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 20th century.
In the beginning of the 20th 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]
