Category Archives: Books (incl.Biographies – w.e.f.01 jan 2018 )

How the English department of Aligarh Muslim University nurtured contemporary Urdu literature

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INDIA:

Urdu writers and literary critics at the university have contributed in their own meaningful ways to keep the Persio-Urdu literary culture alive.

Some of the Urdu books written by the professors of the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University.

Bilingualism, in many cases even multilingualism, being a special quality of most Indians, it comes as no surprise that many scholars working in various English Departments of Indian universities and colleges have produced work of considerable merit in several Indian languages. Often this work, both creative and critical, has not been sufficiently acknowledged because the English Departments in India were mostly concerned with the canonical study of English literature. The work done on the English canon and on Indian languages belonged to two different domains, with a separate group of readers.

With a drastic change in the nature of English studies in India in the last two decades or so, the broadening of the English canon following a decolonising process, the introduction of literatures in Indian languages through English translations and their inclusion in university curricula, and a renewed confidence with which to view local and indigenous traditions of literature and criticism, these two domains are beginning to converge.

Urdu literature in an English department

While taking stock of the work produced in English Department at Aligarh Muslim University on the occasion of the Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, it was heartening to note that many scholars, otherwise well-known as hard-working teachers of English and sound scholars of English literature, contributed in a big way to Urdu literature and criticism. Their grounding in the Persio-Urdu literary culture and knowledge of English literary and critical traditions gave them a distinct identity, which also offered a position of advantage in many ways for approaching English literary texts.

These academics were often straddling two worlds without getting sufficient acknowledgement from either. For the western critics and academics they pretended to know what they were not fully entitled to and were hence treated with a degree of condescension, and for their counterparts in Indian languages English professors were trespassers into a territory to which they had forfeited the rights when they opted for a foreign language and literature.

Three important categories of the AMU English Department’s contribution to Urdu can be identified. First, those who joined the Department as faculty members, spending a great deal of their time in Aligarh writing in both Urdu and English. Second, members of the English Department who read in Urdu but wrote in English, either translating from Urdu to English or writing academic articles and books using Urdu sources. Third, those who studied in the Department of English but moved out to different places, doing substantial work belonging to either of the two categories: creative work, literary criticism, and translation into Urdu from English.

The association of the first two categories of people with Urdu also tells the story of the gradually changing status of the language in India. Most of the people, or rather all, belonging to the first category were born in undivided India, when Urdu had a vibrant presence in the country. The generation born before Independence also had the advantage of being familiar with Persian, which made their Urdu impeccable. The second category, born after Independence, was generally more proficient in reading Urdu than in writing in the script, and have mostly written in English.

Mapping out the work of the faculty members of English Department since independence, it emerges that a good number of them, beginning with Professor Khwaja Manzoor Hussain (1904-1986), had a substantial output of Urdu literature and literary criticism. Well-versed in English, Urdu and Persian, Khwaja Manzoor Hussain, chairman of the Department from 1946 to 1948, was a man of immense learning, much sought after for his insights into literature.

Asloob Ahmad Ansari, an eminent Urdu critic mentions in his profile of Hussain in his book Aina Khane Mein that leading Urdu writers and poets like Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pitras Bukhari, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Wiqar Azeem, Intizar Husain, and Shan ul Haq Haqqi have acknowledged Manzoor Hussain’s range of scholarship and critical insights into literature.

Ansari also writes that Faiz sent his famous nazm “Ye daagh daagh ujala ye shab guzida sahar” to Khwaja Manzoor Husain before its publication, and he read it in many gatherings in Aligarh. Another incident relates to English novelist EM Forster – he was a close friend of Sir Ross Masood, Sir Syed’s grandson and AMU’s vice chancellor from 1929 to 1934, and an inspiration for the character of Dr Aziz in Forster’s modern classic A Passage to India – when he was in Aligarh’s historic Union Hall Building to deliver a lecture on Charles Dickens, organised by the Raleigh Literary Society of the Department of English. Introducing the speaker, Khwaja mentioned some of the forgotten writings of Forster, which even the novelist probably did not remember. Forster remarked in wonderment, “You are slandering me”.

Aligarh Muslim University | Credit: PTI

How world literature inspired modern writings in Urdu

A cultured, soft-spoken and self-effacing person, Khwaja did not publish much while in Aligarh, though he was known to be translating some Russian short story writers into Urdu and working on different aspects of Urdu ghazals. It was only in the late 1970s that he published his book of Urdu translations of Russian stories with a preface written by Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Ansari is of the opinion that Hussain’s translation of the stories of writers like Chekhov influenced the course of the Urdu short story significantly.

In other words, Ansari suggests that Urdu writers of short stories were made familiar with Russian greats through Hussain’s translation. Treating some difficult and controversial literary and critical issues with frankness, his book titled Iqbal aur Baaz Dusre Shayar tries to assess Iqbal’s status vis-à-vis other important Urdu and Persian poets. His longstanding interest in the genre of the ghazal, especially its relationship to contemporary social and political movements, yielded two very important books in 1970s: Tahreek Jado Jihad Bataur Mauzu-o- Sukhan and Urdu Ghazal ka Khariji Roop Bahroop. Presenting a new proposition, and receiving bouquets and brickbats in equal measure, he argued that ghazal poetry has a political and social dimension which may not be directly visible on the surface, but is very much a part of this genre.

Salamatullah Khan, another important name in this context who joined the English Department in 1945 and retired as a reader (promotions were difficult at that time), was one of the pioneers of American literature in the northern part of India at a time when American literature hardly had any presence in universities and colleges. He can be spotted in a group photograph of the delegates who met in Mussoorie in 1962, a meeting which led to the establishment of the American Studies Research Center in Hyderabad (ASRC), at one time the best resource for books and journals on American studies.

Though Khan worked on Emily Dickinson for his doctoral thesis, a lesser-known aspect of his work is the publication of his three books in Urdu titled Majaz ka Almiya aur Doosre Mazameen (1969), Amriki Adab ka Mukhtasar Jayeza (1978), and Ernest Hemingway: Hayat-o-Fan ka Tanqidi Mutaala (1980). Majaz ka Almiya includes his essays on Mir Taqi Mir, Ghalib, Sauda, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, some rebel poets of Urdu, and the genres of ‘azad nazm’ and ‘inshaiya’. His history of American literature follows the method of literary history popular at that time, introducing first the pioneers like Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, and then discussing different trends and movement in American literature. His crisp and analytical style, not a very common feature of Urdu prose, makes his book on Hemingway, which covers all his important works, a good read even today.

How Aligarh Muslim University nurtured contemporary Urdu literature

The most prolific of all academics associated with the department was undoubtedly Asloob Ahmad Ansari (1925-2016), who wrote extensively in both English and Urdu. A bilingual critic, Ansari joined the department in 1947, headed it for almost two decades, and influenced a whole generation of his students and colleagues to read closely and write carefully.

An established Shakespeare and Blake scholar, he has a huge corpus of work in Urdu, mostly literary criticism, but also sketches and memoirs, and many edited volumes. Ghalib and Iqbal were his favourite poets, but he has written on almost all important Urdu poets. His books on Ghalib include Naqsh-e-Ghalib (1970), Naqsh Hai Rang Rang (1998) and on Iqbal Iqbal ki Terah Nazmein (1977), Iqbal ki Muntakhib Nazmein and Ghazlein (1994), Iqbal Harf-o-Mani (1998). Among the many books he edited, his two-volume Ghazal Tanqeed: Vali Deccani se Iqbal aur Maabad Iqbal Tak (2002) is especially remarkable for its comprehensiveness and variety.

Though he has written more on Urdu poetry, a dominant genre in Urdu literature, Ansari’s work does cover his analysis and evaluation of all canonic Urdu novels and other genres of prose. His books Urdu ke Pandrah Novel (2003) discusses, among others, important novels like Umraojan Ada, Maidan-e-Amal, Udas Naslein, and Aag ka Dariya. His book Aitraf-e-Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqui (1977) unravels the personality and art of Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, a master humorist and satirist. His articles on different literary issues are included in Adab aur Tanqeed (1968) and Andazey (2008).

An excellent prose writer, Ansari has also written a delightful book of sketches, Aina Khane Mein, which includes his sketches and assessments of some of his contemporaries, such as Dr Zakir Husain, Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, Khwaja Manzoor Husain, Maulvi Zia Ahmad Badauni, Dr Abdul Aleem, Syed Hamid, Malik Ram, Khaleeq Ahmad Nizami, Ale Ahmad Suroor, and Mukhtaruddin Arzoo.

Ansari brought out a literary journal in Urdu, Naqdo Nazar, which provided a platform to many of his colleagues to write on a regular basis. Among his colleagues in the Department of English, Professor ZA Usmani, Zahida Zaidi, Amin Ashraf, Mohd Yasin, Maqbool Hasan Khan, S Wiqar Husain, Abdul Raheem Kidwai, and Syed Asim Ali wrote for the journal regularly, often at his persuasion. He also motivated many young scholars from other disciplines, including people like Shafey Kidwai, now a Sahitya Akademi award winner in Urdu, to write for Naqdo Nazar.

Ansari himself contributed articles, analyses of poems and book reviews to the journal on a regular basis. In fact, often the major portion of the journal comprised his own contributions. He also brought out a collection of his editorials and obituaries published in Naqdo Nazar in his book Harf-e-Chand (2005). Many of Ansari’s articles, written over a long period of time, were published in book form in his last phase, largely due to the practical help he received from his former student Abdul Raheem Kidwai.

The work of Zahida Zaidi (1930-2011), a poet, dramatist, novelist, translator and above all a liberal face of Aligarh all through her career, will surely enjoy an afterlife as more and more English translations of her Urdu plays appear on the scene. Known for nurturing the talent of Naseeruddin Shah and introducing him to many Continental playwrights, Zaidi was one of the pioneers of Urdu drama. She translated the plays of Chekhov, Pirandello, Sartre, Beckett and the poems of Eugenio Montale, Garcia Lorca, and Pablo Neruda into Urdu. Full of elaborate stage directions, her Urdu plays are heavily inspired by absurdist theatre, where often there is minimalist use of stagecraft. Departing from the technique of realism, they have, however, been inspired by many real events and topical issues.

Woh Subah Kabhi Toh Ayegi (1990) a feminist play in many ways, responds to the issue of domestic abuse. In Doosra Kamra (1990) a play in which the line between dream and reality appears blurred, all characters meet in one room while another room becomes a frightening place, with dead bodies appearing in it one by one. Jungal Jalta Raha (1990) probes the complexities of human character and Kyun Kar Us But se Rakhoon Jan Azeez (1998) laments the loss of culture and values in academic spaces.

Responding to the tragedy of the Gulf War, she wrote Sahra-e-Azam (1991), an anti-imperialist play where she is critical of American bombing in Iraq. She also responded to the tragedy of Gujarat in her play Bahut Door Tak Raat Hogi (2006) and dedicated it to “the martyrs and persecuted people of Gujarat; those persecuted women who were victims of the lust of cruel beasts; those innocent people languishing in jails for their innocence; those innocent children who are in search of their lost paradise.” Like George Bernard Shaw, Zaidi wrote long prefaces to her plays which provide a rich commentary on the context, making it easier for her readers to appreciate the technique and thematic concerns.

Zahida Zaidi’s lone novel Inquilab ka Ek Din (1996) is a campus novel, talking about one day in the life of its young female protagonist, but its canvas is wider because her use of stream of consciousness narration in certain parts of the novel. Zaidi also has seven collections of poems, two in English titled Broken Mirror (1979) and Beyond Words (1984), and five in Urdu titled Zahr-e-Hayat, Dharti Ka Lams, Sang-e-Jan, Shola-e-Jan, and Sham-e-Tanhai.

A poet of ghazals and nazms, her poetry has different shades, topical, symbolic, experimental, and philosophical and spiritual; especially in her final collection Sham-e-Tanhai (2008). Defining the nature of her poetry in the preface of her book Shola-e-Jan (2000) she writes, “For me poetry is a practice of transforming deep and intense experiences into insights through the vehicle of creative rhythm and potential of language.” Her important write-ups on Urdu literature written in English are included in the book Glimpses of Urdu Literature: Select Writings (2011).

Syed Amin Ashraf (1930-2013), who joined the Department in 1963 and retired in 1991, was better known for his light-hearted conversation, bursting with anecdotes, and his Urdu couplets than for his scholarship. His three collections of poems, Jadah Shab (2000), Bahar Ejaad (2007) Qafs-e-Rang (2011), and a single collection of prose writings and translations Burg-o-Vabaar, were published many years after his retirement. Hailed as a poet of love, especially the sufic concept of love, his poetry, using very few words, holds an appeal for both heart and mind.

Amin Ashraf’s khanqahi background also colours his poetry. Jadah Shab, containing both nazms and ghazals, was written over almost half a century. In his introduction to Bahar Ejaad, a collection of his ghazals, eminent Urdu critic Shamsur Rahman Faruqi expresses the view that reading just a few ghazals of Amin Ashraf’s makes the reader not only a confidant of the poet’s, but also in posses himself composed those couplets.

Jadia Asjad, a research scholar at Aligarh Muslim University working on Amin Ashraf’s poetry, is of the view that there appears a conflict sometimes in Amin Ashraf’s mind between classical and modernist (jadeed) models of poetry but he was too devoted to classical tradition of poetry to try modernist poetry. Burg-o-Vabaar includes his explication of many nazms and scholarly essays on various poets and writers like Iqbal, Fani, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Muzaffar Hanafi and a comparative view of the conception of Satan in Milton and Iqbal. His Urdu translations of Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800) titled Shayri aur Shayri Zabaan-o-Bayaan, American critic Mark Schorer’s famous essay “Technique as Discovery” titled “Takneek Daryaaft ki Hasiyat Se” and an essay of French critic Paul Valery greatly benefited his Urdu readers.

Mohd Yasin (1932-2010), a hard working teacher, authored two very important books in Urdu titled Angrezi Adab ki Mukhtasar Tareeq and Naqoosh-o-Afkaar aur Nazaryat: Muntakhib Mazaamin (2010) in addition to his articles and book reviews published in Naqdo Nazar. First published in 1971, Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu Hind, at the insistence of famous Urdu critic Ale Ahmad Suroor, had its revised and expanded second edition in 1990 (Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy) and a third revised edition in 2009 (Educational Book House, Aligarh). This book, indebted to Legouis and Cazamian’s famous A History of English Literature, was written with an awareness that Urdu readers not only need to know English literature in order to assess the limitations or the special features of their literature, but they can also approach world literature through a window provided by the ideas, forms and philosophy contained in English literature.

His essays in Naqoosh-o-Afkar, written over a long period of time, include his sketches of Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, Majnoo Gorakhpuri, Amelendu Bose, Maulana Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi, Ale Ahmad Suroor, Ateeq Ahmad Siddiqui, and Syed Amin Ashraf, including his observations on different literary issues and his point of view on many social and political problems faced by Aligarh Muslim University and Indian Muslims. He also familiarised Urdu readers by writing essays on French novelists Balzac and Flaubert in Naqdo Nazar.

Najma Mahmood’s collection of poems Registan mein Jheel (2014) reflects the modernist sensibility of an accomplished poet of nazms and songs. Drawing upon the images from nature like lake, river, water, rains, waves, sea, lightening, moon, sky and many others, her work touches on, among other subjects, themes of creativity, beauty, gender-relations and problems of existence. There is not only an element of restlessness in her poetry, noted by Syed Hamid, or shades of romanticism, noticed by Waheed Akhtar, there is also a deep psychological and spiritual probing in her nazms. Her feminist concerns are most visible in her famous poem Mother Goddess.

(From L to R): Asloob Ahmad Ansari, Zahida Zaidi, Syed Amin Ashraf, Najma Mahmood.

Many other members of the Department wrote and published in Urdu. Masoodul Hasan(1928-2019), a prolific writer in English till his last days, wrote interesting and critical reviews of all books sent to him as presents. His articles, reviews and creative pieces in Urdu are included in Maya-e-Khewesh (2019), ably compiled and edited by Mohammad Haris Bin Mansoor.

Maqbool Hasan Khan’s writings on Ghalib, Iqbal and Qurratulain Hyder were greatly appreciated. In fact, Khan disagreed with the largely held view of Urdu critics about Hyder’s stream of consciousness technique in her novels. ZU Usmani, widely praised for his insights into difficult literary texts, wrote on Ghalib, Fani, Premchand, and Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui in Naqdo Nazar. S Wiqar Husain, a very well-read person, wrote insightful essays on Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui’s symbolic characters, features of Moin Ahsan Jazbi’s poetry and analyses of ghazals of Iqbal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Nasir Kazmi, Asghar Gondvi, and Fani.

Raza Imam’s collection of stories in Urdu titled Shor aur Sannata, which has a foreword written by noted Urdu critic Shamim Hanafi, was published after his death. AR Kidwai, a celebrated translator of difficult philosophical and religious texts, has written a number of books in Urdu. Syed Asim Ali, who has written substantially in Urdu and translated important works, is also a poet of ghazals. He has written essays on Iqbal’s criticism, Shelley’s intellectual evolution in his poetry, analyses of the ghazals of Mir Taqi Mir, Khwaja Mir Dard and other Urdu poets apart from incisive book reviews in Naqdo Nazar.

Urdu poets, creative writers and literary critics at the Department of English at Aligarh Muslim University have contributed in their own ways to make Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav a meaningful affair.

Mohammad Asim Siddiqui is professor in the Department of English at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.

source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Language of Literature / by Mohammad Asim Siddiqui / October 09th, 2022

Mumbai-born Dr Tahera Qutbuddin First Indian To Win Arab World Nobel Prize

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Events, Exhibitions, Conferences (wef. Nov 18th, 2021), NRI's / PIO's, Women/Girls(since May26-2021), World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA / USA :

Image: Facebook

Dr Tahera Qutbuddin, a professor of Arabic Literature at the University of Chicago, recently became the first person of Indian-origin to win the 15th Sheikh Zyed Book Award. The award is considered to be the Nobel Prize of the Arab world.

Dr Qutbuddin, who was born in Mumbai and was educated until class 12 in India, also serves on the editorial board of NYU Abu Dhabi’s Library of Arabic Literature. She won the award for her latest book, Arabic Oration – Art and Function, published by Brill Academic Publishers of Leiden in 2019.

In the book, she puts forth a comprehensive theory of Arabic literature in its foundational oral period dating the seventh and eighth centuries AD. She discusses it’s influence on modern-day sermons and lectures as well.

Image: zayedaward

Having completed her higher secondary from Sophia College in Mumbai, Dr Qutbuddin pursued her BA from Ain Shams University, Cairo and got her PhD and MA from Harvard University, USA.


In a recent interview with a portal, she said that although she has lived away for many decades in Egypt and now the US, her roots are vital to who she is, and Indian culture is part of the fabric of her being.

“It (Mumbai) is the place of my childhood memories, of playing in the monsoon rains and eating mangoes in the summer. I come back to Mumbai often. I love my Mother India, and pray for her security and progress, and for harmony and love between the many beautiful communities that call her home,” she said.

Image: Zayedaward

According to her bio, her research “focuses on intersections of the literary, the religious, and the political in classical Arabic poetry and prose.”

She is the recipient of several prestigious fellowships, including support from the Franke Institute of Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

source: http://www.femina.in / Femina / Home> Trending> Achievers / by Shraddha Kamdar / April 30th, 2021

Hyderabad: Exhibition of Muslim women achievers at Salar Jung Museum

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Events, Exhibitions, Conferences (wef. Nov 18th, 2021), Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , , , , , , , , ,

Hyderabad, TELANGANA:

 Dr Lateef of ILM Foundation

Hyderabad: 

Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world. There is no limit to what they can accomplish. Now, one can learn all about the achievements of Muslim women at a two-day exhibition being organised at the Salar Jung Museum on October 1 and 2 by the Intellectual Learning Methodologies (ILM) Foundation in association with the Shaheen Group of Educational Institutions, Islah and Asli Talbina.

Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, general secretary, All India Muslim Personal Law Board, will inaugurate the exhibition which showcases the achievements of 40 women in different fields. Details of their accomplishment will be explained through posters, said Dr Lateef of ILM Foundation.

The main objective of holding the exhibition is to inform the common man about the achievements of women, particularly Muslim women.

A study of early Islamic history showed that women enjoyed the freedom of movement and took an active part in all walks of life. They excelled as rulers, warriors, nurses, scholars, jurists, teachers, traders and companions of the Prophet (Sahabiat).

In fact, they defined success on their own terms and proved that they are the real architects of society. When he started working on the subject some one-and-half years ago, Dr Lateef said, he stumbled upon the names of at least 10,000 women who had made immense contributions in their chosen field of activity.

These details he accessed through four books. They are  Al Muhaddthat written by Oxford scholar of Indian origin, Dr Akram Nadvi, Muslim Women Biography Dictionary of Aisha Bewley, Great Women of Islam written by Mehmood Ahmed Ghazanfar and Achievements of Muslim Women in Religious and Scholarly Field by Maulana Qazi Athar Mubarakpuri.

Some of the well-known names whose exploits and achievements are being showcased include Hazrath Aisha, wife of the Prophet Muhammed, who made an enormous contribution to the cause of Islam through her intelligence and scholarship. Besides being an important narrator of Prophetic traditions (Hadith), she proved to be more learned than many men of her period.

Many male companions of the Prophet used to approach her for clarification of Hadith. Similarly, Hazrath Zainab, daughter of Hazrath Ali, was also a great scholar. Eminent Islamic scholar, Ibn Hajar, is stated to have studied under 53 women while Al Suyuti is under 33 women. All this is history now. Other prominent women are Queen Zubaida, Princess Razia Sultana, Durru Shehvar, and Princess Niloufer.

These women could leave their indelible marks as Muslim society gave them their fundamental rights to education and self-development.

“Lives of early Muslim women represent exemplary models, transcending time and boundaries. And they are a great source of inspiration,” Lateef said.

Organisers plan to take the exhibition to other parts of the country after Hyderabad. The exhibition on the inspiring women achievers is the result of the hard work put in by two talented girls -Juveria Sabir and Zoha Ansari. The latter is working at Edventure Park, a start-up incubator.

The two-day exhibition is being held in the eastern block of the Salar Jung Museum from 11 am to 5 pm. Entry is free.

source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Featured News / by J S Ifthekhar / September 27th, 2022

S.H Raza’s biography is a glimpse into the lesser-known side of the iconic artist

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Leaders, World Opinion, , , ,

MADHYA PRADESH / FRANCE / NEW DELHI :

Thanks to the painstaking efforts of biographer Yashodhara Dalmia, Sayed Haider Raza: The Journey of an Iconic Artist gives an insight into the global phenomenon

S.H Raza's biography is a glimpse into the lesser-known side of the iconic artist | Architectural Digest India
S.H. Raza, Bombay, 1964

Imagine being born in the early 1920s in a small village in Madhya Pradesh amid the lush, inviting Kanha National Park, with quietude all around, only to reinvent the boundaries of contemporary modernist and abstract paintings.  

When Yashodhara Dalmia—a renowned art historian and curator in her own right—met S.H. Raza in Paris just a few months before his passing, it was the most extraordinary day of her life for all the right reasons. Of course, she could never have envisioned writing the biography of the man; but the memories are fond and wistful. “His presence itself was so welcoming,” she recollects. “I came out spell-bound. He was strikingly informative and ever so humble.” 

pix: harpercollins.co.in


Dalmia was commissioned by HarperCollins to work on Raza’s biography shortly after his passing in July 2016. Naturally, her biggest source—the man himself—was inaccessible. The only way for her to attempt near-accurate documentation of Raza was through his correspondences with other artists, interviewing his loved ones, and tracing his continent-spanning journey of more than seven decades.

S.H Raza's biography is a glimpse into the lesser-known side of the iconic artist | Architectural Digest India
Raza, Kathe Langhammer, Rudolf von Leyden (sitting front row)  and Walter Langhammer, Ara (standing behind)

But it was an undertaking Dalmia had willingly signed up for. And she was in it for the long haul.

Childhood: The Only Muse

Dalmia observes that almost all of Raza’s works were informed by his childhood in India. He consciously made a point to visit the country annually, meet its burgeoning artists, and travel the interiors. “He grew up in the dense forests of Kanha. And he had more-or-less a happy childhood. Naturally, his relationship with nature which was solidified in his early years, manifested very powerfully on the canvas,” notes Dalmia. Raza channelized the concentrated beauty of Kanha through the funnel of expressionism in works like Saurashtra and Tapovan. His relationship with nature was symbiotic—he sought his creative muses in the spaces between the hushed silences of the night and the stillness of the imposing trees.

When he broke into his legendary bindu paintings it again stemmed from this very distinct memory of his childhood. “As a child, he was quite the wayward kind—easily distracted. He found it hard to concentrate on his studies. His teacher then told him to focus on a single dot and then this dot would go on to become the bindu,” Dalmia explains. Like all of his styles that later evolved—bindu advanced too. “The circle graduated into different spaces. Initially, it was solid, later it became concentric and diaphanous and then even suspended in space,” she says.

Global: Deeper Colours

Raza’s arc of global recognition was running in parallel to his own evolution as an artist. He’d started to experiment with more liberal brushstrokes and his relationship with impasto paintings became only more acute. The year 1956 had proven to be a turning point for the master in more ways than one—he was the first foreign artist to receive the prestigious Prix de la critique award. This would pave the way for his first solo exhibition because with this award he was in the august company of past winners—auteurs like Debre, Kito, and Buffet. “Even when he went to Berkeley in 1960s, he encountered a range of abstract and surreal artists,” notes Dalmia. “It’s not that he learnt anything new from them. But getting acquainted with these experimental art forms triggered the vast reserves of his childhood experiences.”

More than anything, Dalmia credits Raza’s relationship with his partner, Janine Mongillat, as being immensely influential on his liberation and artistic fulfilment. 


“She was an artist too but hers was a wholly different style. And yet, the conversations Raza had with Janine deeply impacted his works. He used to look forward to those conversations as he found them intellectually stimulating on multiple levels,” says Dalmia. Mongillat’s unfortunate death due to cancer in 2002 shook Raza to the core. He was confronted with an intense longing for the woman he had deeply loved. It naturally influenced his works, the bindu became more celestial and ruminative.

S.H Raza's biography is a glimpse into the lesser-known side of the iconic artist | Architectural Digest India
S.H. Raza, Rajasthan, 1975

Pinnacle: Towards Home

Towards the last phase of his artistic career, Raza grew fonder for the home country that had taught him so much and had shaped him, creatively, to be the master that he became. The longing for his home and his deceased partner was intense. And there was no way he could have reconciled with both. “After the 70s, he became more conscious of his Indian roots. Now, he did not channelise it into abstract expressions. He even explicitly started using verses in Devanagari in his works,” observes Dalmia. For instance, in L’inconnu, he uses a line in Devanagari to convey the dichotomy between sects and identities. The local character of India then formed a bulk of his works. And he captured the verve of India in its fullest spirit. “When you see Bombay or Rajasthan the colours are vivid. With Rajasthan he brings out the searing sensations of the desert so powerfully on the canvas,” elaborates Dalmia.

S.H Raza's biography is a glimpse into the lesser-known side of the iconic artist | Architectural Digest India
S.H. Raza, L’inconnu, 1972

Mahatma Gandhi’s influence on his works cannot be understated at all. As a child when Raza first saw him with a singular lathi in his hand a simple white cloth wrapped across his body—the image seared in young Raza’s consciousness. As Dalmia notes in the biography, Raza did not follow the footsteps of his family to choose Pakistan after the partition of 1947 because he simply “couldn’t bear to leave the land of Gandhi” and even during his annual visits to India he would religiously bow before Gandhi’s samadhi in Delhi.

The Ethereal Touch

While the spiritual element in him only became more acute with each work. “Without divine intervention, paintings cannot be made,” he is quoted in the book. And the spiritual elements in his bindu paintings became perfectly attuned with the character of India on his canvas. With these multiple resonations in his works—ranging from the spiritual to the Gandhian and to the personal—for Dalmia, even writing the book and studying him was an “opening up experience” in many ways. She believes that Raza was an artist who lifted you up, he drew from life and made it bigger. 


“His journey is simply astounding,” says Dalmia. “I don’t claim to have done total justice to his life because there are a lot of things only his eyes were privy to. But one thing remains unchanged: the story of a little boy who rose from the forests of Kanha to conquer the art world is nothing if not astounding.”

source: http://www.architecturaldigest.in / AD , Architectural Digest / Home> Culture / by Arman Khan / Photography by The Raza Foundation Archives / New Delhi / June 11th, 2021 / Front cover pix. edited in ..harpercollins.co.in

‘Haemolymph’: The sufferings of a wrongly accused teacher

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 )

DELHI :

Abdul Wahid Sheikh, who was acquitted in 2015 of all charges in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case.   | Photo Credit: Youtube Screengrab

The film, releasing today, is about Abdul Wahid Sheikh’s fight for justice and the pain of a commoner accused in 2006 Mumbai train bombings

For many years, Abdul Wahid Sheikh lived a life of peace and quiet. He would go to school in the morning, teach his students, spend time with them sorting out their issues, come back home in the afternoon to his family. The beautiful bubble burst when the police asked him to report to the local police station and arrested him as an accused of Mumbai train blasts of 2006 which claimed more than 180 lives.

The next nine years were spent proving his innocence. After being acquitted in the case, Sheikh decided to put it down in a book Begunah Quaidi, later translated into English as Innocent Prisoner. This Friday, Sheikh’s story makes it to cinema halls as director Sudarshan Gamare’s film Haemolymph releases at theatres across the country. Sheikh is both a relieved man, and emotional. “The film brought back memories of the prolonged stay in jail, the third degree treatment, false implication,” he shares his experience with The Hindu.

Excerpts from the interview:

You had already penned your experience in Innocent Prisoner. What led to Haemolymph now?

I returned from jail in 2015. A year later my book was published and many filmmakers started approaching me for making a film around my life. I did not say no to any of them. After listening to my story, nobody mustered up courage to make the film. When Sudarshan Gamare approached me, I told him, ‘You are not the first or the last to talk of making a film on my ordeal’. He had read Sunetra Choudhury’s book Behind Bars, which had a chapter on me, and my book too. We had many sittings about the script. Their team went through my chargesheet of 20,000 pages and the judgment of 2,000 pages. They saw the work I had been doing.

The film unit met you in Mumbai?

Yes. They hired space in a hotel in Mumbai and said, ‘You will have to sit with our team for two-three days and discuss minute details of the jail days’.

Didn’t you fear revisiting past trauma?

Yes, every now and then explaining the prison experience, I would get emotional. But I had a larger vision that if the film actually gets made, the world will know about my experience. What the book failed to do, this film has already done; those who watched the film at the premier (in New Delhi this past week), shed a tear. The film overwhelmed the audience and people asked about the 12 other accused too.

How long did it take to shoot the film?

It took two years to complete the film from research to shooting. As soon as the film’s shooting was completed, lockdown was imposed in March 2020. So the release was delayed. It will be screened at nearly 300 theatres from May 27.

How involved were you with the shooting?

I knew all the time where were they shooting in Mumbai. They used to call me regularly, and I attended whenever I had the time as I am also teaching in a school.

Was Riyaz Anwar who plays Abdul Wahid Sheikh in the film your choice?

No, he was the director’s choice. Sudarshan has worked with him in a couple of short films earlier. Riyaz has done a good job. There is a resemblance to my face and voice in the film.

How satisfied are you with the movie?

To a large extent…I understand it is not possible to encapsulate nine years of life in a two-hour film. Whatever the film shows is factually correct; whatever I underwent in jail or court, has been shown with honesty.

Were you arrested from school?

Yes and no. The illegal arrest took place when I was in school. They came and took me along. I came back a little later. For official arrest, they phoned me at home, asking me to come to the police station. I went over and they arrested me there. We have shown it in the film.

Aren’t you worried that the Intelligence Bureau guys who you say have often followed you will see the film too?

No, I am not worried. Let them watch a movie that narrates the life of a school teacher who is falsely implicated in a crime he did not commit.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Delhi / by Zia Us Salam / May 27th, 2022

Science made easy

Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Science & Technology

INDIA:

Bal Sahitya Puruskar winner M Khalil | Photo Credit: SOMA BASU

Taking science in Urdu to children is a mission close to the heart of Mohammed Khalil

For years Mohammed Khalil, a veteran writer for children, has written about science and penned essays and stories around 80 scientists during his long fulfilling career. Now he takes science to Urdu-speaking children and the effort has won him the Bal Sahitya Akademi Puraskar for his work, Science ke Dilchasp Mazameen, just before the pandemic.

“Besides the award, the love and recognition of my peers is my greatest reward. I feel happy that my colleagues and friends remembered me. I recall the Urdu magazine Khilona. At one time, I used to read it and also write exclusively for them, contributing essays and stories for children. The Bal Sahitya award has re-energised me as a writer and gives me a new zest to carry on with my work. I have always desired that more children take to science and I am thrilled that my writings on science have clicked with them, “ says Delhi-based Khalil.

Khalil is a widely published author with 15 books in Urdu and a couple of books in Hindi. “It is important to interact with the young generation in the language they are comfortable in. Long ago, when I published Science ki Duniya’s special edition on Dr CV Raman, it was widely praised. Now, I want to communicate with children through short stories based on scientific facts so that their mind develops a scientific bent. The next generation should understand scientific principles and more women also should take to science, he says.”

Khalil was associated with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and edited their magazine Science ki Duniya . Some of his widely appreciated works include Ajeeb aur Ghareeb Janwar, Science Aur Hum, Nehru Aur Science, Dr CV Raman: Ek Azeem Sciencedaan and Chachajaan ki Scienci Kahaniyan.

A popular speaker in Urdu medium schools, he has been widely felicitated as he is among the first writers to talk of science in Urdu. Happy to dispel the false belief of Urdu being only a language of poetry and novels, Khalil has brought the language into the domain of science laboratories. The awards have come thick and steady. For instance, he won the NCERT’s national award besides numerous awards from the Delhi Urdu Akademi, West Bengal Urdu Akademi, Sir Syed and Vigyan Bharat award, etc. In fact, his mantelpiece is replete with awards of recognition and appreciation. With the Sahitya Akademi award, his cup of joy brims over. Yet he adds, “The biggest joy is to see a child taking to science in Urdu.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Science / by Ziya Us Salam / August 19th, 2022

The Shama affair worth remembering

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Leaders

INDIA:

Raj Kapoor with the editor Yunus Dehlvi | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

How the Urdu magazine Shama peaked to popularity and disappeared

In the years gone by, the fountain at the Fawwara intersection in Chandni Chowk seldom worked. Yet, few complained. Most people came to Fawwara for their daily news, for here sat a newspaper seller who sold practically every language newspaper in the country.

Besides English, Hindi and Urdu dailies, one could get Punjabi, Marathi and Bengali papers too. He did not sell many magazines, the sole exception being Shama, the Urdu monthly that presented a heady cocktail of Urdu literature, Indian culture and Hindi cinema. Shama, like water, charted its own course.

Founded by Yusuf Dehlvi in 1939, some bought Shama to read Urdu writers. The who’s who of Urdu litterateurs, including Rajinder Singh Bedi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chughtai and Qurratulain Hyder, graced its pages. There were pieces by connoisseurs of Indian culture as well, talking of traditions, little and large, and values, shifting or timeless.

Shama was appreciated in literary circles at a time when Delhi had a lively literary circuit with its mushairas, book readings, debates and even street theatre. Yet it would have remained a niche publication but for a couple of masterstrokes by Yusuf Dehlvi’s sons – the widely read Yunus Dehlvi and the widely popular Idrees Dehlvi – who turned what was otherwise a haloed literary publication into a family magazine.

Literary love 1960 cover of Shama and editor of the Urdu magazine  | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Idrees had strong film connections. In a column he wrote under the pen name of Musafir, he talked of little things in the life of film stars: the films they signed, the films they opted out of, the flops they gave or the jubilee hits they notched up. He talked too of their relationships, their moments of stolen pleasure. He backed it all up with photographs of film shooting, movie storylines and lyrics of popular songs.

Readers lapped it up. Within no time, fans of Meena Kumari and Madhubala, Sadhana and Sharmila Tagore, Sridevi and Jayaprada started collecting the photos of their matinee idols.

Emboldened by the success, Shama started its own annual film awards with a graceful function at Ashok hotel’s convention hall. Soon, the biggest stars of Hindi cinema started frequenting Shama Kothi on Sardar Patel Marg in New Delhi, the residence of the Dehlvis named after the magazine. From Dilip Kumar and Sunil Dutt to Dev Anand, Rajendra Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Dharmendra, they would all come over.

The rise and fall of Shama Shashi Kapoor and Sadia Dehlvi | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Once, as Vaseem Dehlavi, son of Yunus, recalls, “Sunil Dutt and Sanjay came shortly after Nargis Dutt had passed away to share their sorrow.” Often, the staff photographer of Shama clicked the pictures of stars here. They were then shared with readers as exclusive photos.

From predominantly abstract illustrations and photographs in the 40s, Shama by the 60s started having film stars on the cover. There were also film quizzes where a hundred cassettes of a new film’s songs were given away as prizes in the 70s and 80s. Every issue sold at least a lakh copies. People went to newspaper stalls to pick up their copy if their vendor delayed in delivering it at their house.

Crossword craze

The other big push was given by Yunus Dehlvi who had joined his father at the magazine as a young boy of 14-15. He started an Adabi Muamma (loosely culture crossword). It was in many ways the first such venture in an Urdu magazine. Men with pretensions to knowledge of varied kind were so hooked to Adabi Muamma that the magazine started getting lakhs of replies to every crossword. They all vied to win the two kilogram of gold bumper prize every month in the 80s.

As Vaseem Dehlavi reveals, “It was a completely honest exercise. When my father started putting the muamma together, he would lock himself in a room for two days and not allow any family member to come in.”

The rise and fall of Shama The magazine crossword | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The newspaper sellers matched its huge popularity with their innovation. They started selling forms for the puzzle and photostat copies of the original crossword separately. There was a time in the 70s and 80s when the magazine’s cover price was ₹5 but the photocopies of the muamma were sold separately by some vendors for ₹10!

There was a pickle seller in Old Delhi who made hay while Shama shined. He started selling the muamma, besides his pickle delicacies. Then there was a bookseller at Nai Sarak who mixed books with the puzzle. Children came for books, their parents for the puzzle. “We used to get at least 2 lakh responses to each muamma. If more than one person got the answer right, the prize money was shared between them. If in some issue, nobody got the right answer, it was carried over to the next issue. The prize money for the following month was added to it. There was that level of integrity to the whole issue,” says Vaseem Dehlavi, who is now based in Mumbai.

All good things, however, do come to an end. By the 90s, Urdu was no longer as popular a language. And the internet provided access to films. The heady days of longing for photographs and interviews of film stars are consigned to history. Add to that the crests and troughs of the family business. By December 1999, Shama, meaning candle flame, was extinguished, leaving many a parvana (moth) with happy memories of the years gone by.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books / by Ziya Us Salam / July 22nd, 2022

Of a female knight and the Begums of Bhopal

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, Royal Families, PreIndependence -Descendants (wef. Jan 02nd,2022), Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , ,

Bhopal, MADHYA PRADESH :

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

Arif Mohammed Khan | His own man

Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, , , , , , , ,

Bulandshahr, UTTAR PRADESH:

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

Scrap dealer creates library of over 2,000 books found in trash

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Business & Economy, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Karnataka (under research project), Museums, Libraries (wef. April 16th, 2022), , , , ,

Hoovakuvakallu (Belepuni Village, Bantwal ),Mangaluru, KARNATAKA :

Mangaluru : 

Ismail Kannathur (50) is the finest epitome in the society who has proven that being not educated is not a curse, but there is a scope to share knowledge.

Ismail, a scrap dealer by profession, has a collection of over 2,000 books at his residence. He runs a scrap shop at Hoovakuvakallu in Balepuni village in Bantwal. Ismail is not well-educated and studied only up to the first standard. But, he knows the importance of education and knowledge. Knowing the importance of books, Ismail has built a small library at his residence. He has been in the scrap dealing business for 25 years. When he gets good books in his business, he collects and preserves them. Initially, Ismail was a fruit vendor, but due to his helping nature, his business incurred loss. Later, he turned into a scrap dealer as per the suggestion of one of his friends. In the beginning, though he had no experience in scrap dealing, later through hard work, he gained experience.

Ismail is an active social worker. He has helped several people in distress. Whenever an accident occurs in the vicinity, Ismail has rushed several victims to the hospital. Moreover, he has helped poor girls in their marriage by raising funds.

Speaking to daijiworld.com, Ismail said, “I have collected several good books. My intention is to set up this library. I am not educated, but let others be educated by reading books. In the past, I have given over 2,000 books to several people. Some take it by paying a small amount, and though I refuse, they thrust a few currency notes into my shirt pocket. But, many take books free of cost. Some teachers and students also take books from me. As I am not well-educated, I have educated my five children.”

He also said that a person had motivated him to set up a library with the books available.

Ismail has arranged books on wooden shelves at his residence. The public can borrow them.

Ismail is also known as ‘Gandhi’ for his social service. He has been felicitated by many organizations and institutions for his active cleanliness drive. Ismail, for several years, has been involved in the cleanliness drive in the locality. He has helped several poor and downtrodden people. Ismail also actively works for various social causes including helping the police department in tracing thieves who rob offering boxes of temples and masjids.

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Top Stories / by Deekshith DV / by Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru / September 22nd, 2022