02-16-2007, 12:23 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Questioning Muslims </b>
Pioneer.com
Scratch the surface and Indian Muslims, who claim to be or are thrust with the sobriquet of intellectuals, reveal their sarkari colours, says Ather Farouqui
There is a category of prominent Muslim intellectuals belonging to the Aligarh Muslim University or the Aligarh school; the star performers among them have been, in the main, AMU vice-chancellors. <b>There is no need to explain the political sensitivity of the AMU, which played a decisive role in the formation of Pakistan. Mohammed Ali Jinnah always considered the university a safe arsenal of the Muslim League.</b> But in the last five decades the AMU has hardly had a vice-chancellor who can claim knowledge of Muslim society or the capability to analyse or deal with the social complexities of Indian Muslims.
Between l975 and 1980, an elite economist from Hyderabad was the vice-chancellor of the AMU. He went to England for his PhD on scholarship awarded by the Nizam who symbolised the ills personified in the Muslim ruling class. Ali <b>Mohammed Khusro had no academic achievement to his credit after his appointment as the VC, for which he had left Delhi School of Economics where he was professor. After his posting at the AMU, he emerged as leading sycophant of Mrs Indira Gandhi</b>.
AM Khusro's foray into opportunistic political assignments began thereafter. He could speak for hours on poetry, Mughlai food and other such topics but not on economics. After leaving the AMU, he went to Germany as India's Ambassador, and got one or the other political assignment that gave him prominence and perks. There was no indication that he realised he belonged to an ailing community.
His successor was Saiyid Hamid who reached the secretariat after a stint in the corridors of the Government's clerical order through provincial civil services of Uttar Pradesh, and was later elevated to IAS.<b> He got a Masters in pre-partition days from the AMU. During his service, he was a hardcore Congress nationalist, proximating the definition of nationalism propounded by the RSS. But as soon as he was made the VC he began aspiring for political roles.</b>
Saiyid Hamid had no experience of interaction with Muslims beyond his administrative capacity. As the VC, he got such articles published, which he had perhaps written during his BA or MA and these could not be published even in Urdu on merit.<b> He was the first VC of the AMU who initiated police action on the campus, all the while feigning ignorance about it. One student was shot and many injured</b>.
His successor<b> Syed Hashim Ali Akhtar </b>too was a bureaucrat. After relinquishing the office of the vice-chancellor he went to the US and continued to work on an "interesting" topic that he made his mission in life - the change of the Nastaleeq (Urdu) script into Roman. <b>The ludicrousness of his plea was that none of his grandchildren, who were born and brought up in America, knew Urdu; this made him conclude that Urdu speakers should abandon the Urdu script and adopt Roman</b>. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â He tried hard to emulate Ataturk in AMU. Today, <b>he is busy translating Gorboduc into Urdu, in the Roman script</b>. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Then arrived an eminent Professor of IIT, MN Farouqi. The distinguished academic never went out of the IIT campus to understand Muslim society. An idler, he was forced to leave the university one year before his term was to get over, with sundry scandals to his credit. Now one can see him at elite seminars waxing on Muslims issues.
He was followed by Mehmood-ur-Rehman, also a bureaucrat. Mr Rehman's only qualification as a Muslim intellectual was that he had a Masters in Persian. Eventually, he turned dictatorial, though he frequently assumed the role of an eminent Muslim intellectual. After an unceremonious retirement (he wanted a second term which is barred by AMU regulations) he became the Resident Commissioner of a State guesthouse in Delhi. He is now the managing director of a Muslim bank.
Mr Rehman was followed by Mr Hamid Ansari, IFS, whose only qualification as a Muslim intellectual was a tenure as India's Ambassador in Saudi Arabia. He was largely unaware of Muslim problems and remained confined to his office and residence during a short tenure. <b>But whenever, during his term or afterwards, he appeared on television to talk on a "Muslim issue", Ghalib was remembered: Bak raha hoon junoon main kya kya kuchh; Kuchh na samjhe khhuda kare koi</b>.
<b>Mr Hamid Ansari is now chairman of National Commission for Minorities</b>. The moral of the story is: <b>Whichever Government is in power, the pool of canonised sarkari Mussalman is a compulsion; his political affiliation hardly matters, neither does his performance.</b>
Current vice-chancellor Mohammed Nasim again has no previous record of interaction with the community; he was the "dark horse" of bureaucracy from the Haryana cadre. A Bachelor of Law, he is frequently heard and seen as a Muslim intellectual who is also a "legal luminary". His term has witnessed a number of controversies and caused embarrassment to the Government on legal issues related to the AMU.
The only Muslim of consequence who refused to be trapped was Mr Syed Shahabuddin; he rejected the offer of the VC of the AMU. Mr Shahabuddin had already resigned from IFS to join politics when Mrs Gandhi offered him the post in 1980. It was following his refusal that Saiyid Hamid joined the AMU.
Such is the lot of Muslim "intellectuals". It is doubtful whether any leader can be singled out in the category of Muslim intellectuals other than those mentioned above. Are they really intellectually gifted in any way? Or is it that, due to their own compulsions, they take serious Muslim issues casually?
They have often misguided the Government of the day on Muslim issues, all the while being lionised and feted in the media as Muslim intellectuals. It is hardly surprising that Muslims remain the worst sufferers, without the ability or choice to set things right for themselves.
farouqui@yahoo.
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Pioneer.com
Scratch the surface and Indian Muslims, who claim to be or are thrust with the sobriquet of intellectuals, reveal their sarkari colours, says Ather Farouqui
There is a category of prominent Muslim intellectuals belonging to the Aligarh Muslim University or the Aligarh school; the star performers among them have been, in the main, AMU vice-chancellors. <b>There is no need to explain the political sensitivity of the AMU, which played a decisive role in the formation of Pakistan. Mohammed Ali Jinnah always considered the university a safe arsenal of the Muslim League.</b> But in the last five decades the AMU has hardly had a vice-chancellor who can claim knowledge of Muslim society or the capability to analyse or deal with the social complexities of Indian Muslims.
Between l975 and 1980, an elite economist from Hyderabad was the vice-chancellor of the AMU. He went to England for his PhD on scholarship awarded by the Nizam who symbolised the ills personified in the Muslim ruling class. Ali <b>Mohammed Khusro had no academic achievement to his credit after his appointment as the VC, for which he had left Delhi School of Economics where he was professor. After his posting at the AMU, he emerged as leading sycophant of Mrs Indira Gandhi</b>.
AM Khusro's foray into opportunistic political assignments began thereafter. He could speak for hours on poetry, Mughlai food and other such topics but not on economics. After leaving the AMU, he went to Germany as India's Ambassador, and got one or the other political assignment that gave him prominence and perks. There was no indication that he realised he belonged to an ailing community.
His successor was Saiyid Hamid who reached the secretariat after a stint in the corridors of the Government's clerical order through provincial civil services of Uttar Pradesh, and was later elevated to IAS.<b> He got a Masters in pre-partition days from the AMU. During his service, he was a hardcore Congress nationalist, proximating the definition of nationalism propounded by the RSS. But as soon as he was made the VC he began aspiring for political roles.</b>
Saiyid Hamid had no experience of interaction with Muslims beyond his administrative capacity. As the VC, he got such articles published, which he had perhaps written during his BA or MA and these could not be published even in Urdu on merit.<b> He was the first VC of the AMU who initiated police action on the campus, all the while feigning ignorance about it. One student was shot and many injured</b>.
His successor<b> Syed Hashim Ali Akhtar </b>too was a bureaucrat. After relinquishing the office of the vice-chancellor he went to the US and continued to work on an "interesting" topic that he made his mission in life - the change of the Nastaleeq (Urdu) script into Roman. <b>The ludicrousness of his plea was that none of his grandchildren, who were born and brought up in America, knew Urdu; this made him conclude that Urdu speakers should abandon the Urdu script and adopt Roman</b>. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â He tried hard to emulate Ataturk in AMU. Today, <b>he is busy translating Gorboduc into Urdu, in the Roman script</b>. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Then arrived an eminent Professor of IIT, MN Farouqi. The distinguished academic never went out of the IIT campus to understand Muslim society. An idler, he was forced to leave the university one year before his term was to get over, with sundry scandals to his credit. Now one can see him at elite seminars waxing on Muslims issues.
He was followed by Mehmood-ur-Rehman, also a bureaucrat. Mr Rehman's only qualification as a Muslim intellectual was that he had a Masters in Persian. Eventually, he turned dictatorial, though he frequently assumed the role of an eminent Muslim intellectual. After an unceremonious retirement (he wanted a second term which is barred by AMU regulations) he became the Resident Commissioner of a State guesthouse in Delhi. He is now the managing director of a Muslim bank.
Mr Rehman was followed by Mr Hamid Ansari, IFS, whose only qualification as a Muslim intellectual was a tenure as India's Ambassador in Saudi Arabia. He was largely unaware of Muslim problems and remained confined to his office and residence during a short tenure. <b>But whenever, during his term or afterwards, he appeared on television to talk on a "Muslim issue", Ghalib was remembered: Bak raha hoon junoon main kya kya kuchh; Kuchh na samjhe khhuda kare koi</b>.
<b>Mr Hamid Ansari is now chairman of National Commission for Minorities</b>. The moral of the story is: <b>Whichever Government is in power, the pool of canonised sarkari Mussalman is a compulsion; his political affiliation hardly matters, neither does his performance.</b>
Current vice-chancellor Mohammed Nasim again has no previous record of interaction with the community; he was the "dark horse" of bureaucracy from the Haryana cadre. A Bachelor of Law, he is frequently heard and seen as a Muslim intellectual who is also a "legal luminary". His term has witnessed a number of controversies and caused embarrassment to the Government on legal issues related to the AMU.
The only Muslim of consequence who refused to be trapped was Mr Syed Shahabuddin; he rejected the offer of the VC of the AMU. Mr Shahabuddin had already resigned from IFS to join politics when Mrs Gandhi offered him the post in 1980. It was following his refusal that Saiyid Hamid joined the AMU.
Such is the lot of Muslim "intellectuals". It is doubtful whether any leader can be singled out in the category of Muslim intellectuals other than those mentioned above. Are they really intellectually gifted in any way? Or is it that, due to their own compulsions, they take serious Muslim issues casually?
They have often misguided the Government of the day on Muslim issues, all the while being lionised and feted in the media as Muslim intellectuals. It is hardly surprising that Muslims remain the worst sufferers, without the ability or choice to set things right for themselves.
farouqui@yahoo.
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