Tag Archives: Kulsum Sayani

There is no history of India’s freedom without its Muslims

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INDIA :

At 80, revisiting the Muslim lives, movements and sacrifices that shaped India’s struggle for freedom, and the politics of forgetting them.

Stroll through the pages of India’s history, because academia has failed to acknowledge some names and contributions in the Indian freedom struggle. From the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, Gol Gumbaz, Charminar, to Fatehpur Sikri and the bustling lanes of Chandni Chowk, they all speak volumes louder. But the cultural pattern of ‘selectively remembering’ and ‘selectively forgetting’ has downplayed nation’s history into one-dimensional narratives , while external sources of learning like cinemas, textbooks, public places re-branding, etc,  are getting colored with contemporary political dynamics, to legitimize their plans and policies. 

To fathom India’s past sincerely, we must be willing not only to learn but also to unlearn. Learning involves discovering forgotten contributions, while unlearning requires shedding inherited biases, political narratives, and simplified versions of history. Because, as eminent historians have speculated, the past is constantly reinterpreted in the light of new evidence and new questions. Consequently, the framing of our past will affect the present, which will further be read as a past in the future, thus entrusting us with sheer responsibility of weaving a lineage of conscience, not insidious storytelling.

The lost dots of the Indian freedom movements

Revisit in Indian history afresh because erasure never happens all at once, it happens slowly and systematically.

Independence Movements did not count from the very battles fought, but from the conditions laid down before and after to formulate and fixate Indian society and culture altogether. Resistance to the economization, politicisation, and, ultimately, colonization by the Britishers was confronted by the collective plurality which our country possessed with pride. Testifying that resistance was not always born on the battlefield, often it began with communities refusing to harbor animosity for one another. 

Hindu sanyasis and Muslim fakirs whom the British Company wanted to fragmentalise, chose each other instead. Naga ascetics of the Dashnami order like Pandit Bhabani Charan Pathak stood beside Muslim fakirs of the Madari and Burhana sects, Majnu Shah Fakir, Chirag Ali, Musa Shah, and together resisted the oppressive taxation and economic exploitation the Company had imposed. It was one of the earliest organized rebellions against British rule in India, and yet how many of us have even heard these names?

Tipu Sultan

That same defiance carried into Mysore, Tipu Sultan, a name antagonized in recent years that people even slipped away from the fact that he is the man who invented Missiles in India, a ruler who terrified the British. He built iron-cased rockets before most of the world imagined such a weapon, and fought the British across four wars, refusing again and again to let his kingdom bow. And what do we do with that legacy today? 

Islamic gallantry didn’t halt there. Moulvi Ahmadullah Shah, one of the key leaders of the First War of Indian Independence in 1857 was called the lighthouse of rebellion in Awadh, an epitome of the Ganga-Jamuna culture of Faizabad. The rebel army of Awadh was led by Barkat Ahmad and Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah, with Barkat Ahmad declared Chief Army Officer of the rebels after the Battle of Chinhat. ​​​​​​

Moulvi Ahmadullah Shah

At the head of that same uprising stood Bahadur Shah Zafar, lending his name and his throne to the rebellion we call the Sepoy Mutiny. He gave everything a king could give, and the British broke him in the cruelest way. After his surrender, his sons Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizr Sultan, and his grandson Mirza Abu Bakr, were stripped and shot in cold blood by Major William Hodson at what is now called Khooni Darwaza, and their severed heads were brought before their own father as a trophy. So many lives were lost in that struggle, so many families broken, and it is widely said that nearly 5 lakh Muslims were martyred, close to 50,000 of them ullema who chose the battlefield over silence. After rotating around 79 years of India’s independence, we are still cynical over the contributions carved by Indian Muslims.

Bahadur Shah Zafar

Another buried name is of, Ashfaquallah Khan, was hanged on 19th December 1927, at just 27 years old, along with other Kakori comrades who were sent to the gallows. This Kakori robbery was to pull back the wealth of Indian soil to channelize it for the national struggle. Khan revolutionized nationalist movement with his participation in Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), founded by Ram Prasad Bismil along with two others. Like Kakori robbery, many other raids were rolled out to confront with required force rather than abstracting the notion of peace towards the gruesome tortures.   Have we ever lent an ear to these lines of Khan’s  ‘Hasrat’ poem- “Kuch aarzoo naheen hai, hai aarzoo to yeh hai, Rakh de koi zara si Khaak-e-watan kafan men” who as his last whim, recited this poem soaked in patriotism. Are we made to remember these lines by a Muslim freedom fighter when we are reminded about the terrified misapplication of the divine slogan “Allah-u-Akbar” to polarize the Islam?

Ashfaqullah Khan

Walking further, Abdul Habeeb Yusuf Marfani, gave away his entire estate for a freedom he’d never see honoured. His courage was never separate from the cause, it was central to it, and it’s long overdue we remember it that way.

Abdul Habeeb Yusuf Marfani

Muslim participation in India’s freedom struggle was not boxed in a specific time or way, it encompassed armed resistance, societal reforms, mass mobilization, revolutionary events, and non-violent protests. The hurls on the invasions done by Muslims are widely made, but onlookers of the contributions by very same people, are tactfully airbrushed.

Sacrifices for the Indian motherland were proven on silent or loud battlefields,  not by the mere recital of ‘Patriotic Songs’ such as Vande Mataram as a contemporary reference. That is turned down by Indian Muslims lyrically, not soulfully, because of the religiosity which the Indian Constitution guarantees them. When did the recital of patriotic songs begin to outweigh the very acts of sacrifice they were meant to spring up?

Freedom fighters such as Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah, Begum Hazrat Mahal, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi (clarified the Jihad term through his war against the British), and Azimullah Khan were also important in the 1857 uprising. Barely, we learn or are made to learn about them? While vilifying other names of this very same community. 

The Ali brothers, Shaukat Ali (1873-1938) and Mohamed Ali Jauhar (1878-1931)

Even the popular moments like the non-cooperation movement and the Khilafat Movement were helmed by some unheeded names: Mohammad Ali Jauhar and Shaukat Ali. Erected on the former’s name, there stands a university in Rampur, U.P. which recently has fallen prey to the communal politics, staking Indian youth’s future at darker stage, thus disregarding the blood of these freedom fighters.

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan who spent three decades in prison and headed the non-violent Khudai Khidmatgar Movement among Pashtuns against British rule, wherein he combined social reform, service, and discipline. His demise took place during his house arrest in Peshawar. 

Abid Hasan Safrani

Without a single community-led leader, ideologies often find a loose hand to wrestle for their individual existence rather than collective results. Abid Hasan Safrani,  prominent INA member, mobilized the Muslim youth and committed to Subhas Chandra Bose’s movement (Azad Hind Fauj), which underpinned armed resistance in the Indian Freedom Struggle rather than non-violent means, brewing the unity for winning back the motherland.

Having said that, the famous Ghadar Party, founded in 1913, was pioneered by one more buried name- Maulana Barkatullah Bhopali. He was the first Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of India (Government-in-Exile), which was established in Kabul in 1915. He traversed across Europe, Asia, and North America to usher in the momentum for the Indian freedom struggle. His death took place in the US, leaving him deprived of bidding adieu to his motherland one last time.

Maulana Barkatullah Bhopali

Then, “Inquilab Zindabad”, the popular hymn echoed at Jantar Mantar very recently, was originally coined by Urdu poet-politician Hasrat Mohani at the Congress’ Ahmedabad session, while Bhagat Singh solely made it popularized. Mohani had been a soulful Krishna Bhakt, leaving him writing eulogies for ‘Hazrat Krishna’ (Hazrat is not a religious tag; it is an honorary title).  He, being the co-prisoner of Gandhi ji, presented him with the USSR idea of federalism for empowering the localized and regional pockets of the agglomerate India. His courage and values proved his patriotism in the debates of the Constituent Assembly and confrontations with the Britishers. 

Hasrat Mohani

We remember Mahatma Gandhi more than any other freedom fighter, but are we mindful of the fact that the man who saved him was Batak Mian Ansari during the Champaran Satyagraha in 1917? He was the cook deployed by the Britishers, who then ordered Batak Mian Ansari to serve venomous milk to Gandhi ji. His integrity made him stake his life to save Gandhi ji. He sneakily warned Gandhi ji, and, as anticipated, he was kicked out of his job by the Britishers, further leaving him battered by the villagers and ousting him and his family from his residence. To date, his family couldn’t receive what was promised for his courage by India’s first president, Rajendra Prasad. Questioning how much we have honoured the honorable personalities on the ground?

Batak Mian Ansari

The last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, is also in this queue of the buried names. Independence movement is not merely the swing between direct confrontation with colonial regime, it too laps over the pre and post period that either nudged the movements or repaired the damages caused to India. He has reportedly granted mammoth donations across educational and religious institutions. From BHU, AMU, IISc, publication of critical editions of Mahabharata, Golden Temple, Amritsar and many more places . We rewind through cruel rulers who demolished Indian structures, to attack their community and make them accountable in the present, but are we awakened with these submerged realities as well? One-sided history or evolving history, rationality comes with the choices citizens make to discern their roots.

Mir Osman Ali Khan

The history of Muslim resistance to British colonial rule also travelled deep into Malabar in Kerala, where Variyankunnath Kunjahammad Haji, Ali Musliyar , and Sayyid Fazal Pookoya Thangal emerged as formidable names in a long tradition of anti-colonial mobilisation. Fazal Pookoya Thangal, the 19th-century Mappila spiritual leader of Malabar, became an influential voice against British authority and the oppressive agrarian order sustained under colonial rule, eventually being forced into exile in 1852. Decades later, that inheritance of resistance found powerful expression in the 1921 Malabar uprising, with Ali Musliyar, a religious scholar and Khilafat leader, and Variyankunnath Kunjahammad Haji becoming among its most prominent leaders. Haji challenged British authority in parts of Malabar and established a parallel administration in areas under rebel control, while Ali Musliyar mobilised people against colonial rule before being captured and executed by the British. Haji, too, was eventually captured and executed by firing squad in January 1922.

Ali Musliyar

Culture can marginalise women, but religion pours courage 

“Khoob Ladi Mardani thi, Wo Jhansi Wali Rani thi”, Whenever we speak of women who took up arms for this land, Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi is the name that comes to every tongue, and she deserves every bit of that memory. But here’s what gnaws: she was not alone. There were other women just as fearless, standing in the same fire, and history simply didn’t bother to write their names down. 

Begum Hazrat Mahal

Begum Hazrat Mahal was one of them, and she wasn’t a side character, she was one of the rebellion’s most formidable forces. Even William Howard Russell, a British correspondent writing for his own side, couldn’t deny her fire. In his My Indian Mutiny Dairy, describing her as a woman of remarkable energy who had stirred all of Oudh into rising for her son’s cause and had herself declared undying war against the British. At Musa Bagh in Lucknow, she didn’t issue orders from a distance, she personally fought alongside and rallied nearly 9,000 rebel soldiers, moving from camp to camp, lifting morale with speeches that set entire camps on fire.

Abadi Bano Begum

And then there’s Abadi Bano Begum- the woman history remembers, if at all, only as “Bi Amma.” A widow with six children, one of the sons Maulana Shaukat Ali, and the other Mohammad Ali Jauhar, above-mentioned together known as the Ali Brothers. She could have used every excuse the world hands a woman to stay silent. widowhood, motherhood, the weight of raising children alone. She used none of them. When the country needed people brave enough to stand up to the British, she stood up too. She became the first woman to address a political rally while wearing a burqa and let that sink in for a moment. She didn’t have to remove a part of her identity to be taken seriously in public life; she broke the idea that a veiled woman couldn’t also be a fighter, a leader, or a voice loud enough to move a crowd. She urged women to stop hiding at home and join the struggle, organizing funds and meetings where they were addressed as political beings for the first time, and taught why boycotting foreign goods mattered. She convinced them to donate to the Tilak Swaraj Fund, set up by Bal Gangadhar Tilak to finance India’s freedom struggle.

Kulsum Sayani

Not every battle was fought with a sword, some were fought with pen and paper. Kulsum Sayani, awarded the Padma Shri in 1960, waged her own war against illiteracy through the Jan Jagran movement, teaching under “each one, teach one” and leading centres for Muslim women that grew from 50 to 600 by sheer will. Begum Rokeya, a fiercely prolific feminist writer at a time when a woman dreaming was seen as rebellion, imagined a world turned upside down in Sultana’s Dream, then built that vision into reality, founding a girls’ school in 1909 and the Muslim Women’s Association in 1916, giving women space to learn and speak.

Begum Rokeya

80th Indian Independence Day’s call to unwind the narratives 

As the author of ‘Sare Jahan Sai Achcha, Hindustan Humara’– Allama Iqbal penned- “The freedom lovers of the nation stepped forward with such dignity that even those long imprisoned by deprivation watched in admiration.” It has been shouldered on the present generations to soak in the evolving history to sanitize the present from groans of hatred, rotting the Indian society. 

These lost chapters from Indian history wouldn’t have been possible to muster without the effulgent works of Salim Khan, Romila Thapar, Ramachandra Guha, S. Irfan Habib, Mushirul Hasan, A. G. Noorani, Rana Safvi, etc. Grinning us with the fact that the pluralistic framework of India is not only designed by the constituent makers, but it is also originally earned by all the freedom fighters, from pre- to post-independence.

Adeena Navaid is a law student and writer covering legal, social, and feminist issues, with work published in Maktoob, Bar & Bench, The Quint, Siasat, SheThePeople, and other platforms. Aiman Tabassum is a final-year LL.B. student at the University of Mumbai who writes on constitutional law, legal history, and socio-political issues, with work published in Bar & Bench.

source: http://www.maktoobmedia.com / Maktoob Media / Home> Opinion / by Adeena Navaid & Aiman Tabassum / August 14th, 2026

75 years of Independence: Muslim women in India’s freedom struggle

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

INDIA:

Several Muslim women were an active part of India’s freedom struggle, some of whom emerged from Hyderabad.

The list includes Abadi Bano Begum, Bibi Amtus Salam, Begum Anis Kidwai, Begum Nishatunnisa Mohani, Baji Jamalunnisa, Hajara Beebi Ismail, Kulsum Sayani, and Syed Fakrul Hajiya Hassan.

As India celebrates 75 years of Independence the country often recalls those that were instrumental in the country’s freedom struggle. But often those who aren’t talked about enough evanesce into the archives of history.

As men who took lead roles in the movement were put behind bars, the women ensured that the movement would not die down and the country attained the freedom a vast majority of it’s residents and citizens enjoy today.

The country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech, on Monday, hailed women and the part they played during the times including, Rani Laxmibai, Jhalkari Bai, Durga Bhabhi, Rani Gaidinliu and Begum Hazrat Mahal among others.

These are a few among the many names that are a part of the country’s Independence struggle. Apart from Begum Mahal, who made it to the list of the PM’s speech, today, Muslim women have made their mark in Indian history.

Abadi Bano Begum, Bibi Amtus Salam, Begum Anis Kidwai, Begum Nishatunnisa Mohani Baji Jamalunnisa, Hajara Beebi Ismail, Kulsum Sayani, and Syed Fakrul Hajiya Hassan are among those who are often forgotten or lost in public memory.

Abadi Bano Begum (Born 1852- Died 1924)

Abadi Bano Begum was the first Muslim woman who actively took part in politics and was also a part of the movement to free India from the British Raj. Abadi Bano Begum referred to by Gandhi as Bi Amma, was born in 1852, in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha.

Bi Amman was married to a senior official in the Rampur State, Abdul Ali Khan.

After the death of her husband, Bano raised her children (two daughters and five sons) on her own. Her sons, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jouhar and Maulana Shaukat Ali become leading figures of the Khilafat Movement and the Indian Independence Movement. They played an important role during the non-cooperation movement against the British Raj.

Bi Amma, despite her poor financial condition, from 1917-1921, donated Rs 10 every month to protest against the British Defense Act, after Sarojini Naidu’s arrest.

In 1917, Bano also joined the agitation to release Annie Besant and her sons, who were arrested by the British after their failed attempts to silence her home rule movement in 1917, launched alongside, Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

Despite being a conservative Muslim for the most part of her life Bi Ammah was one of the most prominent faces of Muslim women in India’s freedom struggle.

To get the support of women, Mahatma Gandhi encouraged her to speak in a session of the all-Indian Muslim league, she gave a speech which left a lasting impression on the Muslims of British India.

Bano played an important role in fundraising for the khilafat movement and the Indian Independence movement.

Bibi Amtus Salam (Died 1985)

Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘adopted daughter’ from Patiala Bibi Amtus Salam was a social worker and his disciple who played an active role in combating communal violence in the wake of the partition and in the rehabilitation of refugees who came to India following the partition.

She has on several occasions risked her life by rushing to sensitive areas during the communal riots in Calcutta, Delhi and Deccan.

Bibi Salam was a Muslim inmate of the Gandhi ashram and had over time become an adopted daughter to Gandhi.

After the Noakhali riots, an article published in The Tribune on February 9, 1947, noted that Amtus Salam’s 25-day fast, which was intended to make offenders feel guilty, was one of the most significant outcomes of Gandhi and his disciples’ actions.

To protest the “negligence” of the state authorities in the effort to rescue kidnapped women and children, she sat on an indefinite fast at Dera Nawab in Bahawalpur.

Begum Hazrat Mahal (Born 1820-Died 1879)

An iconic figure of the 1857 uprising, Begum Hazrat Mahal fought against the British East India Company.

Begum, the wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the ruler of Awadh, refused to accept any favours or allowances from the British. Begum, with the aid of her commander Raja Jailal Singh, battled the British East India Company valiantly.

Muhammadi Khanum, the future Mahal, was born in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, in 1830. Gulam Hussain is her father. She had an early understanding of literature. The East India Company’s destruction of mosques and temples to make room for highways served as the catalyst for her uprising.

When the British East India Company invaded Awadh in 1856 and her husband, the last Nawab of Awadh, was exiled to Calcutta, the Begum made the decision to remain in Lucknow along with her son, Birjis Qadir.

On May 31, 1857, they convened in Lucknow’s Chavani neighbourhood to declare Independence and drive the British out of the city.

On July 7, 1857, Begum Hazrat Mahal proclaimed her son, Birjis Khadir, the Nawab of Awadh. She raised 1,80,000 soldiers and lavishly renovated the Lucknow fort as the Nawab’s mother.

She died there on 7 April 1879.

Begum Anis Kidwai (Born 1906- Died 1982)

Story all about freedom fighter Anis Kidwai

A politician and activist from Uttar Pradesh (UP) named Anis Kidwai devoted most of her life to serving the newly Independent India, working for peace and the rehabilitation of the victims of the terrible partition of India.

She represented the Indian National Congress (INC) in the Rajya Sabha from 1956 to 1962, serving two terms as a Member of the Parliament.

Anis Begum Kidwai remained active during the Indian National Movement. Despite gaining independence in 1947, India suffered from country division.

By then, her husband Shafi Ahmed Kidwai had been murdered by communal forces for his efforts to promote amity between Muslims and Hindus and to prevent the split of the country. She was deeply devastated by her husband’s passing.

She visited Mahatma Gandhi in Delhi following her husband’s passing as a result of this unfortunate tragedy.

In order to support and assist the women who were suffering similarly to her as a result of the country’s separation, she began working with women leaders like Subhadra Joshi, Mridula Sarabhai, and others under the direction of Mahatma Gandhi.

She also started rescue camps for the victims and supported them in all respects. They affectionately called her ‘Anis Aapa’. She penned her experiences during the division of the Nation in her book ‘Azadi Ki Chaon Mein’.

Begum Nishatunnisa Mohani (Born 1884- Died 1937)

Begum Nishatunnisa Mohani was born in 1884 in Awadh, Uttar Pradesh, and her notion of ultimate freedom was adopted by Gandhiji.

Married to Moulana Hasrat Mohani, a tenacious independence warrior and the one who gave the phrase “Inquilab Zindabad” its origin. Begum, a fierce opponent of British authority, supported the then-hardliner of the liberation struggle, Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

After his imprisonment for publishing an anti-British piece, she wrote to her husband, Hasrat Mohani, encouraging him and raising his spirits by saying, “Face the risks imposed upon you boldly. Do not give me any thought. No sign of weakness should come from you. ‘Be careful’.”

Later, when her husband was in prison, she took over the publication of his daily, Urdu-e-Mualla, and engaged in various legal disputes with the government.

Baji Jamalunnisa, Hyderabad (Born 1915- Died 2016)

Baji Jamalunnisa, who actively participated in the Telangana armed conflict, passed away in this city on July 22 2016, at the age of 101.

Jamalunnisa Baji was born in Hyderabad in 1915 and was a prominent advocate for racial peace and the independence cause.

She began reading the banned journal “nigar” and progressive literature as a young child after being raised by her parents in a liberal/progressive environment.

Despite being raised in the traditional religious traditions of the Nizam regime, a component of the British Raj, she actively participated in the nationalist movement.

She continued to participate in the independence movement despite the oppressive rule of the Nizam and the British rule over her in-laws’ objections.

Later, she met Maulana Hazrat Mohani (the man who coined the phrase “Inquilab Zindabad” and was known as “Thunder Bolt” in the Freedom struggle), who inspired her to join the anti-imperialist movement in the nation.

She provided sanctuary to freedom fighters trying to avoid being arrested by the Imperial Government while being a communist.

Despite lacking basic higher education, she was fluent in Urdu and English and founded the literary society Bazme Ehabab, which held debates in groups on socialism, communism, and unreasonable customs.

She is buried at the Hazrath Syed Ahmed Bad-e-Pah dargah in First Lancer. She was the sister of Syed Akthar Hasan, a former MLA and the founder of Payam Daily, and was better known as “Baji”.

She was a close friend and member of the Communist Party of Maqdoom Mohiuddin. Baji was also a founding member of the Progressive Writers Association and the Women’s Cooperative Society.

Hajara Beebi Ismail, Andhra Pradesh (Died 1994)

Mohammed Ismail Saheb’s wife, Hajara Beebi Ismail, was a freedom warrior from Tenali in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.

Mahatma Gandhi had a significant impact on the pair, who committed themselves to the Khadi campaign movement. In the Guntur district, her husband Mohammed Ismail opened the first Khaddar Store, earning him the moniker “Khaddar Ismail.”

Tenali served as the Muslim League’s headquarters during that time in the Andhra area, where it was particularly active.

Since Hajara and her husband supported Gandhi, they encountered fierce hostility from the Muslim League. Despite her husband’s repeated arrests for his involvement in the national movement, Hajara Beebi never lost spirit.

Kulsum Sayani (Born 1900- Died 1987)

On October 21, 1900, in Gujarat, Kulsum Sayani was born. She participated in the Indian National Movement and battled against social injustices.

Kulsum and her father met Mahatma Gandhi in 1917. Since then, she has travelled Gandhi’s path. Throughout the Indian National Movement, she advocated for social changes.

Dr. Jaan Mohamad Sayani, a well-known liberation fighter, was the man she wed. She participated actively in a number of events of the Indian Freedom Struggle, with her husband’s backing.

She began working with the illiterate and joined the Charkha Class. She also had a significant impact on the Indian National Congress’s “Jan Jagaran” campaigns, which raised public awareness of social ills.

Sayani’s operations included the suburbs and the metropolis of Mumbai.

Syed Fakrul Hajiya Hassan (Died 1970)

Syed Fakrul Hajiyan Hassan, who not only took part in the Indian freedom fight but also urged her children to do so. She was born into a family that immigrated to India from Iraq. She raised her kids to be freedom fighters who later gained notoriety as the “Hyderabad Hassan Brothers.”

Hajiya wed Amir Hassan, who had relocated to Hyderabad from Uttar Pradesh.

She adopted Hyderabadi culture as a result. Amir Hassan, her spouse, had a senior position in the Hyderabad government. He was required to travel to several locations as part of his employment.

She noticed the suffering of women in India while on her visits. She put a lot of effort into the growth of female children.

She lived in Hyderabad, which was governed by the British, yet she actively engaged in the National Freedom Movement since she was a lady with strong national emotions.

She burned foreign clothing at her Abid Manzil in Hyderabad’s Troop Bazaar in response to the demand of the Mahatma Gandhi. She took part in the non-cooperation and Khilafat movements.

She regarded each soldier in the Indian National Army as one of her children. Along with Smt. Sarojini Naidu, and Fhakrul Hajiya put a lot of effort into getting the heroes of Azad Hind Fouz released.

source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Featured News / by Marziya Sharif / August 17th, 2022

Remembering Fathema Ismail’s battle against polio

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Freedom Fighters (under research project), Leaders, Science & Technology, World Opinion, , , , , , ,

Bombay (Mumbai), MAHARASHTRA :

FatemaIsmail02MPOs07jan2018

IN 1942, a daughter was born to Fathema Ismail, the sister of cotton king and Congress financier Umar Sobhani, and Mohammad Hasham Ismail, a government of India trade commissioner posted in Mombasa. She was fondly named Usha – after the Goddess of dawn – in the expectation of a new dawn as the city and the country was immersed in the Quit India movement. Fathema Ismail was closely involved with Kulsum Sayani (the mother of Ameen Sayani) in women’s education and the establishment of All India Village Industries Association. When Usha turned three the family discovered that she had polio.

“Amma was dejected with the news, but at the same time she was determined to get the best treatment for me,” recalls Usha Cunningham who is now based in New York. She recalls the turbulent years where India fought and finally achieved freedom from the British, which ran parallel to her own fight with polio. Patel Manzil at Nepean Sea Road, where Usha grew up was a safe haven for underground activists. “Aruna khaala (Aruna Asaf Ali) and other leaders would live under assumed names in our house. My mother’s nationalist leanings were well-known but as my father was a trade commissioner, we escaped scrutiny.”

In her search for a doctor, Fathema was referred to Dr M G Kini, an orthopaedic surgeon based in Madras. “Dr Kini was a crusty, old man who first declined to accept my case. Amma would literally sit outside his residence and accost him in the morning, afternoon and evening when he would travel between his house and clinic. He ultimately agreed and we stayed in Madras for around eight months,” recalls Cunningham. Under Dr Kini’s guidance Usha showed tremendous improvement.

The Madras visit also marked the beginning of Fathema’s discovery about the lack of facilities for children afflicted with polio. Soon her husband Mohammad was transferred to Iran from Mombasa, but she stayed in India. After Madras, the next stop was Pune, where, Fathema had gathered, there were some facilities for rehabilitating injured soldiers at the British Army Hospital. “There were three British physiotherapists who would treat the injured soldiers with the help of a few trained Indian assistants. Amma requested similar training and after some reluctance was allowed access,” remembers Cunningham.

What worked in her favour was the fact that Fathema had gone to Vienna to study medicine in 1920 after finishing her schooling, but had to return due to a financial crisis in the family. For three years she had stayed alone in Vienna absorbed in her studies. Decades later, those three years of study helped facilitate a better understanding of the process of rehabilitation. More than two years of treatment and therapy changed Cunningham’s life. From “totally paralysed”, she regained remarkable mobility in her right leg. Little did she know that she would soon become an exemplar of how patients with polio need not be confined within the walls of their house – ignored and neglected.

Fathema was now determined to start a facility for the countless poliostricken children and their parents. Her experience and observation in Madras and Pune gave her the confidence to start a clinic in Bombay (as it was known then). But finding a suitable space amidst a financial crunch plus low awareness of the disease were formidable hurdles. She also had to ensure she had enough medical equipment to attend to the children. The war had ended and the imminent departure of the British meant that the Army hospital in Pune faced an uncertain future.

In 1946 she had established the Society for the Rehabilitation of Crippled Children (SRCC) but despite her pleadings, the hospital was not willing to share or sell the equipment. She then convinced two of the Indian assistants to get the various equipment and kits transferred to Bombay while the hospital was winding up. “She promised them jobs and convinced them of the immense good this would do for the poor patients,” recalls Cunningham, the excitement in her voice palpable as she recounted her mother’s exploits.” Not many people know that six truckloads of machinery were taken out from Pune,” she says.

These surreptitiously transported kits formed the base for a polio clinic that was opened in May 1947 in the empty Chowpatti premises offered by Dr A V Baliga, who was going to the United States on a study tour. After few months the Bombay government gave space in the empty barracks at Marine Drive as the clinic’s immense popularity led to a waiting list. In the wake of Independence, Bombay and India, had woken up to the need of rehabilitating the differentlyabled. Medical journals and international aid organisations took note of Fathema Ismail’s enterprise.

Fathema Ismail and Jawaharlal Nehru at the opening of her clinic in the military barrack at Marine Drive in 1947
Fathema Ismail and Jawaharlal Nehru at the opening of her clinic in the military barrack at Marine Drive in 1947

In 1951, she visited the United States on the state department’s invitation for a four-month tour of various hospitals, and the same year went to Europe to attend international conferences. She was now determined to open a full-fledged hospital. “She caused quite a headache to Prime Minister Nehru as she demanded a plot near the race course at Haji Ali. It was a prime location and Nehru would say ‘Fati, why only that plot? I can request the Bombay government to give some other place’. But Amma was insistent. The racecourse was frequented by the rich and the famous and one of the reasons for the request was that she wanted larger society to be fully aware and responsive to the problem of polio.”

The result was a children’s orthopaedic hospital, which opened in 1952 and was inaugurated by Nehru, which continues to operate to this day. After roughly 30 surgeries and years of therapy, Cunningham who is now 75 years old, has no regrets. “I have climbed mountains, ran a business in Delhi, shifted to America, got married, have a caring husband and daughter. This is what Amma wanted. Similarly she convinced several industrialists to offer training for the handicapped at her centres so that they could get employment.” In 2011, India announced that it had eradicated polio but the foundation stone for this incredible campaign was laid by a lady who had the grit and determination to envision a polio-free society over 70 years ago.

source: http://www.ahmedabadmirror.indiatimes.com / Ahmedabad Mirror / Home> Others> Sunday Read / by Danish Khan, Ahmedabad Mirror / August 20th, 2017

Many facets of an activist

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Freedom Fighters (under research project), Leaders, World Opinion, , , , , , ,

GUJARAT / Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :

ducationist par excellence: Kulsum Sayani (Centre) with her sons, radio broadcaster Ameen Sayani (left) and Hamid Sayani. (Courtesy: Sayanis)
ducationist par excellence: Kulsum Sayani (Centre) with her sons, radio broadcaster Ameen Sayani (left) and Hamid Sayani. (Courtesy: Sayanis)

She was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi to unite Hindi and Urdu. Kulsum Sayani also worked tirelessly for adult literacy…

“Each one, teach one”, one of the most effective schemes to promote education today was popularised by a woman few remember, but who was a pioneer in the field of adult literacy in India.

Kulsum Sayani’s name might not ring a bell for many but her life and work are truly remarkable. Mother of the well-known radio personality Ameen Sayani, Kulsum was born in 1900. Her inspiration was none other than Mahatma Gandhi. Her father, Dr Rajabally Patel, was the personal physician to Gandhiji and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

During the several protest meets organised against the visit of the Prince of Wales to Bombay in 1921, the city had become volatile. The result was baton charges, arrests and martial laws. There were dozens of people wounded, and seriously injured.

Describing those trying times, Kulsum Sayani wrote, “A new Congress hospital was founded to care for the wounded. My late husband Jan Mohamed Sayani was the first physician to be put in charge of it. We had a small Saxon car with the Red Cross badge prominently showing on it. My husband would go to the hospital daily, practically on totally deserted roads lined up with policemen on both sides. I would be sitting by the phone until he called from the hospital telling me of his safe arrival.”

Sayani’s interactions with Gandhiji and the importance attached to education in her family made her realise the need to eradicate illiteracy. In 1938, with a capital of Rs. 100 she employed two teachers and made the rounds of Muslim localities to get students. Considering the conservative attitude towards female education even now, imagine the effort it must have taken on Sayani’s part to convince families about the importance of educating girls at that time. There were times people used to slam their doors on her face, exclaiming, “Why should women learn to read?”

Her tireless efforts proved that there was a tremendous need to work in the field of education, which needed a more organised set-up. Her experience made her a part of several committees, which were formed to increase literacy among adults in Bombay, now Mumbai. She was associated with the first National Planning Committee that was set up by the Congress government in Bombay in 1938. The Bombay City Social Education Committee, formed in 1939, asked Sayani to take over their 50 centres catering to Muslim women. Slowly and steadily the classes grew and reached 600 in number. Of course, her efforts were not limited to the Muslim community alone. She was also appointed the general secretary of the All India Women’s Conference in 1944 and worked for the empowerment of women.

But it was in spreading the word on education that she is best remembered. The New Delhi edition of ‘The Times of India’ (March 10, 1970) noted, “From 1939 when she (Kulsum Sayani) took charge of the Bombay City Social Education Committee five lakh adults have become literate through one of the five languages – Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Telugu. Her days are a mad rush of dashing to schools to enthuse children into teaching adults and her nights are spent dreaming up new schemes of literacy.”

Dedicated

Sayani was very pragmatic and initiated several schemes to spread literacy, notably including “Each one, teach one”. She used to visit several schools and encourage young students to devote 15 minutes every day to teach one adult. Under the scheme, students were supposed to teach and read one new alphabet every day to any adult in their family, neighbourhood or domestic helpers. Highly conscious of the importance of moral values, she encouraged students to request adults to tell them a folk tale or a story from the epics.

“The lower middle-class women, who are forced to work, have no help but to abandon their children to the streets after school, while the fashionable ones have no time left for children after bridge and mah-jong parties,” she once said.

Another literacy initiative she initiated was reading out aloud. School students were encouraged to gather friends and adults and each one had to read out aloud. This, she believed, was necessary to improve the confidence and interest of neo-literates. To ensure the success of these schemes she used to visit three to four schools every week meeting and egg students on.

During the freedom struggle hundreds of political prisoners languishing in jails improved their Hindustani by reading out aloud ‘Rahber’, the newspaper she brought out. ‘Rahber’, started in 1940, was aimed at the new learners. It was published in three scripts – Nagari, Urdu and Gujarati. The language of ‘Rahber’ was Hindustani, a mixture of Hindi and Urdu. Those were the times when the Hindi supporters were using heavy Sanskrit words and the proponents of Urdu were lacing the language with Persian and Arabic in their efforts to distinguish the two languages and establish their superiority.

Support

Gandhiji was in favour of Hindustani written in the Nagari or the Urdu script. ‘Rahber’ sought to take forward Gandhiji’s idea of Hindustani. In a letter dated June 16, 1945, Gandhiji addressed Sayani as ‘Beti Kulsum’ and wrote: “I like the mission of ‘Rahber’ to unite Hindi and Urdu. May it succeed.” The newspaper was read by hundreds of political prisoners lodged in jails across the country; anyone interested in learning Gandhiji’s Hindustani picked up the paper.

When the Constituent Assembly deliberations began in the months leading to India’s Independence, the language controversy erupted again. A letter dated July 22, 1947, from Gandhiji to Sayani, shows his resolve to stick with Hindustani. He wrote: “Heaven knows what is in store for us. The old order changeth giving place to new. Nothing is settled. Whatever is decided by the C.A., Hindustani with the two scripts remains for you and me.”

Sayani also represented India at several international forums on education across the world. She attended the UNESCO conference in 1953 in Paris (France) and shared ideas and gained new perspectives after talking with representatives from several countries. Her other interest was to promote peace and increase understanding between India and Pakistan. Her well known status as an activist helped her get audiences with top leaders in both the countries. Among Pakistani politicians, she directly met Pakistani presidents, Ghulam Mohammad and Ayub Khan, among other senior leaders.

In India, her reputation as ‘Rahber’s’ editor helped her get appointments with Nehru, B.G. Kher, V.K. Krishna Menon, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and Indira Gandhi. She received encouragement and support from politicians of all hues in India for her efforts to forge a friendship with Pakistan. However, after the passing away of Nehru and Rafi Kidwai, who shared her concerns on improving relations with Pakistan, she devoted her energies to propagating Hindustani.

Sayani’s life is an inspiration to many. Married when she was only 18, she managed her family and pursued her social interests with equal elan. Her sons, Hamid and Ameen, both radio broadcasters, created their own identity. Ameen Sayani attributes his “basic grounding in clear and credible communications in Hindustani” to his involvement in assisting his mother in bringing out ‘Rahber’.

Old age and bureaucratic red tape forced her to stop ‘Rahber’ in 1960 after she had single-handedly brought it out for 20 years. She continued to be associated with the Hindustani Prachar Sabha and organised several lectures and seminars

She never lost focus from her lifelong passion to eradicate illiteracy. She received the Padma Shri in 1960 and was also awarded the Nehru Literacy Award in 1969.

Sayani, who died in 1987, belonged to an era when people believed in giving their best to the nation without expecting anything in return.

(© Women’s Feature Service)

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> History / by Danish Khan / August 14th, 2010