Dr B. Shaik Ali, a Sufi in the Suit
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
Mysore City in India which is now called Mysuru was the capital of the Princely State of Wadiyar family. The modern world should study its past to learn a lesson or two in genuine secularism rather than use secularism to suppress religion and religious minorities in its name.
Krishnaraja Wadiyar of Mysore was a devout Hindu but his PM who was called Diwan was a Muslim, Sir Mirza Ismail. He served him well during the last 15 years of his rule which lasted for more than 40 years. The association of Muslims with the Wadiyar family rule was memorable because it gave Muslims full opportunities to exist as a religious minority. They were a major force in the administration, agriculture and industry contributing greatly to the State. During their rule there was an excellent system of education for Muslim children in their mother tongue. Research those days had suggested that children understand things better and learn faster when they are taught in their mother tongue.
This became a handicap to Urdu-speaking people in Independent India as it was difficult for them to secure a job or continue in a job and get promotions without having proficiency in the regional language. This was a consequence of linguistic chauvinism which took root in India against Hindi when regional languages also asserted their primacy. This tussle between Hindi and other regional languages suppressed the prospect of service for people speaking minority languages. The trend had nothing to do with religion. As Urdu was the language of Muslims it took a religious twist too for political gains for both the Hindu and Muslim politicians.
The Maharaja had established a teachers training college to train teachers for Urdu medium schools. He allocated land in most valued places for Muslim boys and a Muslim girl’s orphanage and an Eidgah for Eid prayers. He built a Jamia Masjid close to his palace and paid for its maintenance. It was a payback for what Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan did with Hindus under their rule when they were the custodians of Mysore Empire which was threatened by inept rulers of Wadiyar family and clever conspirators threatening the State and the country.
He also allotted land for a hostel for Muslim boys coming from other areas to study at the prestigious Mysore University. The Muslim Hostel of Mysore was an important place for every movement that was taking roots in Free India to promote its message. My friend Muhammad Ishaq who was a board member of the hostel would invite me whenever there was a function sponsored by these movements. I attended lots of those functions and met lot of luminaries and dignitaries there. I met Tarakeshwari Sinha the president of Syndicate Congress who had come to the hostel to campaign against her nemesis Indira Gandhi. I met the elite Muslim leadership of India like Dr Syed Mahmood, Maulana Ali Mia, ManzoorNoamani, etc. when Majlis e Mushawirat visited Mysore in the sixties.
The Muslim Hostel was unique as its President DrKhizar Ali Khan who was the President of the hostel was educated in France and was married to a French lady who observed Muslim etiquettes like most of the conservative Muslim ladies of Mysore. He retired as Principal of the Maharajas College established by the Maharaja for boys. DrKhizar Ali Khan had named the mosque in the Muslim hostel as Prayer Hall and not Mosque to make sure that Muslim students do not become narrow-minded, but go out from this hostel as ambassadors of the universal message of Islam.
Dr Shaikh Ali as warden and Muhammad Ishaq as board member were the kingpins of the Muslim Hostel. Muhammad Ishaq was a petty businessman but a sincere man with a lion’s heart who did a lot to keep the property of the hostel trust safe from usurpers in the name of development and its students from the collateral damage of modern education. Two of the students that I know of from this hostel made a great name. Dr Abdul Ghani Sab became the Mayor of the city of Davangere, industrial hub and educational center of Karnataka. The other is DrMushtaq Ahmed who memorized the Qur’an as he was studying medicine and established Al-Shifa hospital in Bangalore. Scores of others from this hostel are serving in responsible capacities in various parts of the world.
Dr Shaikh Ali had a doctorate degree from England and Aligarh and was the HOD of History at Mysore University. As an historian belonging to Mysore, he had done valuable research on the rule of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. Now and then I used to see news items in newspapers about his defense of these two rulers against whom the sentiments of some of the Hindu scholars were hostile. He was also a public speaker who used to address literary and educational event in Mysore, and I used to attend many of them to enhance my own knowledge.
It was in the Muslim Hostel where I met Dr B Shaikh Ali for the first time in the sixties on the the occasion of the visit of Dr AAA Faizee, who was a well-known champion of women’s education and Muslim women’s rights in India. He was at Mysore to lecture on the importance of girls’ education and the need for a girls’ hostel. As Muslims were migrating and abandoning their agricultural land to educate their girls, both Faizee and Shaikh Ali felt a pressing need for a girls’ hostel but there was little impetus for this initiative as most parents wanted their daughters to be with their relatives or were keen to move to cities under this excuse and abandoning the harsh realities of rural life. This apart, the Maharaja of Mysore had built a girls college and a girls’ hostel opposite to it to obviate the necessity of a Muslim girls’ hostel.
One day, Professor Noor ulHaq who was the professor of Botany at Saint Philomena’s College took me to Dr Shaikh Ali’s residence to congratulate him on his appointment as the founding Vice Chancellor of the Mangalore University as well as to enquire about his health. He got this appointment on the heel of his retirement as Professor and HOD of History at ManasaGangothri which was the name of the Mysore University which meant: Fountainhead from which human beings arise like the Holy Ganges rising from its fountainhead in Hardwar. How I wish that the alma mater and alumni of this university kept this always in their mind.
Dr Shaikh Ali was having some health issues those days and when we enquired about them he said: Yes, I had some problems that had dispirited me but with my first grandson born last week and this new challenge of establishing the university from a scratch I have diverted my attention from my health. In fact, I am feeling that I got a new purpose in my life which was becoming dull and drab. Holding my grandson in my arms has lifted my spirit to new heights and has given me a joy which I never felt before. He offered us sweets and I was so happy to see him so happy.
South Canara District of which Mangalore is the District HQ was famous for its educational institutions and banking sector. It was also notorious for Hindu-Muslim tensions and we were all worried as to how this distinguished Muslim son of Mysore will fare in such conditions. After serving two terms as Vice Chancellor of Mangalore University, when he was assigned to establish another university in the State of Goa, we felt proud of him. It was then that I realized that he must be a saint to be successful in the vicious, communally-charged atmosphere of South Canara.
When I visited Mysore in 2000, Dr Shaikh Ali came to my brother Professor Noor Ahmed Khan’s house where I was staying to pick me up and show me his new project “AbulKalam Azad Residential Girls High School” which was established in one of the posh residential areas of Mysore. That was the last time I saw him. I was reminded of my first meeting with him when DrFaizee visited the Muslim Hostel to plant the seed of the girls’ hostel in his mind about 40 years back.
That was a reasonably large lot he got allotted for his Trust and he had built classrooms, laboratory, and hostel for girls, living quarters for lady wardens and a good auditorium. I was asked to address the students who were just starting their new academic year. I told them about the opportunities and the problems that women face in society. I advised them not to be carried away by freedoms to shun their responsibilities as daughters and would-be mothers over which Islam gives them clear guidance. Freedom is essential to expand the horizon and is also an impediment if it is not properly anchored, and Allah is the only anchor Who never allows your ship to be at the mercy of tides when you are in rough waters.
To see him accomplishing this great achievement at this age and still working hard to run it astonished me. I was surprised how he could achieve all that when anti-Muslim sentiments were so high in India at that time. He said: We pray to Him in the night and approach His people in the day and He opens their heart. This attitude confirmed to me his Sufi nature.
Every Sufi has given a different definition of who a Sufi is. The general impression which ignorant Muslims have of a Sufi is that he should abandon the world, cover himself with a rough woolen robe called “Sauf”, should have no personal belongings and depend entirely on Allah. There are other definitions of a Sufi given by other Sufis which are very exciting. But for me, a Sufi is the one whose heart is full of love for Allah and he loves His Creations for His sake. And he is conscious of his responsibilities to fellow beings in the sphere of the responsibility which life has assigned to him with complete honesty and sincerity. Dr B Shaikh Ali fulfilled this responsibility as an educator, both as a public servant to Government and as a Muslim to his community. May Allah give him a long healthy and happy life and accept his services and provide him sincere supporters to carry forward his work with same sincerity and zeal. Ameen.
I am leaving out his academic achievements because it is not knowledge which makes a person great; what is important is what he does of his knowledge for the betterment of his fellow beings.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
