By Tanvir Salim,
One of my grand uncles who impressed me the most was late Irtaza Husain Ansari. Today when I look at his life, I realize that compared to others he was way ahead of the times, and the reason was simple. He believed in the power of education and in quest to achieve it for his children he took the unusual step of leaving the comforts and opulence which he inherited from his family.
If all other feudal lords or the Zamindars of yesteryears would have thought the way he did, then the story of the Indian Muslims after partition would have been very different. Today when I visit the households of the Nawabs and Zamindars of yesteryears, I can see that for most of them, life after the abolishment of Zamindari is simply a downhill fall. The grandeur of the previous era is gone, and most of them are finding it hard to survive in changed circumstances. The ones with vision abdicated feudalism, and embraced education though.
Late Irtaza Husain Ansari (1917- 1992)
Late Irtaza Husain Ansari was one amongst them. He left the comfort of the home and hundreds of acres of land and wealth which his father owned, to start a new journey which proved beneficial because it gave an opportunity to his children to reach new heights, which they could have not, if they would have stayed back.
I am taking the liberty of reproducing an edited version of his biography, which his son Dr. Jamal Husain Ansari wrote. He writes:
Abba (Late Irtaza Husain Ansari)-(1917- 1992)
Father was not an illustrious person by any standards. Born in the family of a rich Zamindar of Gorakhpur, Sheikh Murtaza Husain, not much has been written about Abba, since limelight was always on his elder brothers, Altaf Husain and Istafa Husain, and to some extent on the son in law Niamatullah Ansari, all of whom were in public life.
Dada headed a large household and maintained a big joint family (may be about 60 persons), comprising of the families and descendants of his sons and servants and sevadars (Koch wan, gardeners, barbers, carpenter etc.), and in few cases their families, all fed from a single kitchen. Obviously, this large household required a large house, which was popularly known Baraghar, where I spent my early childhood as part of the joint family system. If allowed to boast, I would like to add that the Baraghar establishment was supported by a kitchen house with a series of stores for ghalla and related implements, garage (for the family’s Ford car- a rarity in those days), an Astabal for the bagghi in which dada used to travel on ceremonial occasions, a large vegetable and fruits garden, and servants quarters. A large agricultural farm, though some distance away from Gorakhpur, was meant produce ghalla, milk, makkhan, Dahi etc. for the household. We also had an exclusive khandani Qabarastan as well.
For earnings, Dada engaged in several activities such as agriculture, horticulture and construction. His sons chose to nurture these activities according to their inclinations and interest. But my father was perhaps not interested in any of these. Dada offered him to manage the brick kilns. Though his heart and mind was elsewhere, he obediently decided to do what his father wanted him to do.
One thing that was common in between my parents’ two families was the inclination toward education. Dada was perhaps amongst the first in the Ansari community of Gorakhpur to study up to High School. All his sons completed postgraduate studies. Finding Gorakhpur’s Zamindarana environment not too conductive to studies my mother influenced my father to exit from the family business and join government service.
Father’s was a transferable job and he was generally posted in small towns of UP. I, brothers and sisters shifted from place to place. But still father, it appears, had this burning desire in him to give to his children – sons and daughters, the best possible education. When the children reached the High School and intermediate levels, he got himself transferred to Aligarh for the sake of his children’s education and spent most of his remaining service period there and nearby places. The result was outstanding. The eldest daughter Dr. Naushaba Murad has the distinction of being the first Ph. D and woman Professor of the family. The eldest son Jamal Husain Ansari (me), the first Engineer of the family, and as Director of the renowned School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, a deemed university, attained the status of a vice-chancellor, so far only example in the family. The middle son, Dr. Iqbal Husain is a Ph. D in Engineering with an illustrious career in in Canada. Another daughter, Dr. Ruqayya Husain, is the first medical doctor of the family is a successful gynecologist in USA whose son Rashad Husain with graduate degrees from Yale and Harvard is presently the special envoy of President Obama. The youngest son, Dr. Rashid Husain is a professor in America,
The purpose of writing the above details was to illustrate that though Abba could have lived a comfortable life in his father’s household, his intense motivation towards education caused many illustrious careers to happen.
Pursuing the life and aspirations of Abba I can summarize that whenever the opportunity come, we should try to spread the following messages:
1. Three chief motives in one’s life should be education, education and education
2. Don’t differentiate between the education of sons and daughters
3. Some decisions that may appear painful and destructive in the short run may not necessary be so in the long run
The above narrative by Mr. Jamal Husain Ansari tells us that no matter how comfortable we are in the present environment we should take the challenge and always think outside the box.
(The author is a Nuclear Engineer and was in the United States for long, but presently is in India. Can be contacted atwww.tanvirsalim.com.)
Related:
110th birth anniversary of Freedom Fighter Niyamatullah Ansari