Jinnah’s Portraits, Indian Academic Institutions and the Dirty Politics

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Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) at Shimla has at least two photographs of Jinnah on its walls.

Incidentally the Institute comes under the Central Government and is located in a State frequently ruled by BJP!

The Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) website also mentions Jinnah in connection with the Shimla Conference of June 1945, held at the Viceregal Lodge to discuss India’s progress towards full self-governance. As per the website:

“From 25 June to 14 July 1945 the conference was held at the lodge. A wide spectrum of Indian political leadership was present – Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Liaqat Ali Khan, Bhulabhai Desai, Master Tara Singh and Mohammed Ali Jinnah…”.

Is it an anti-National Institution? It’s management too should be hauled on coals as is being done in the case of AMU!

The Students Union, AMU granted Life Membership to Jinnah in 1938, a period when Mr Jinnah was a leader of the Congress party, thus along with photographs of other Life Members, his too adorn the walls of the Union Hall. He was invited as a nationalist leader who was participating in the National Movement. The Lahore Resolution (seeking Pakistan in 1940) had not come by then. It was still two years in future!

There were two aspects to Jinnah: one was Partition and the other was opposition to British rule from the time of Gopalkrishna Gokhale. Very few people know that he was the defence counsel of Bal Gangadhar Tilak (in a sedition case) and won him the case against the British government in 1916. It’s a part of our history. Even if somebody wants to be rowdy about it, history can’t be changed. In fact, Bhagat Singh should be a national hero for Pakistan as much as he is for us.

His portrait at Aligarh represents that period and is a reminder of the time when Jinnah was fighting for the Nation, not a particular community.

Jinnah also was historically related with the IIAS, and thus his photographs are there too.

In both the places his photos are there as he is part of the history of this nation and it’s National Movement, unlike, say, VD Savarkar who collaborated with those who enslaved the nation!

And remember history can never be wished away!

Jinnah’s images are there in IIAS, Shimla, Students Union Hall, AMU and other myriad of places in India not because these places believe in him, but as an example of one who was once one of us, but stands rejected! History remembers both heroes and anti-heroes, the villains!

We as a nation rejected Jinnah and his divisive philosophy when we decided to stay put in India and constructed a Sovereign Democratic Republic that is India!

According to Telegraph (8 May 2018) and its Basant Kumar Mohanty, Professor Bhalchandra Mungekar, who was IIAS chairperson from 2007 to 2012, defended the website’s reference to Jinnah and the display of his picture at the AMU students’ union office. He is cited as saying:

“Jinnah was born in undivided India. The Viceregal Lodge witnessed discussions on the transfer of power, and Jinnah was present. It’s fine to mention him.”

He further reportedly said that the protests against the AMU portrait were driven by “divisive politics”:

“If Jinnah’s portrait had not bothered anyone from the time of the Partition in 1947 till today, why should it be an issue now?” said Mungekar, former vice-chancellor of Mumbai University (earlier Bombay University, from which Jinnah had earned his matriculation).

“It’s a pretext to arouse communal passions and seek political polarisation solely from the point of view of elections. All Sangh parivar affiliates should desist from politics in the nation’s long-term interest.”

AMU, Jinnah’s Portrait and Fascist Forces

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Since a few days past AMU has been in the centre of a controversy: Is AMU a mini-Pakistan, with its students anti nationals and followers of Muhammad Ali Jinnah? If not so why do they still have a portrait of Jinnah adorning a wall of a building on the campus? If the Aligarians are not anti nationals, why are they not removing the portrait of the man who tore the country into two on the basis of religion?

On a day when Hamid Ansari Sahib, the former Vice President of our country was in the University and a function of the AMU Students Union was to take place to confer upon him the Life Membership of the Union, a handful of RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal goon, bearing pistols and sticks, and escorted by a number of policemen entered the University Gate and moved towards the Guest house where the former VP was sitting. They were confronted by the handful of AMU “bulls”. Surprising there was no security arrangements for a former VP and the goons were allowed to come precariously close to him! But for the skeletal AMU stick wielding half famished security none blocked their path! The bulls closed the gate and caught a few goons.

Unfortunately they were handed over to the district police who immediately released them, in spite of their reported provocative and communally loaded slogans and allegations of firing katta. The police apparently believed that there was no case against them!

As news spread like wild fire, the students rushed to Bāb-i Saiyid and a protest started. They wanted the police to catch the culprits. As they came out of the University gate and tried to march towards the police station, the police who till yet had been mute spectators started blowing lathis on the unarmed protesters! The irony was very apparent: release those wielding and firing and brandishing lāthis, and brutally attack those who would protest against this goondaism! Dozens were injured! They took care to ensure that almost the entire leadership of the AMUSU be brutally beaten up. The President, the former President, the Secretary and dozens of others were severely injured!

By late evening the goons were successful in accomplishing their nefarious agenda! Almost all TV channels were talking of Jinnah’s image in the Building of the Union Hall. None referred to the fact that the attack was in fact against the former VP and an attempt to malign a Central University!

None also paused to mention that the Students Union Building was in fact a semi-independent entity: It originally was a Debating Club, The Siddon’s Club, which like clubs in Oxford and Cambridge was a place for serious debates and deliberations. After the M.A.O. College became a University by an Act of Parliament in 1920, it was converted into a building of the Students Union. Starting with Mahatma Gandhi to a number of Noble Laureate, as well as politicians, scientists, and social scientists were conferred Life Memberships. Jinnah was one of them. He was conferred this honour in 1938 when he came for the first time to AMU. He came as a leader of the Congress.

He was with Motilal Nehru and was known for his secular views. According to Gandhiji he was the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity! It was a time when Veer Savarkar and Golwalkar were talking about separate representations to Muslims. Muslims, according to Savarkar were to be thrown out of India! Jinnah when he walked in to accept the award of Life Membership of AMUSU, was talking of a throwing out of the foreign yoke, who were being felicitated by Hindu Maha Sabha!

VD Savarkar had proposed the two-nation theory in 1937 three years before Jinnah did so in 1940. Further, Hindu Mahasabha ran coalition governments with the Muslim League in 1942 in Bengal, Sindh & NWFP.

The photograph of Jinnah which hangs in the Students Union Hall is of Jinnah the Congressman and the tormentor of the British! It has been there since 1938!

Further, the building that houses it is a repository of all the relics and artefacts related with the history of the Students Union. It is a sort of a Museum which contains the portraits of those given Life Membership starting with Gandhiji. It is also the repository of all the documents related with the Union. It since it’s inception is a restricted place with entry allowed only to bonafide members!

One should also point out that it is not the only place where something related with Jinnah is preserved in India. There is no Museum in India dedicated to National Freedom Struggle which doesn’t have one! And why should it not be there? He is a part of our history; and history can not be wished away! Like our parentage we cannot change it! Like it or hate it, it is our past!

And let us not forget: those who believed in the two-nation theory of Jinnah migrated to Pakistan long ago. Those who remained back are those who rejected his nefarious ideas!

Unfortunately those who believed in the two-nation theory of Savarkar and Golwalkar, still shout the slogan of “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan” and are ruling over our country and maligning Jawaharlal Nehru who had opposed Jinnah and his divisive ideas!

However whatever happened in the past one week had some positive after effects as well! I will highlight two:

a) The events united Aligarh as never before; and

b) Aligarh leapfrogged towards gender equality and women’s emancipation

Today we find all concerned interests and parties on one platform: there is hardly any dissenting voice, from retired teachers, to those in service, to researchers to students and the Alumni: all stand steadfast behind the fair name of alma mater! In spite of the media hunting desperately for a contrary viewpoint, all are condemning the fascist forces, condemning Jinnah but all appear to firmly with the University and the concept of freedom of expression!

As Gandhiji, or Lohiaji, or Jai Prakash Narayan ji, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is also a recipient of Honorary Life Membership of the Students Union. None of them can be wished away! Their ideologies have nothing to do with their portraits hung here!

Irfan Habib Interview, TOI

The second positive development has been that for the first time in the entire history of the University, the girls participated at equal footing as the boys! Since day one they have been shoulder to shoulder with the boys! Although gates were closed for them, they came out in large numbers.

Hope this continues even after this particular episode is over!

In the end please hear this appeal of Faizan Mustafa, VC NALSAR (former Registrar, AMU) in full:

Faizan Mustafa on the Jinnah Contrvercy

Lt Gen Zameeruddin Shah

Long Past Memories of Shab-i Barā’at & 15 Shābān of my Childhood

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Memories and memories! As one crosses the “halfway mark” it is only the fond memories of days gone by remain. They may have been mundane when they took place, but now as you look back in time and recall them, they tickle your whole body and your brain yearns for them! The feeling further gets aggravated when you realise that those people who inhabit that world in your memories are never going to come back, nor the incidents are going to repeat themselves as they once happened! Even if the persons in your memory are still alive, they are now not the same: they too have transformed with time! A chirpy fun loving young child is now a greying grumpy sober pot bellied boor! Or a once shy girl is an elegant and sophisticated woman: quite a disconnect from what she was in your fond memories!

Today as I was woken up by my sister at dawn “to lighten the candles” on the birth of our Living Imam, and as I did so in the lonely silence of the house where every one was deep in slumber, I was transported back in time when I was a child, and was along with my long dead (40years) father on way to cast my arīza in a river stream flowing some miles from Aligarh…..

Shab Barāt and 15 Shabān used to be occasions we waited for! It was a time when we would not only get a variety of halwas to eat, but also firecrackers- the ātishbazī, the sparkling phuljharīs and anārs, the “rockets” which would fly high sparkle and then explode, the ear-shattering “sutli bombs” and other types of myriads of patākhās!

Weeks before the event Abba and Ammi would buy us the ātishbāzi from the shops in “shahar” – for the Dodhpur Chauraha was still a sleepy hamlet with only a few shops: for everything one had to go across the kathpula to the real “city” and its bazārs.

In the city, just below the “ghantaghar” was the shop of Mazhar Chacha from where Ammi would buy everything (except the grains) and the firecrackers. Rawa, chanā, sūji, ghee, shakkar etc were all to be bought for the preparation of the various halwas. Sometimes I would also accompany them (especially Ammi) sitting on the lap as the rickshaw meandered its way to the bazār!

After shopping, when we returned, Ammi along with my sisters would engage herself with the servants in measuring and weighing and segregating the various ingredients for each type of halwa. An old tarāzu (weighing scale) would be used along with the various bāts (weights: sērs). A small scale was also brought out for the dry fruits needed. And then of course the sill batta, packets of silver foils (chāndi ka waraq) and bottles of kewra would also be out.

We children meanwhile were on the other hand given the important duty of daily drying the firecrackers in the sun! A sheet would be spread on charpais on which the firecrackers were laid out. Another bedsheet would then be used to cover them. For days this vigil was carried out: laying out the firecrackers in the mornings and then removing them to be stored up for the night!

On 14 Shābān, the day of shab-i barā’at, the full festive mood would be on display. From morning till afternoon all the women folk would be busy making various type of halwās. Ammi’s speciality (now imbibed by my sisters) was the “chaney kā halwā”! No one could match the taste which her preparation had!

From around 4:00 pm the ‘ceremonies’ of the day would commence. The venue would be the namāz kī chauki ( the wooden pedastal for the prayers) of my father. After the ‘zuhr’ (afternoon prayers) Abba would sit on the chauki, Ammi would be there along with the entire family along with large trays of various halwas. She would dole out a handful of each variety in a large white porcelain plate and keep it on the jā namāz spread before my father. The Nazr and Fatiha would commence. It would be a long drawn affair. First the nazr (offerings) would be made to all the Prophets name by name, starting with Hazrat Ādam and would end with Prophet Muhammad. Each of these plates would be emptied in a large vessel kept aside for the purpose. Then would start the nazr of all the Sacred Women: Janāb Sarah (the wife of Abraham), Janāb i Maryam (Mary), Prophet’s mother, Ali’s mother so on and so forth. This would end at the name of Nargis-i Khātūn, the mother of the Living 12th Imam. Then would come the turn of all the 11 Imāms, followed by the martyrs of Karbala.

After the nazrs, fātiha would commence. Here it was the reverse order of our genealogy would follow, starting with the fatiha of Dādā Abba, my grandfather. My father would keep out calling name after name: “so and so son of so and so aur unki zauja (wife)”! What intrigued me were two things, first the changing surnames of the ancestors over generations: Ali ibn Ali, Hasan ibn Hasan, Uddin ibn Uddin etc! Second was that zauja was always singular, except in the case of my grandmothers! By the time our genealogy and that of my mother’s side was over, all of us would be extremely tired, eyeing the tempting halwa and waiting for the chance to go out and explode the patākhās! But then the ritual of fātiha was unending!

After the ancestors the fātiha of the recent dead of the family and acquaintances, well known Shi’i figures and a long list of Ulama would be held! Not satisfied with this long unending list, my mother would recall names and urge for fātiha for their souls on the pleas that they had no one else to do it for them!

And then we would all rush out to our large court yard and the ātish bāzi session would commence! It would generally last an hour or so! By now the whole house would be illuminated by diyās! We would then all sit to write our letters (arīza) to the Imam which would then be individually wrapped and put inside ātā (wheat flour) balls.

Late nights except for us, the children, everyone would perform āmāl, prayer vigils which would last till around three in the night.

We would now all be ready to go to drop the arīzās. Abba would have arranged some vehicle for us to be taken a few miles away to a stream to drop the arīzās. Under a dark sky resplendent with sparkling stars we would reach the stream. Sometimes a bus load of the other Shias from our town would also be there. They would be generally accompanied by Naqqan Sahib if he was in town. If he was there everyone except my father would offer morning namāz behind him. If he was not there, my father would lead the prayers on the banks of the stream. After the prayers, qasīda khwāni would commence and many a poet recite verses welcoming the birth of the Imam! At the end, when arīza had been thrown in the stream, namāz offered and a celebratory mahfil held, everyone would distribute the halwa which they had brought along. We would then board our vehicle, as the others would get on the bus and head back home!

It was a perfect culmination of the night of redemption (Shab-i Barā’at) and beginning of the 15 Shābān, the Birthday of our Living Imam!

Today as I stand alone lighting a few candles in my deserted room with only my daughters around me, I recall the rich and vibrant past: the past when Abba and Ammi were besides me, and I was holding their hand and sheltered by their protective embrace!

Wish you all a Happy Maulūd-i Imām-i Zamāna!

Also wish you all Happy recall of past memories: for what are we without them!

‘Arīza: A Petition to the Hidden Imām

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A unique ritual widely prevalent amongst the Twelver Shi’i on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the Twelfth Imam is that of “Arīza“. The term ‘arīza literally means a petition of a person to someone higher in status.

The concept is that as al-Mahdi, the twelfth and the final Imam of the Prophet’s Household is alive but hidden and taking care of us and the world, we write to him our petitions pleading our case. He, like any other ruler, receives them through the agency of any one of his deputies, four of whom are known.

Imam Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Askari was born in Samarra in AD 868 and until 872 when his father was martyred, lived under his father’s care and tutelage. He was hidden from public view and only a few of the elite among the Shi’ah were able to meet him. In AD 873 he was hidden and went into Occultation.

During the period of Minor Occultation, he was in contact of certain people and had four Nawwabein, deputies, through whom he worked. They were:

1) Uthmān ibn Sa’īd Umarī, 2) his son Muhammad ibn Uthmān Umarī,

3) ‘Abul Qāsim Husain ibn Rūh Nawbakhti, and

4) Ali ibn Muhammad Simmāri.

After 80 years of the Minor Occultation, the Major Occultation started during which the Imam interacts only with whom he wants!

During this period of major occultation he is represented only through his naibs, the marja‘ (the Jurisconsults) and the people communicate with him through the ‘Arīza or the petitions which they send to him. If one looks at these formalised petitions which have a set format with space to add your own seeking, we find that they mention the names of the above named ‘agents’ or deputies who are still supposed to present them before the Imam.

A typical arįza is as follows:

Translation of Dua-e-Ariza

I have written to you O my master, may His mercy and blessing be on you, seeking a favour from you.

I have complained to you for what has happened to me seeking solutions firstly from Allah and then from you for a matter that has obsessed me.

I am helpless in combating the problem and for that I have resorted to seeking help from Allah and from you. Knowing the status you have with Allah.

I am confident that you will help me get the solutions to my problems swiftly and that you will intercede on my behalf. I am helpless and moreover I am sinful:

so help O master and present this problem to Allah and I pray to Him that He will solve this quickly and grant me victory and success in finding the solution to my problems.

(Write your personal wishes and problems in the provided space)

I am not able to carry or bear with it. Although I am responsible for the increase of my sins and ignorant about my responsibilities (Wajibaats), from Allah which are given to me.

So help me O my master.  Peace be upon you during this time of problems and sorrow.

 presents my prayers to Allah before I compensate and before my enemies engulfs me. For you have shown me your blessings.

So I pray to Allah for great salvation and near victory with calmness from all fears,

 for Allah is most high and does what he wants. Allah is sufficient for me from beginning and in my hopes.

Whatever Allah wish there is neither strength nor any power except in Allah the High, the Great.

*When dropping the Ariza in the sea/ river/ well, the following is normally recited, addressing Husayn bin Rawh, the 3rd Na’ib of the 12th Imam:

“O Husayn bin Rawh, Salamun Alykum.

I bear witness that you died in the path of Allah and (hence), you are alive and are sustained by Allah.  am addressing you in your life which you lead with Allah – this is my note and wishes to the master of the Era, the 12th Imam (AS), so please hand it over to him for you are indeed trustworthy”.

After the ‘Arīza has been written out, especially on the night of Shab-i Barā’at, these paper petitions are folded and placed within a ball of dough. With particular recitation of prayers, these dough balls containing the ‘arīza are then tossed into either blind wells or flowing waters, say a river or a barrage early at the dawn of 15 Shābān. It’s a real scene to be witnessed with people standing on the dark banks of rivers with trays full of ‘Arīza and flickering candles. Trays with halwa covered with well decorated cover cloths are also carried and distributed at the end. Special prayers followed by obligatory morning prayers are offered and people offer greetings and hug each other to celebrate the joyous occasion. Sometimes a mahfil is also held by the river banks in which poets recite their chosen verses, and an orator finally delivers a celebratory speech. In places like Lucknow boats are decorated with festoons and lights and people board them to drop their arīzas in Gomti. The end is marked by igniting crackers….