Alumni Pledge Support to Aligarh Muslim University at National Convention

 

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By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: For the nearly hundred delegates who came to the Bayou City this past weekend, it was a matter of pride that the Vice Chancellor of their Alma Mater had come to attend their Annual Convention, the Twelfth such national event for the graduates of the prestigious Aligarh Muslim University, in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Many had traveled from out of state to attend the event which was held over three days, June 28 through 30, at the Crowne Plaza Houston River Oaks on the Southwest Freeway at Kirby.

The Annual Convention is organized every year by the Federation of Aligarh Alumni Associations, which, as the name implies, unites the efforts of Chapters all across the US. According to some estimates, there are 3,000 AMU graduates in the US and another 800 in Canada, but there are easily several thousand more who live overseas in Europe, Australia and the Far East. They are united in their passion to keep the secular vision of their alma mater in sight. The FAAA is a non-profit, secular, non-partisan and non-political organization devoted to serving the educational, social, literary and cultural needs of the community.

It was this same philosophy that prompted the founder of the AMU, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan to establish the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College in 1875 after the Indian War of Independence. A reformer and Indian nationalist, Sir Syed patterned it after Oxford and Cambridge universities, in tune with British education but without compromising Islamic values. It was the first purely residential educational institution set up by the government in India, and is now funded by the Government of India. The MAO College gave rise to a new educated class of Indian Muslims who were active in the British Raj and became the AMU in 1920. In time, it added to its programs and has become a pioneer in higher education of girls.

Over the three-day convention, delegates heard reports from the Board of Directors and Trustees of the FAAA and fresh insights from speakers about the role, interaction and contributions of the alumni with the AMU. The highlight of the programs was an address by the Vice Chancellor, retired Lt. Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah on Saturday, June 29, after lunch and later at the reception and dinner that evening for nearly 200 guests. During his three-day stay in the Bayou City, Shah attended a private luncheon hosted by University of Houston Chancellor and President Renu Khator on the Main Campus to explore ways the two institutions could collaborate. On Sunday, Shah lunched at the residence of the Indian Consul General Parvathaneni Harish and his wife Nandita, with whom he had served in the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as Defense Attache.

At the Saturday dinner, local organizer and community activist Latafath Hussain recalled how he had first met the Consul General when Harish was just 10 years old. “I was a member of the AMU student Union and some arrests had been made,” he remembered with a chuckle. “I went to the Aligarh Senior Superintendent of Police’s bungalow for discussions and saw this young boy in a Lady of Fatimah School uniform and struck a conversation with him. Only later did I realize that he was the Senior Superintendent of Police’s son!” After all these years, Fate chanced to bring the two together again in Houston.

Harish started his speech in Urdu, expressing his appreciation at meeting Gen. Shah again, thanks to the FAAA, later switching to English. He recalled the incident Hussain mentioned with a grin and said he had fond childhood memories of skating and watching movies at AMU. Later, he visited the AMU in 2012 with Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari for whom he worked as Joint Secretary, he realized that Shah spoke from the heart when Shah was appointed as Vice Chancellor, about the new generation of AMU students movement.

Harish showed his depth of insightfulness, for which he is widely acknowledged, when he applauded Gen. Shah’s zeal and drive in improving the overall condition and ranking of the AMU, calling him a visionary who had outlined an eight-point solution that included innovation, entrepreneurialism and facilities improvement. He stressed that university education in India needed to revamp its focus, and emulate successful models, like the Community College system in the US in order to educate more people at all levels.

Tahir Hussain, the President of FAAA introduced Gen. Shah as an inspirational jurist, educationalist and diplomat whose whole family went to AMU and never personally stopped learning, getting his last degree in the ‘80s.

Shah said he was delighted to meet Harish again and the Indian community “which had proved by doing so well in the US that our AMU Alumni have proved their worth.” In the two weeks he had been in the US, he was amazed how many doors the AMU Alumni had opened for him. “The AMU is enshrined in the Constitution of India as an important institution,” he added, noting that it was ranked the 9th top University nationwide, behind Delhi University and the seven IITs. “I will work to make AMU number one,” he pledged.

Shah said that the AMU was a secular institution, but that Sir Syed had direct that it should be primarily for the milat or the poor people of the community in the area where the University is located, adding that AMU has only one mosque wherevarious people pray. Inspite of the Government of India providing Rs. 150 crore (US$25 million) support for its hospital and dorms (separate ones for 1,000 men and 1,500 women), the AMU needed more support from its Alumni. “The Muslim community has still not realized the importance of education for women,” he said. “Countries which are lagging behind all over the world do not pay attention to 50 per cent of the population.”

Shah explained his vision of spearheading new programs at AMU, like nanotechnology, international studies, focus on climate change, managing conservation and teaching other languages like Chinese, French, German and Hebrew in order to compete in a changing global economic order. He then outlined his ambitious program to rebuild the campus by adding to its sports facilities including a new golf course and Astroturf hockey field; improving the food at the cafeterias (“The days of Dunlop are over,” he said to titters, about the rubbery naans); conserve the beautiful historical buildings; add a Convention Center and expand the Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and dispensary.

Shah vowed to transform the AMU by asking the maulwis to modernize and change education in madrasas, but recognized that it was a gentle change. “I feel lucky and confident that we will succeed,” he added, “and proud that ours is a secular university and a secular country. I am an alchemist – where others tried and failed, I will not” Shah concluded by asking the Alumni to be generous in their support – he would like to raise nearly $2 million on this overseas trip – just as the IIT Alumni are.

The food was catered buffet style by Mezban restaurant, whose owner, Sohail is well known for his flair of presentation and the originality of the array of different dishes he prepares. A two hour long ghazal program by Udayan Parikh provided entertainment for the guests till past midnight.