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Jamia deserts its legacy?OT, May 20, 2011 IST By Mohd Alamullah
Usually Universities all over the world are known to preserve their heritage. Besides, they name departments, roads and hostels in memory of their founding members. But the case with Central University Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) is different. Rather than retaining old names, there have been cases where they have been changed. In its 90 years history, the University has named departments, roads and hostels on Nanak, Manto, Nelson, Ambedkar, Chomsky, NR Narayan, Arjun and others. Interestingly, most of them have to do nothing with the history of JMI. Why is it so? It is a difficult question to answer. But in most of these cases the authorities have tried to appease influential personalities or politicians. People at the top are least bothered about history of JMI. What they want is their progress and to survive on a crumb thrown from the power that is. They use the University as a platform to launch their career or to get influential post after finishing their terms. It is unfortunate that we have forgotten Hamiddulla Khan ((9th September 1894 - 2nd Feb 1960), a great JMI supporter. He had donated the Bhopal ground to the University. The new generation of JMI students knows nothing about this. Most of them call this ground Sports Complex. What is shocking is the deafening silence from highly active JMI alumni. The buzz on the campus is that the proposal to further rename this ground on a sportsman has come from the Jamia Old Boys’ Association (JOBA) that is elected to safeguard the interest of students. Over a period of time JOBA has turned out to be a stooge of the authorities. In the last six years they have done nothing important save holding mushairas, dinner and telecasting cricket match. It won’t be a surprise if one day somebody proposes even to drop Islamia from the name of the University to get some favour. Will anybody stand up against the injustice being done on JMI? DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the OKhla Times.
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