KERALA :

The Story the Indian Community Must Hear

Life, at times, chooses the most unexpected moments to introduce us to extraordinary souls

December 22, 2025, began like many days in my life – packed, restless, and unforgiving. I was in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where winter had wrapped the city in silence. Snow fell gently, yet relentlessly. The temperature hovered below zero, biting through layers of clothing and fatigue alike.

As dawn broke, I boarded my first flight – Dushanbe to Delhi. A journey of nearly 1,350 kilometres, around 3.0 hours in the air, crossing borders, time zones, and climates. When the aircraft descended into Delhi, the contrast felt surreal – 22°C, sunlight replacing snow, warmth replacing numbness.

There was no pause. From Delhi to Hyderabad – another 1,250 kilometres, roughly 2 hours of flight – followed by a 3-hour layover that felt longer than it was. And then the final leg: Hyderabad to Calicut, close to 725 kilometres, carrying me not just across India, but toward a meeting that would quietly redefine my understanding of strength.

By the time I landed in Calicut (Kozhikode), exhaustion sat heavily on my shoulders. Yet, something deeper pulled me forward.

Next day early morning alongside Dr. Thouseef Ahmed Madekeri, we headed straight to a school event and other meetings followed by another surprised meeting organised with warmth and purpose by M. Dawood Sahib. I assumed it would be another meaningful gathering.

I was wrong. That evening, I met history disguised as humility. Meeting a Warrior, Not in Armour – but in assistive limbs. The special guest was introduced simply. “Saeed Asim… and his father.” No grand announcement. No dramatic buildup.

Yet, the moment I saw him – calm, composed, eyes filled with clarity far beyond his age – I knew this was not an ordinary young man.

Muhammed Aasim P, born on 1st February 2006, a native of Velimanna, Kozhikode, Kerala, came into this world with 90% physical disability. What most people don’t know – what history often forgets – is that doctors advised his parents to abort him.  They spoke of limitations. Of suffering. Of a life not worth living.

But Muhammed Shaheed and Jamseena, his parents, chose faith over fear. They chose love over medical predictions. They chose to accept Allah’s will wholeheartedly, ready to face every consequence – together.

That decision did not just give birth to a child. It gave birth to a movement.

A Child Who Changed a Village Before He Changed the World

While most children learn to write alphabet, Asim learned to question injustice. As a student of Velimanna Government Lower Primary School, he noticed something adults had accepted for decades – the school stopped at lower primary. Children had to travel far or drop out.

From a wheelchair, Asim challenged the system. He wrote letters. Filed petitions. Knocked on doors of power.

His fight reached the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the Kerala State Human Rights Commission, and the Kerala High Court.

The result?

• The school was upgraded to an Upper Primary School.
• Today, over 800 students study there.

And Asim didn’t stop. Now, the fight to upgrade it to a High School stands before the Honourable Supreme Court of India. A boy with 90% disability carried the educational future of an entire village on his shoulders.

No One Should Drown Because They Don’t Know How to Swim

Asim once did not know how to swim. Yet, when he learned that around three people drown every day in Kerala, he decided fear had no place in purpose. What followed stunned the nation. He swam over 800 meters across the mighty Periyar River – in 1 hour and 1 minute. Not once. Not twice. “More than 40 times.”

This earned him recognition from:

• Asian Book of Records,
• India Book of Records, and
• World Records Union.

They began calling him “The Warrior of Periyar.” But Asim never celebrated records. He celebrated lives saved.

From a Wheelchair to the World’s Biggest Stages

To push his school’s cause further, Asim undertook a 52-day wheelchair journey, covering 450+ kilometres from Velimanna to the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. No luxury. No shortcuts. Only belief.

In 2021, the world noticed. Out of 169 nominations from 39 countries, Asim became one of the Top 3 Finalists of the International Children’s Peace Prize, announced by Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu’s foundation – a platform that once honoured Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg.

The Pool Where History Was Rewritten

Then came sports. Not sympathy sports. Competitive sports. At the National Para Swimming Championships, Asim didn’t just participate – he dominated.

• 9 Gold Medals at Kerala State level (3 consecutive years)
• 3 Gold Medals with National Records at the 24th Nationals (Goa)
• Awarded Best Para Swimmer of the Year, from the Chief Minister of Goa

In Paris, at the Para Swimming World Series, he became the first Indian S2-category swimmer to receive international classification.

Today: World Rank: 8th and Asia Rank: 2nd. Yet, he remains largely unknown to the Indian community.

From Velimanna to the FIFA World Cup

In 2022, Asim walked onto football’s biggest stage – the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

He met Ghanim Al Muftah, walked alongside Messi, Mbappé, Giroud, and shared the field during the Argentina vs France Final. A boy once advised to be aborted… Now walking with legends.

Asim says:

“A person becomes incomplete only when fear conquers the mind.”

He dreams of flying in an airplane. Of climbing Mount Everest. Of representing India at:

• 2026 Asian Para Games,
• Commonwealth Para Games, and
• 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.

He serves millions through his foundation – Aasim Velimanna Foundation, guided by one motto: “Embracing the Inclusive Excellence.”

A Message for Parents, Children, and All of Us

That evening at Calicut beach, watching Asim sit beside his father – quiet, grounded, grateful – I felt something shift inside me.

This was not just a success story. It was a lesson in acceptance.

To parents: Never fear Allah’s decree. The child you are asked to abandon may be the one destined to inspire the world.
To children and youth: Your limitation is not your body; it is your belief.
To all of us: Thank the Almighty for whatever He has given. Every challenge is a hidden invitation to rise.

From snowfall to shoreline…
From silence to standing ovations…
From a wheelchair to the world’s top stage…

Saeed Asim is not just climbing records. He is lifting humanity with him. And his life whispers a truth we must never forget: “If I can do it, so can you.”

source: http://www.radiancenews.com / Radiance News / Home> Features> Focus / by Syed Azharuddin / Radiance News Bureau / January 02nd,2025

MAHARASHTRA :

As many as 10 Muslims have won the 2025 Municipal Council President elections in different parts of Maharashtra results of which were declared on Monday.

[Gemini AI image for representation.]

Mumbai: 

As many as 10 Muslims have won the 2025 Municipal Council President elections in different parts of Maharashtra results of which were declared on Monday.

According to the final results of the 2025 Maharashtra local body elections (Nagar Parishads or Municipal Council, and Nagar Panchayat or Municipal Panchayat), the Mahayuti alliance comprising of the BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) swept the polls winning 207 of the 288 local bodies.

On the other hand, the Maha Vikas Aghadi of Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) could win just 44 local bodies.

But what surprised the pollsters is the victory of as many as 10 Muslims in the Municipal Council President elections.

The Presidents of the local bodies were elected in Maharashtra by direct voting unlike the earlier practice where councilors were electing the Municipal Council Presidents.

Muslims in Maharashtra Local Bodies

As per the final election results announced by the Maharashtra State Election Commission, 03 of the 10 Muslims who won the president elections in the state are from Aurangabad district.

Of them, Aamir Patel of Congress won the Municipal Council President elections from Khuldabad. Khuldabad is the City where Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb is buried, and his tomb is located.

In Sillod, Samir Abdus Sattar, son of local MLA and former minister Abdus Sattar, won the president election as Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) candidate.

Shaikh Farheen Javed Seth of the Congress won the Municipal Council President election from Kannad.

As per the Bhokardan Municipal Council Election Result 2025, Samreen Mirza defeated former Union Minister Rao Saheb Danve in a high profile poll.

Other Muslims, who won the 2025 elections, are Aasif Khan (Pathri in Prabhani district), Mehreen Bilal Chaush (Majalgaon in Beed district), Dr Aafrin (Balapur in Akola district) and Shaikh Parveen (Ausa in Osmanabad district).

Likewise, Farida Bano Punjabi of All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has won the Municipal Council President election from Karanja Lad in Washim district. Along with Farida Bano, 17 AIMIM candidates have also won as councilors in Karanja Lad.

Overall the AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi has won 87 seats including 1 post of council president in Karanja. The AIMIM has won 13 seats in Buldhana, 11 seats in Akola, 17 seats in Karanja, 07 seats each in Yewatmal and Amravati, 02 seats each in Kamti, Nanded, Beed and Udgir, and 04 seats in Jalgaon.

source: http://www.ummid.com / Ummid.com / Home>Maharashtra / by ummid.com news network / December 23rd, 2025

Mumbai (formerly Bombay), MAHARASHTRA :

Bombay’s Chinoy family pioneered India’s international wireless communication and shaped cosmopolitan capitalism in the colonial era.

The Bombay Garage in Meher Building, near Chowpatty Band Stand in Bombay, was chosen as the family home by Sultan Chinoy, one of Meherally Chinoy’s four sons. Photo: Public domain.

In the crowded economic history of colonial India, the spotlight is often trained on a familiar cast: the Parsis of Bombay – Tatas, Wadias, Godrejs; the Marwari financial giants of Calcutta like the Birlas; and Hindu industrial houses. These communities unquestionably shaped the contours of Indian capitalism. Yet this focus obscures the contributions of other groups who played pivotal roles in connecting India to global circuits of technology, finance and communication.

One such story is that of the Chinoys, a Khoja Ismaili Muslim business family from Bombay. Their rise from the China trade to the helm of India’s international wireless communication network illuminates a distinctive moment in India’s economic history – one in which indigenous capital, imperial technological ambition and flexible, cross-community partnerships came together to produce what we may call cosmopolitan capitalism.

This story not only unsettles the notion that Gujarati Muslim traders were confined to Indian Ocean commerce; it shows how local entrepreneurial families could position themselves at the centre of the empire’s most advanced technological systems.

The Chinoys: a family emerges

Like many Bombay merchant families, the Chinoys began in maritime trade. Their patriarch, Meherally Chinoy, started in the mid-nineteenth century as an apprentice to the Khoja merchant prince Jairazbhoy Peerbhoy. Through repeated voyages to China and Japan, he built a reputation for commercial acumen and established both capital and credibility. His sons consolidated and expanded this base.

By the 1920s, the family firm – Fazalbhoy Meherally (F.M.) Chinoy & Co. – had diversified into wheat, pearls, kerosene, postal contracts, cinema exhibition and, most famously, the Bombay Garage, one of India’s earliest and most successful motor car agencies.

Diversification, community networks and political visibility placed the Chinoys among Bombay’s prominent business families. They sat on the Municipal Corporation, held the Sheriff’s office and participated in legislative bodies. This broad civic footprint would soon prove crucial when new technological horizons opened.

The opportunity of empire: wireless communication

By the early twentieth century, the British Empire faced a strategic challenge: the submarine cable network, long considered the Empire’s “nervous system”, was overstretched. Radio communication offered a faster and cheaper alternative. The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company proposed in 1910 an ambitious ‘Imperial Wireless Chain’ linking London to its colonies through long-wave radio. Yet Britain hesitated. Monopolistic power for a private company raised political alarms, and various government committees stalled progress.

The late Meherally M. Chinoy, who began by acquiring the licence for Shell, and the late Fazulbhoy M. Chinoy, one of Meherally Chinoy’s four sons, who was in the automative business in Bombay. Photo: Public domain.

Meanwhile, the Government of India – more pragmatic and less suspicious of private enterprise – was open to experimentation, provided the enterprise was Indian-led and financially sound. Into this space stepped the Chinoys.

In 1921, Sultan Chinoy travelled to England to negotiate with the Marconi Company and secure rights for India. It was a bold move; a single Bombay firm seeking to collaborate with one of the world’s pre-eminent technology companies was far from routine. But the Chinoys had two advantages: capital and credibility. Marconi demanded stringent terms, including a steep price for patents and proof that at least half the investment would be raised in India.

Understanding that they needed support beyond their own family, the Chinoys assembled a board that looked like a snapshot of Bombay’s commercial elite: the Parsi industrialists Cusrow and Ness Wadia, the Hindu financier Sir Purshottamdas Thakurdas, and the respected Muslim leader Ibrahim Rahimtoola, among others.

This coalition reassured the colonial state that the venture was both financially stable and politically broad-based. The resulting company, the Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRTC), represented one of the most ambitious examples of cross-community capitalist cooperation in the late Raj.

Beam wireless comes to India

In 1925, the IRTC secured a ten-year licence from the Government of India. But just as the long-wave system was ready to proceed, Marconi announced a breakthrough: shortwave or “beam” wireless, capable of transmitting messages 95% cheaper and three times as fast. The IRTC pivoted immediately, abandoning the long-wave model in favour of the beam system. By 1927, the India–England beam service opened to great fanfare.

Within a week, message traffic exceeded expectations; within a year, the company handled millions of words of international communication. Beam wireless rapidly undermined the older cable telegraph companies, leading to a merger in 1932.

The new entity, the Indian Radio and Cable Communications Co. (IRCC), managed virtually all of India’s external traffic. In short order, an Indian-led company had assumed control of India’s most sensitive international communication infrastructure.

The IRTC succeeded because the Chinoys excelled at uniting Parsi, Hindu and Muslim capitalists, ensuring political legitimacy and financial strength. The brothers also recognised that mastery of cutting-edge communication technology would give Indian business unprecedented leverage.

Bombay was a major centre for the Khilafat movement, and many Muslim merchants faced financial ruination because of their association with the pan-Islamic movement. The Chinoys, however, stayed away from politics generally and the movement specifically, and prospered. The Khilafat movement was seen as a threat by the empire.

The Chinoys also led the Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC), launched alongside the IRTC. But while beam wireless thrived, the IBC collapsed. The reasons were structural. The government could not agree on the scale and scope of broadcasting, the sector required heavy infrastructure investment. Besides, the company was undercapitalised.

By 1930, it was liquidated; by 1936, its successor became All India Radio. Yet even this failure generated influence. Sir Rahimtoola Chinoy became president of the All India Radio Merchants’ Association, a powerful industry group, positioning the family at the centre of radio trade and regulation.

The legacy of cosmopolitan capitalism

The wireless story reveals a great deal about Bombay’s business world. In an era of rising nationalism and sharpening communal boundaries, major commercial projects still relied on inter-communal coalitions. The IRTC’s leadership – Khoja Muslim entrepreneurs partnering with Parsi industrialists and Hindu financiers – represented an economic cosmopolitanism that was both pragmatic and visionary.

The Chinoys used this moment not simply to participate in imperial networks but to shape them. Their stewardship of India’s international communication system lasted until 1947, when the newly independent state nationalised the IRCC. By then, they had already secured their place among the country’s leading capitalists and public figures, holding senior positions in banks, municipal bodies and national economic delegations.

The Chinoys’ story disrupts familiar narratives of Indian capitalism. Gujarati Muslim traders were not merely marginal or ocean-oriented merchants; they were capable of driving technological transformation at the very heart of colonial infrastructure. Their story underscores how families could convert commercial networks, political relationships and technological foresight into durable economic power.

For readers interested in the full archival study and the complete analytical argument, the original research article is available in Indian Economic and Social History Review.

Danish Khan is a historian and journalist based in London. His DPhil thesis is under contract to be published by Cambridge University Press.

source: http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> Analysis> History / by Danish Khan / November 26th, 2025