Muslim youths' search for a new India

If there is any one couplet of Urdu that is often flaunted with blissful indifference it is about god not changing the station of life of a people who are themselves not aware of making any change. Similarly if there was any veritable occasion of denying that typical minority complex of complacency it was the felicitation of past students of the Akra Society’s schools of Jalgaon district on Sunday August 3, 2008..


A young Muslim girl having just passed matriculation from a rural place dreams of getting through IAS exams. A coveted thing for many aspiring youths. But what is so remarkable about it? She narrated what she would do if she passed IAS. She said she would strive to get better infrastructure in terms of government services including hospitals, roads, better transportation, and prompt implementation of government schemes whose benefits would reach even to the last target recipient. Her father is an ordinary humble government servant and from his experience and her observation, she conferred it was difficult to enforce into practice the various projects that are meant for the welfare of the people. Only someone in the higher echelon of the administration has the power to make things happen and plans to take shape practically. Even this was not so remarkable about Saba of a hamlet in Khandesh region of Maharashtra. What was so subtle in her concern was not lost on her audience. It was the common concern for the people as a whole. This Lucy Gray was from a remote village where members of her own community were in miniscule minority. There was no trace of what the grown up world often refers ‘us and them’ distinction. She was filled with an urge to create a different India to live in. A commonalty, an India where all matter.

As she spoke she did not give any sign of a need for crutches like Sachar recommendations on which she wanted to hobble to a post of a collector.

Bilal was the next alumnus of Akra who was currently working in a computer centre in Pune. He assured his listeners that they must overcome diffidence and they would find that they could achieve with hard work what they wanted in life to be. He also asserted that there were many other Urdu speakers at his work place. He told his younger fellow students that they would feel no stranger there provided they take education in right earnest.

Nazneen was an alumna of humbler birth and had difficulty in spelling even such simple word as ‘bat’. Her devoted teachers made her work the hard way and learn not only spelling but also her course. Now she is doing a Ph.D. Being a farmer’s daughter she had to work in the house and also help her family in farming. Her alma mater provided the chemistry of change in her life.

The younger ones in the audience lustily cheered as the achievers came to take their awards and certificates. The moving spirit behind the programme was chairman of the institute, Karim Salar. He admonished them to make their country a better place for everyone to live in. This could only come through what he reminded his audience of the formula of former President Dr Zakir Hussein who had said mushakat or hard work combined with muddat or time spent in work would create success. The chief guest of the occasion was Shahid Latif, editor of Inquilab which had taken the initiative to trace out and bring the past achievers face to face with the present day schoolmates. The purpose was to acquaint the younger ones with the changing requirements of the highly competitive age. He remarked that the Muslim minority had definitely come out of hell thanks to education but they had still to work much harder to enter heaven. Their being Muslim would help them change and imp rove the life of the people. He illustrated with the example Sayed Ashraff the commissioner of Income Tax Department at the Grand road in Mumbai. The new commissioner told his staff on assuming office that he did not take bribe but would not force anything on his staff against their will. He lived by what he believed. The result was that there was substantial change. Taking bribe plummeted. The ovation that reverberated left no doubt that audience was organic whole in their unity of purpose to have a change for the better.

After all wearing amulets and visiting shrines on Thursday would not make them achieve anything. But burning the candle at both ends while studying would. The governing thought of the fete was that zehanat or intelligence is the not the prerogative of any one group. It is given to all mankind with a difference of how much you can use it to develop yourself and your society through it.