Noted NASA scientist Dr Hashima Hasan, who is the Program Scientist for NuSTAR, has thanked the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) helping her materialise her dream. According to an official AMU press statement, she thanked the university during the interview to NASA STEM Stars.
“The student life at AMU from 1968 to 1973 and the academic credentials gained there helped me attain a prestigious scholarship to further pursue higher studies in Nuclear Science at the University of Oxford,” Hashima said.
“I worked hard and gave this land all I had, and this great nation paid me back in spades, but it all started at AMU,” she added.
“I was a little girl back then, but the spectacular satellite launch made me eager to follow every success and failure in the newspaper. I clearly remember the day man landed on the moon,” she said. The work at NASA is dynamic, challenging and energizing and my journey to become a space scientist began after a post-graduate degree in Nuclear Physics at the Aligarh Muslim University, reminisced Dr Hashima.
She attended Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for a postdoc and worked at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai before reaching the United States on a US Council Fellowship.
“Later in life, I worked at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, writing the simulation software for the optics of the Hubble Space Telescope and its science instruments, using it to analyse the optical error of Hubble after launch,” she shared in the interview.
Dr Hashima recalled that as the Optical Telescope Assembly Scientist, it was her job to keep the telescope in the best focus until a fix could be installed.
“Then I was ready to achieve my dream of working directly for NASA. An opportunity arose in 1994 when a job for a Visiting Senior Scientist was advertised. Although it was a two-year job, I found working at NASA Headquarters so exhilarating and rewarding that I stayed on,” she said adding that NASA’s space science program gives her the opportunity to lead cutting edge science, work with world-class scientists and write research papers on astronomy.
source: http://www.thesite.in / The Site / Home> Inspiration / by The Site Reporter / December 12th, 2020
According to Dr Khurshid Imam, understanding Judaism is essential to fully comprehend the Quran.
Navras Jaat Aafreedi/jnu.ac.in
The only Hebrew language teacher who holds a position in Indian academia is Dr Khurshid Imam, Assistant Professor at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University. In this conversation with Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi, he reveals the secret of a Ben Gurion “mosque” and tells us about a hadīth in which Prophet Muhammad encouraged Muslims to learn Hebrew.
Please correct me if I am wrong in understanding that you are the only person teaching Hebrew at any Indian university?
Not only am I the only person teaching Hebrew at any Indian university, but I was also instrumental in getting Hebrew introduced at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Although officially speaking it was introduced at the university only as a result of a bilateral agreement between India and Israel, yet had I not made efforts for it, I doubt if this would have happened when it happened. (This interview was conducted in 2011. Since then, Dr Imam has been joined by Achia Anzi in teaching Hebrew at JNU, but Anzi teaches on a contractual basis. Hence, Imam still remains the only Hebrew teacher to hold a tenure track position in Indian academia.)
There are two divisions in any religious community, one of the observant followers and the other of the non-observant ones. You clearly belong to the observant section of Muslims. Considering this and given the tensions between Jews and Muslims today, it is surprising to come across you, an observant Muslim, as the only Hebrew teacher in India. Although Islam does not forbid learning any language, it is hard to find somebody like you.
It is only because of the stereotyping of Muslims that people are surprised when they find me teaching Hebrew. Stereotyping can have very dangerous ramifications as witnessed in the post-9/11 fatal attacks on Sikhs in the US when they were mistaken for Muslims because of their beards and turbans. Also, generally Muslims know their religion not as a result of self-study but as a consequence of how it is interpreted to them by the clerics, which shapes their understanding of how a Muslim should conduct himself. Hence, they are often suspicious of those among them who study the Torah or have Jewish friends.
Similarly, instead of appreciating a Muslim studying the Hebrew language in which one of the most important sacred texts, the Torah, was received, it is seen with suspicion and even condemned. There was a time when the Indian Muslims had a similar attitude towards English, then seen by them as a language of the imperialists and enemies of Islam which would distance the Muslims from their religion, Islam. But today not only is English taught even in the Islamic seminaries, its importance is realised by one and all across the Indian Muslim community.
My family, friends and wider community were all surprised when I decided to learn Hebrew. Even in Israel, everybody seemed to be surprised to find a visibly observant Muslim like me with a beard and Islamic skull cap desirous of learning Hebrew. For the Israelis, it was their first ever interaction with a non-Arab Muslim, and that too an observant one and on top of that interested in learning their language, which took them by surprise. So, among both, Muslims as well as Jews, there were people who felt I had gone crazy. And I was met with this response only because of the stereotype of a Muslim that these people had. As for me, my interest in Hebrew was driven by my desire to learn about the Jewish version of the Middle East conflict, as my Jewish brethren expressed it in their language Hebrew. I could already access the Arab version in their language because of my knowledge of Arabic. I did not want to know about the conflict between the Jew and the Muslim through a third person.
During the time you spent in Israel for your studies, the consciousness that the people there would form their perception of Indian Muslims on the basis of their impression of you must have put some pressure on you?
It was after my MPhil at the Jawaharlal Nehru University that I went to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for some time for specialising in the Modern Middle East. Initially I went to Israel on a Government of Israel Scholarship, but after that I was supported by Golda Meir scholarship to continue my studies there. The various courses that I took under these two scholarships were cumulatively considered at par with MA.
Although lessons in Hebrew language are not a part of MA in Middle Eastern Studies, yet knowledge of Hebrew is considered mandatory for it. Hence, I learnt Hebrew along with my MA and attained knowledge equivalent to seven levels. I was in Israel from 1998 to 2000. I registered for PhD in 2002 and was awarded the degree of PhD in 2009. I was the first non-Arab Muslim that the Israelis had any interaction with. And they started trusting me so much that some of my Jewish friends even visited the Palestinian Authority-administered Bethlehem with me for the first time in spite of all apprehensions. I got invited to their homes on Jewish festivals just as I was invited by my Palestinian friends on Muslim festivals. My having relations with both parties sometimes made people suspicious of me. Palestinians would think of me as a Yemenite Jew while the Ashkenazim would consider me an Arab. Hence, I was under threat from both sides. In this respect, mere glares would say a lot to me even if the people did not utter a word.
When I tread on areas beyond the university neighbourhood, people would look at me with suspicion. Muslims would look at me in the same manner if I visited a mosque not accompanied by any local Arab Muslim friend. The very atmosphere is such that people get easily suspicious of strangers and fear them to be suicide bombers or fanatic attackers. Later, I started empathising with them. I used to offer namāz (Islamic prayers) in the balcony of my flat in Israel. The door to the balcony had a picture of [Israel’s first prime minister] Davd Ben Gurion. I never thought of removing the picture, and as a result my flatmates started calling it Ben Gurion mosque.
Without exaggeration, at least 20-25 Jews wept when I left Israel. Relations are still such that whenever anybody from this university goes to Israel, he is asked about my well-being. I see it as an achievement that I left behind weeping Jewish friends when I returned to India, given the fact that I had gone to Israel all alone, despite discouragement from family and friends and their warnings that according to them, I, a devout Muslim, was risking my safety by heading to an enemy country. Later, Israeli TV channel, Channel 8 Avutz Shimoni, invited me to Israel for two weeks for an interview for a six or seven episode documentary series on identity.
How and when did you develop an interest in the Hebrew language?
Conscious as I was that there was more to the animosity and the tensions between Jews and Muslims than just the Arab-Israel conflict, I decided to interact with Jews in their own language to get to the very root of the problem. It was an attempt on my part to understand their outlook, their point of view, right from the horse’s mouth, instead of being informed through the press, predominantly by the third party, which is neither Jewish nor Muslim.
Secondly,there is a hadith according to which Prophet Muhammad asked his followers to learn Hebrew. It is said that two of the sahābā attained command of Hebrew, one in thirteen days and the other in fifteen days. Hebrew of those times was very close to Arabic. By learning Hebrew, I also followed a sunnat, according to which one should learn as much as possible. My knowledge of Hebrew has also enabled me to bridge the communication gap between me as a Muslim and Jews. I also felt that with the increasing strengthening of relations between India and Israel, knowledge of Hebrew would brighten my career prospects. The first organisation to employ me upon my return to India was the Indian Defence School where I taught Hebrew. Even today, when I do not teach there any more I am still requested to come from time to time whenever there is anything involving the Indo-Israel defence deals. Hence, I have served my religion as well as my country by learning the Hebrew language.
What did you propose to study when you applied for the Government of Israel Scholarship?
I proposed to research the Role of Extremist Writers in the Peace Process.
After your return from Israel on the completion of your studies, did you face any opposition or resistance to your academic endeavours in India?
I am often called a Mossad agent who has been planted among Indian Muslims. Jawaharlal Nehru University is politically a very sensitive place given the dominance of the Left at the campus. It is the Left which is considered secular and it is anti-Israel. Hence, I could not expect any support from them. And as far as the Right is considered, even if they were sympathetic towards the cause of Hebrew, they were suspicious of me because of my religious Islamic demeanour. Therefore, of the two main political factions active at the university campus, I could not get support from either.
In this situation, it was not easy to introduce and promote Hebrew in the university and all I could do was to keep a low profile. Conscious of the fact that Muslims and Jews are seen as political adversaries, I urged the people to see my attempt to introduce Hebrew as a purely academic act, rather than driven by any political agenda. JNU is particularly known for the study of modern foreign languages. I tried to draw attention to the need for the introduction of classical languages and projected Hebrew as one. Introducing Hebrew in the garb of a classical language was the only strategy I could think of for countering the forces resisting it.
What I teach today is actually Modern Hebrew. I neither find myself qualified to teach the classical form nor is there any demand for it as the students are largely market-oriented and not research oriented. It is the knowledge of Modern Hebrew which would serve them better.
Could you, please, narrate a few interesting anecdotes or experiences of Israel.
When I got off the taxi at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem after my arrival in Israel, a heavy suitcase of mine, which did not even have wheels, was lifted for me for a long distance, until I reached my destination, by a stranger. It is interesting to note here that I had been cautioned against going to Israel by friends and family, and now my very first experience there was so pleasant.
Once a bomb explosion took place in the university library and the old librarian got injured. I also happened to be there. The librarian was so impressed with my gesture of immediately getting him water to drink and also with my washing his wounds, that after that incident he always introduced me to the people as the gentleman who came to his rescue immediately after the explosion. As a result of this and many other incidents, I got the happy feeling that I was positively contributing to Jewish-Muslim relations by leaving behind a positive image of Muslims, unlike the one the Jews had before. There were even articles on me in the Israeli press after this incident.
Before I went to Israel, I did not use to allow anyone to take pictures of me, but in Israel I was photographed so much that I stopped resisting.
One day, I was on my way to see a filmmaker who had interviewed me for a documentary he was making on Jihad. I had with me a book for him, titled Killing in the Name of God. Just when the bus arrived at the stop a police car stopped right in front of it after overtaking it and the policemen signalled to the driver not to open the door. With the pistols pointed at me, I was asked to raise my hands. After which I was asked to lift my shirt and then to open the bag. Upon my opening the bag came out that book, which made them all the more suspicious. However, I was let off when I showed them my University Identity Card. They explained that they did so because they had some input about a suicide bomber.
I would admit that I did have the same perception of Jews as common among the common Muslims, that they are a people guilty of the falsification of religious texts. It was after going there that I realised that the Jews were not any different and were regular, ordinary people like us, with good as well as bad among them. The Indian Muslims do not seem to be prepared as yet for greater interaction with Jews, for many among them have cancelled their visits to Israel out of fear of being ostracised by their community or instead of going there directly have gone there secretly via some other country.
The Urdu press does play a negative role in shaping the Muslim perceptions of Jews and Israel. I do not know where this misconception came from that the Muslims are not free to pray in the Al Aqsa mosque, but it is very widespread among them. It is silly of the Muslim countries to not grant visas to those who have been to Israel. Just as we Muslims resent being stereotyped, the same way, we Muslims too, should not stereotype the other communities.The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has a Department devoted to Islamic Studies. When the Jews can study about Islam and its history why cannot the Muslims study about Jewish theology and history and culture. It is necessary to understand the Jews in order to understand the Quran, which is full of references to Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon.
Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi is an Indo-Judaic studies scholar and a Muslim-Jewish relations activist, employed as Assistant Professor in the Department of History & Civilization, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida.
At age 24, this college dropout helps companies like Airtel, Truecaller and Justdial protect their users’ personal data. Incredibly, however, he learnt all the necessary skills not through formal courses, but research on Google!
Meet Ehraz Ahmed, a 24-year-old, independent data security researcher from Mysuru, Karnataka, who since last year has protected the data of 700 million users by helping companies like Airtel, Justdial and Truecaller detect major flaws in their data security architecture. Simultaneously, he runs a fintech and a web security company.
What’s particularly remarkable about this first-year engineering college dropout is that he learnt all the necessary skills not through formal courses, but research on Google. A real online prodigy, Ehraz is looking to protect the data of 1 billion users by the end of this year. So, how did this ethical hacker and serial entrepreneur get to where he is today?
Early Days
“I began using computers when I was just 10. I remember accompanying my brother to the local cyber cafe paying Rs 30 an hour and playing games like Counter Strike or browsing the internet. Besides playing games, I was exploring different facets of the online world from social media sites like Orkut to finding ways of building a website because my elder brother was a web developer. I would peek into the source code of the websites he built and try to learn things independently through Google. Whatever I have learnt about computers, web security and the online world is through Google,” Ehraz tells The Better India.
It was while playing Counter Strike with his friends when Ehraz found his first opportunity at entrepreneurship. Understanding the craze for the game amongst his friends, at age 14 Ehraz started a game server hosting venture. However, besides providing online gaming servers for players to connect and play the game for just Rs 200 per player, his venture also began offering web hosting services to different websites.
The reason he ventured into the world of entrepreneurship this early was because of a few tragedies in his life. As an 8th grader, he recalls witnessing his brother meet with a serious road accident. Two years later, his father suffered a heart attack.
“My interest in my venture had dimmed after my father’s heart attack. I lost interest in my studies as well. That’s when I put everything on hold to make a fresh start. I wanted to stand on my own feet by doing something better and more significant than what I was doing. These incidents made me realise the value of time and money. Life is short and there is so much left to do not just for yourself but others as well. Nonetheless, by this time, I had grown into a competent web developer, picked up real-life entrepreneurial skills and began understanding some of the basic nuances of data security,” he recalls.
Meanwhile, by the early 2010s, discussions surrounding data security in the online world had begun to take off in India. One day during high school, he read a post on Facebook by a security researcher who was listed in Google’s Hall of Fame for finding a flaw. This researcher was even paid for it. This inspired him to learn how he could do the same.
That’s when he began targeting companies that offered bug bounties to hackers who would help them find flaws in their data security architecture. By the age of 16, Ehraz got listed in 50 Security Researcher’s Hall of Fame for finding security breaches in companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Blackberry, Soundcloud, and EBay. These Halls of Fame are listings compiled by major tech companies of online security researchers who helped find these flaws.
Besides recognition and a certificate, there was monetary compensation involved which depended on the magnitude of the flaw found. In India, however, he observes that the concept of bug bounties are still very new and not many companies operating here have that facility for freelance security researchers.
His first hall of fame listing was on Facebook, where he discovered a cross-site scripting vulnerability that could have allowed attackers to steal a user’s browser cookies. With this, any hacker could log in to a user’s account without a password and users are vulnerable to extortion and blackmail.
Ehraz Ahmed: The ethical hacker who has helped companies like Airtel address their user data vulnerabilities.
Serial Entrepreneur
“Although I was good at finding security flaws, I was not making enough money from it. Not all companies offer bug bounty programs, while only a few provide monetary rewards. But most of them do acknowledge your efforts in finding that flaw,” he says.
Looking for ways to make money, one day he found someone trading in the financial markets talking about making money in a Facebook post. It piqued his interest and he began exploring this field. Ehraz admits that it took him a while to figure out how it all works because he was sifting through hundreds of blogs.
“It wasn’t the most efficient way of learning, but I wasn’t interested in studying courses. My interest lay in obtaining that raw information about how to navigate this world. In the initial years, I lost a lot of money trading from my brother’s account. Since I was still under 18 during my PUC days, I couldn’t really open my own trading account,” he recalls.
By the time he enrolled into an engineering college at the age of 20, in Mandya, to pursue a course in computer science engineering, he started a fintech company called Voxy Wealth Management that engaged in offering financial advice and analytic services to traders and other consumers who wanted to manage their stock portfolios.
But travelling 80 km up and down from Mysuru to Mandya everyday, attending classes and running a fintech company was becoming very stressful. Although he finished his first semester with good marks, when the time came to enroll for the second semester, he began questioning why he was studying these heavy theoretical courses.
“What am I learning all this for? Completing these courses felt like climbing a mountain, reaching the top and then seeing nothing. I had already begun earning money through my company. Meanwhile, I was already getting job offers because of the work I had done detecting security flaws across different websites. I eventually figured out engineering college wasn’t meant for me and before the second semester in 2017, I decided to drop out to start a web security company as well,” says Ehraz.
After launching Voxy Wealth Management, he started Aspirehive—a web security company that offers solutions for small and medium-sized companies—in December 2017.
Unfortunately, as he was making his way simultaneously in the world of financial markets and web security, another tragedy struck home.
In April 2018, his elder brother met with another road accident. He suffered an injury and upon recovery, his brother expressed a desire to start a company together. Following this conversation, he began work on launching a new company called StackNexo.
The premise for StackNexo is to offer all web services and solutions on a single platform. He describes it like an Amazon for users wanting to start their own website.
“We seek to provide all necessary services for starting your own website on one platform instead of compelling you to visit different websites for domain services, hosting services, etc. This is for entrepreneurs or users looking to start their own website without the necessary IT expertise. I have partnered with 20 companies like Stackpath, Cloudflare and Google to integrate their services on our web platform. I have spent over a year developing this platform and our plan is to launch the company in two months,” he says.
Protecting people’s data
While working on all these companies, Ehraz also began reading news of major data breaches in Indian companies last year. Using his expertise, he decided to help.
His work commenced in August 2019, and by December he had safeguarded user data of over 700 million users. In Airtel, for example, which is India’s second-largest telecom network, Ehraz had found a security flaw that could have allowed hackers to steal sensitive data of 320 million users. By December, he had discovered and reported data breaches to 10 companies, including Truecaller, Justdial and Nykaa.
By the end of this year, his objective is to protect the data security of 1 billion users. His work in this regard hasn’t stopped. Most recently, he detected and reported a major security flaw in a company called Thrillophilia that risked sensitive data of 2 million users.
“We don’t fix data breaches, but find them, report and notify the said company via email. With Airtel, for example, I began scanning their My Airtel app. I found a very simple flaw in the their application programming interface (API), which hackers could exploit to gain access into users’ personal data (address, location, IMEI, sex) through their mobile number. It took me just 15 minutes to find this flaw and access all this confidential data. Honestly, I was shocked to find such a basic flaw. Moreover, I am an Airtel user and it scared me how vulnerable their data was to this breach. With a user’s IMEI number, hackers can organise spear phishing attacks into your system using just a simple SMS,” he says.
With Truecaller, he had found a vulnerability on the app’s backend attached to the user’s profile picture. With this breach, if a user is trying to find out about who’s calling from an unknown number, a hacker could mine their location, figure out their IP address and their identity. As a result of this breach, nearly 150 million users were at risk here. Another major Indian company he assisted was Justdial, which has over 165 million users.
Through the breach he detected, hackers could log into a user’s Justdial account, access their JD pay (their payment gateway) and divert payments away from a particular merchant into another account. He approached the company and got this major flaw fixed.
Most small companies/startups, he believes, don’t focus on data security, and instead look towards getting the venture off the ground and earning all the money back that was invested. But these breaches are not restricted to small startups.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Big Basket suffered a major data breach.
“Government must make data security auditing mandatory. Secondly, we don’t have the legal architecture in place for independent security researchers like me to disclose to companies about major flaws in their data security. Indian companies, particularly the major ones, don’t have a responsible disclosure policy in place. Without such a policy, companies get intimidated when we find flaws and begin questioning us even though our intentions are good. There are no laws to govern and protect security researchers like us. International companies, meanwhile, are a lot more accessible and we can easily help them find flaws without any threat of a blowback. Indian companies have to start promoting bug bounty programs so that independent researchers can help them find flaws,” he says.
After all, there isn’t a bigger commodity out there than user data.
(Edited by Yoshita Rao)
source: http://www.thebetterindia.com / The Better India / Home> The Better Home / by Rinchen Norbu Wangchuk / November 30th, 2020
Joshi Sanghvi Village, Loha Taluka (Nanded District),MAHARASHTRA :
Waseema with her parents
Born and brought up in a small village called Joshi Sanghvi in Loha Taluka of Nanded District of Maharashtra, Waseema Shaikh struggled at every step and braved the odds to be where she is today.
In the recently announced results for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exam, Waseema secured 3rd rank. She is now undertaking training for the post of Deputy Collector.
Joshi Sanghvi is a small village with a population of about 3000 people and there are no opportunities for girls to study because they are married off as soon as they reach puberty. After class 7, the girls are forced to drop out of school. The maximum a girl can study in Joshi Sanghvi is till class 10. There is no college in the village, just a Zilla Parishad school in Marathi medium.
Waseema, the 4th child of her parents who are poor farm labourers, was passionate about studies. Despite having no electricity in their hut, she topped in the SSC board in her Taluka in 2012. And for college, she had to walk at least 6 kilometres every day as there was no transport available. However, when the exams for XII of junior college approached, she stayed at a relatives’ house and wrote the exams.
But graduation was again an uphill task as she would have to move away from home and stay in a hostel which her family could not afford.
She opted to study from an Open University and thus pursued her graduation from Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University again in Marathi medium. Though her mother tongue is Urdu, Waseema is comfortable studying Marathi. She became the first graduate in her family of 6 siblings.
Her parents are both farm labourers and after her father fell sick, affecting his mental capabilities, the burden fell on the shoulders of her mother.
Her mother and elder brothers encouraged her to study despite the situation in the village where relatives kept advising them to get Waseema married off like her elder sister.
Waseema appeared for the MPSC exams for which she prepared through self-study as she could not afford coaching classes. She passed the exams, but her ranking was just good for a Class II post and she was appointed as a sales tax officer for the Maharashtra Sales Tax Office in Nagpur.
However, it was payback time for Waseema. She put her brother back in college to pursue his B.Sc degree and then appeared for the MPSC exams as was his ambition. She is also taking care of her younger 2 sisters’ education, who like her want to appear for the state civil services.
But evidently, a class II job was not enough for her so she appeared again for the MPSC and ranked among the top 5, scaling her position to that of Deputy Collector.
Waseema with her siblings
“The situation in my village where girls are not encouraged to study and forced into marriage, violence against women, poverty and poor infrastructure in the village often set me thinking what I can do to change this situation? Besides, my friend who was very good at studies and wanted to study further was married off when we were in class 9. This upset me a lot,” Waseema told TwoCircles.net.
It was this desire to empower girls and women which motivated her to appear for the MPSC exams.
Sanghvi Joshi village has a sizable Muslim population as it was in the erstwhile Nizam state of Hyderabad and now acceded with the Marathwada region.
Today the village is proud of their daughter who is the first person from their village to reach that level. She has become the idol for many young girls who are in school.
“Many girls used to come up to me to talk about their concerns when their parents wanted them to stop their studies or when their parents were looking for matches. I used to give counselling to the parents and persuade them to let their daughters study,” Waseema said.
She said she was pained that girls’ education is never a priority for parents.
Waseema said that parents of girls should become aggressive about the educational rights of their daughters. “The percentage of women in civil services is very less and I think to increase this we should have reservations, free coaching, scholarships exclusively for women so girls will be encouraged to aspire for civil services,” she said, and added, “Proper guidance, hard work, consistency in study hours, the best utilisation of resources available are equally important.”
“But I am fortunate that my mother and my brother encouraged me and I am so grateful to my brother who sacrificed his education for me when anyone else in his place would think it futile to educate a girl,” Waseema said.
It was her brilliant academic performances year after year that gave confidence to her mother and brother to let her pursue her dreams.
Waseema wishes to be posted in a rural backward place like her village so she can work for their betterment. “I want to develop the villages and help the people come out of their poverty. I have known what it is to be poor and experienced the hardships so I can empathise with the people”, Waseema said.
Waseema got married on June 8, a few days before her MPSC result, to Shaikh Haider who is also a Maharashtra Public State Services (MPSC) aspirant. “Yet again Allah has been kind to me, my spouse and my in-laws are supportive of my career and are proud of me,” she said.
waseema and Haidar
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim / by Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net / July 01st, 2020
Nurul Islam, general secretary of Al-Ameen Mission (right), with a successful student and his parents.
SPECIAL REPORT
With 63 residential campuses in 20 of the 23 districts of West Bengal, Al-Ameen Mission is mentoring 17,000 students; so far it has produced 3,000 doctors, 2,800 engineers and hosts of civil servants, professors and lawyers.
A SILENT revolution in education is taking place in West Bengal which the rest of India may not be aware of. What is significant about this revolution is that it is happening in the marginalised section of Muslims.
The Al-Ameen Mission, a Howrah-based charitable organisation, has been spearheading a movement for over three decades to educate those who can’t afford quality education. Its success graph is increasing each year. This year, 378 students mentored by Al-Ameen have been selected for medical education (310 for MBBS and 68 for BDS).
This figure is after the first round of counselling held on July 16, 2020, when Clarion India interviewed Nurul Islam, the founder general secretary of the organisation. He is expecting another 100 students to be selected in subsequent rounds of counselling.
A total of 516 students of Al-Ameen have cleared NEET, an all-India written test for admission to medical colleges. Out of that, 378 have already been selected. This is no mean achievement considering the fact that two-thirds of them come from a background where becoming a medical doctor is just unthinkable.
Al-Ameen has been achieving this success year after year. In 2019, its 407 students secured admission in medical colleges for MBBS and BDS education. As many as 370 students were successful in 2018; 115 in 2017; 393 in 2016; 223 in 2015; and 212 in 2014.
Al-Ameen mentors both boys and girls. Thirty per cent of its students come from families who are very poor and categorised by the government as below poverty line. Forty percent are from lower middle income groups. The rest belong to the middle and upper middle income group. That means 70 per cent students enrolled here come from poor families.
Al-Ameen’s journey started in 1986-87 with only seven students. The aim was to give modern education with moral values in a full residential system where students from all strata of society, irrespective of their economic conditions, would stay and learn together. Students coming from the poorest sections of society were given free education. Donations and zakat were collected to meet up with the expenses. Gradually, the name of the mission spread far and wide and people came along and a movement started.
Nurul Islam says that in the 80s when he started his mission, the percentage of Muslim students in medical and engineering colleges of West Bengal was hardly two to three per cent. “But because of Al-Ameen’s efforts that percentage is today between 20 and 30 percent,” he claims.
Admission criteria
The current strength of Al-Ameen is 17,000 students. It admits students from Class V to XII. Those preparing for competitive exams also stay here beyond 12th. Merit is given top priority for admission. A common admission test is conducted for all its branches at 63 residential campuses in 20 of the 23 districts of West Bengal. Those who qualify are called for an objective test followed by interviews of their guardians.
A substantial number of seats are reserved for orphans and meritorious students of very poor families. They are also given special financial aid. In 2019, about 32,000 students appeared for admission tests to classes V to XII. Nurul Islam says his institution is able to accommodate only up to 20 per cent applicants.
Residential facility
Al-Ameen is essentially a residential institution. Those selected are required to stay in one of the 63 campuses that it runs throughout West Bengal. They are taken care of by everything: from education to food to accommodation. A strict discipline is followed by everyone alike from students to teachers to general staff.
Howrah, where it is headquartered, has four campuses in which 3,000 students are living. Al-Ameen also has campuses outside West Bengal: One in Patna, one in Ranchi and one in Tripura. There is one more in Assam which temporarily is not functional.
Scholarship scheme
Fees of the students are determined as per financial capacities of their families. Being a charitable organisation, Al-Ameen gives 100 per cent subsidy in the fees and even takes other responsibilities of education and upbringing of a deserving student if deemed fit. At present, Al-Ameen’s fee structure is divided into three categories:
25 per cent students pay zero to 25 per cent fee. Their subsidy is funded by zakat from across the country;
40 per cent pay fee ranging from 26 percent to 60 per cent. This subsidy is funded through general donations of the public;
35 per cent pay between 61 per cent and 100 per cent.
Focus on school education
Besides preparing students for medical and engineering, Al-Ameen is also focused on basic education of students under its guardianship. This year, 2,223 of its male and female students appeared for Class XII exams of states as well as Central boards. Not only all succeeded, 81 of them even occupied their positions within the rank of 20.
The background of all the successful candidates is noticeable: 605, or 27 per cent, are from poor and BPL families; 775, or 35 percent, from lower middle income groups; and 843, or 38 per cent from middle and upper middle income groups.
Similarly, 1,777 boys and girls took exams for Class 10. Fifteen of them occupied their positions within the rank of 20. Their background: 627, or 35 per cent, come from poor and BPL families; 680, 38 percent, from lower middle income groups; and 470, or 27 per cent, from middle and upper middle income groups.
23,000 Alumni
During the last 34 years of its existence, Al-Ameen has developed a strong base of alumni. They number 23,000, according to Nurul Islam. Out of that, 3,000 are doctors and 2,800 engineers. The rest are in various other fields such as civil services, academia, law and media.
The boys and girls hailing from the most backward areas and lowest strata of society, he says, are now dreaming to become doctors, engineers, civil servants, teachers, professors, researchers, lawyers or journalists.
Nurul Islam calls it a “Silent revolution”.
“Silently, a revolution is taking place. Al-Ameen has become the conduit in this whole churning of transformation which may be defined as a silent revolution,” he says.
A look at the list of Al-Ameen alumni bears testimony to what Nurul Islam is claiming. The list includes successful professionals and academicians in prestigious institutions. What is heartening is their background. Most of them belong to economically poor sections of society. But for this educational movement, they would have remained poor and uneducated. But today, they are respectable members of society and source of inspiration for others.
Some of the notable alumni are listed below:
Md Arif Shaikh, Senior Research Fellow at Harish Chandra Research Institute, Prayagraj, UP.
Dr Safina Begum, MS, Senior Resident at Fort Gloster State General Hospital, Howrah, West Bengal.
Dr Nargis Molla, MS, Specialist Medical Officer (Gynaecology), Dhaniakhali Rural Hospital, West Bengal.
Magfura Parvin, Senior Research Fellow, Vidyasagar University, Midnapur, West Bengal.
Dr Sk Altaf Hossien, MD, DNB Post-Doctoral Fellow, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore.
Dr Khandekar Fariduddin, MS, Assistant Professor, Malda Medical College and Hospital, Malda, West Bengal.
Dr Hibjul Ali Khan, MS, Assistant Professor, College of Medicine & Sagore Dutta Hospital.
Dr Md Hadiuzzaman, MS, MCH Senior Resident, SSKM Hospital.
Akram Hoque, MBA, Founder Editor, The Policy Times.
Ali Ahmed Alamgir, WBCS, Assistant Labour Commissioner.
Jahangir Mollick, WBCS (Exe), Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, West Bengal.
Shayan Ahmad, WBPS, Deputy Superintendent of Police, West Bengal.
Sk Samsuddin, WBPS, Deputy Superintendent of Police, West Bengal
Ramjan Ali, WBCS, Assistant Commissioner of Revenue, West Bengal.
Dr Kader Ali Sarkar, Assistant Professor, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal.
Dr Mukandar Sekh, Assistant Professor, Aliah University, Kolkata.
Md Golam Mortoza, Chartered Accountant, Senior Executive (Finance), Management Development Institute, Murshidabad, West Bengal.
Dr Md Samim Reja, MVSc, Veterinary Officer, Domjur Block, Howrah, West Bengal.
Healthcare unit in Khalatpur
Recently, Al-Ameen has opened a healthcare facility at its main campus of Khalatpur in Howrah district. It is run mainly by its alumni, some of whom are today established medical practitioners. They regularly visit the healthcare unit and give their services to poor and needy people of the locality.
source: http://www.clarionindia.net / Clarion India / Home> Big Story – Special Report / by Shaheen Nazar – Clarion India / November 23rd, 2020
The news about Muslims donating 33 tonns of grain to Golden Temple Langar was widely reported. This initiative of Malerkotla Muslim was highly appreciated by the Sikh Community around the world. The Muslim group reached Golden Temple and did Kar Seva while handing over grains’ trucks to the Golden Temple authorities.
Malerkotla is one of the Muslim majority areas of Punjab. This good Samaritan group was led by Dr Nasir Akhtar who has been working for the Sikh Muslim Unity for the last 15 years.
Dr Nasir Akhtar is running a foundation for Sikh Muslim cooperation in Punjab and is well known for his devotion to Sikh Muslim Unity.
TwoCircles.net’s senior correspondent Aas Mohammad Kaif spoke to Nasir Akhtar of Malerkotla. These are excerpts from the interview.
TCN: How did the idea to collect grains and send them to the Golden Temple come to your mind?
Nasir Akhtar: During the coronavirus lockdown, Golden Temple had issued an appeal for grains. Sikhs were running a campaign to collect food grains for Golden Temple Langar.
Golden Temple runs a huge Langar (Free Kitchen) where food is being served to everyone irrespective of their religion. I felt that we should also contribute to this charitable work. I consulted the people around me. Everyone readily agreed to cooperate in this noble task.
Though we could collect huge donations from a few wealthy people of the area, I thought we must collect 5 kgs of grains from every household in the Muslim majority villages. Such an initiative will give a positive message to further Sikh Muslim fraternity. We worked for 35 days and got a tremendous response.
People cooperated eagerly which became the talk of the town in the surrounding areas. The word spread amongst the Sikh community that Muslims are also collecting grains for the Golden Temple Langar which increased brotherly spirit between these two communities.
TCN: How was your experience meeting the Sikh community?
Nasir Akhtar: It was wonderful. Whenever we reached a village where Sikhs and Muslims live together, Sikh women cried as they couldn’t control their emotions and prayed for us. They offered us cold water and requested us to have meals in their households. The male Sikh elders were honouring us wherever we went. This noble task had an overreach beyond a mere collection of grains.
This initiative has become a symbol of Sikh Muslim amity. Quite often we and our Sikh brother’s team reached a village simultaneously to collect the grains.
They were collecting food grains in their community and we were doing the same in ours. If four or five wealthy people have contributed to arranging grains, this spirit of brotherhood would not have been created. Through this initiative, everyone is participating in this good Samaritan cause.
TCN: What kind of response did you get from Gold Temple authorities when you arrived there?
Nasir Akhtar: Before arriving at Golden Temple, we were felicitated by the eminent Sikhs of Sangrur (District Malerkotla). When they came to know that we have collected 35 tonns of grains, they had requested local Gurudwara authorities to help us in delivering the grains to Golden Temple Langer. The local Sikhs and Muslims were highly impressed with this initiative.
When our group of about 8-10 reached Golden Temple, we were received warmly by Sardar Harpreet Singhji, Incharge of Akal Takht. Such a warm welcome in itself was a great honour for us.
Though Muslims of Punjab do Kar Seva in Langar of Golden Temple, this act of going village to village to collect grains had made a huge impact and created a lot of goodwill. The Langar authorities served us food with great hospitality and we too participated in their Langar service.
TCN: You have been working for the Sikh Muslim unity in Punjab since long. Can you talk about this experience?
Nasir Akhtar: 15 years ago I used to run my clinic. I realized that there are many misconceptions between Sikhs and Muslims. Among them, there are things like enclosing children of Guru Gobind Singh Ji within a narrow chamber. My heart was not accepting it. I first researched myself, left the clinic, did my major in Punjabi, and studied Punjabi books. When I read the books written by Sikhs 300 years ago, I realized that Sikhism is very close to Islam. I understood that they both have the same message. I started speaking about the closeness of both religions in many aspects and for this I referred to Punjabi books. The verses of the Quran were explained in Punjabi and told that the beliefs of the two are quite similar. For this, I wrote books in Punjabi.
TCN: What was the response to your initiative of working for Muslim-Sikh unity?
Nasir Akhtar: There are too many misconceptions. The wounds of 1947 are very deep. After the riots, Sikhs and Muslims came closer. But even today some people keep harping about past mistakes. Malerkotla is a Muslim populated area in Punjab. The local MLA Razia Sultana is a minister in the Punjab cabinet. The Muslims of Malerkotla are quite well off in comparison to other places.
Muslims here work with Sikhs shoulder to shoulder and Sikhs do the same with Muslims where they are in the minority. This is a fine example of brotherhood between two communities. Good work always has good results. People on both sides understand the value of peaceful co-existence. Nowadays, since the news spreads fast, people here expressed appreciation when Muslims gave Mosque land in Saharanpur for Gurudwara. Langar running in Shaheen Bagh by Sikhs was also highly appreciated in Malerkotla.
TCN: What is the goal of your Sikh Muslim affinity Foundation?
Nasir Akhtar: This is an organization under whose banner we are doing this work. I formed this organization 15 years ago. We do all the programs of Sikh Muslim unity under the banner of this institution. The grain collection campaign was also run under the banner of this institution. Promoting brotherhood between Sikhs and Muslims is the only goal of my life and for this reason, I did not marry and left my clinic too. I want to work for this noble cause till my last breath.
TCN: Do you feel in the last few years, there is a growing misunderstanding between Hindus and Muslims in the country. Do you think there is a need to run such a campaign among these two communities?
Nasir Akhtar: I told you that to explain my point of view to Sikhs, I searched and read their 300 years old books, did my Major in Punjabi, and spoke to Sikhs in Punjabi. I refer to their books. I freely quote the inspirational words of their gurus and then talk about my religion in their tongue. It makes a good impact on them.
Hindu and Muslims of India have diminished their understanding of each other. They do not conduct healthy discussions. The idle debates between them have created a lot of misunderstanding between them. Brotherly talk between these two communities should be encouraged. TV can play a big role to promote affinity in these communities. We are first humans, then Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs or others afterwards.
(Translated from Hindi by Mohammed Hussain)
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Lead Story> Sikhs> TCN Positive / by Aas Mohammed Kaif, TwoCircles.net / July 31st, 2020
For years their diminutive stature made some wonder if they would do anything meaningful with their lives, but the Idrisi sisters—Zubaida (23) who is 3.5-foot tall and Humaira (22) who is 3.9—have already become mini-celebrities in their Nagpada neighbourhood. They qualified in this year’s medical entrance exam (NEET) and recently secured their MBBS admission; Humaira has got into Topiwala Nair Medical College at Mumbai Central and Zubaida at Government Medical College in Jalgaon.
The Idrisi sisters who live with three other siblings and parents—father Ahsanullah who is a tailor and mother Rukhsar a homemaker—in the crowded Kazipura near Nagpada junction could have not made it to the MBBS course but for a chance meeting with Ashfaque Moosa of Khidmat Charitable Trust last year.
A local NGO runs a dispensary in a corner of P T Mane Garden at Nagpada, which Zubaida and Humaira visited to pick up medicine for their grandmother. Moosa, who is called Ashfaque Bhai, was at the dispensary then and asked the two about their education. On hearing that they had abandoned their dream to be doctors and subsequently graduated in science from the nearby Maharashtra College, Ashfaque Bhai told them not give up on it. “If a six-footer needs 600 marks in NEET to get into MBBS, you need less than half of that,” he joked. On further enquiries, the sisters found their condition was covered in the reserved category of “differently disabled” and they could take a shot at NEET.
“Ashfaque uncle hamari gudiyon ke liye farishta bankar aae (Ashfaque uncle came as an angel for my dolls),” says the sisters’ burqa-clad mother Rukhsar. “He showed them the path and my beloved daughters never looked back since the day they met him.”
Ashfaque Bhai says the girls had full support of their poor parents but were discouraged from even trying to clear NEET. “Someone told them to become lab technicians or join BUMS, a Unani medicine course. But I saw the burning desire in them and that desire only needed a proper direction,” says Ashfaque Bhai who helps arrange scholarships for needy and deserving students.
Next, with a revived MBBS dream in their eyes, the sisters landed up at a coaching institute in Ghatkopar and were almost turned away by a staffer citing their “inadequate” height when the director saw them and asked them to wait. Their photographs were sent to the institute’s headquarters in Kota, which approved their admission with 60% concession in fees. Every day, the sisters would travel by crowded local trains from Byculla to Ghatkopar and back, till the lockdown began. They even took help of lectures on YouTube. “They got so involved in studies that I had to remind them about dinner and lunch,” says their mother. “My dolls have made us proud.”
Rukhsar says she and her husband found out about the insufficient growth hormones in Zubaida and Humaira after they turned five and stopped growing. One doctor said their treatment would cost over Rs 11 lakh. “We had no money to go for costly treatment but I wanted my daughters to get educated and stand on their feet as I didn’t want them to depend on anybody’s mercy or charity,” says Rukhsar.
Career counselor Kazim Malik, who knows the sisters well, says they will need to work hard to complete MBBS, which they have resolved to do to achieve great heights.
Mohammed Wajihuddin, a senior journalist, is associated with The Times of India, Mumbai. This piece has been picked up from his blog.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Featured News / by Mohammed Wajihuddin / November 30th, 2020
Today is the Birth Anniversary of renowned ornithologist Salim Ali. Born in Mumbai on 12th November in 1896, Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was not only a bird lover but also a naturalist. He is often referred to as the ‘Birdman of India’. He was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and wrote several books that popularized ornithology in India. His research work is considered highly influential in the development of ornithology. He was a well-known environmental crusader who often stood for protecting the wildlife.
Salim Ali played a pivotal role in establishment of Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary (Keoladeo National Park) and prevented the destruction of what is now the Silent Valley National Park. Along with Sidney Dillon Ripley, he wrote the landmark ten-volume Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, a second edition of which was completed after his death.
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1958 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1976, India’s third and second highest civilian honours respectively. Besides the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan, Ali received the Gold Medal of the British Ornithologists’ Union in 1967. He was the first non-British citizen to receive the honour.
source: http://www.newsonair.com / All India Radio (AIR), News Services Division / Home> News Highlights / November 12th, 2020
Allah Baksh Sumroo, a premier of Sindh province—equivalent to the current post of a chief minister—was a committed patriot, whom the Muslim League hated to the extreme. Sumroo’s story directly challenges the ongoing communal and divisive rhetoric where Muslims are projected as a comprador class that was wholeheartedly behind the Muslim League’s two-nation theory.
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The narrative that all Muslims got together to seek India’s partition on the basis of the two-nation theory is now a few decades old. It has acquired salience again, with some hyperventilating neo-nationalists reiterating that all Muslims are traitors as they joined Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his Muslim League to divide India. These people forget that a large number of Muslims, who consciously decided to stay back, had a choice—either to leave and be Pakistanis or stay back in India and choose their homeland. Many opted for the latter. A similar choice was made by many Hindus who decided to stay back in Pakistan. However, staying back in a democratic, secular and plural India was different from opting for a regressive and sectarian Islamist Pakistan. The future of both, who stayed behind, has proved that so tellingly.
Unfortunate political developments and the prevalent communal rhetoric in India has forced me to go back to the history afresh. There is a concerted campaign to malign all Indian Muslims as leftover Pakistanis, who are enemies within the country; the narrative is that these fifth columnists should be shunted out to Pakistan in the so-called national interest. But merely indicting all Muslims for the sake of petty majoritarian politics goes against the facts of history.
We are a nation obsessed with history, more often concerned with correcting the presumed historical wrongs than learning anything from the past. With this compulsive preoccupation, some of us live perpetually in the past. Even so, most people believe that Maulana Azad, an Independence-era leader, fought a lone battle for a united India, while a majority of Indian Muslims vouched for Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and his Muslim League. This has no factual basis and any extent of living in the past will help unravel actual facts.
To put the record straight, some unsung heroes from our recent history should be talked about. There are many historical characters that were crucial to countering the politics of hate and division of the country around the time of partition. Among them was Allah Baksh Sumroo, who served as a premier of the Sindh province—equivalent to the current post of a chief minister—for two terms between 1938 and 1942. Sumroo was a committed patriot, whom the Muslim League hated to the extreme. He belonged to a feudal Sindhi family but was known for a frugal living and commitment to democratic values. Sumroo wore khadi even as a young man of twenty. We hear about using flags as a power symbol so often these days, but he never used a flag on his official car even in those feudal and colonial times.
What is important to remember today is his commitment to undivided India. Sumroo emerged as a major challenge to the divisive politics of communalists of all hues, particularly the Muslim League. Azad was undoubtedly a national face, espousing composite nationalism, but he actually derived strength from such regional but powerful voices like Sumroo.
To go into the details of his massive anti-Muslim League politics would require a much longer discussion. Let me just refer to one of the most important episodes in the history of our sad partition of the country. The Muslim League passed a resolution recommending the creation of an independent state of Muslims on 23 March 1940 at Lahore. Soon, Sumroo organised a huge conference of patriotic Muslims between 27 and 30 April 1940 in Delhi, called the Azad Muslim Conference. According to some estimates, there were not less than seventy-five thousand people who gathered from all over India to condemn the Muslim League for its divisive politics.
Most of these people came from a large number of political and social organisations, largely representing the backward and artisanal sections of the Muslim society. This representation at the conference was an indicator that the Muslim League spoke for the ashraf, or the privileged sections of the Muslim society while the majority of Muslims—the ajlaf, or the backward sections—remained almost untouched by the League’s rhetoric. The British identified a collaborative section of the Muslim community, helped in forming the Muslim League but this section largely represented the affluent—the zamindars, and business and professional classes. The leadership that emerged in the League had little clue to the highly differentiated Muslim society they claimed to represent. Azad could see this early. Referring to Indian Muslims at the time, he wrote in his weekly Urdu language newspaper, Al Hilal, in 1912:
The most unfortunate part of their life is that they have a section of elite who are in the forefront and leading them. Those are the self-proclaimed leaders of the community. They have put the crown on their own head, with their own hands, instead of the masses doing the same. They indulged in all sorts of exhibitionism of power and the worst is show of their wealth. And by so doing they had converted the millat [class] of downtrodden men in their community as their slaves and camp followers. And now if anyone tries to question their validity as leaders or defy them, they are successfully suppressed and annihilated by those selfish leaders; as they have the power of money.
Sumroo’s presidential address at the Azad Muslim Conference in April 1940 also exposed the misplaced arguments of the League, particularly in the name of religion and culture. All through his speech he spoke extensively on the shared history and heritage, stressed on the compositeness of Indian nation and nationalism and emphasised that the compact between diverse communities cannot be severed. Strongly condemning the two-nation theory exponents, The Sunday Statesman of 28 April 1940 quoted him saying in his speech:
A majority of the 90,000,000 Indian Muslims who are descendants of the earlier inhabitants of India are in no sense other than the sons of the soil with the Dravidian and the Aryan and have as much right to be reckoned among the earliest settlers of this common land. The nationals of different countries cannot divest themselves of their nationality merely by embracing one or another faith. In its universal sweep Islam, the faith, can run in and out of as many nationalities and regional cultures as may be found in world.
He underlined the long history of shared heritage of Hindus and Muslims, as mentioned in a Hindustan Times report on the same day:
It is a vicious fallacy for Hindu, Muslim and other inhabitants of India to arrogate to themselves an exclusively proprietary right over either the whole or any particular part of India. The country as an indivisible whole and as one federated and composite unit belongs to all the inhabitants of the country alike and is as much the inalienable and imprescriptible heritage of the Indian Muslim as of other Indians.
Sumroo made these detailed references to the shared history and intermixing of Hindu and Muslim cultures over the centuries to counter both the League as well as those who were arguing for Hindutva majoritarianism. He was aware, like Azad, of the forces which threatened the future of united composite India. Sumroo needs to be talked about today more seriously to counter all those who threaten fellow Muslim citizens to go to Pakistan.
In his address, Sumroo provided a counter for another argument put forth by neo-nationalists today—that Muslims asked for Pakistan and once it was granted by dividing the country, all of them should have moved there. This would have settled the issue forever. All those who make such insinuations today need to know what popular Muslim leaders like Sumroo said of the creation of Pakistan:
It was based on false understanding that India is inhabited by two nations, Hindu and Muslim. It is much more to the point to say that all Indian Mussalmans are proud to be Indian nationals and they are equally proud that their spiritual level and creedal realm is Islam. As Indian nationals—Muslims and Hindus and others, inhabit the land and share every inch of the motherland and all its material and cultural treasures alike according to the measures of their just and fair rights and requirements as the proud sons of the soil.
Azad, too, sent a message of support to the Azad Muslim conference as he was not able to attend it. He expressed his solidarity with the conference and wished that the deliberations would be fruitful for the great cause of the freedom of the country and the Muslims.
This fight for composite and inclusive Indian nationalism, which looks so alarming and threatening today, is more than few decades old. Azad and Sumroo challenged these regressive and divisive forces in the 1930s and 1940s. They almost took the battle to the enemy’s camp by organising a huge conference in Delhi, which unnerved the Muslim League leadership. Sumroo was assassinated in 1943. It was suspected to be the League’s handiwork.
We can comprehend his stature and the sense of loss on his death by reading some of the reactions in contemporary press and also the pain expressed by several nationalist leaders. The Hindustan Times described him as follows:
… finest of Sindhis, one of the truest of Musalmans, one of the noblest sons of India who loved his peasants for he loved the land; and he used to wear khaddar even in the twenties, for he loved the poor. Both the Hindus and Muslims looked up to him as a leader … He had an all-India mind and in the midst of division and strife, pinned his faith on an independent united India, and dreamt the dream of the united State of Asia in the years to come …
His murder was seen as a national calamity by several papers. The Amrita Bazar Patrika called him “one of the most vigorous personalities, endowed with a high sense of duty and rare courage of conviction, who easily commanded the respect and admiration of all, even of those who differed from him on some or the other public questions.” Commenting on his death, the newspaper added, “A life so full of promise has been cut short. And India is much poorer today by the death of the young man of 42 whose sturdy patriotism and devotion to duty would be cherished long after the present unhappy situation has ended and India has come into her own.”
The right wing in India often says that Subhas Chandra Bose, a leader of the anticolonial struggle, did not find his rightful place in Indian history. I find it politically motivated and not really a sincere observation. It is people like Sumroo, who seem to be lost in our history records, even in the writings of the so-called liberal and Marxist historians, except for a chapter in a book by Shamshul Islam titled Muslims Against Partition of India.
Another prominent Muslim voice from the past, who can rightfully represent our composite nationalist ethos is Saifuddin Kitchlew, a Kashmiri freedom fighter whose family moved to Punjab. It was his arrest along with Dr Satyapal, a political leader, that triggered the protests leading to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919. Most of us are oblivious to his contributions as well. Kitchlew had also mourned the loss of Sumroo saying:
At this critical period of the freedom movement in the country the death of a man like Mr Allah Baksh is a thundering blow to the forces of nationalism. Mr Allah Baksh was a thorough going nationalist. Mr Allah Baksh is dead but his work will remain.
It is necessary to know about such men and women from our past as their profiles directly challenge the ongoing communal and divisive rhetoric where Muslims are projected as a comprador class that was wholeheartedly behind the League’s two-nation theory. Azad was surely the prime political figure, an Islamic scholar, who stressed on the composite nationalism. However, he was not fighting a lone battle against the Muslim League, as Jinnah wanted the British and the Muslims to believe. He was hated and derided as a show boy of the Congress party, precisely to show that most of the other Muslims and their leaders were with the idea of Pakistan. This falsehood needs to be exposed, particularly in the midst of the ongoing divisive politics.
S IRFAN HABIB is a historian and author. He was earlier the Maulana Azad Chair at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi.
source: http://www.caravanmagazine.in / The Caravan / Home> Commentary – History / by S Irfan Habib / July 28th, 2020
Aimed at helping the visually impaired, it fits into a smartphone’s port
Four students from the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras have come together to develop a handy device for the visually impaired.
The assistive device fits into the port of a smartphone and helps them to type, learn and read braille content. It also allows them to self-navigate through space and recognise people and objects.
Four students — Sundar Raman P., Adil Mohammed K., Shivam Maheshwari and Andrea Elizabeth Biju — got together to develop the device. While Sundar is a final-year electrical engineering student, Adil and Shivam are pursuing second- and third-year engineering design. Andrea is a second-year student of aerospace engineering.
The students improvised on an existing product that allows the visually impaired to read PDF files on their phone. But it is a cumbersome exercise as the reader must carry a separate device. Sundar said the aim was to leverage the smartphone’s capability, as most people carry one today.
The team came up with Cube, a compact device that fits into the smartphone’s charging port or earphone jack. It has four refreshable braille cells (24 dots) on one side and a camera on the other.
The camera on the device, along with the smartphone’s camera, is used to capture and process (computer vision) a wide field of view to provide the user navigation information through tactile braille cells about the proximity and nature of the obstacles.
The refreshable braille cells project symbols to convey time, proximity to obstacles etc. and help in learning and typing on the smartphone in braille.
Currently, the visually impaired rely on slow audio feedback to type. But Cube intends to change that, said Sundar. The device can be folded to the back of the phone using a flexible connector.
Vishnu Suresh, a fourth-year student of Integrated MA in English Studies, who tried it out, said being able to type on the phone was like typing on a braille typewriter. “It has a keyboard through which we can type the way we type on a braille typewriter. It is perfect,” he said
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by R Sujatha / Chennai – November 26th, 2020
