of Allauddin Adamji, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound on 22 February 1946, in firing by the police at Bombay, died in hospital.
Ali Mohammad: born 1906, hit by bullet in firing by the police at Dadar, Bombay, on people demonstrating in favour of the revolt by ratings of the RIN on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Anwar Hossain: a student of Lahore College, hoisted the flags of revolt in the rating vessel Bahadur in Karachi, died with flags in hand on 23 February 1946.
Asgar Ismail: born 1934, received a bullet wound in firing by the police on people demonstrating in support of the revolt by ratings of the Hoyal Indian Navy on 23 February 1946, near the Paxsi Statue, at Byculla, Bombay, died on the spot.
Asghar Miya, Nawsati: born 1916, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police near the J. J. Hospital, Bombay, on 23 February 1946, died in hospital.
Aziz, Chhotu: born 1921, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Bombay on 23 February 1946, died in hospital the same day.
Dilawar, Abdul Malik: born 1931, son of Dilawar Muzawar, student, hit by bullet in firing by the police at Dongri, Bombay, on people demonstrating in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Fida Ali, Kayam Ali: born 1933, received a bullet wound in firing by the police near J. J. Hospital, Bombay, on people demonstrating in favour of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy on 23 February 1946, died the same day.
Gulam Hussain, Ali Mohammad: born 1906, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police’ at Bombay on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Haroon, Hamid: born 1931, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Bombay, on 23 February 1946, died the same day.
Ibrahimji, Yusufali: born 1910, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Bombay on people’s demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Ismail Hussain: born 1932, hit by bullet as a result of firing by the police at Bombay on people demonstrating in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy on 22 February 1946.
Ismail, Rahimtulla: bom 1911, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police near the Imperial Bank, Abdul Rehman Street, Bombay, on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Jamal Mohammed: born 1926, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Bombay on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Khuda Bakhsh, Pyare: born 1876, hit by bullet as a result of firing by the police at Bombay on people demonstrating in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy on 23 February 1946, died the same day.
Manzoor Ahmed: born 1906, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound; in firing by the police at Bombay on 22 February 1946, died in hospital the same day.
Mohammed, Aboobakar: born 1928, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the RIN, received a bullet wound in firing by the police near Crawford Market, Bombay on 22 February 1946, died in hospital the same day.
Mohammed Aziz: born 1911, took part in the popular demonstra- lions in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Bombay on 22 February 1946, died in hospital the same day.
Mohammed Hussain: born 1931, son of Mulla Gulam Ali Abdul Hussain, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police near J. J. Hospital, Bombay, on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Mohammed Sheik, Sayed Hassan: born 1921, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police near Null Bazar police station, Bombay, on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Mohiddin, Sheik Ghulam: born 1928, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Parel, Bombay, on 22 February 1916, died the same day.
Mohmed Samikh, Taja-Urkh: born 1920, hit by bullet as a result of firing by the police at Kamathipura, Bombay, on people’s demonstration in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy on 23 February 1946, died the same day.
Moula Bakhsh, Abdul Aziz: born 1906, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Kamathipura, Bombay, on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Siddik Mohamed: born 1921, son of Isak Mohamed, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Kamathipura, Bombay, on 23 February 1946, died the same day.
Sulemanji, Zakiuddin: took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police at Bombay on 22 February 1946, died in the hospital the same day.
Taj Mohamed, Fazal Mohamed: born 1930, took part in the popular demonstrations in support of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police near the Salvation Army office at Bombay, on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
Vazir, Mohamed: born 1891, took part in the popular demonstrations in favour of the revolt by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy, received a bullet wound in firing by the police near Hindmata Cinema, Bombay, on 22 February 1946, died the same day.
source: http://www.heritagetimes.in / Heritage Times / Home> Featured Posts> Freedom Movements / by Mahino Fatima / August 14th, 2021
One of the most important but undervalued events of India’s independence movement was the naval revolt of 1946, about which Indian historian Sumit Sarker wrote, “Had this insurrection succeeded, India’s struggle for freedom might have taken a different turn.” From February 18 to 23 that year, more than 20,000 ordinary sailors, known as ratings, and low-ranking officers of 74 warships and 20 installations took part in a strike, which was termed as a mutiny or rebellion.
After Bengal lost its independence at Palashi’s Mango grove in 1757, the British Raj in India faced two major armed revolts: the first one was exactly after one hundred years, the military revolt of 1857, and the second one was 189 years later, the naval mutiny. Both in 1757 and 1857, the freedom fighters were defeated by the arms and tactics of the British rulers, but the naval mutiny failed because of the politicians in India then. It was not only the ratings’ mutiny that the political leadership had decided not to support – the civilian uprising triggered by the naval mutiny, too, was condemned by them. The scale of the civilian uprising, if it happened in a post-colonial era, would have created a revolution or at least caused the fall of the government of the day.
Three days after the mutiny ended and the civilian uprising was crushed with brutal force, the then British Prime Minister Clement Atlee told the House of Commons on February 26, 1946, “I regret to inform the House that grievous loss of life, injury and destruction of property have resulted from all these disturbances. In Bombay, there have been 223 deaths and 1,037 persons have been injured. The total damage includes the looting or destruction of nine banks, 32 government grain and cloth shops which the public can ill-afford to lose, 30 other shops, 10 post offices, 10 police stations and 1,200 street lamps. The number of vehicles destroyed is not yet estimated. In Karachi, there have been seven deaths and 21 cases of injury. In Madras, up to last night, one person has been killed and another seriously injured” (Source: Hansard).
Mr Atlee in his statement said, “Both Congress and Muslim League leaders cooperated in condemning and attempting to stop the disturbances, but the Communist Party issued a manifesto at midnight on Thursday thanking the public for its support.” It perhaps explains why, to this day, the political classes of the three countries born from the partition of India are not willing to admit their failure and give those mutineers and civilian martyrs their due credit. Therefore, in 2021, there was no big event in the subcontinent to mark the 75th anniversary of the naval revolt.
Mohammad Dewan Ali Nazir, Royal Indian Navy, Index no: 34499.
On a personal level, it’s ironic that, despite studying history at the country’s two top universities, I, too, did not take much interest in it during my student life. When I first heard of the rebellion from a mutineer, I had already taken a job and started my professional journey devoid of in-depth history. The mutineer I am talking about was my father, who spoke about his role and feelings about the lost cause during one of my short home visits. My father, Mohammad Dewan Ali Nazir (Royal Indian Navy, RIN, Index no: 34499) was one of the last 3,500 sailors and 300 sepoys who refused to surrender until the last on board of HMIS Akbar.
They were detained after surrendering and were released in August of that year. The mediation and the assurances given by the leaders of both Congress and Muslim League turned out to be nothing but betrayal. Though the uprising was a challenge to the Empire, shaking up the British imperial order, the leaders of the nationalist movement waiting to form an interim government through negotiations were not ready to derail that prospect.
Newspaper clipping of the Evening News.
The leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League did not want a revolution – they wanted a peaceful transfer of power. Among the leading politicians, only Congress leader Aruna Asaf Ali extended her support to the ratings’ strike and tried to persuade her party leaders to take a stand in favour of the strikers, but failed in the face of opposition from Vallabhbhai Patel. On February 22, Vallabhbhai Patel sent a message to the rebels to surrender. Only the Communist Party of India came forward in support of the naval revolt and called a general strike. Reading the memoir of one of the key figures of the revolt, Balai Chand Dutt (BC Dutt), and a few other publications, one can easily imagine how much frustration and pain those mutineers felt because of the national leaders’ silence, which they saw as a betrayal. Perhaps it explains why my father, too, lost interest in politics and didn’t speak much about the heroic uprising that ended in a tragedy.
Those nationalist leaders, including Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, advised them “not to mix up ‘political demands along with service demands’; to ‘remain calm’ and to formulate to the naval authorities their service demands.”
But from the very beginning, those naval ratings were raising political demands – particularly, the Quit India slogan.
Their Charter of Demands asked for: 1. Release of all Indian political prisoners; 2. Release of all Indian National Army personnel unconditionally; 3. Withdrawal of all Indian troops from Indonesia and Egypt; 4. British nationals to leave India; 5. Actions against the commanding officer and signal bosonshead for rough treatment of the crew; 6. Release of all detainees (naval ratings); 7. Speedy demobilisation of the RIN ratings and officers; 8. Equal status with the British navy regarding pay, family allowances and other facilities; 9. Best class of Indian food; 10. No return of clothing kit after discharge from service; 11. Better treatment from officers to subordinates; and 12. Installation of Indian officers and supervisors. (Source: Meanings of Failed Action: A reassessment of the 1946 Royal Indian Navy uprising by Dr Valentina Vitali, University of East London, UK.)
Autobiographies of two rebels – BC Dutt and Biswanath Bose – suggest that the then (undivided) India could have been a different place if the revolt of that day had succeeded. The rise of communal politics, the division and instability that is spreading in the states and society, would not have happened.
BC Dutt was one of the organisers of the HMIS Talwar, the ship where the mutiny started. He was arrested and tried for writing a new slogan on a ship on February 1, three weeks before the start of the February 18 mutiny. His book, The Mutiny of the Innocents, contains details of how political literature and pro-independence activities were organised much before their strike.
Biswanath Bose’s RIN Mutiny, 1946 also gives detailed descriptions of how the revolt unfolded. But politicians argued that the revolt was mostly due to the resentment among Indian ratings over low wages, poor quality of food and housing, which was lower than that of the Whites, and racial discrimination.
After the mutiny of 1857, the British rulers banned the entry and discussion of political leaflets in all forces, but BC Dutt used to secretly discuss political documents in the ship HMIS Talwar. Two months before the mutiny, on the Naval Day on December 1, when it was open for public visit, they wrote various slogans, including “Quit India” and “Jai Hind” on the ship. Explaining the reason why the mutiny failed, BC Dutt wrote that while all Europeans and Indians were stunned by the course of events and wondering if it was a revolt, unfortunately the political parties had nothing to say. When it was time to lower the British Union Jack and fly the Indian flag, they felt unprepared.
Newspaper clipping of the Hindusthan Standard
On February 22, 1946, when the nationalist leaders were busy arranging the ratings’ surrender, Prime Minister Clement Attlee told the parliament that the sailors had given political slogans and demanded that a political leader be given a chance to speak. He also said in the statement that Congress had nothing to do with the insurgency, but the communists and leftists could try to exploit sympathy.
William Richardson, a British researcher, writes in The Society for Nautical Research that the political movement for India’s independence was at the root of the revolt (The Mutiny of the Royal Indian Navy at Bombay in February 1946, May 1993).
Author of the book 1946: The Unknown Mutiny, Promod Kapoor wrote that the navies fell between the two aspirations of the two rulers. One side wanted their impending departure not to be tarnished by the stigma of rebellion. On the other hand, when power was imminent, the other rulers were anxious to see if there were any signs of chaos in the armed forces. Because in the future, they would have to manage these forces.
Politicians assured that no one would be punished, no compensation would be paid, and steps would be taken to meet the demands. In reality, the opposite had happened. Rebel leaders were arrested, tried and punished. Other rebels were told to grab third-class train tickets to return home and to never return to Bombay again. Showing various excuses, deductions were made from salary arrears even for minor damages in their uniforms.
Biswanath Bose’s book gives a glimpse of how frustrated and angry these rebels became with the behaviour of the government and the breach of promises by the political leaders. He wrote, “If patriotism is a crime, then we must be criminals.” Expressing his frustration for not being reemployed in the Indian Navy, he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Nehru asking if there was any law banning his return to the force due to dismissal for taking part in the freedom movement, and how, as a leader of the Congress, Nehru could be the prime minister.
Nationalist leaders were so reluctant to give the mutineers their due credit, that the Indian government banned the Bangla play Kallol (Sound of the Wave), based on the mutiny, by playwright Utpal Dutt, and he was imprisoned. The play was first performed in 1965 in Calcutta at the Minerva Theatre and it drew large crowds.
At the beginning of the naval strike, a Central Strike Committee (NCSC) was formed by the representatives of the ships stationed in Bombay. The committee renamed the Royal Indian Navy as The Indian National Navy. The committee was chaired by Signalman MS Khan, and Madan Singh was the vice-president. One remarkable element of the naval rebellion was the unity of various faiths among both the naval force and the civilians who took to the street. They raised slogans “Hindu-Muslim unite” and “Inquilab Zindabad” on the streets of Bombay.
BC Dutt’s book also speaks of this communal harmony. He wrote, “We are from different regions, and from families of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist, but after spending years in the Navy, we sailors have become Indians. The irony is that the politics of communal division and hatred is now intensifying across the subcontinent.
(After leaving the job of a naval instructor, my father joined the office of Indian Civil Supply, and after a short stay in Kolkata, he was transferred to East Bengal. He retired as a magistrate and died on August 29, 2001.)
Kamal Ahmed is an independent journalist and writes from London, UK. His Twitter handle is @ahmedka1
source: http://www.thedailystar.net / The Daily Star / Home> In Focus / by Kamal Ahmed / July 25th, 2022
Madhya Pradesh local body elections: In the first phase of the local polls held on July 6, Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM won four seats.
Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM contested civic body polls in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh for the first time
Bhopal:
The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Wednesday won three seats in the civic body elections in Madhya Pradesh, taking its overall tally in the local polls held earlier this month in the state to seven.
In the first phase of the local polls held on July 6, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party had won four seats, while in the second phase conducted on July 13, the counting of votes for which is currently underway, it won three seats so far, officials said.
The Hyderabad-headquartered party won these three seats in the Khargone Municipal Council (KMC).
This is for the first time AIMIM contested civic body polls in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
AIMIM’s Aruna Bai won from ward number 2 of KMC by defeating her nearest rival and BJP candidate Sunita Devi by a margin of 31 votes.
Aruna Bai, who belongs to the Scheduled Castes (SC) community, said she joined AIMIM as she was influenced by Mr Owaisi’s views on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Two other winners from the AIMIM are Shakeel Khan from ward 15 and Shabnam from ward 27 in KMC.
The BJP won 18 seats in the KMC, the Congress three and independent candidates eight.
In the first phase results on Sunday, the AIMIM won four seats – two in Jabalpur and one each in Burhanpur and Khandwa.
Mr Owaisi had addressed public meetings in Khandwa, Bhopal and Jabalpur to campaign for his party’s candidates for the polls held earlier this month.
The local body elections in Madhya Pradesh for 413 municipal bodies, including 16 municipal corporations, 99 municipal councils and 298 Nagar Parishads, were held in two phases – on July 6 and 13.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source: http://www.ndtv.com / NDTV / Home> All Indian / by Press Trust of India / July 20th, 2022
A tribute to a polymath historian who recently passed away.
Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb at the Qutb Shahi tombs in Hyderabad, October 2013. Photo: Author provided
I first met Dr Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb in the summer of 2011, as a naïve PhD student who’d arrived in Hyderabad from Los Angeles wanting to “read Shah Jahan’s documents”. He asked me the very standard question asked of research students in India, “What is your topic?”
I only had a rather incoherent answer to give to Shakeb, the man who had, among other things, created the Mughal Record Room, in what is today known as the Telangana State Archives. Located in a nondescript building at the periphery of the Osmania University campus in the dusty precinct of Tarnaka, this institution has undergone numerous transformations over the course of a half-century of its existence in Hyderabad. But institutions were often narrow and unimaginative places for sustaining a towering figure such as Shakeb. He went on to have a long and eclectic life and career that consistently defied the logic and constraints of institutions, for he was himself an institution. The loss of Shakeb is thus far more than the loss of an individual.
His was a formidable generation of post-Independence intellectuals from different parts of the subcontinent who, from the 1950s, devoted themselves to preserving its languages, repairing and reconstructing our scattered archives and libraries, and re-imagining our past(s) long before colonialism. Shakeb embodied, above all, a boundless curiosity coupled with a complete disregard for trends, ‘schools,’ cliques, and fancy theories.
He was not interested in being a Marxist or a nationalist nor in chasing the Western academy’s greener pastures. In some ways, his foremost allegiance was to the detritus of the past itself – to what paper, ink, and materiality mean and what they can tell us about our past and present selves. He asked, what a document or manuscript had gone through over centuries, how had it come to be, and how can we best preserve thousands of paper fragments for future generations so we can continue to tell their stories?
This rare commitment to the study and preservation of archival knowledge led him to write the landmark catalog, Mughal Archives Vol I: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Documents Pertaining to the Reign of Shah Jahan, in 1977, followed by many publications for The British Library, State Archives Andhra Pradesh, and other repositories, universities, and auction houses. I remember asking Shakeb once why he was so committed to creating reference tools to access rare historical materials, and he answered, “because I know no one will care to read them in the future!” In some ways, he was right.
Today, when the stakes for writing about the subcontinent’s pasts are fraught and closely tied to an ongoing project of hollowing out academic institutions, it’s worth remembering a very different kind of Indian historian.
Shakeb standing in the second row, in a group photo from a conference in March 1968 at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. Also pictured are G.H. Khare, Mohibbul Hasan, V.K. Bawa, P.M. Joshi, Suvira Jaiswal, Burton Stein, and Eugene Irschick, among others. Photo: Author provided
Born on October 21, 1933, Shakeb grew up in Hyderabad and Aurangabad. He studied Political Science and English at Osmania University before heading to Aligarh Muslim University in 1956 for his Masters, where he was taught by Mohammed Habib and S. Nurul Hasan. In 1962, he returned to the south where he was employed as an archivist at what was then known as the State Archives Andhra Pradesh. There, Shakeb acquired the unique training of deciphering documents and identifying their categories, genres, and forms from the last generation of the traditional jagirdari staff of the Nizam’s state who were retiring when he joined the archives. He also worked under Yusuf Husain Khan who had begun the work of processing Mughal administrative documents. The archives thrived under the directorship of committed scholar-administrators such as Hadi Bilgrami and V.K. Bawa.
As rich documentary caches from families, Sufi shrines, and samsthanams were discovered and deposited into state institutions, post-independence archivists and historians confronted challenges, including the reluctance of individuals to part with materials that had been in their homes for centuries. Debates and disputes ensued about what constituted a ‘valuable’ manuscript or document, how to classify materials, and to which regional-linguistic nationalism a remnant ‘belonged.’
These were debates that had already begun in the pre-Independence period, in the work of institutions like the Indian Historical Records Commission. Recent studies of the debates between Jadunath Sarkar and the Maratha historians have traced the longer history of such tensions. Part of the problem was the mutual suspicion between scholars oriented to modern social sciences and those with a more ‘traditional’ orientation and training. Shakeb, the archivist-historian, was at once both and neither.
At a distance from the halls of JNU and Aligarh, where the Mughal state’s merits were being debated, Shakeb inhabited yet another set of worlds. He was at ease reconstructing the household library of Chishti Sufi Abu’l Faiz Minallah in Bidar, discussing the southern India Cholas with the American historian Burton Stein, and discovering a shipwreck off the coast of Masulipatnam in the late 1960s.
Based on newly-processed materials, in 1976, he would complete his doctorate under P.M. Joshi at Deccan College in Pune, a connected history that examined circulation and political diplomacy between Safavid Iran, Mughal India, and the Golkonda sultanate. Shakeb’s study brought the question of mobility and exchange to the centre stage at a time when the norm was to study either the Mughal heartland (often synonymous with Delhi or the northern Indian plains) or select one province of the empire. After many years in archives and universities, Shakeb charted his own path beyond academia. His forensic ability for assessing manuscript provenance, material objects, and documentary genres, allowed him to thrive in other professional contexts, leading to work as a consultant for Christie’s in London.
But, to restrict myself to Shakeb the historian would fail to capture the range of subjects, languages, and disciplines over which he had complete mastery – Persian and Urdu literature, Islamic studies, geography, philosophy, linguistics, and art history. Shakeb always kept the historian’s arrogance in check by reminding her of the literary critic’s skills. The study of prosody and poetics was just as important for making sense of an India without and before English.
Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb (L) with his friend Dr Leonard Lewisohn (R) at Bidar fort in January 2012. Photo: Author provided
Literary circuits would light up the minute Shakeb landed back in Hyderabad (as they often would in London). He had been working for many years on translating Iqbal’s Persian poetry into Urdu. He was equally committed to the study of Bedil, Ghalib, Dagh, and Amir Minai. He would unveil to students the unique phonetics and cadence of Dakani, the pan-regional literary idiom of southern India, with many living poets and a long literary history, which he emphasised, is yet to be fully understood for its role in shaping classical and modern Urdu.
When he published his dissertation, Relations of Golkonda with Iran, in book form in 2017, he dedicated it to his grandchildren – Itrat, Taha, Mahamid, Khadija, Tawsin, Mahd, Istafa, Fatima, ‘Ali, Nuha – all of whom embody their dadasaab’s fortitude and resilience. I haven’t sufficient words to describe the patience of his wife, Farhat Ahmed, and the enormity of what she has taught me over many years about balancing the scholarly life with everyday living. It was this reminder that grounded Shakeb’s engagement with multiple worlds. His hands that treated every piece of archival paper like a newborn child. Lethal scoldings hurled at junior scholars too convinced of their own greatness. And, never forgetting to make fun of people who take themselves too seriously. With Shakeb’s passing, we are reminded how fragile the threads are that connect us to the past, and how dependent we are on a handful of such individuals. It’s difficult to imagine what, if anything, might come after such larger-than-life figures.
Subah Dayal is Assistant Professor at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Her research is on social and cultural histories of the Deccan and the Indian Ocean world.
source: http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> English> Culture> History / by Subah Dayal / February 10th, 2021
Steering clear of the actor’s controversial life, a new biography focuses on India’s notion of stardom and celebrity instead
A recent bout of illness and feeling all round wretched had me turning to my favourite comfort food — Hindi movies (I refuse to call them Bollywood movies) from the 1990s. That I was simultaneously reading Devapriya Sanyal’s Salman Khan The Man The Actor The Legend, a deconstruction of bhai’s celebrity, proved an adequate road map to my film choices…
Rather than start with Salman Khan’s big, fat blockbuster, Maine Pyaar Kiya (1989), I chose Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), also directed by Sooraj Barjatya (who had made his directorial debut with Maine Pyaar Kiya). The film, which cemented Khan as a bonafide star, actually gave his co-star, Madhuri Dixit, higher billing, a fact which Sanyal’s book mentions.
Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! unlike that other game-changer of the ‘90s, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), has not aged well, Dixit’s phulkari-inspired jacket notwithstanding. The film plays out like a loosely strung together series of incidents, songs and comic interludes. How is a dog playing an umpire at a cricket match supposed to be funny is one of those unsolved mysteries. And while we are on the topic, hope Tuffy, the dog, was treated right on set.
Defence of toxicity
Sanyal’s book mostly steers clear of all the scandals and controversies that followed Khan like faithful shadows. While there is mention of the 2002 hit-and-run case, his tumultuous relationship with Aishwarya Rai and its fallout, and the blackbuck hunting and Arms Act violations cases, the book focuses on decoding Khan and India’s notion of stardom and celebrity through his career.
What little we glimpse of Khan is through his good friend Kailash Surendranath’s reminiscences. Surendranath, who knew Khan from his days as an eager 15-year-old getting his first break in modelling for Campa Cola (remember?) to his decade-spanning superstardom, remembers Khan dropping by for late night paratha-bhurji (scrambled eggs) and his motto for working on his body — “When you have no work, work on yourself.”
An introduction sets out what Sanyal intends to do through the book in great detail. The shortest chapter is the one called ‘With Human Failings’, which lists Khan’s headline-grabbing misbehaviour. His public brawls and brushes with the law are explained away as the cost of celebrity, which does not cut much ice as one cannot sweep bad and outright criminal behaviour under the carpet of “boys will be boys”. The book is at its weakest when trying to defend Khan’s toxicity.
An engaging journey
On the other hand, Sanyal’s book is its most engaging when deconstructing Khan through his roles especially in the chapter, ‘The Journey from Prem to Chulbul Pandey’. The chapter introduces the concept of the Emploi, “a theoretical framework as developed by Erving Goffman in his book, Frame Analysis.” The emploi, Sanyal posits “is a category that accounts for the close interaction between performance and reception.”
Just as Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man was invariably called Vijay (is his Jai in Sholay a diminutive for Vijay?) and Shah Rukh Khan’s many versions of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’s Raj went towards building an on-screen persona, so too does Salman’s Prem emploi create a film version of Salman Khan.
Sanyal traces Khan’s development through his 15 different portrayals of Prem. From the slender, doe-eyed Prem of Maine Pyar Kiya, the naughty ‘devar’ Prem in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, the Prem who sets things right in Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999) and the slightly dim-witted Prem of Andaz Apna Apna (1994), who nevertheless gets the girl to the tongue-in-cheek narrator Prem of Ready (2011), the cheating-on-his wife Prem of No Entry (2005), the dating guru Prem of Partner (2007) and the travelling theatre artiste Prem of Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015), in his fourth collaboration with Barjatya.
Since the chapter details Khan’s journey from Prem to Chulbul Pandey, there is an analysis of the characters he played who are not named Prem, including Akash in that slightly cringy but melodious triangle Saajan (1991), Sameer in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s exotically colourful Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), the obsessed lover, Radhe Mohan in Tere Naam (2003), the tapori Radhe in Wanted (2009), Devil in Kick (2014), Bajrangi in Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and Tiger in Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), Laxman in Tubelight (2017) Sultan in and as Sultan (2021), and of course the corrupt but loveable cop Chulbul Pandey in the Dabangg movies.
Sanyal, who teaches English literature at the University of Delhi, has written a thesis on the anatomy of fame with academic rigour— right down to how Khan’s perfect body also contributes to his iconography. Wish the book was better proofed as there are silly errors that grate coming on the back of such a well-researched book.
All looking for salacious details of Khan’s life will be disappointed while those seeking the magic in the bottle of stardom will not. And I am going back to watching Khan fight off the evil Crime Master Gogo in the delightful Andaz Apna Apna.
Salman Khan The Man The Actor The Legend; Devapriya Sanyal, Bloomsbury, ₹699.
mini.chhibber@thehindu.co.in
source: http://www.thehindu.com/ The Hindu / Home> Books> Review / by Mini Anthikad Chhibber / July 22nd, 2022
The 23-year-old Ramandeep clocked 3:00.04s and clipped more than 13 minutes from Priyanka Goswami’s earlier national record of 3:13.19s.
Juned Khan of Haryana and Ramandeep Kaur of Punjab. (Photo | Twitter/ ians india)
The 23-year-old Ramandeep clocked 3:00.04s and clipped more than 13 minutes from Priyanka Goswami’s earlier national record of 3:13.19s, set in the World Athletics Race Walking Championships in Muscat last month. Goswami did not take part in the 35km event on Sunday. She had taken part in the 20km event on Saturday but could not finish the race.
Ramdeep’s Punjab team-mate Manju also came inside Goswami’s earlier national mark to take the silver in 3:07.49s.
In the men’s 35km event, 22-year-old Juned pulled away from Ram Baboo and Chandan Singh after the 20km mark to lower the national record by five minutes, clocking 2:40.16s. Eknath Sambhaji Turambekar, who held the earlier national record of 2:45.17s, was among the four who were bunched in the lead till the 20km mark but dropped out after being second with 10km to go.
The 35km race walk event was introduced in India only last year in the wake of World Athletics’ decision to do away with the 50km event after the Tokyo Olympics.
Uttarakhand’s Sachin Bohra edged out Gujarat’s Rohit Kumar Yadav by a mere second to win the men’s U-20 10km crown with a time of 43:12s. Deepika Sharma of Rajasthan won the women’s U-20 10km race with a time of 51:32s
The Results:
Men’s 35km:
1. Juned Khan (Haryana) 2:40.16;
2.Ram Baboo (Uttar Pradesh) 2:41.30;
3. Chandan Singh (Uttarakhand) 2:42.02.
Women’s 35km:
1. Ramandeep Kaur (Punjab) 3:00.04;
2. Manju (Punjab) 3:07.49;
3. Payal (Uttarakhand) 3:15.47.
Men U-20 10km:
1.Sachin Bohra (Uttarakhand) 43:12;
2. Rohit Kumar Yadav (Gujarat) 43:13;
3. Aditya Negi (Uttarakhand) 44:27.
Women’s U-20 10km:
1. Deepika Sharma (Rajasthan) 51:32;
2. Bharti Bhadana (Haryana) 52:23;
3. Indu (Haryana) 52:40.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Sports> Others / by PTI / April 18th, 2022
The unit is being run under medical supervision of Dr Shoeb Ali Khan, leading consultant nephrologist and a kidney transplant surgeon.
A patient undergoes dialysis at the unit
Hyderabad :
Probably for the first time in the world, a mosque in Hyderabad has allotted space on its premises for establishing a full-fledged haemodialysis unit. Masjid-e-Mohammadia, located in Langar Houz area now houses a state-of-the-art free dialysis centre that mainly caters to the weaker sections of the society, regardless of caste and creed.
The centre, set up by two NGOs – Helping Hand Foundation and SEED US, has five latest Fresenius brand machines and will acquire five more machines in the next three months. The swanky centre, designed like a corporate hospital, has a separate access for dialysis patients and it is equipped with high quality equipment, clinical care as well as facility to manage onsite emergencies.
The unit is being run under medical supervision of Dr Shoeb Ali Khan, leading consultant nephrologist and a kidney transplant surgeon.A medical doctor, ANMs, dialysis technicians and an ambulance will be available at the centre from 8 am to 8 pm on any given day. “We have invested about Rs 45 lakh for the initial setup of this unit. About Rs 2 lakh per month will be managed by Helping Hand Foundation,” said Mazhar Hussaini of SEED.
To register for free dialysis, one can call Ph: 9603540864.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Express News Service / July 22nd, 2022
As soon as the construction work began at site, people started complaining about the ladder which was an obstacle for padestrians and
Considering the site conditions sameer decided to make a 14 x 12 size foldable ladder and he within ten days at the cost of only 25 thousand rupees he made the staircase.
Sameer Ishaque Bagban a 31 year old fabricator is originally from Ahmed Nagar city. Interestingly this skilled young man has no relevant qualification, diploma or certification in the field of fabrication, however he managed to complete education till 10 th std.
Sameer is running his firm “Darbar Fabrication” since 5 years.
During conversation with Muslim Mirror Sameer said that our fixed stair case was obstructing padestrians, owner of the firm requested us resolve the issue by doing some Jugad, I took it as a challenge, after four days work and discussion with my partners Eijaz Khan and Asif Pathan we decided to make this staircase foldable.
As we make and design foldable tables and other items, we thought we should try foldable staircase too, and Alhamdulillah we did it. Now it is functioning normally, Sameer added.
Sameer thanked Industrialist Anand Mahindra for his tweet and expressed happiness, he says, I am feeling myself fortune that such high profile person of the country and renowned industrialist has taken note of my work and praised the idea.
He further said after Mahindra sir’s tweet I started receiving calls continuously from friends, relatives and media persons.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com /Muslim Mirror / Home> Indian Muslim> Positive Story / by Imran Inamdar / July 17th, 2022
