The All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC) felicitated Malabar Gold and Diamonds on being selected as the 6th largest jewellery group in the world, taking the Indian brand to the world stage.
M P Ahammed, chairman, Malabar Group, O Asher, managing director – India Operations, Malabar Gold & Diamonds and A K Nishad, director, B2B and Manufacturing (India), Malabar Gold & Diamonds received the award from the Ashish Pethe, chairman, GJC in presence of Saiyam Mehra, vice chairman, GJC, Nilesh Sobhawat and Sunil Podar, directors, GJC at an event held in Mumbai.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Karnataka / by Media Release (headline edited) / September 27th, 2022
Bearys scores a hat trick by winning the prestigious ‘National Award for Excellence in Energy Management’ by CII for three consecutive years (2020, 21 & 22) for its project Bearys Global Research Triangle (BGRT), Whitefield, Bangalore and was declared the ‘National Energy Leader’.
Bearys was also commended and was awarded another accolade for the ‘Most useful Presentation’ at the award ceremony.
The awards were presented by Dr. Ashok Kumar, Director, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power, Govt. of India to Mr. Mazhar Beary, Executive Director, in the presence of other eminent dignitaries at a grand award ceremony held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on Wednesday 21st Sept. 2022.
India’s first LEED Platinum R & D Park BGRT is globally recognized by both Industry and Academia as an epitome of sustainable development and an exemplary benchmark project and has become an arche model for sustainable development. A stream of Architects, Consultants, Developers and students from across India are visiting the project to see, learn and understand more about sustainable development and its manifold benefits.
‘We, at Bearys feel elated to receive this award and would like to dedicate this laurel to our mentors the late Dr. Prem C Jain, former Chairman, IGBC and the late Mr. Mahendrarajji, renowned structural consultant, New Delhi, who have inspired and guided us along the way. We now rededicate ourselves to our relentless pursuit to promote Sustainable Development & further the IGBC led ‘Green Building Movement’ in India” proclaims Mr. Syed Mohamed Beary, Founder & CMD.
source: http://www.beads.edu.in / BEADS / Home> News / by BEADS / September 21st, 2022
Aryadan Mohammed was under treatment at a private hospital at Kozhikode. File
Veteran Congress leader and former Minister Aryadan Mohammed was a towering figure of the Congress in Eranad for several decades
Veteran Congress leader and former Minister Aryadan Mohammed, 87, passed away on Sunday morning. Mr. Aryadan was under treatment at a private hospital at Kozhikode.
Endearingly called Kunjakka by the people of Nilambur, Mr. Aryadan had represented Nilambur constituency in the Kerala Assembly eight times. Mr. Aryadan was a towering figure of the Congress in Eranad for several decades.
Mr. Aryadan was the Minister for Power and Transport in the United Democratic Front (UDF) cabinet headed by Oommen Chandy from 2011 to 2016.
Mr. Aryadan was the Minister for Labour and Forests in the cabinet headed by E.K. Nayanar from January 1980 to October 1981.
From April 1995 to May 1996, Mr. Aryadan was the Minister for Labour and Tourism in the Ministry headed by A.K. Antony.
In the first Oommen Chandy Ministry from 2004 to 2006, Mr. Aryadan was the Minister for Power.
Ever since his political entry in 1952, Mr. Aryadan remained an active Congress leader until he retired as an MLA in 2016. Mr. Aryadan had held several party positions, including Malappuram District Congress Committee president.
Mr. Aryadan is survived by two sons and two daughters. The funeral will take place on Monday morning. Mr. Aryadan will be buried at Mukkatta Juma Masjid graveyard.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India / by The Hindu Bureau / Malappuram – September 25th, 2022
23-year-old Aamna Kausar, an MSc Medical Anatomy student at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education in Udupi has topped the university in the final year examinations.
Aamna, who is also the President of the district unit of the Girls Islamic Organization, scored 8.6 CGPA, the highest in this year’s examinations.
Daughter of Mohammad Iqbal, a businessman and Wajida Tabassum, a homemaker, the hijabi student wants to pursue a PhD in Human Anatomy.
She told The Cognate, “I am planning to do PhD next year on a topic related to human anatomy. Meanwhile, I will be working for a year.”
Aamna who has secured a job as a faculty to teach anatomy to medical students. However, she aims to get into the research field.
Notably, Aamna is a hijabi student from Udupi which was the hotbed of the hijab controversy a few months back.
“Being a hijab-wearing student in our university, I have seen difficult times during the controversy. I was actively participating in discourses surrounding the hijab row through GIO,” she said.
“The way hijabi students were treated in the district was really bad. But now, moments like these prove to them that education is the right of everyone and if students are given proper education, they will reach heights,” she added.
source: http://www.thecognate.com / The Cognate / Home> Education / by Rabia Shireen / September 26th, 2022
The Moti Masjid in Bhopal. | Photo Credit: FARUQUI A. M.
Tracing the history of a city where four Muslim women ruled for over 107 years
As the capital of one of the largest States, Bhopal has flown under the radar. It has little of the financial muscle associated with Mumbai, even less historicity to rival that of Kolkata. It has neither the earthiness of Patna nor the niceties of Lucknow. Yet, Bhopal in its own understated way has enough accomplishments to fill up a mantelpiece.
Among all the States, cities and towns of imperial and modern India, Bhopal has done more for women empowerment than probably all States put together. True, back in the 13th century Delhi had a woman ruler, Raziya Sultan, who ruled from 1236 to 1240, but little else.
Bhopal has been ruled by four Muslim women for 107 years. The Begums of Bhopal did not shy away from calling themselves the Nawabs of Bhopal.
Shaharyar Khan, Shobhan Lambert-Hurley and Vertul Singh have authored or edited books on the city, which on the one hand capture its history, and on the other reveal the streak of women dominance for more than a hundred years.
pix: bloomsbury.com
Khan’s The Begums of Bhopal is the most detailed work. Like an artist fills his canvas with colour, Khan fills his pages with details of the city, its illustrious history, and its formidable Begums, now reduced to a faint memory. Khan’s Bhopal was founded by Dost Mohammed Khan. As the author reminds us, “In 1707, before Dost Mohammed Khan arrived in Malwa, central India, Bhopal was a small village on the banks of the River Banganga. An old fort, lying in ruins, was a testimony to Bhopal having known more prosperous times in the distant past.”
Tales of Bhojpal
The earliest reference to Bhopal though dates back to 640 AD when it was ruled by the Parmar dynasty. Its name is derived from that of Raja Bhoj who, as legend has it, contracted leprosy and was advised to build a lake with water from 365 rivers and bathe in it. Raja Bhoj did as advised. The lake was called Bhoj Tal (or Bhoj’s lake). Over time, it got corrupted to Bhojpal, then Bhopal.
The State was formed in 1715. It was the second largest Muslim princely state in pre-Independence India, wherein 90% of the population was Hindu. Interestingly, the Begum of Bhopal, Nawab Sikandar Begum, as Lambert-Hurley writes in the introduction to A Princess’s Pilgrimage, supported the British during the Revolt of 1857.
After the Revolt had been suppressed, this loyalty was rewarded in the Queen’s Proclamation of 1858 in which Sikandar was granted the title of Nawab to rule over Bhopal in her own right as well as given a 19-gun salute, the return of territory lost to a neighbouring prince and the Grand Cross of the Star of India. “This honour made her, at the time, the only female knight in the British Empire besides Queen Victoria, a position that underlines her unique status, as well as her close relationship with the British,” writes Lambert-Hurley.
The story of Bhopal though began not with Sikandar Begum’s rise or the reign of her mother Qudsia Begum or her own daughter Shah Jahan Begum, but with an intrepid young man called Dost Mohammed Khan. As Shaharyar Khan writes, “The story of Bhopal begins with Sardar Dost Mohammad Khan, founder of the state and of the Bhopal dynasty. Born in 1672, Dost was a strapping, handsome, brash and ambitious young man. Like all Pathan noblemen, he had been brought up in the warrior tradition of his clan…Dost’s only ambition was to enlist in Aurangzeb’s army and make his future in the service of the Mughal Empire. Around 1697, Dost was in his mid-20s and a brash, dare-devil, buccaneer of a character. He was restless and ready to seek his fortune by crossing the Khyber Pass into India.” Head to India he did, but it was far from an easy ride.
As he traversed through Jalalabad, Karnal and Delhi, on more than one occasion, he almost kissed death, but he proved a survivor, qualities which came in handy when he got to play a pivotal role in Bhopal.
Though he arrived in Bhopal practically a brigand, he worked his way up, working with a number of local kingdoms and fiefdoms — Rani Kamlapati is said to have sought his protection after the death of her husband Nizam Shah and even tied a rakhi on his hand.
He built the famous Fatehgarh Fort in 1716, including the famous Dhai Seedi ki Masjid, as Vertul Singh writes in BhopalNama: Writing a City. Incidentally, Fatehgarh was probably named after Fateh Bibi, a Rajput princess he married. Fateh was no ordinary woman; she paid ransom for her husband’s release when he was held captive by his own troops in Gujarat, Singh writes.
Khans to Begums
How did Bhopal transition from the Khans to Begums? After Khan’s death, Bhopal was attacked by many mercenaries when Mamola Bai, said by some to be the first Begum, took the help of British General Goddard to repel such forces. Then came Qudsia Begum whose perseverance and wisdom saved the “state from being gobbled up by the Scindias and the Bhonsles”, as Singh states. Her daughter Sikandar took statecraft to another level. Sikandar’s daughter Shah Jahan Begum added fine touches of poetry, art, music to turn Bhopal into a throbbing centre of the arts. Yet, the most maternal approach towards the subjects was displayed by the fourth Nawab, Sultan Jahan, known for administrative reforms, including several measures for the welfare of her subjects. So much so that she came to be addressed as Sarkar Amma.
This succession of matrilineal rulers gave Bhopal a unique identity. They did what a man could never have dreamt of.
For instance, Sultan Shah Jahan Begum initiated the building of a hospital exclusively for women, with women doctors, nurses and other staff. The facility came to be known as Sultania Zenana Hospital.
Likewise Sikandar Begum started the practice of schools for girls, inviting scholars from Yemen, Turkey and Arabia.
Incidentally, she penned her own experience of Hajj to Mecca and Medina in ‘A Pilgrimage to Mecca’ which now forms part of Lambert-Hurley’s A Princess’s Pilgrimage. Sikandar Begum’s was no ordinary trip as Hajj those days was a life-challenging exercise with possibilities of being robbed, injured or killed by marauders along the way.
After Sikandar, Sultan Jahan concentrated on girls’ education. As Singh writes, “Sultan Jahan’s contribution to women’s education is in no way lesser than that of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.”
Incidentally, she was the only woman chancellor of Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College which was to become the Aligarh Muslim University.
All the Begums worked well and lived long. Once, all the four queens of Bhopal were alive at the same time with Qudsia living to breathe alongside three of her successors. That’s an interesting footnote in the history of a city where male heirs have been few and far between. Their absence was seldom felt.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / Hindu / Home> Books / by Ziya Us Salam / book cover pix: by bloomsbury.com / September 12th, 2022
The Kerala Governor is in the midst of a controversy after he launched an attack on the State government in a press conference
What’s unfolding now in Kerala is merely the latest episode in Arif Mohammed Khan’s lifelong story of being his own man, whatever the stakes, whichever the stage. Often loathed, sometimes loved but hard to ignore, Mr. Khan was that way when he entered student politics in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in the early 1970s and rose to be the president of the students union. It wasn’t any different when he became an MLA in 1977, aged 26. Or a Minister of State during the Rajiv Gandhi Government. It is scarcely any different now when he is into his 70s and occupies the august, if increasingly controversial, office of the Governor of Kerala. He is his own man.
Another matter not everyone shares his view of what’s right. Least of all Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. There is little, if any, love lost between the two. There is a reason: Mr. Khan has been publicly critical of the appointment of Mr. Vijayan’s private secretary’s wife as an Associate professor in Kannur University, where Mr. Khan is the Chancellor. So upset was Mr. Khan that casting custom aside, he called a press conference at Raj Bhawan where he fumed against the elected LDF government.
Unsurprisingly, the LDF government can barely stand him today. It is unlikely to worry Mr. Khan a bit. He is known to express himself even at the risk of social opprobrium. His old friends in AMU and Jamia Millia Islamia, where the Bulandshahr-born young man sought education, remember him as a frank and fearless person who was reasonable and open to debate. He is said to have been a good host who loved his Mughlai food and served it with relish to his guests. Today, they are both surprised and a shade speechless at the ideological and political vicissitudes in Mr. Khan’s life.
Indeed, what is happening today in Kerala is not without precedence in Mr. Khan’s multi-layered career which has seen him making pit stops over the Bharatiya Kranti Dal (the predecessor of Rashtriya Lok Dal), the Congress, the Janata Dal, the Bahujan Samaj Party before finally finding a bit of an echo to his views in the BJP. His stint in Kerala, his vehement opposition to noted Marxist historian Irfan Habib and constant run-ins with the Kerala Chief Minister are all attributed to his saffron leaning. Never mind the fact that he has won elections, notably from Kanpur and Bahraich on the tickets of non-BJP parties and has lost elections, as in Kaiserganj, on the BJP ticket in 2004.
Clash with clerics
Back in the mid-1980s, a section of Muslim clerics had no love lost for him at the height of the Shah Bano controversy when he risked it all in opposing Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s move to virtually overturn the Supreme Court verdict on maintenance to divorced Muslim women.
Faced with calls for social boycott and possibility of political oblivion, Mr. Khan did not equivocate then. He is not likely do that now too.
Mr. Khan is a redoubtable scholar of Islam with a uniquely his own interpretation of religion. One could question his interpretation of scripture, not his facts. Equally, unlike many clerics, he is open to being corrected. Faizur Rehman, an independent Chennai-based Islamic scholar himself, at one time agreed with him on the Shah Bano case, but later made his disapproval known when Mr. Khan supported the criminalisation of triple talaq following the Shayara Bano verdict. “Our friendship was not affected by my criticism of his views on criminalisation of talaq,” Mr. Rehman recalls.
One may disagree with Mr. Khan but there is merit in listening to him, even if he himself could do with being a better listener. In the Shah Bano case, the Muslim clerics had agreed for the husbands to pay a substantial one time alimony to a divorced wife. They later retracted. If the maulanas had listened to him then, India’s political trajectory would have been very different.
As for Mr. Khan, he would do well to remember the letter of the rule book he quotes against the Kerala government expects a certain spirit, a certain decorum from the Governor too. It’s time to listen to Mr. Khan as much as for him to listen to voices of constitutional propriety.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India / by Ziya Us Salam / September 25th, 2022
SEED has been an active organization providing education to 15,000 students studying in 58 schools and has provided around 2 crores of scholarships to school-going students.
Hyderabad :
Two philanthropic organizations SEED-USA and Helping Hand Foundation provided scholarships worth Rs 24 lakh to several meritorious students in Hyderabad.
“Education is our top priority and we have spent approximately 5 crores on education this year,” said Syed Mazhar Hussaini, founder of SEED-USA.
SEED, which stands for Support for Educational and Economic Development USA, was founded in 2009.
SEED has been an active organization providing education to 15,000 students studying in 58 schools and has provided around 2 crores of scholarships to school-going students.
On August 14, SEED and Helping Hand Foundation held a memorial and Merit Scholarship Award for students across India at the MESCO Convention Centre, Hyderabad. Students from Hyderabad and other parts of the country attended the award function. The 57 award recipients were from different backgrounds, including 11 MBBS Students, 13 PhD Students and 33 Master’s students from different streams.
“The services of the SEED organisation are also being extended to provide mentoring services to the widows & destitute families and provide placement assistance to vocational training graduates; around 757 widows and single mothers got support from seed recently,” Husaini said in his speech.
The donors of the SEED include philanthropists and helping Non-Residential Indians (NRIs). These donations are dispersed through various activities conducted by Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) permitted NGOs based in India.
SEED is working to provide modern education to poor children in slum areas of cities in India and aims to increase scholarships in states in North India. They aspire to increase vocational training in other states (other than Telangana).
Chief guest Prof. Amirullah Khan, who is a Development and Trade Economist emphasized the need for education to build a prosperous nation. He highlighted that only a small percentage of students make it to school and even fewer numbers manage to go to college because of financial constraints.
Mujtaba Hussain Askari, who is the founder and managing trustee of the Helping Hand Foundation, was also present at the occasion.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Lead Story / by TCN News / September 09th, 2022
Dr. Abdul Qadeer, chairman of the Shaheen Group of Institutions, Bidar, has expressed pride in the excellent performance of the Hifzul Quran course students at the Shaheen College in the NEET 2022.
Dr. Abdul Qadeer said that 12 students who had completed the Hifzul Quran Plus course at the Madrasa have gotten ranks in NEET and expect to be selected for the MBBS course in government medical colleges.
He was addressing a press meet at the Darussalam Hall of the Bangalore Islamic Foundation Trust, Queen’s Road, on Tuesday.
“The ‘Academic Intensive Care Unit (AICU)’ of the Shaheen Group provides a three-month foundation course of Mathematics and Language for students who have completed the Hifzul course through Madrasa education, without attending school, and for school dropouts. After this, a one-month bridge course is conducted in Science for the students to get admitted to Class 10. Next comes a year-long education with state syllabus or NIOC syllabus for the Madrasa-educated students to answer the Class 10 examinations. The intermediate course for two years, after this, prepares students for examinations like JEE, UPSC and NEET,” said the chairman.
He added that the Shaheen Group has been working for 12 years at getting Madrasa-educated students into the education mainstream. “With a view to ensure that all gates of education and career, including IAS, IPS, MBBS and Engineering, are opened for the Madrasa students and not restrict them to the religious field, we have started 35 AICU centres all over India. For the benefit of the Hafiz near Bengaluru, an AICU was started last year in Bannikuppe. More such centres will be opened at Darul Umar in Srirangapatna and Kanakapura. The Hafizes who have scored more than 350 marks in the NEET 2022 will be trained for free in our 12 residential complexes.”
Dr. Qadeer also said that, of the 1,800 Shaheen Group students who answered NEET this year, 450 students are expected to get free medical education seats, adding, “Of the government seats, students of our institutions expect to get 14 per cent.”
Hafiz Muhammad Ali Iqbal, who scored 680 in NEET, said that the four-year-long Hifzul course had helped him a lot. “I had quit my schooling to become a Hafiz. Studying with the Shaheen Group helped me score 68 in SSLC and 96 per cent in PU examinations,” he said and stated that he wished to become a doctor.
Jamia Ulum Shaheen Hifz Plus Academy director Syed Tanveer Ahmed, Falcon Shaheen Education Institutions director Abdul Subhan and the Madrasa students who had topped NEET were among those who attended the press meet.
Madrasa Students among NEET toppers (with marks) :
Hafiz Muhammad Ali Iqbal: 680
Hafiz Gulman Ahmad Zerdi: 646
Hafiz Mohammad Abdulla: 632
Hafiz Huzaifa: 602
Hafiz Muhammed Saifullah 577
Hafiz Sheikh Abdul Rafi: 567
Hafiz Mohammed Faiz Akeel Ahmad: 562
Hafiz Ghulam Waris: 560
Hafiz Mohammad Suhaib Sajid Hussain: 533
Hafiz Mohammad Asif: 504
Hafiz Muhammad Ishaq: 489
Hafiz Moumin Abdulla 484
Further information may be obtained from the Shaheen Group website https://shaheengroup.org/. Toll-free number 1800-121-6235 may also be contacted.
source: http://www.english.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home> Karnataka / by Vartha Bharati / September 13th, 2022
Saba is the only candidate of Indian origin among 19 elected members from the state of Illinois. She came to the United States in 2007 and after initially working as an employment consultant, began promoting yoga in America by training yoga teachers.
Uttar Pradesh :
Saba Haider, an Indian-Muslim woman from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, has been nominated by US president Joe Biden for the state board member election from DuPage County in Illinois and given a ticket by his Democratic party.
Her website describes Saba as a community organizer, small business owner, a wife and a mother to a 14 and an 10-year-old. She has been running her business in the health and wellness area for over a decade. She provides wellness consulting services to corporate clients and local businesses and organizations from the Chicago-land area.
Biden appreciated Saba’s social work, especially during the worst phase of Covid-19 pandemic in the US.
More than one million voters will vote to elect their board members in this election, which is to be held on November 6 this year. The election is an important one as this state-level board directly makes public welfare policies in the state. There are a total of 19 members on the state-level board and 11 of them are democrats.
Saba is the only candidate of Indian origin among 19 elected members from the entire state. She came to the United States in 2007. After initially working as an employment consultant, began promoting yoga in America by training yoga teachers. She continued doing this for nearly 10 years.
Saba has described the opportunity as “a very important one”. She said that she is an ordinary citizen who has been playing the role of a mother, sister, wife and small business-woman until now. “Being given this opportunity in politics is a completely new and huge responsibility,” she said.
Saba is considered a strong candidate who is getting support from her Democratic party allies Sadia Covert and Don Dessert, who are contesting the same election from other districts. Being a Yoga trainer, she has emphasized mental health in her campaign and commended the American people for showing mental strength during the worst periods of the Covid-19 pandemic.
If Saba wins the election, she will replace Amy Shavez, a democrat whose term ends in December.
Family elated at her success Her family lives in Vijay Nagar, a posh area of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. She is the eldest daughter of her family. Her father was an engineer in Uttar Pradesh Water Department and her mother runs a school in Ghaziabad.
Her two younger brothers, Abbas Haider and Zeeshan Haider are elated with their sister’s achievements.
Expressing happiness during an interview, Saba’s younger brother Abbas Haider said that “Saba has always been active in social work as she believes in helping people.”
“In America, she has always stood with people who needed help of any kind. It didn’t matter whether the person was Indian, American or of any other country, she has always stood with others,” he said.
Abbas said that Saba was active during the Covid-19 pandemic period. “She helped people in many ways during Covid. She feels that politics is a good way to improve the society and help the people as a whole and hopefully she will win the elections,” he said.
He called her nomination a matter of great pride for the family and the entire country
www.sabahaider.com
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Lead Story / by Aas Mohammad Kaif, TwoCircles.net / September 12th, 2022
Hakim Ajmal Khan a philanthropist, freedom fighter, famous hakeem and nationalist is a well known personality.
So I was very surprised when I was told that his grave was I one corner of The Hazrat Rasool numa compound in Panchkuian Road of Delhi
Now it’s a slum
In between a whole row of beds tucked away in one forgotten corner sleeps one of the greatest leaders of our Freedom movement. Revered by Muslims and Hindus alike.
Yes it was Hakim Mohammad Ajmal Khan. I checked up his dated on the net to find they were correct.
The lady who lives there then showed me many graves of Hakeems from his family scattered around the beds and chores of daily life.
Amita Paliwal a Delhi historian and keen heritage lover informs me this is probably the famous Doctor’s lane where Bernier apprenticed to learn Unani medicine.
It may have been famous then but it’s forgotten now and I don’t know why his very rich trust( he had gifted most of his income to charity) and rich family doesn’t do something about it.
You can read more about him below I have taken it from
He was the founder of the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi. He is the only person to have been elected President of both the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, as well as the All India Khilafat Committee.Hakim Ajmal Khan was born in 1863 to the illustrious Sharif Khani family of Delhi, family that traces its lineage to court physicians who served the Mughal emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire in India.
Khan studied the Qur’an and traditional Islamic knowledge including Arabic and Persian in his childhood, before studying medicine at home, under the tutelage of his relatives. All of whom were well-known physicians.
His grandfather Hakim Sharif Khan sought to promote the practice of Tibb-i-unani or Unani medicine and for this purpose, had setup the Sharif Manzil hospital-cum-college that was known throughout the subcontinent as one of the finest philanthropic Unani hospitals that charged no fees from poor patients.
Once qualified, Hakim Ajmal Khan was appointed chief physician to the Nawab of Rampur in 1892. Soon he met Syed Ahmed Khan and was further appointed a trustee of the Aligarh College, now known as the Aligarh Muslim University.
Hakim Ajmal Khan took much interest in the expansion and development of the indigenous system of medicine, Tibb-i-Yunani, or Unani. Khan’s family established the Tibbiya school in Delhi, in order to expand the research and practice of Unani.
As his family of Hakims served as doctors to the British rulers of India, in his early days Hakim Khan supported the British. He was part of a deputation of Muslims that met the Viceroy of India in Shimla in 1906 and even supported the British during World War I. In fact, the British Government awarded him the titles Haziq-ul-Mulk and Qaiser-e-Hind for his contribution to the expansion of the Unani system of medicine.
But once the British government changed its stance and sought to derecognize the practice of Indian schools of medicine such as Ayurveda and Unani, this turn of events set Hakim Ajmal Khan gathering fellow physicians on one platform to protest against the Raj.
Actually, Hakim Ajmal Khan’s political career commenced with his writing for the Urdu weekly Akmal-ul-Akhbar, which was founded in 1865-70 and run by his family.
Subsequently, when the British clamped down on the freedom movement and arrested many Muslim leaders, Hakim Ajmal Khan solicited Mahatma Gandhi’s assistance and together they joined others to start the Khilafat movement. He was elected the President of the Congress in 1921, and joined other Congress leaders to condemn the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. He was imprisoned for many months by police authorities. Hakim Khan’s pursued his political career side-by-side his medicinal and educational endeavours. Often, the interests overlapped.
Hakim Ajmal Khan resigned from his position at the AMU when he realized that its management would not endorse the Non-Cooperation Movement launched by the Indian National Congress. He envisaged a place of learning that would be free of government control. He worked towards this aim with the help of other Muslim luminaries. Together, they laid the foundations of the Jamia Millia Islamia (Islamic National University) in Aligarh in 1920, in response to Mahatma Gandhi’s call for Indians to boycott government institutions. The JMI subsequently moved to Delhi and slowly grew to be the prestigious university it is today.
Ajmal Khan served as its first Chancellor until his death. He was a key patron of the university, financially bailing it out of sticky situations throughout the rest of his life.
In fact, Hakim Ajmal Khan also established the Tibbia College for higher studies in medicine. Realizing the need for private funding, he simultaneously established a commercial venture the Hindustani Dawakhana to manufacture Unani and Ayurvedic medicines and issued a diktat that doctors practicing in the Sharif Manzil could only recommend medicines from the Dawakhana. The Dawakhana is known to have patented 84 magical herbal formulas.
Tibbia College is presently located Delhi’s Karol Bagh area. As a mark of respect to this man, Karol Bagh’s most popular part is still called Ajmal Khan Road.
Hakim Ajmal Khan died in 1927. In the ensuing years, both the Sharif Manzil and the Dawakhana have languished for want of upkeep and restoration.
Although Hakim Khan renounced his government awards during the freedom movement, Indians who appreciated his work and held him in high esteem conferred upon him the title Masih-ul-Mulk (Healer of the Nation).
Freedom fighter, educationalist and beyond doubt, the greatest contributor to Unani medicine in India in the 20th century: Hakim Ajmal Khan.
Dr. Khan died of heart problems on December 29, 1927. He was succeeded in the position of JMI Chancellor by Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari.
Rana Safvi is the author of the book “Where Stones Speak”.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Articles / by Rana Safvi / May 08th, 2016
