Let students dream

Time of India

12 hours ago

A senior assistant editor with the Times of India, Mohammed Wajihuddin writes about Muslims, their issues, hopes and aspirations. Committed to upholding inclusiveness, communal amity and freedom to dissent and debate, he endeavours to promote peaceful existence. A passionate reader of Islam, he endeavours to save the faith from the clutches of the jihadists. An ardent lover of Urdu poetry, he believes words are the best weapons to fight jingoism. LESS ... MORE
Students of AMU have called off their three-week strike, and those on a hunger strike ended it after VC Prof Naeema Khatun promised the students' union election in December. The demand to reduce the hiked fees has also been accepted.
Khatun offered a glass of juice to the students on a hunger strike. This is neither the first time a VC visited the dharna spot and persuaded students to end the hunger strike by offering a glass of juice. Nor will it be the last.
In its history of over a century, AMU has seen such situations several times. But one incident during the tenure of Dr Zakir Hussain as AMU's VC has gone down in the varsity's folklore.
Former AMU Students' Union President and founder of Iqra International Educational Foundation Dr Abidullah Ghazi (1936-2021) did M A in Political Science from AMU–former Vice-president M Hamid Ansari was his classmate in the 1960s. Abidullah came from a family of noted Islamic scholars and freedom fighters. It was his great-grandfather, Abdullah Ansari, whom Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, AMU's founder, invited to set up the Sunni Theology Department at Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College. MAO College metamorphosed into AMU in 1920. Ansari also led the funeral prayer of Sir Syed in 1898.
Abidullah Ghazi, in his Urdu autobiography 'Jahad-e-Musalsal: Aligarh Se Aligarh Tak,' recalls an interesting incident from his student days on the AMU campus.
During his tenure as AMU's VC, Zakir Husain reduced the Muharram holidays, enraging Shia students. One student leader named Jaffer Mehdi Tabaan sat on a hunger strike to protest this decision. The Students' union meeting, attended by both Shia and Sunni students, decided to show solidarity with Tabaan as his condition worsened. Interestingly, even Zakir Sahab attended this meeting. Student leader Saeed Anda (Egg), who was notorious for coining colourful terms and slogans, gave a fiery speech in which he used a line that became memorable:
'Afsos hai ke is Jamia mein Zakir Hussain Zikre Hussain ko mana karta hai (It is regrettable that in this university a Zakir Husain is stopping pupils from commemorating Hussain).'
In Muharram, especially in the initial 10 days, Shias intensely mourn the martyrdom of the Prophet's grandson Imam Hussain at Karbala (Iraq), and Zakir Sahab had substantially reduced the holidays for this commemoration. His argument was that the students should commemorate Hussain's martyrdom by attending classes. After giving a good speech on the life of Imam Hussain, Zakir Sahab went to meet the student who was on a hunger strike. He admired Tabaan's spirit and persuaded him to end the strike by offering him a glass of juice.
That was Zakir Sahab, whom PM Pandit Nehru and education minister Maulana Azad had sent to Aligarh to save it from the stormy winds which threatened it in the aftermath of the partition. Zakir Sahab injected hope, confidence among the AMU community and saved the chaman of Sir Syed, which faced an existential crisis.
Another interesting anecdote from Zakir Sahab's time as AMU's VC is that once a student delegation went to meet him with a complaint. The sherwani of one of the students in the delegation was unbuttoned. Zakir Sahab stood up from his chair, came closer to the student and spoke to him softly while buttoning his Sherwani. Such small gestures won the hearts of the students.
To a VC, students are like his or her children. Youth is the time when we humans want to change the world. Blessed with boundless energy, many of the youth become idealists. This is a phase when they dream, create, experiment, commit mistakes and also disrupt the most.
Let the students dream, create and commit mistakes.
Post-script: I just saw a video clip of a student who was on a hunger strike. He claims he was offered juice by the VC. He took a sip but did not gulp it. He says the boys and girls who were on strike are not happy with the notice they received after the strike was called off.
Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author's own.