The Catch Taken Outside the Boundary Line

Hakeem Abdul Hameed was a Unani physician. It is said that during his lifetime he had treated over a million people. He ate little, slept little and talked little. As a result he was able to perform and achieve wonderful things in life. His most important living legacy is Jamia Hamdard located in the sylvan surrounding of the Tughlaq Fort. Not for nothing the Institute of Objective Studies has included him among the hundred great Muslims of the 20^th century.

In the beginning of the 20^th century Hakeem Abdul Hameed inherited a small Dawakhana from his father. At the time of his father’s death he was very young, pursuing his studies in Unani medicine. Under the watchful eyes of his caring mother he took up the responsibilities of the small Dawakhana his father had left behind and over the years developed it into a great industry of Unani products. Swimming against the current – trend and fashion of the time – he not only revived the dying Unani system of medication but also modernized it to keep pace with the modern medical science. His achievement, therefore, must be regarded as revolutionary.

Hamdard Dawakhana was doing well when the Partition happened in 1947. The Muslim community of Delhi had to pass through a river of blood which almost annihilated them. They began migrating to Pakistan in droves. Hakeem Sahib’s own brother, Hakeem Sayeed also went to Pakistan.

Hakeem Sayeed’s migration to Pakistan brought a big problem to Hamdard Dawakhana as half of it was declared as evacuee property upon which the government laid a claim. Hakeem Sahib was not to be discouraged nor out-smarted by this unseemly development. He converted his highly profit-making industry into a Wakf the purpose of which was to promote education particularly Unani medicine and Islamic Studies. Out of the income generated by Hamdard Dawakhana (Wakf) he set up several great institutions like Hamdard University, Hamdard Public School and Ghalib Academy etc.

When Hakeem Sahib acquired 90 acre land in Tughlaqabad, many of his contemporaries living in old Delhi ridiculed him and advised him to move to Pakistan to make a fortune there. He refused to listen to such unsolicited advices and kept his faith in independent India’s ability to achieve inclusive development that will benefit every section of the society.

Today Hamdard University is a premier institution of higher learning in Delhi, though it has recently fallen on bad days as far as governance is concerned. It, however, must be kept in mind that the quality of teaching and the researches it produces are of highest standard.

From the current session Jamia Hamdard is starting bachelor programme in modern medicine which is popularly known as MBBS. We do not know the exact figure, but it is estimated that several hundred crores of Rupees have been spent to establish this medical college. Such a development should be welcome by all and celebrated as collective achievement. But the man who claims to have achieved this landmark success has created a cleavage as well as doubts in the campus. In a recently held meeting he thanked all those who contributed directly or indirectly to the establishment of medical college in Jamia Hamdard. Little did he realize that he has taken the catch well outside the boundary line. Readers may recall the climax of Amir Khan’s celebrated film, Lagaan.

We all know that boot-lickers abound in India. Jamia Hamdard is no exception. The man who has taken the catch outside the boundary line was quite satisfied by patting his own back. He did not invite others to congratulate him but Deans and Professors rose one by one to give him the credit he doesn’t deserve.

There is a small ‘opposition’ group in Jamia Hamdard and they might think that it is due to their criticism that the medical college is a part of the University, though all efforts were made to establish a private medical college on public land.

The fact is that it was the tough Medical Council of India (MCI) which compelled the power that be to abandon the idea of a private medical college. Therefore, MCI deserves our thank more than anybody else.

I know the small ‘opposition’ group referred to above was not opposed to the establishment of a medical college in Jamia Hamdard; they wanted it very much but as a full fledged Faculty of Jamia Hamdard and not as a private medical college. It is a clever strategy  of the power that be to malign the 'opposition' consisting of a few academics who have filed and/or supported a court case challenging the continuation in office of the top office-bearer.

This writer is an animal of its own kind. He applies his mind where most people prefer not to disturb their sleeping mental faculty and energies. Little do they realize that not using one’s mind amounts to letting it gather rust and get rotten in due course of time.

However, I was happy to see a professor of Unani medicine becoming a bit bold and urging the authorities — one of whom is surely illegal — to now pay attention to the Unani Tibb. I wonder if the poor professor realizes that his Faculty of Unani Medicine is already on ventilator.

Another pleasant surprise was a lady colleague who requested the authorities to give more mind space to her Faculty. In return she was given mouthful of sermon by the man who celebrates taking catches outside the boundary line. She was asked to shift her faculty else where to give space to the celebrated new-born, the Faculty of (Modern) Medicine.

I had this wrong feeling as only Department of Islamic Studies was being neglected. It was pleasant to see that other colleagues also share my anguished feelings. The power that be is clever and can not be taken lightly. They were quick to explain that the newly-born child normally receives more attention which does not mean that other siblings are unimportant. Apparently it is a good explanation. But the facts speak otherwise. In fact, the new-born is being pampered since its very conception. The authorities of the university had become nurses and doctors devoted solely to the child still growing in the womb. In other words they have behaved in the last two years as special project officers deputed to set up the medical college.

Crores of Rupees generated through the sales of Unani products have been spent to set up a modern medical college which has a centrally air-conditioned hospital. On the contrary the Faculty of Unani Medicine does not have a hospital at all. It speaks volumes about the likes and preferences of the men in power.

The men in power are usually in the habit of making promises when in difficulty and break them without remorse when in a convenient position. Promises, therefore, can not be taken at face value. The men in power have to deliver. My reading of the shape of things to come is that they can not deliver. Because, first, they do not have the desire and, second, they do not have the resources to do justice to all the programmes of studies.

The high fee of Rs. 6,00,000/- is not without reason. The newly-born child is not an ordinary child. It still requires many hundred crore Rupees to grow over the next four-five years. It means all our resources would be barely sufficient to meet the requirements of the medical college. In Hindi/Urdu they say that buying an elephant is easy but maintaining it requires huge resources that we barely have today, especially in the light of known sources of our income. So fellow academics! Be ready to be neglected for many more years.

Welcoming the establishment of the medical college and congratulating the man who has taken the catch outside the boundary line, a senior professor said that it was the cherished dream of Hakeem Sahib. I wonder where from these people get these information which contradict Hakeem Sahib’s philosophy of life and life-long struggle to promote Unani medicine. It would have been easier for him to set up a medical college than promoting a system of alternative medicine which is not in vogue. And we know that Hakeem Sahib, like the American poet, Robert Frost, took the road not taken by ordinary men. Hakeem Sahib was Hamdard, a man with a tender heart and therefore we should not project him as Bedard (unsympathetic) to the institutions and disciplines like the Unani medicine and Islamic Studies which he had created and championed all his life. A course with an annual fee of Rupees Six lakhs could not be his cherished dream.

It is not greatness that you have millions or billions of Rupees. Greatness lies in how you make use of your wealth or in what way you pay back to the world which has given you so much. Hakeem Sahib was indeed a great man. The government declared half of Hamdard Dawakhana as evacuee   property in 1948 when his younger brother had migrated to Pakistan. Things so developed that by the grace of God he was able to buy it back from the government. Probably he had money and influence in the 1950s and might have become a multi-millionaire. But he chose to convert his flourishing Dawakhana into a Wakf and used the income generated by it to develop institutions of primary and higher learning. When he had the option to remain owner of huge wealth, he preferred to be its custodian. It smacks of your ignorance and poor knowledge when you say that Jamia Hamdard is a private-public enterprise. But what else can we expect from a man who doesn't know if a catch taken outside the boundary line is a matter of jubilation or of huge disappointment.

[Opinion for the month June 2012]