By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: The Vice-President of India, Mr. Hamid Ansari will release a book on Syed Hamid, a highly respected elder of the Indian Muslim community, on April 13 in a function at the India Islamic Culture Centre in New Delhi.
The book takes note of the contributions of the 89-year-old educationist and former bureaucrat. After a long and distinguished career in the Indian Administrative Service, Syed Hamid went on to become the Vice-Chancellor of his alma mater, the Aligarh Muslim University.
Currently he is the Chancellor of Jamia Hamdard in Delhi. He was a member of the Sachar Committee set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to probe the social and economic conditions of Indian Muslim community.
The 26 contributors to this 152+16 page volume, compiled by Pune’s Mushtaque Madni, include former and serving vice-chancellors, public figures and other distinguished persons who have known Syed Hamid over the years. Some of them are; Prof. Mushir-ul-Hasan, Justice Rajinder Sachar, Govind Naraen, John Dayal, UC Agarwal, and Prof. Amrik Singh.
Syed Hamid is respected as a highly cultured and learned person within the Muslim community as well as at the national level. Every writer has described some qualities of mind and heart that he/she saw in him over the years. Polite to a fault, and one of the last practitioners of the dying art of conversation, Syed Hamid describes himself as “a listener”. He is also a writer of impeccable prose in both Urdu and English.
Syed Hamid’s most noticeable contribution is to the field of education. He is involved in some advisory capacity with dozens of educational institutions across the country. He was also instrumental in establishing and nurturing the Jamia Hamdard University, besides looking after the Hamdard Education Society that runs Hamdard Public School and Hamdard Study Circle for Civil Services examinations.
The book has been published by P. A. Inamdar, himself a towering personality in the fields of business, education and banking. ([email protected])