A tribute to a polymath historian who recently passed away.
Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb at the Qutb Shahi tombs in Hyderabad, October 2013. Photo: Author provided
I first met Dr Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb in the summer of 2011, as a naïve PhD student who’d arrived in Hyderabad from Los Angeles wanting to “read Shah Jahan’s documents”. He asked me the very standard question asked of research students in India, “What is your topic?”
I only had a rather incoherent answer to give to Shakeb, the man who had, among other things, created the Mughal Record Room, in what is today known as the Telangana State Archives. Located in a nondescript building at the periphery of the Osmania University campus in the dusty precinct of Tarnaka, this institution has undergone numerous transformations over the course of a half-century of its existence in Hyderabad. But institutions were often narrow and unimaginative places for sustaining a towering figure such as Shakeb. He went on to have a long and eclectic life and career that consistently defied the logic and constraints of institutions, for he was himself an institution. The loss of Shakeb is thus far more than the loss of an individual.
His was a formidable generation of post-Independence intellectuals from different parts of the subcontinent who, from the 1950s, devoted themselves to preserving its languages, repairing and reconstructing our scattered archives and libraries, and re-imagining our past(s) long before colonialism. Shakeb embodied, above all, a boundless curiosity coupled with a complete disregard for trends, ‘schools,’ cliques, and fancy theories.
He was not interested in being a Marxist or a nationalist nor in chasing the Western academy’s greener pastures. In some ways, his foremost allegiance was to the detritus of the past itself – to what paper, ink, and materiality mean and what they can tell us about our past and present selves. He asked, what a document or manuscript had gone through over centuries, how had it come to be, and how can we best preserve thousands of paper fragments for future generations so we can continue to tell their stories?
This rare commitment to the study and preservation of archival knowledge led him to write the landmark catalog, Mughal Archives Vol I: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Documents Pertaining to the Reign of Shah Jahan, in 1977, followed by many publications for The British Library, State Archives Andhra Pradesh, and other repositories, universities, and auction houses. I remember asking Shakeb once why he was so committed to creating reference tools to access rare historical materials, and he answered, “because I know no one will care to read them in the future!” In some ways, he was right.
Today, when the stakes for writing about the subcontinent’s pasts are fraught and closely tied to an ongoing project of hollowing out academic institutions, it’s worth remembering a very different kind of Indian historian.
Shakeb standing in the second row, in a group photo from a conference in March 1968 at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. Also pictured are G.H. Khare, Mohibbul Hasan, V.K. Bawa, P.M. Joshi, Suvira Jaiswal, Burton Stein, and Eugene Irschick, among others. Photo: Author provided
Born on October 21, 1933, Shakeb grew up in Hyderabad and Aurangabad. He studied Political Science and English at Osmania University before heading to Aligarh Muslim University in 1956 for his Masters, where he was taught by Mohammed Habib and S. Nurul Hasan. In 1962, he returned to the south where he was employed as an archivist at what was then known as the State Archives Andhra Pradesh. There, Shakeb acquired the unique training of deciphering documents and identifying their categories, genres, and forms from the last generation of the traditional jagirdari staff of the Nizam’s state who were retiring when he joined the archives. He also worked under Yusuf Husain Khan who had begun the work of processing Mughal administrative documents. The archives thrived under the directorship of committed scholar-administrators such as Hadi Bilgrami and V.K. Bawa.
As rich documentary caches from families, Sufi shrines, and samsthanams were discovered and deposited into state institutions, post-independence archivists and historians confronted challenges, including the reluctance of individuals to part with materials that had been in their homes for centuries. Debates and disputes ensued about what constituted a ‘valuable’ manuscript or document, how to classify materials, and to which regional-linguistic nationalism a remnant ‘belonged.’
These were debates that had already begun in the pre-Independence period, in the work of institutions like the Indian Historical Records Commission. Recent studies of the debates between Jadunath Sarkar and the Maratha historians have traced the longer history of such tensions. Part of the problem was the mutual suspicion between scholars oriented to modern social sciences and those with a more ‘traditional’ orientation and training. Shakeb, the archivist-historian, was at once both and neither.
At a distance from the halls of JNU and Aligarh, where the Mughal state’s merits were being debated, Shakeb inhabited yet another set of worlds. He was at ease reconstructing the household library of Chishti Sufi Abu’l Faiz Minallah in Bidar, discussing the southern India Cholas with the American historian Burton Stein, and discovering a shipwreck off the coast of Masulipatnam in the late 1960s.
Based on newly-processed materials, in 1976, he would complete his doctorate under P.M. Joshi at Deccan College in Pune, a connected history that examined circulation and political diplomacy between Safavid Iran, Mughal India, and the Golkonda sultanate. Shakeb’s study brought the question of mobility and exchange to the centre stage at a time when the norm was to study either the Mughal heartland (often synonymous with Delhi or the northern Indian plains) or select one province of the empire. After many years in archives and universities, Shakeb charted his own path beyond academia. His forensic ability for assessing manuscript provenance, material objects, and documentary genres, allowed him to thrive in other professional contexts, leading to work as a consultant for Christie’s in London.
But, to restrict myself to Shakeb the historian would fail to capture the range of subjects, languages, and disciplines over which he had complete mastery – Persian and Urdu literature, Islamic studies, geography, philosophy, linguistics, and art history. Shakeb always kept the historian’s arrogance in check by reminding her of the literary critic’s skills. The study of prosody and poetics was just as important for making sense of an India without and before English.
Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb (L) with his friend Dr Leonard Lewisohn (R) at Bidar fort in January 2012. Photo: Author provided
Literary circuits would light up the minute Shakeb landed back in Hyderabad (as they often would in London). He had been working for many years on translating Iqbal’s Persian poetry into Urdu. He was equally committed to the study of Bedil, Ghalib, Dagh, and Amir Minai. He would unveil to students the unique phonetics and cadence of Dakani, the pan-regional literary idiom of southern India, with many living poets and a long literary history, which he emphasised, is yet to be fully understood for its role in shaping classical and modern Urdu.
When he published his dissertation, Relations of Golkonda with Iran, in book form in 2017, he dedicated it to his grandchildren – Itrat, Taha, Mahamid, Khadija, Tawsin, Mahd, Istafa, Fatima, ‘Ali, Nuha – all of whom embody their dadasaab’s fortitude and resilience. I haven’t sufficient words to describe the patience of his wife, Farhat Ahmed, and the enormity of what she has taught me over many years about balancing the scholarly life with everyday living. It was this reminder that grounded Shakeb’s engagement with multiple worlds. His hands that treated every piece of archival paper like a newborn child. Lethal scoldings hurled at junior scholars too convinced of their own greatness. And, never forgetting to make fun of people who take themselves too seriously. With Shakeb’s passing, we are reminded how fragile the threads are that connect us to the past, and how dependent we are on a handful of such individuals. It’s difficult to imagine what, if anything, might come after such larger-than-life figures.
Subah Dayal is Assistant Professor at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Her research is on social and cultural histories of the Deccan and the Indian Ocean world.
source: http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> English> Culture> History / by Subah Dayal / February 10th, 2021
Barely visible from across the new Errum Manzil metro and crushed between rows of commercial buildings, lies an abandoned citadel of knowledge: Idara-e Adabiyat-e-Urdu.
Once a core institution of the city for scholarship of the Deccan, this vast library and its museum, Aiwan-e Urdu – like much of Hyderabad’s heritage – exists in a state of disrepair. It is one of Hyderabad’s fast disappearing independent archival institutions connected to a time before – as ruins beneath the consumerist ravages of the new city. And yet, as we step inside, walk up the stairs to the library in its tower, rummage through dusty catalogues and forlorn books – it feels as though we have entered a magical portal into another world.
Established in 1931 by Syed Mohiuddin Qadri Zore (1905-1962), the most prolific scholar of the Deccan, and built upon lands donated by his wife, the illustrious poetess Tahniyatun-Nissa begum, the Idara houses a vast archival collection. That the library and museum continue to exist at all is due almost entirely to their 73-year-old son, Rafiuddin Qadri, who has devoted himself to managing this house of knowledge. Containing over fifty-thousand books and printed materials, including manuscripts and paintings and artefacts, the purpose of the Idara was to preserve the art, history, and multilingual Deccan literary cultures in Urdu Dakkhani, Persian, and Arabic.
At a cursory glance, the closed doors of the book shelves seem dense and inaccessible. But if one is willing to subject themself to the rigours of an erstwhile knowledge production circuit and has the patience to listen to its many stories rendered in multiple languages and idioms, these doors open up fascinating worlds.
Here, beneath dusty glass encasements, is an original eighteenth-century painting of warrior queen Chand Bibi of the Deccan, and a book about Deccan Radio. The museum is typically kept locked and desperately needs restoration. A dusty lithograph of sixteenth-century Qutb Shahi tughra emerges in fragile condition, alongside an original photograph of Kishen Pershad, an erstwhile prime minister of Hyderabad State under the Asaf Jah Nizams. The museum contains rare royal firmans, inscriptions, maps and genealogical trees, arms and weapons, coins, old garments and cloaks that are not available anywhere else.
Behind this seemingly random collection from the past is the erudite vision of Zore, who was not only a scholar himself but also carefully curated and fostered the production of knowledge.
Rafiuddin Qadri at Idara-e-adabiyat-e-Urdu.
Zore’s son Rafiuddin Qadri sits at a desk in the main hall, surrounded by construction workers, painters, and piles of decaying books and magazines. The sound of traffic on the main road tends to drown out his voice. He is the last of a generation to remember why institutions such as the Idara emerged in Hyderabad during the early to mid-twentieth century. He is soft-spoken, donning his characteristic vest and topi. He carries a dignified scholarly attitude resonant with an earlier time. Exceedingly generous and patient, Qadri carries on a legacy that no longer is valued by the current trends of historical knowledge production in India.
Archives and libraries everywhere in India are under threat of some kind, as history literally rots away . Hence, when serious historians come across independent archival institutions and archivists devoted to the preservation of historical knowledge – like Rafiuddin Qadri – it is worth telling their story.
Once a core institution of the city for scholarship of the Deccan, this vast library and its museum, Aiwan-e Urdu – like much of Hyderabad’s heritage – exists in a state of disrepair.
Descended from a Sufi family of Qandhar and North Deccan, Rafiuddin Qadri’s ancestors came to Hyderabad in the late nineteenth century. His father, Syed Mohiuddin Qadri Zore maintained close ties and commitments to Sufism, both in institutional ways regarding his familial lineage and his philosophical approaches in terms of the spiritual values attributed to seeking out knowledge. Sufi dargahs have traditionally been not only spiritual centres but also major arenas of producing knowledge. At the same time, Zore was a modern visionary, establishing a major institution of learning in Hyderabad, in keeping with the time. “The dawn of the twentieth century was an era of renaissance in the Deccan,” and “a number of institutions such as Asafia Library, Osmania University, Dairatul Maarif, Dar-ul-Tarjuma, Salar Jung Museum, were established which contributed immensely to the production of knowledge about the history and culture of Hyderabad.” Zore was not only a major scholar-administrator – publishing hundreds of books and editing the magazine Sab Ras – he was a key figure who brought together intellectuals while establishing and overseeing the Idara, with the help of his friends, ranging from scholars to local politicians and administrators. This spirit lives on in Rafiuddin Qadri.
Rafiuddin Qadri at the Idara Museum.
Schooled as we have been in the contemporary formalities of accessing archives, when we asked if there was a fee we ought to pay to access the library, Rafiuddin Qadri said, “No, not at all,” and then explained his father’s legacy. “Knowledge should be free”, is the principal hallmark of the Idara. “It is completely against my father’s ethics that one should charge money to scholars as this is a place for them to study and learn freely.” This ethics of scholarship and the writing of history is lost as a result of the commercialisation of intellectual production as well as the privatisation of education in India. “It was meant for the youth of Hyderabad,” says Rafiuddin Qadri, about one of the main purposes of establishing the Idara. “The youth were involved in the world of politics constantly, at a very turbulent time,” referring to the anti-colonial nationalist movements of the 1930s and 1940s. “A quiet space of inquiry was needed where they could go to do intellectual work and to study.” The Idara, then, is a physical space and has served as a much-needed refuge from the noise of the world’s polemics, to think, ponder, reflect, and read, without the constant interruptions of the fast-paced intensity of daily urban life in India, and its demands.
‘Scholars come from all over the world. They say, how did Zore know I would need this document so many years later! He had preserved it!’
The extraction of knowledge out of India and into the corridors of more powerful contexts of intellectual knowledge production – such as academia in the West – has contributed to diminishing the role of those who have cultivated the very libraries and institutions so central to academic research about India. It is often suggested that only British libraries and archives are worth perusing when it comes to various aspects of India’s past, given the colonial codification of Indian knowledge – brought there often by way of loot – were preserved there. Moreover, popular histories of the Deccan for a commercial market dominated by elites and their publishing houses tend to overlook vast swathes of historical knowledge produced in languages other than English, such as Urdu. Zore had been vital to Hyderabad in creating a space, a physical place, a free and open library – of which there are few and far between today. The very idea of a library – one of the few spaces which anyone can visit without having to spend money – is itself a revolutionary idea in contexts such as India. The institution Zore created is today preserved by Rafiuddin Qadri, who belongs to the last generation of living reposit.
The Idara Museum.
Rafiuddin devotedly handles the materials, and carefully walks the corridors he has seen during the many seasons of his life. His eyes light up when he narrates the stories of researchers: “Scholars come from all over the world. They say, ‘how did Zore know I would need this document so many years later! He had preserved it!’”, he muses.
Deccan: A region that resists categorisation
“Even though local Indian historians may know more about the Deccan, they won’t get published as easily as outsiders in the top international presses.”
“This is true. But I feel like we do the same thing unfortunately. Produce knowledge for the West.”
“History as a profession in India seems so dead. The assault is coming from all sides. The propagandistic writing to fit the current ruling ideology, the evisceration of educational spaces, the lack of care, no thought.”
“It’s so depressing.”
“So, how do we talk about the Deccan amidst all this? No one seems to care.”
“Just keep going to the archives and keep writing.”
“Yes, Rafi Sahb is waiting.”
“Is he there now?”
“Yes, he is.”
Calligraphy at the Idara-e-adabiyat-e-Urdu.
Rafiuddin Qadri points to the calligraphic poetry of Dakkhani Urdu gracing the high arches of the main hall of the Idara, with its main chandelier, overlooking what once was a clean and orderly library. “This place is not what it once was, there are very few people who are interested in doing serious work like this in Hyderabad,” he says. It is true. The archivists and knowledge-keepers of these earlier institutions are passing away while their knowledge is not being passed down. As we ask Qadri questions about our respective research projects, he says, “Did you ever meet Zia Shakeb?” We shake our heads. Qadri puts his hands to his head. “Oh, that is too bad. He knew so much. And now he is gone. So much is gone and lost.” In describing the history of the Idara-e-Urdu-e Adabiyat, Qadri also shares with us some old photographs detailing the networks of people instrumental to this library.
Zore imagined Idara, with a differently rooted aesthetic, as a space for people from different languages of the Deccan to work together, to have intellectual camaraderie without being subjected to the pressures of capitalist cycles of publish or perish production.
Qadri shuffles slowly between different rooms of the Idara, all under some kind of construction. He seemingly is displaced not only by time, but also between the once vibrant rooms of his family’s library. Over cups of chai, as we discuss historical research, he advises us about specific catalogues and indexes as he repeatedly issues unheeded calls for the library staff to retrieve particular titles.
What happens once these archives, knowledge, and the custodians of stories about the past are lost? One easy answer is that the region takes on a new identity, more sectarian, more oppressive and discriminatory, built around invented histories that weaponise pasts as archives diminish. Perhaps, a more creative and bolder answer would be, that we increasingly become a society alienated from oneself, lost and rootless – our understanding of history diminished by corporate and profit-making knowledge enclaves such as within the dystopia of a hi-tech city and financial district, Hyderabad’s rapidly developing new urban core. It is the responsibility of professional historians to keep stories of the past in circulation, in the hope that they might make us more empathetic, caring and humane.
Although Qadri claims his memory is fading and not what it once was, we marvel at his ability to recall catalogues, titles, essays, authors, scholars, poets, and multiple editions of books and magazines, produced about the Deccan between the 1930s and 1960s. This earlier period of scholarship about Dakhaniyat is largely ignored, as knowledge produced in the languages of this region, such as Urdu, is not considered as worthy as compared to knowledge produced in English.
The Deccan has long been configured as a region of hope in history, offering alternative ways of belonging, those that do not fit within the nationalist frames of India and Southasia overall.
It is in response to European dominance over the circuits of knowledge about India, that Zore imagined Idara, with a differently rooted aesthetic, as a space for people from different languages of the Deccan to work together, to have intellectual camaraderie without being subjected to the pressures of capitalist cycles of publish or perish production. Accessing the Idara today is not just about mechanically sifting through catalogues until you find what you need, and extracting it – but more about setting the pressures of clock-time aside and the arrogance of earned professional degrees aside, to learn from a life-long archivist. It means opening one’s self up to the humbling, slow and feeble processes of identifying voices in history, which are increasingly lost in the maddening clamour of the market and the deafening contours of nationalist totalitarianisms and fascisms of today.
Interest about the Deccan is growing in India, and new works of popular history have emerged in recent years. There has been some recent acknowledgement that the history of the Deccan has been marginalised, and as one headline pronounced, “Indian history without the Deccan is like European history minus France” for it seems that comparisons to Europe must be made, if Southasian regions are to exist at all within the historical imagination or reading public. Overall, it is the north-centric perspective of India’s historical narratives that continue to dominate Southasia’s study of the past. This is a perspective that largely ignores the Deccan region – today, home to the four linguistically organised states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Southasian historians continue to favour and focus upon Punjab, Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, it is the Mughal era that dominates scholarship on Southasian Islam when turning to India’s medieval and early modern past. Turning to the Deccan region thus challenges the north-centric perspective of Mughal imperial development that dominates histories of India’s Persianate past.
Syed Mohiuddin Qadri Zore (1905 – 1962).
And yet, it is impossible for any serious scholar or historian undertaking research about Deccan or about Hyderabad – once India’s largest and wealthiest princely state – without coming across the legacy of Syed Mohiuddin Qadri Zore.
Rafiuddin Qadri points out a special issue in Sab Ras about his father in which the author points out that, “Dr. Zore gave voice to the Deccan,” during a period of time in India’s history when communal tensions were on the rise. His was a utopian project of “knowledge for the people,” about a region of Southasia with its own distinct role and shared pasts that cut across religious, linguistic, and communitarian identities. It is to Zore’s credit that the Deccan was situated at all in the historiography of the subcontinent, being one the first scholars to research and write seriously about this region. Zore’s legacy is astounding, and he is, in fact, a key figure in India’s intellectual history. Yet, he has been ignored by historians of India. To write about him means having to situate oneself between the missing pages of Southasian historiography and history, between emphasising the importance of ethical citational practices amidst fast disappearing archives.
The Deccan has long been configured as a region of hope in history, offering alternative ways of belonging, those that do not fit within the nationalist frames of India and Southasia overall. Nawab Ali Yavar Jung, the Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University in the first session of the Deccan History Conference held in April 1945, which was sponsored by Zore said “…the history of the Deccan is, in miniature, the history of India. It mirrors all the great reflexes of Indian History and throws its own reflection back on that larger screen…. Separateness in the midst of geographical unity, isolation in the midst of invasion, such have been its characteristics. The resistance of the south to northern pressure provides an instance of the centrifugal forces which baffled successive efforts to establish one and the same rule over the length and breadth of India…” The region carries the spirit of sovereignty and diversity and this was championed by Idara and Zore. Though not like what it once was, in Hyderabad Deccan there still continues the intermingling of the languages of Telugu, Urdu, and English, with a sprinkling of Marathi, Kannada and Tamil.
Archival image of Aiwan-e-Urdu.
The pluralism and cosmopolitanism of the Deccan is reflected in the physical building of the Idara itself, whose construction occurred in 1955, with the patronage of the Government of India, the Nizam Trust, and several other entities in and outside of Hyderabad, from the state of Andhra Pradesh to Kashmir – where Zore was eventually laid to rest. The Indo-Islamic architecture and designs are inspired by Qutb Shahi domes, Indic lotuses of Hindu mythology, Bahmani latticework, flowering buds of the Egyptian Nile, and Spanish minarets and arches, with a main front door meant to represent the gates and doorways of so many forts of India.
Not only was Zore among the chief intellectual architects of Dakhaniyat, he was responsible for building several educational institutions and was at the helm of vast intellectual production. His entire education through his Masters degree was completed in Hyderabad. Born in 1905, Zore was educated in a primary school in a Kayasth Pathshala, where he learned English, and where his fondness grew for poetry, public speaking and debate. By high school he had not only already established a debate society but also a small library. He later joined Darul Uloom and City College and ultimately the College of Arts and Social Sciences at Osmania University.
Descended from a Sufi family of Qandhar and North Deccan, Rafiuddin Qadri’s ancestors came to Hyderabad in the late nineteenth century.
Osmania University is the first university in India to introduce a vernacular language (Urdu) as the medium of instruction. It aimed, among other things, to translate knowledge, including science textbooks into Urdu, which was a remarkable project, and contributed to a cosmopolitan ‘worlding of the Deccan.’ There, Zore eventually became Head of the Department of Urdu, where he was a founding member of ‘Mujalla-e Osmania’, the first Bilingual English-Urdu magazine at Osmania University. He was the first to work seriously on Urdu-Hindi linguistics and phonetics, and later published a book called Ruh-e-Tanqid, which was one of the earliest works of Urdu literary criticism. Widely travelled, journeying to London, Paris, as well as to Germany – where he learned French and German and translated Dakkhani Urdu poetry into European languages – Zore also travelled extensively within India, and to Kashmir and wrote the first book about Dakhaniyat. A polyglot, linguist, and philologist par excellence, Zore had studied Sanskrit and Gujarati as well.
During the mid-1930s, he embarked upon a project to prepare an encyclopedia in Urdu, inviting Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Sarojini Naidu, and Jawaharlal Nehru to write for it – many of whom had met with Zore. Though the encyclopedia project itself was not realised, the attempt signalled the yearning to produce knowledge about the world for citizens of Hyderabad, to bring in a perspective from the Deccan and its relationship to the wider world. And yet, his legacy is in danger of being forgotten, as Zore’s understanding of the Deccan has never been included in the story of India. The Idara-e-Urdu-e Adabiyat and the Aiwan-e Urdu are institutions that themselves could form the subject of an entire PhD dissertation as well as serious scholarship about Hyderabad’s institutions.
Erasures: The city and the politics of historical memory
Hyderabad’s past is rendered almost invisible: over the past 75 years, there has been tremendous upheaval: from a former Muslim princely kingdom – capital of the Asaf Jahi dynasty – to its violent annexation by the Indian state and army in 1948; and then its incorporation into the state of Andhra Pradesh in 1956; its land reallocations by the linguistic state in the 1970s and 1980s; the neoliberal economic reforms of the 1990s; and then being cast as the capital of the new Telangana state in 2014, the same year India was met with the political triumph of Hindu nationalism. And, it is not only upheavals.
Hyderabad’s history is also marginalised by most historians of India, who have simply not paid close enough attention to this city and its past. Then, there is the fact that popular historians write of Hyderabad’s history in romanticised ways, subjecting its past to their own perspectives, whether nationalist or colonialist, while Hyderabad’s elites produce accounts imbued with relentless nostalgia. Since 1948, there has been a steady demolition of Hyderabad’s historical pasts, inaugurated by the Indian state as well as by a combination of other factors – including the increasing out-migration of the city’s elites who were once patrons of major institutions. They have been replaced by a new elite who care more for malls, sports cars, and bars – and see no value in patronage or cultivation of the arts, cultural activities, or historical knowledge.
Today, the erasure of Hyderabad’s pluralist past is occurring at a resounding pace. The assault upon this city’s history and the shared heritages of its people is tremendous. Buildings torn down, monuments subject to land-grabs by the state or by private entities, and the city’s heritage continues to be destroyed by new capitalist ventures, as the old sixteenth century urban core and the modernising reforms of the Nizams in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is decimated by hyper-development, political expediency, and the corrupt scions of progress.
Yet, at the same time, there do exist responses to these assaults by Hyderabad’s numerous heritage activist groups and citizen historians, who daily record, bear witness to, and struggle against the demolition of monuments. While they are few and far between, they frequently lack political backing. There are organisations and individuals on the ground in Hyderabad who are constantly challenging the assaults on Hyderabad’s heritage. Local heritage activists and citizen historians, to several social media groups which have cropped up in recent years, are imbued with a very strong historical consciousness – doing everything from pleading with authorities to preserve heritage, leading heritage walks, to writing extensively about it in newspapers, such as The Siasat Daily – which regularly contains articles about Hyderabad’s heritage. One has only to bend one’s ear and take the time to listen.
Existing alongside these erasures of Hyderabad, is the continued persistence of historical memory among the people of the region. They consistently recall the shared past of the city across different communities and frequently invoke history. Even such mundane activities as providing directions in Hyderabad, constitutes broken maps of history. Directions include not only present landmarks, but also the names of people, properties, and heritages that existed in those same places of an earlier time, for Hyderabad once had the characteristics more akin to small town life – rather than the megapolis it is today. The lanes of Hyderabad are full of oracles who narrate the past. One octogenarian asks, “in the Nizam’s rule, Hindus worked as prime ministers, can Muslims now even be peons of government offices?” voicing some facets of changes the city and the nation have seen. Once the Muslim elites’ lands were confiscated and thoroughly eviscerated by the state, through their displacement as well as their own migrations to the Global North, the past few decades have witnessed the arrival of a set of new elites to the city. They are all too happy to culturally appropriate the memory of the Nizam, while at the same time encroaching on lands in celebration of an “India Shining” with its new temples rooted in the free-market economy – just one endless shopping centre–part of a larger drive that is flattening and homogenising India.
Meanwhile, the politics of the memory of Hyderabad are complicated and are constantly reframed, sometimes they take the shape of the claiming of a shared “Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb” (Hindu-Muslim culture or harmony), at other times, equating the entire Nizam period with communal rule. What is lost here in the polemics is the complexity of the Deccan, and the region’s capacity to uphold diversity and resist totalitarianism. Qadri’s and Zore’s Idara, and vanishing documents enable us to tell these stories of defiance in the face of erasure.
Women in history, women doing history
The role that women have played in the production of historical knowledge tends to be cast aside in the writing of institutional histories of India – where they are frequently rendered into a separate category of appraisal. In the anthology of poetry produced by Tahniyatun-Nissa begum (1911-1994), who donated her lands so that the Idara could be established, the poetess writes, “bahut baatein hain yun tou tahniyat dunya mein karne ki / hum apne shauq ki apni lagan kii baat karte hain,” “There are many things celebrated for discussion in this world/I follow my own desires, and speak of things which are close to me.” The couplet is an apt reminder of following one’s own individual path amidst that world’s demands for conformity. A devout woman, who was linked on her maternal side to the respected ‘ulema [religious scholars] of Firangi Mahal in Lucknow, Tahniyatun-Nissa begum was educated at Mahboobia Girls High School and went on to pass Senior Cambridge exams in the late 1920s. At the time, for Muslim women to be formally educated at this level, was itself a significant achievement.
Tahniyatun-Nissa begum wrote a great deal of poetry, her specialisation was in ‘Naat’, a genre of Urdu poetry in praise of the Prophet Muhammad. She is reputed to be among the first female poets to have a collection of published works in the Naat genre. There are at least three collections of her poetry, including Zikr-o-Fikr (1955), Sabr-o Shukr (1956), and Tasleem-o Raza (1959). Aside from her poetry, Tahniyatun-Nissa begum was devoted to sustaining the inner everyday workings of the library and museum. Qadri speaks of his mother fondly, recalling how the Idara was managed not by Zore alone, but with the magnanimity of Tahniyatun-Nissa begum. Her existence graces these halls, as he points to where she would organise gatherings for women who were scholars and writers in their own right, and even acknowledging the steps from which she once had a fall.
The Idara initially was a male space, but it was not long before the library began to open its doors to women. Qadri discusses how it was important to his parents that a place and space be made for women scholars. “Today, it seems that it is mainly women scholars who come to seek knowledge here,” he says, reflecting on the irony.
Hyderabad’s history is also marginalised by most historians of India, who have simply not paid close enough attention to this city and its past.
As Qadri unlocks the museum, hidden at the top of the tower of the Idara, it is the portraits of women that are most immediately noticeable, gracing the walls above the filigreed and cobweb-covered windows. They include notable women of Hyderabad State, such as Mah Laqa Bai Chanda, the 18th-century poetess of Urdu, and frequently known as the earliest major female poet of Urdu – though there were others before her. There are at least two portraits of her on the walls – she was a high-ranking court noble of the Asaf Jah state, talented in music, the arts, dance, as well as poetry and hunting. Her devotion to Maula Ali is evident by her mausoleum near the Maula Ali Dargah in the city.
There are paintings and sketches of Premamathi and Taramati – a kuchipudi dancer and the courtesans of the Quli Qutb Shah dynasty from the sixteenth century.
There exists today a serai (caravan station), named after one of them, the Taramati Baradari, built under the reign of Ibrahim Quli Qutub Shah. According to local legends, the sultan was awed by her voice when she sang for the weary travellers and the sounds of her song were carried by the breeze all the way to Golconda Fort.
At a short distance away, there is a mosque of Premamati – and both dancers are buried in the Qutb Shah mausoleum, north of the serai. There is also a portrait of Bhagmati, a legendary courtesan (and later queen of Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah, the founder of Hyderabad city in 1591). Bhagmati’s very existence, or lack thereof, is today the source of considerable controversy.
There is too, a rare portrait of the sixteenth-century warrior queen Chand Bibi, a regent of two Deccan Sultanates.
About Chand Bibi, Zore was critical of how she was dismissed by scholars of his time, writing in 1938 that the “king’s birth, pedigree and influence of Chand Sultana of Ahmadnagar who was his aunt should have been dealt with in a detailed manner…it was she who made him a man of letters, a broad-minded gentleman, generous king, and valiant warrior.” That there was an entire section dedicated to the women of the Deccan, during the early twentieth century – when there is yet to be any serious scholarly books today in English focused upon women and female power within the Deccan – itself indicates attempts for inclusivity within the imagination of the Idara.
Yet, beyond these more well-known names, the Idara itself opened its doors to female scholars and poets of the twentieth century. Qadri tells us the story of how women scholars were patronised by the Idara, and that the institution accommodated them as “gosha-purdah” women would come here to study and research. At the time, this was a novelty, signalling new forms of educational possibilities for women. Today, almost one hundred years later since the conception of the Idara, the historical profession in India continues to be dominated by men, who in turn, continue to produce visions of the past in which women do not exist, with the frequent claim that obtaining records of their existence is next to impossible. It is perhaps not a coincidence that today, we are two women inviting some reflection and further research about the Idara, with a reminder that the legacies and the lineages of the past continue into the present.
***
It is 8pm in the evening and we have finally found a quiet spot in the city. We have taken the steps up to Maula Ali pahaar, at the top of which is an old Shia shrine. We take our place upon an expansive rock formation, offering its vast open natural space to us, with some quiet space all around, and stare out to the city of lights below. As we dream and talk about the need to create and preserve spaces of plurality, free inquiry, openness, and camaraderie, the historical city of Hyderabad vanishes beneath us.
*** SARAH WAHEEN AND YAMINI KRISHNA
Sarah Waheed is Assistant Professor of History at University of South Carolina. She is the author of Hidden Histories of Pakistan: Censorship, Literature, and Secular Nationalism in Late Colonial India. She is a Fulbright Scholar writing her second book, about Chand Bibi and women of the Deccan: The Warrior Queen Who Died Thrice: Gender, Sovereignty and Islam in Premodern India. She can be reached at sarah.f.waheed@gmail.com.
C Yamini Krishna works on film history and urban history. Her work has been published in South Asia, Historical Journal of Film Radio Television, Widescreen, South Asian Popular Culture, The news minute, Caravan and Scroll. She currently teaches at FLAME University. She can be reached at yaminkrishn@gmail.com.
source: http://www.himalmag.com / Himal South Asian / Home>Commentary> Culture> India / by Sarah Waheed and Yamini Krishna / July 19th, 2022
Steering clear of the actor’s controversial life, a new biography focuses on India’s notion of stardom and celebrity instead
A recent bout of illness and feeling all round wretched had me turning to my favourite comfort food — Hindi movies (I refuse to call them Bollywood movies) from the 1990s. That I was simultaneously reading Devapriya Sanyal’s Salman Khan The Man The Actor The Legend, a deconstruction of bhai’s celebrity, proved an adequate road map to my film choices…
Rather than start with Salman Khan’s big, fat blockbuster, Maine Pyaar Kiya (1989), I chose Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), also directed by Sooraj Barjatya (who had made his directorial debut with Maine Pyaar Kiya). The film, which cemented Khan as a bonafide star, actually gave his co-star, Madhuri Dixit, higher billing, a fact which Sanyal’s book mentions.
Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! unlike that other game-changer of the ‘90s, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), has not aged well, Dixit’s phulkari-inspired jacket notwithstanding. The film plays out like a loosely strung together series of incidents, songs and comic interludes. How is a dog playing an umpire at a cricket match supposed to be funny is one of those unsolved mysteries. And while we are on the topic, hope Tuffy, the dog, was treated right on set.
Defence of toxicity
Sanyal’s book mostly steers clear of all the scandals and controversies that followed Khan like faithful shadows. While there is mention of the 2002 hit-and-run case, his tumultuous relationship with Aishwarya Rai and its fallout, and the blackbuck hunting and Arms Act violations cases, the book focuses on decoding Khan and India’s notion of stardom and celebrity through his career.
What little we glimpse of Khan is through his good friend Kailash Surendranath’s reminiscences. Surendranath, who knew Khan from his days as an eager 15-year-old getting his first break in modelling for Campa Cola (remember?) to his decade-spanning superstardom, remembers Khan dropping by for late night paratha-bhurji (scrambled eggs) and his motto for working on his body — “When you have no work, work on yourself.”
An introduction sets out what Sanyal intends to do through the book in great detail. The shortest chapter is the one called ‘With Human Failings’, which lists Khan’s headline-grabbing misbehaviour. His public brawls and brushes with the law are explained away as the cost of celebrity, which does not cut much ice as one cannot sweep bad and outright criminal behaviour under the carpet of “boys will be boys”. The book is at its weakest when trying to defend Khan’s toxicity.
An engaging journey
On the other hand, Sanyal’s book is its most engaging when deconstructing Khan through his roles especially in the chapter, ‘The Journey from Prem to Chulbul Pandey’. The chapter introduces the concept of the Emploi, “a theoretical framework as developed by Erving Goffman in his book, Frame Analysis.” The emploi, Sanyal posits “is a category that accounts for the close interaction between performance and reception.”
Just as Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man was invariably called Vijay (is his Jai in Sholay a diminutive for Vijay?) and Shah Rukh Khan’s many versions of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’s Raj went towards building an on-screen persona, so too does Salman’s Prem emploi create a film version of Salman Khan.
Sanyal traces Khan’s development through his 15 different portrayals of Prem. From the slender, doe-eyed Prem of Maine Pyar Kiya, the naughty ‘devar’ Prem in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, the Prem who sets things right in Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999) and the slightly dim-witted Prem of Andaz Apna Apna (1994), who nevertheless gets the girl to the tongue-in-cheek narrator Prem of Ready (2011), the cheating-on-his wife Prem of No Entry (2005), the dating guru Prem of Partner (2007) and the travelling theatre artiste Prem of Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015), in his fourth collaboration with Barjatya.
Since the chapter details Khan’s journey from Prem to Chulbul Pandey, there is an analysis of the characters he played who are not named Prem, including Akash in that slightly cringy but melodious triangle Saajan (1991), Sameer in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s exotically colourful Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), the obsessed lover, Radhe Mohan in Tere Naam (2003), the tapori Radhe in Wanted (2009), Devil in Kick (2014), Bajrangi in Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and Tiger in Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), Laxman in Tubelight (2017) Sultan in and as Sultan (2021), and of course the corrupt but loveable cop Chulbul Pandey in the Dabangg movies.
Sanyal, who teaches English literature at the University of Delhi, has written a thesis on the anatomy of fame with academic rigour— right down to how Khan’s perfect body also contributes to his iconography. Wish the book was better proofed as there are silly errors that grate coming on the back of such a well-researched book.
All looking for salacious details of Khan’s life will be disappointed while those seeking the magic in the bottle of stardom will not. And I am going back to watching Khan fight off the evil Crime Master Gogo in the delightful Andaz Apna Apna.
Salman Khan The Man The Actor The Legend; Devapriya Sanyal, Bloomsbury, ₹699.
mini.chhibber@thehindu.co.in
source: http://www.thehindu.com/ The Hindu / Home> Books> Review / by Mini Anthikad Chhibber / July 22nd, 2022
‘RISING BEYOND THE CEILING’ releases list of Seventy Inspiring Muslim Women of Kerala
Nagma Mallick(L), Shabana Faizal(M) and Sara Aboobacker(R)
Kerala:
‘Rising Beyond the Ceiling’ (RBTC), an initiative born out of the need to change the stereotypical narrative about Muslim women in India has released its list of seventy Inspiring Muslim Women of Kerala. The list includes names like Shabana Faisal, Nagma Mohamed Mallick, Sara Aboobacker, and others.
“The seventy RBTC Honorees from Kerala celebrated in this book have displayed exemplary accomplishments in various fields. They are flying planes, serving as Civil Police Officers in the state, joining the national Indian Police Service, and leading as District Police Chief. They are contributing to nation-building in the Indian Foreign Service, Indian Administrative Service, and Indian Information Service and as Education Administrators, Directors of Departments of Industry.” RBTC said in its statement.
“They are contributing in leadership positions as managing directors, CEO, vice-chairperson, founders. They are influencers and singers, having an individual social media following of over 1 million and have been recognized in international and national awards including YouTube’s Golden Play Button,” it further added.
Global Inspiration Shabana Faizal:
Shabana Faizal, Chief Corporate Officer (CCO) and Vice-Chairperson of KEF Holdings UAE has been listed in the category of ‘Global Inspirations’.
“Shabana started her entrepreneurial career in 1995, when she set up Sophiya’s World – luxury and special items studio – in Calicut, following her marriage to Faizal E Kottikollon, chairman of KEF Holdings.” RBTC wrote about Shabana.
“Shabana has a driving passion to make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged, which led to the setting up of the Faizal and Shabana Foundation. The Foundation carries out campaigns to improve education, healthcare, sustainable livelihood, humanitarian assistance, youth development, and housing in India and the UAE. Her most recent passion project was the revamp and enhancement of the GVHSS in Nadakkavu, Kerala which has empowered more than 2,400 young girls to believe in themselves and their dreams and impacted the lives of more than 69,000 students across 65 schools in Kerala.” It further added.
Shabana is the daughter of a well-known entrepreneur and philanthropist late B.Ahmed Haji Mohiuddeen from Thumbay, Mangalore.
Impassioned author and writer Sara Aboobacker:
Kannada fiction writer Sara Aboobacker has been listed in the category of ‘Impassioned authors and writers’ adding that her stories narrate Muslim lives in the areas bordering Karnataka and Kerala, focusing on the inequities and injustices meted out to women by the male society.
“Aboobacker’s books largely focus on the lives of Muslim women living in the Kasaragod region, bordering the Indian states of Kerala and Karnataka. She focuses on issues of equality and injustice within her community, critiquing patriarchal systems within religious and familial groups. Her writing style is direct and simple, and she has stated that she prefers a realist approach to literature, prioritizing the expression of social concerns over stylistic embellishments. Her books have dealt with complex subjects such as marital rape, communal and religious violence, and individual autonomy.” RBTC wrote about Aboobacker.
Sara Aboobacker has received many prestigious literary awards, such as the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award, 1984; Anupama Niranjan Award, 1987; Rathnamma Heggade Mahila Sahitya Award, 1996, etc. She has seven novels, four collections of short stories, and one collection of essays to her credit. The Library of Congress has acquired eight of her works.
Leader in Administration Nagma Mohamed Mallick:
First Muslim woman in Indian Foreign Service (IFS) Nagma Mallick who is currently serving as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, has been named in the category ‘Leadership in Administration’ for contributing to nation-building in the Indian Foreign Service.
“An IFS officer of the 1991 batch, Nagma Mallick has served as the High Commissioner of India to Brunei from 2015 to 2018, and as India’s Ambassador to Tunisia between 2012 to 2015. Earlier she served as a staff officer to Prime Minister I.K. Gujral, then served as the first woman Deputy Chief of Protocol (Ceremonial). During her career in the IFS, Ms. Mallick has also served in France, Middle East, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.” It wrote about Nagma.
The list features a total of seventy Muslim women from Kerala and their stereotype-shattering stories of courage hard work and resilience. The list includes names like Airline pilot Afra Abdullah, IAS Officer Adeela Abdullah, Student Activist Aysha Renna, Life Coach Sahla Parveen and others.
About RBTC:
Rising Beyond The Ceiling (RBTC) is an initiative born out of the need to change the stereotypical narrative about Muslim women in India. It is a celebration of the achievement, endeavor, and diversity of Indian Muslim women. RBTC shines a spotlight on Muslim women’s contributions to nation-building in a variety of ways and professions. Founded in April 2020 by Dr. Farah K. Usmani, this initiative aims to make Muslim women’s stories more visible, provide positive role models for future generations, nurturing young women’s confidence and ambition in all spheres. RBTC works across various platforms- the website, publications, multimedia as well as an outreach young women’s mentorship programme.
RBTC is putting together inspiring profiles from fourteen states in India that are home to nearly eighty percent of the country’s hundred million Muslim women population. Besides state and national levels, there is also an RBTC 100 list under finalization of Global Inspirations which includes women who have done their initial studies in Indian institutions and are now making their mark in countries across the globe. A compendium of Inspirations from the Past compendium of those amazing Muslim women who are not with us now, but on whose shoulders we stand today. We are also excited about our amazing Under-30 Youth Inspirations list. RBTC will continue to institute annual Muslim women honorees lists to share the stories of achievements, courage and resilience.
source: http://www.english.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home> India / by Rising Beyound the Ceiling / January 30th, 2022
Khatija Begum (75) over the past 40 years has written thousands of poems and has compiled hundreds of books. It was not an easy job for her to do so, being illiterate she could not pen it down by herself. Whenever some verse come to her mind she would call somebody to write it. It was through her dedication to poetry that she was able to compile her couplets into books successfully.
The narrow allies of Zaina Kadal area of Srinagar lead to her house. Every day she looks at the pile of her poetry collection placed on a desk in her room with a deep sigh hoping that her books will be published someday.
“While I was into the journey of my poetic life, It was not easy for me to memorize each verse of my poetry so I asked my son to bring a tape recorder for me”. Heemal (pen name) recalls how she used to wake up at night to offer prayers and on the same prayer mat record the verses that would come up to her mind.
When Khatija took bundles of those recorded cassettes to a writer for transcription he asked for 70 ₹ per page which was a huge amount at that time so she start doing hand embroidery to earn some money. And spend all that money to preserve her poetry.
It took her 7 years to get her first book published through J&K State Cultural Academy by the title “Ser e-Asraar” which means “The secret of Mysticism”.
Khatija says that the journey of her poetic life started when she was 35 years old. At that time she was busy with her ill mother spending all her time with her, praying for her recovery. One day when she brought her mother to visit a doctor she encountered something unusual, some verses came up to her mind but she was not able to apprehend what was happening to her. After returning home she told her niece about it who wrote those verses for her.
She believes that poetry came into her life because of the prayers she got from her ill mother during her ailment. She dedicates her poetry to a Sufi saint whom she was very close to and consider like her father.
“When I took my books to show him, he was overwhelmed and he told me to endure a lot of patience so that I can bear all the hurdles that will come to my path in this journey. Moreover, he told me that what I have achieved is priceless” with teary eyes she said.
When she recites her poetry, everything around gets blurred and one gets lost in those mystic verses. She is a poetess who needs love and support so that she will be always remembered among the great poets of Kashmir.
source: http://www.milligazette.com / The Milli Gazette / Home> Community News / by Urvat Il Wuska / The Milli Gazette Online / April 10th, 2022
Eight books published by the K A Nizami Centre for Quranic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) addressing key themes on the history of South Asian Muslims, diverse responses to the scholarly contributions and rationalist traditions of Islamic scholarship were released today at the Vice Chancellor’s Office.
They are ‘Contemporary Islamic Scholarship in South Asia: An Assessment’, ‘Humanness of Prophets: The Quranic Prophetology’ and ‘Contribution of Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband to Tafasir’ by Dr Abdul Kader Choughley; ‘Dil Jo tha Zulmat Kadah, Ma’ah-e-Munawwar Hogaya’ by Dr Mohammad Haris Mansoor; ‘Qurani Ulum ka Irtiqa Ahd-i-Islami ke Hindustan Mein’ by Prof Zafarul Islam; ‘How to Promote the Study of Quran among Women’, edited by Dr Nazeer Ahmad Ab. Majeed and Dr Arshad Iqbal; ‘Tarjumani Rahmani’ by Prof A R Kidwai and ‘Allah ki Kitab ki Paanch Mangay’ by Prof Fazlur Rahman Gunnouri.
“These books will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about traditions in Islamic faith, offer a new understanding on the works of Islamic scholars, explore key Islamic events and provide an understanding of important traditions in Islamic philosophy and the intellectual movement that emerged from South Asian Islam”, said AMU Vice Chancellor, Prof Tariq Mansoor while releasing the books.
Prof A R Kidwai (Honorary Director, K A Nizami Centre for Quranic Studies) pointed out: “The K A Nizami Centre has published over 80 titles on Quran-related scholarship since 2013. Publications of the Centre represent contemporary literature on furthering Quranic understanding and research in Hindi, English and Urdu by authors from various disciplines including translations from various languages”.
source: http://www.amu.ac.in / Aligarh Muslim University / Home / by Public Relations Department / Aligarh, July 13th, 2022
Frank Islam and his wife Debbie Driesman with Joe Biden.
Washington :
President Biden has appointed Dr. Frank Islam as a member of Commission on Presidential Scholars.
The Commission on Presidential Scholars is a group of eminent private citizens appointed by the President to select and honor the Presidential Scholars.
Commissioners are selected from across the country, representing the fields of education, medicine, law, social services, business, and other professions. The Commissioners make the final selection of the 161 Presidential Scholars. The Scholars demonstrate exceptional accomplishments in academics, the arts, career and technical education and an outstanding commitment to public service.
Dr. Frank Islam
Indian born Frank Islam is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and civic leader with a special commitment to civic, educational, and artistic causes.
He currently heads the FI Investment Group, a private investment holding company that he founded after he sold his information technology firm, the QSS Group, in 2007.
Islam serves and has served on numerous boards and advisory councils including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the U.N. Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson Center. He has also served or serves on boards and councils at several universities including John Hopkins, American University, George Mason University, the University of Maryland, and Harvard University.
An AMU alumnus Islam has written two well-regarded books on the American condition: Working the Pivot Points: To Make America Work Again and Renewing the American Dream: A Citizen’s Guide for Restoring Our Competitive Advantage.
He blogs regularly on Medium and was a contributor to the Huffington Post for nearly a decade.
In 2018, Islam established the Frank Islam Institute for 21st Century Citizenship which maintains a website and publishes a monthly newsletter featuring articles and other material directed at addressing the civic engagement deficit and challenges to democracy in the U.S. and internationally.
Islam received his B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Education> Indian Muslim> Positive Story / by Muslim Mirror Network (headline edited) / July 16th, 2022
A Qatar-based 11-year-old student Laiba Abdul Basit has won the Guinness World Records as the youngest female person to publish a book series.
Laiba, hailing from the southern Indian state of Kerala, has accomplished this feat after her second book was published on August 29, 2021, while she was 10 years and 164 days old.
Laiba Abdul Basit surpassed the record of Ritaj Hussain Alhazmi of Saudi Arabia, who penned three novels before the age of 12 years 295 days.
Laiba published a three-book series called “Order of the Galaxy”, a fantasy story related to children’s fiction. The first book in this series titled “The War for The Stolen Boy” was published by Amazon and later by Lulu Online. The second book “The Snowflake of Life” was published by the Rome-based Tawasul International, while India-based Lipi Publications brought out the last book in the series, “The Book of Legends”. The second edition of her first and second books was also published by Lipi Publications.
A sixth grade student at the Olive International School, Doha, Laiba has been showing interest in reading and writing since the very young age. She started to write small stories and phrases on pieces of papers and used glue on walls of her house.
An ardent reader of fiction, science, religion, and biographies of prominent personalities, Laiba’s favourite authors include Enid Blyton, J K Rowling, Ann Frank, and Roald Dahl. Laiba inherited her passion for reading from her grandfathers, KM Abdur Raheem and Mohammed Parakkadavu, who were cultural and social activists in GCC. Support from her father Abdul Basit and mother Thasneem Mohammed has encouraged Laiba’s literary skills.
source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com / The Peninsula Qatar /Home> General / July16th, 2022
Islam came to Tamil Nadu in its earliest days when the Arabs became Muslims. The Keelakarai Jumma Masjid, built in the 7th century, with prominent Tamil architectural characteristics, is one of the oldest mosques in Tamil Nadu. So is the mosque near the Kottai (Fort) Railway station in Tiruchi which is dated 743 AD.
The Arabic inscription of A.H. 116/134 AD at Tiruchirappalli and the inscriptions of the ninth century at Kayalpattanam about endowments given to the mosques by Pandya rulers are conclusive pieces of evidence about the presence of Muslims in Tamil Nadu right from the eighth century.
The early Muslims settled in the coastal towns of Tamil Nadu and functioned as a guild for themselves. They were called ‘Anjuvannam’ meaning assembly or congregation. The name ‘Anjuvannam’ is found in some copper plates and inscriptions of the 12-13th centuries AD that is considered to be the merchant guild of the Muslims. An old mosque in Thenkasi, Thirunelveli District is called ‘Anjuvannam Pallivasal’ that exists even today testify that the name ‘Anjuvannam’ is attributed to the Muslims.
Categories of Muslims in Tamil Nadu
If one has to randomly bracket the Muslims of Tamil Nadu, there can be broadly three categories. First, the Muslims of Arab-Tamil ancestry, second local converts to the Islamic faith, and the third Dakani Muslims who migrated from other parts of India to Tamil Nadu.
Muslims of Arab Ancestry
The Muslims of Arab-Tamil ancestries are the Tamil-speaking people who form a distinct category among the Muslims in Tamil Nadu. The prominent groups among them are the Marakkayars, Labbais, Rowthers, Sonaka Mapillas, Kayalars, and Thulukkar.
Marakkayars- Marakkayars are boat people of Arab descent. They are a maritime trading community since the 7th century. They traded in pearls, rubies, and other precious stones. The majority of the Marakayars currently live in coastal areas like Keelakarai, Kayalpatnam, and Nagore. They claim a higher social and economic status than other Muslim communities. They marry within their community from Keala, Sri Lanka, or their folks in Southeast Asian countries. The 11th president of India A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was born in a Marakkayar family. Educationist B. S. Abdur Rahman, the founder of Crescent College which is now B. S. Abdur Rahman University also belonged to the Marakkayar community.
Labbais – Labbais are also descendent of Arab merchants. They brought with them some Arabs as helpers who used to respond to the calls of their masters with the word ‘Labbaik’ which means “Here I Am”. Hence these Muslims and their offspring came to be known as ‘Labbais’. Their children of Arabs through their Indian wives are also known as ‘Labbais’. The word Labbai is also applicable to the Hindu converts to Islam. The Census Report of 1881 says that “the Labbais are distinct from Marakkayars. They are known as Coromandel Moplas, with a slight admixture of Arab blood and native converts. They are thrifty, industrious and enterprising, plucky mariners and expert traders.” Currently, ‘Labbais’ is considered to be a class name of the Muslims for the purpose of educational and job concessions in Tamil Nadu.
Mapillas-The Malayalam-speaking people of Malabar were known as Sonaka Mapillas in Tamil Nadu.The word Sonaka was also the early name of the Tamil Muslims. The word was used to identify Muslims of Indo-Arab descent and the Arab part of their ancestry was Yemen. The word Sonaka got corrupted as “Yavana” that finds mentioned in the ‘Sangam’ literature of the 2nd century AD.
Rowthers- Rowthers is another group of Tamil – Arab descent whose mother tongue is Tamil. They were mainly connected with the horse trade or were horse trainers or cavalrymen in yore. They were also known as “Guthirai Chettigal” meaning horse traders. Rowthers are a prominent and prosperous Muslim community in Tamil Nadu. They are settled in the Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, and Nagapattinam districts.
Kayalars- Kayalars are another major group of Tamil Muslims of Arab descent. They make up the four major sub-groups of the Tamil Muslim community’s Arab ancestry.
Thulukkar – There is a Muslim group referred to as Thulukkar which means people of Turkish origin. Several works of Tamil literature refer to the Muslims as Thulukkar. This term is commonly used by non-Muslims to address all the Muslims in Tamil Nadu.
All these Muslim groups have linked up with Tamil culture and society through marriage alliances with the locals and most of these groups have their occupations as merchants and traders and are currently business people.
Pasmanda Muslims of Tamil Nadu
The second categories of Muslims are converts from Hindu OBC and Dalit communities. These conversions happened over centuries through peaceful preaching by the Sufi saints who came from the Arab lands. The Islamic preachers went to the underprivileged sections of the caste-ridden Hindu society and converted them to Islam to free them from the bondage of caste slavery. The local converts are at the bottom of the social structure. Though their social status may have improved after the conversion to Islam they remain economically deprived and come under the Pasmanda Muslim community in Tamil Nadu. They are a distinct group in the Tamil Muslim society and are in need of social intervention to climb the economic ladder. These converted Muslims face the problem of reservation in government jobs. While converts to Christianity are considered as ‘Backward Classes’, there are no such provisions for Muslims.
Dakini Muslims of Tamil Nadu
The third category of Muslims in Tamil Nadu is the Dakini Muslim community. Dakini Muslims are a distinct community even though this group is only a small minority in the Muslim society. Their importance derives from the fact that they form the political elite among the Muslim community of Tamil Nadu. Dakini Muslims can speak Tamil/Hindi/Urdu and other regional languages. These categories have numerous groups among them namely, the Syeds, Shaikhs, Pathans, Mughals, or Navayats (a subgroup of Konkani Muslims). Among Dakani Muslims one of the notable groups is the ‘Pathans’ the Muslims of Pashtun ancestry. The term “Pathan” sometimes extends to all Urdu-speaking Muslim migrants from North India. They are settled in fortress centers such as Arni, Chanji, and Jinji and in Arcot. The lesser fort-mart towns like Trichy and Madurai also have Pathan settlements. It is also the catchment area for Tamil Muslims in the Indian Armed forces.
Muslim Weavers of Tamil Nadu
The earliest epigraphic evidence of Muslim weavers of Tamil Nadu is from the 16th century which suggests the active role of Muslims in the weaving industry of this Southern State. ‘Pañchu Kotti’ and ‘Achchu Katti’ are the most important Muslim weaver communities of Tamil Nadu. The Pañchu Kottis are densely populated in the modern Trichirappalli and Thanjavur districts. The Achhcu Katti is densely populated in the areas around Salem, Namakkal, Trichy, and Thanjavur districts. These areas are textile centers of Tamil Nadu and Tamil Muslims have a sizable hold over the textile business.
Tamil Muslims are not a homogeneous community
Tamil Muslims are not a homogeneous community. These three broad categories of Muslims are riddled with a maze of groups and subgroups. During British rule, certain Tamil Muslim groups began to be listed as social classes in the official gazettes. Tamil Muslims are divided into various divisions and their class hierarchy exists that has become a caste-based hierarchical division over a period of time. Even though each group has a professional identity the fact is these professional groups have fossilized into caste-like formation, and crossing over from one to another is ruled out.
Rise of Tamil Muslims of Arab Ancestry
The Tamil-speaking Muslims of Arab-Tamil ancestry are mentioned in the Tamil Sangam literature of the 2nd Century AD. The word “Yavana” in the Sangam literature is not used for Greeks but is for Muslims who have come from Yemen.
The Muslims of Arab ancestry were traders and merchants who inherited their dominant position in South and Southeast Asian trade from the Arabs, who had acquired a virtual monopoly of Indian maritime trade and commerce from the third century. The Tamil-speaking Muslims of Arab-Tamil ancestry dominated maritime trade on the Coromandel coastline till the 15th Century. They were the lord and masters of the Indian Ocean region for close to 15 hundred years.
The Chera, Chola, and Pandya rulers patronized them and donated lands for their places of worship. The native Hindu rulers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala encouraged Arab-Muslim traders to settle down in their lands. The Zamorin or the hereditary monarch of the Kingdom of Kozhikode (Calicut) in Kerala issued an edict to get a sufficient number of Arab Muslims to maintain their ships. He issued a decree that the Arab traders can marry a local woman and bring up one or more male children as a Muslim.
The Arab-Tamil-speaking Muslim traders brought much prosperity to India. A 14th-century Arab writer, Ibn Fadbullah ul-Omari, had written that in India, seas were pearls and trees were perfumes! English records describe the ports on the Tamil Nadu coast as “Moor ports,” Cuddalore is mentioned as ‘Islamabad” and Porto Novo or Parangipettai, as “Mohammad Bandar.”
Thousands of records abroad speak about the maritime activities of the Arab-Tamil Muslims, where they are portrayed as shipbuilders, mariners, sailors, traders, pearl divers, pearl merchants, and salt manufacturers. The whole economy of the eastern coast of Tamil Nadu was in the hands of Arab Tamil Muslims, and it was these people who took Islam and Tamil language from Tamil Nadu to Southeast Asian countries.
Tamil – Arabic link language- Lisan Al-Arwi
Arabs had a problem interacting with Tamil, a Dravidian language as their language Arabic was a Semitic language that had no connection with Tamil. So a link language called ‘Arabu Tamil’ (or Lisan al-Arwi ) was developed in Tamil Nadu. It synthesized the two languages where Tamil was written in an adapted Arabic script. This helped Arabic settlers in Tamil Nadu to learn Tamil through Arabic script. This language helped in writing accounts of their business activities. Arab Muslim traders and the native Tamil converts to Islam came into closer contact as a result of this link language. The Arwi language and literature provided a kind of platform for Islamic teachings and learning. In the words of Edgard Thurston, Arabu-Tamil is a language developed for the benefit of the Tamil Muslims of Arab ancestry. Even today, many religious schools (madrassas) teach Arwi language as part of their curricula. Textbooks like ‘Simtus Sibyan’ (a guide for youngsters) are still available in bookstores in Tamil Nadu. The coming of the modern printing press put an end to the spread of the Arwi language.
Fall of Tamil Muslims of Arab Ancestry
The Arab Muslim monopoly over mercantile trade declined around the 15th century, after the arrival of European traders like the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, and the British into the Indian Ocean region. The power of the Arab Muslim mercantile community declined due to stiff competition from the European seafarers and their reluctance of them to adopt new shipping technology and modern trade practices.
It was the Portuguese who came first, followed by the Dutch the French, and the English. The European merchants introduced the system of monopolies and unfair trade practices based on their military might and political clout. The local rulers, both Hindu and Muslim, were indifferent to the maritime trade. They had no time or interest in maritime trading activities. They did not make any effort to explore trading avenues or make maritime trade grow along healthy lines.
The Indian rulers instead of protecting the interests of the local Muslim traders extended all facilities to the Portuguese and invited them to their ports. The Indian rulers gave the Portuguese the monopoly to trade in spices, gold, and silver. The Portuguese converted Paravas, an oppressed Hindu fishing community to Christianity by 1537. They assisted them to supplant the Muslims from the pearl fishing trade. In this way, the Pearl trade was entirely in the hands of the Muslims and passed into the hands of the Paravas. The Tamil Muslims also lost their monopoly over the horse trade to the Portuguese by 1530.
When the British arrived, they supported the Chettiars, a community of Hindu traders from Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu. This was done systematically to further weaken the Muslim traders of Tamil Nadu. The Chettiars supported the British with their money for their Indian conquest. As a result, the presence of the Chettiars in the economic scene on the Coromandel Coast and South East Asia, increased, while that of the Tamil Muslims declined.
Current Status of Muslims in Tamil Nadu
The Muslim population in Tamil Nadu is 6 percent. Most of the Urdu Muslims are concentrated in Vellore districts like Ambur and Vaniyambadi. In the North Arcot district and present Vellore District, they own the tanneries and are engaged in the leather trade. There is a clear-cut divide between Muslims of north Tamil Nadu and those from the South of the state. In the southern districts, Muslims are concentrated in districts and places like Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai, Tirunelveli, Nagapattinam Pulicat, Kilakkarai, Kayalpattanam, etc.
The Tamil Muslims in Southern Tamil Nadu are engaged in cotton manufacturing activity and in these districts spinning and weaving cotton is the mainstay of their trade practices. Towns such as Nagore, Kayalpatanam, Kilakkarai, and Adirampatanam in South Tamil Nadu have become centers of wealth generation among the Muslim community. Some of these places have also emerged as centers of Islamic teaching and learning.
Tamil Muslims have contributed their best to the Tamil culture and society. Their manners, customs, dress, food, and festivities have been influenced by Islam and the Tamil language and culture. A true synthesis of Tamil and Islam can be seen in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu is a very good example of an inclusive society where people of different races and religions and languages are equally respected. In terms of communal harmony, Tamil Nadu is an oasis in India where religious toleration between communities is preached and practiced in the true sense of the word. Here Tamil nationalism and pride in the Tamil language and culture is the rallying point for peaceful coexistence.
——–
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com . This write-up is prepared after reading Dr. J Raja Mohamad,’s book: Maritime History of the Coromandel Muslims, (A Socio-Historical Study on the Tamil Muslims 1750-1900), published by the Government Museum, Chennai, India, in 2004.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Culture> Indian Muslims / by Syed Ali Mujtaba / July 13th, 2022
(From left) Co-authors A R Mashuthoo and Raja Mohd with Education Minister Chan Chun Sing at the launch of the English edition of Singapore Tamil Muslims. PHOTO: TAMIL MURASU
Singapore :
The Tamil Muslim community in Singapore has contributed to the Republic’s multiracial and religious harmony, with collective efforts that have strengthened the nation’s social compact, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing on Saturday (Jan 15).
In 1946, for example, members of the community dedicated a portion of their salaries to help the Singapore Kadayanallur Muslim League (SKML) start the Umar Pulavar Tamil School, the first Tamil-medium secondary school in South-east Asia at the time.
The school played an important role in advancing and shaping Tamil language education here, and many graduates have taken up the baton and become Tamil teachers today, Mr Chan said.
“While the school was closed 40 years ago, its name lives on in today’s Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre, which continues the important mission of transmitting Tamil language and culture to the next generation.”
The centre is in Beatty Road.
Mr Chan was speaking at the launch of the English edition of a book titled Singapore Tamil Muslims.
The event was held in conjunction with SKML’s 80th anniversary celebrations in Chui Huay Lim Club in Newton.
The book, which looks to provide a better understanding of the Tamil Muslim community in Singapore, is supported by organisations including the National Heritage Board and Islamic Religious Council of Singapore.
It has forewords by President Halimah Yacob and former senior minister of state Zainul Abidin Rasheed.
The English edition of the book, which was first published in Tamil in 2015, is authored by SKML president Raja Mohamad and deputy president A. R. Mashuthoo.
In his speech, Mr Chan highlighted how the spirit of grit, resilience and service to community has shone brightly among Singapore’s Tamil Muslims.
Many have become successful professionals and leaders of the community, he said.
“But they have all imbibed the spirit of service, and continued to pay it forward to the community and nation.
“Importantly, these collective efforts by your community have also strengthened Singapore’s social compact – where we help the young to have a good start in life, give more to those with less, and enable our people to bounce back from adversity.”
The minister expressed his hope that the book can serve as a reminder, not just for the Tamil Muslim community but also to a broader audience, that Singaporeans must honour and protect what they have, and inspire the next generation to continue paying it forward.
The book can be purchased by contacting SKML, and funds raised will be used for its work to support the disabled community and education needs of children from low-income families.
source:http://www.straitstimes.com / The Straits Times / Home / by Choo Yun Ting / Jan 15th, 2022
