Tag Archives: Freedom Fighter Muslim Vellori

Remembering Tippu Adam Khan, A Selfless Community Worker And COVID Warrior Who Strived To Help People And Save Lives

Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :

A doting father and husband, a selfless community worker, our dear friend, and a beautiful human being,” is how one message circulating on social media remembers Tippu Adam Khan, a 42-year-old man who volunteered to help many people in different ways during this pandemic. He succumbed to COVID-19 on Friday. Tippu, a former Vice President at J.P. Morgan played an immense role as a community worker leaving a lasting impact on his family, friends, and even on people who had never met him.

Tippu, along with his friends, had set up ‘Oxygen Helpline‘, a volunteer network to help procure and supply oxygen cylinders for free to people in need across the city.

Humer Khan, who started ‘Oxygen Helpline’ with Tippu Adam Khan says they started the service after he saw the crippling health situation in the city and people dying due to shortage of oxygen supply.

The group has helped more than 500 people across the city so far to procure oxygen cylinders, besides educating people and rendering other assistance to patients.

“Tippu bhai was an inspiration to work with. He worked day and night to help people get oxygen cylinders. He had no fixed timings. You could find him on a call with volunteers at 3 in the night trying to procure cylinders. I have not seen another person like him,” he said.

Mohammed Kaif, co-founder of the NGO Small Appeal, and a friend of Tippu says, he was a relentless and an altruistic individual. Days before he was tested positive for COVID, Tippu had arranged for 9000 masks and dispatched them to Lakshadweep. “When he got to know that there was a rise in Covid cases in the islands, and there was a lack of essential medical supply. He jumped right into it and formed a team to procure medical supplies. He got in touch with people in each island in Lakshadweep to try to understand the needs of people there”.

But friends and associates of Tippu say his work goes beyond providing relief during the pandemic.

Abdullah Raj, a revert and a friend describes Tippu as a genuinely loving person, who was passionate about spreading the message of Islam to the world. “He would talk endlessly about Islam to people trying to clear their misconceptions about the faith”.

Raj said Tippu even left his job as a vice president at J.P. Morgan because it wasn’t complying with Islam, which prohibits interest-based banking. “He was committed to Islam, even at the cost of personal loss,” he said.

In an online condolence meet that was organized in Tippu’s memory on Friday by his friend Imtiaz Chowdhry, more than a hundred people gathered to share their memories of him. One friend Aslam, shared an incident of how Tippu had arranged for monthly groceries for a few widows when he heard that they had no one to support them. Aslam said the families wept when they heard of Tippu’s passing away.

From his children’s school teachers to colleagues, there were tens of people who shared their stories of how Tippu had touched their lives and had helped people. One friend mentioned that he was the grandson of Muslim Vellori (Mohammed Abdul Wahid Khan), a freedom fighter, and a prominent social activist of his time, who took part in many anti-colonial struggles and was jailed several times.

The meeting that was started at 11 pm went on till 2 am. His friends said they had to organize another online meeting the next day to accommodate those who couldn’t attend due to Zoom’s participant limitations.

Tippu was admitted to the city’s Shifa Hospital on June 8th, his brother Tippu Ahmed Khan said. But within days, his condition started worsening and his oxygen level started fluctuating. But even in the hospital bed, Tippu did not stop going out of his to help people in need.

“He was texting and calling people to arrange for oxygen cylinders for other patients when his own health was fast deteriorating,” his brother said.

He was put on ventilator on Friday and he passed away in the evening.

Ameen-E-Mudassar, a Covid warrior who started the Covid Helpline Bangalore website said, in his last message to him, Tippu said that he wanted to start a school, as he had seen many people unable to afford school fees during the pandemic.

“If I come back alive, I want you to work with me on a plan for a school,” he had messaged Ameen. He never came back.

For Tippu’s friends, his silent efforts to help people, without letting anyone know about it is an inspiration they say they would carry forward for the rest of their lives. In the online condolence meeting, one constant statement everyone made about him was how despite knowing him for years there were facets of his life they were not aware of. He had touched the lives of many people in so many ways.

His friends are now planning to bring up a biography of Tippu, highlighting his life and contributions. “It will serve as an inspiration to friends and family and it will serve as a memory to his young children on what a selfless and beautiful man their father was,” said Ameen.

Tippu is survived by his wife and three children.

source: http://www.thecognate.com / The Cognate / Home> News / by Shaik Zakeer Hussain / June 20th, 2021

A forgotten freedom fighter

Ganjam(near Srirangapatna) –  Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :

MuslimVelloriMPOs09sept2018

Muslim Vellori, a prominent but not so well-known freedom fighter, did not restrict his public role to the freedom struggle but also played a prominent role in social service

The name of Muslim Vellori does not ring a bell now, but for an older generation of Bangaloreans, particularly Muslims in the city, that name is remembered with a sort of awe as he was a valiant freedom fighter. Born Mohammed Abdul Wahid Khan in 1883 in Ganjam near the historic town of Srirangapatna, Khan grew up to be known as ‘Muslim Vellori’ as he spent most of his childhood studying in a madrasa (Islamic seminary) in Vellore. Even though his father was in the army, Vellori grew up to develop an aggressive anti-British sentiment.

Vellori began working in a shipping company owned by his relatives in Bombay (now Mumbai) after completing his studies in Vellore. His granddaughter Dr. Shakira Khanum, who now teaches in Al-Ameen College, recalled an incident that Vellori had narrated to her. “Once, in Bombay, a Britisher made fun of his beard. My grandfather, who hated the British, was so livid that he almost shot the man,” said Khanum. Working in a shipping company at the time also ensured that he was among the few privileged Indians who could travel as his work took him beyond the shores of India. Vellori travelled to Burma, Sumatra and Java (now part of Indonesia), Mauritius, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Madagascar and to several cities in the Middle East. It was during his travels that he met Mahatma Gandhi in Durban. Gandhi and Vellori supposedly became quite close and the former had a formative influence on Vellori’s life.

As Vellori came of age, he came to acquire a reputation of being a fiery orator and through the course of his life took part in many anti-colonial struggles all over the country. He is particularly remembered for his role during the Khilafat movement (1919-1922) where he met many prominent freedom fighters including Mahatma Gandhi, the Ali brothers: Mohammed Ali and Shaukat Ali, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Saifuddin Kitchlew. Even the great poet Mohammed Iqbal is supposed to have lauded him for his passionate speeches when he exhorted the audience to support the Khilafat movement in Mumbai. Vellori was jailed several times for his provocative speeches and was even incarcerated in Bangalore Central Jail between 1924 and 1927. Even in prison, he is supposed to have been a recalcitrant internee and often questioned the authority of the jailers.

Vellori did not restrict his public role to the freedom struggle but also played a prominent role in social service. He raised funds to found orphanages in Mysore (now Mysuru) and Cuddapah (now Kadapa). Considering that he was close to several Congress leaders in the state and was recognised as a prominent Muslim leader who staunchly opposed the two-nation theory, he was nominated to the Mysore Legislative Council and was a member in the 1950s during the chief ministership of Kengal Hanumanthaiah. In later years, Jawaharlal Nehru called on him when he visited the state. Towards, the end of his long life Vellori became bitter as he was marginalised by the state leadership of the Indian National Congress and was ignored by the Muslims of the state who no longer felt that he was a suitable leader. An early resident of Jayanagar, Vellori died on Oct. 31, 1977.

(Information for this article has been gleaned from a short booklet published by Vellori’s granddaughter, Dr. Shakira Khanum, who teaches Hindi at Al-Ameen Degree College in Bangalore. Dr. Khanum has also painstakingly collected much of the supporting evidence for her grandfather’s illustrious life including a letter from Tulsidas Jadhav, who was Gandhi’s secretary briefly, attesting to Vellori’s close connections with the father of the freedom movement.)

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Vikhar Ahgmed Sayeed / August 02nd, 2018