A Messiah For Humanity Passes Into The Ages

Where does one find a man who shows no bitterness or animosity towards Hindus, even after a frenzied Hindu mob burnt his house down?, Jyoti Punwani asks in this tribute to a truly extraordinary Indian.

Professor Juzar Bandukwala's death is a loss not only to the city of Vadodara, to its poor Muslims, to the cause of education, but to the country itself.

Where does one find a man who shows no bitterness or animosity towards Hindus, even after a frenzied Hindu mob burnt his house down?

The physics professor at M S University could have settled down in the US with his children after his bungalow was destroyed in the 2002 Gujarat violence. The blow must have been even more unbearable because those behind this act belonged to the same group that had hosted the professor less than 48 hours earlier.

Only a Gandhian could have accepted an invitation from the RSS to speak to them on Savarkar's birth anniversary; but only Professor Bandukwala would have had the confidence and forthrightness to tell them:

There are only two paths before the country: The path of Mahatma Gandhi, which is inclusive, in which every Indian child will feel that this country belongs to him. The other alternative is the path of Savarkar, in which many Indians will feel that this country does not belong to them.'

Twelve hours after he delivered the lecture, coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire. In the mayhem that followed, it was conveyed to Professor Bandukwala by other Gandhians that they had been told he would not be targeted. He was even given two constables for protection.

All that was of no avail. Thanks to his young colleagues, his students and sympathetic neighbours, Professor Bandukwala and his daughter could escape, but his house, which he had built in 1983, was destroyed.

What followed was an eye-opener to the nuclear physicist who had earned his degree in the US. Professor Bandukwala was then president of the People's Union for Civil Liberties's Gujarat unit. But this prominent citizen, a respected figure in the predominantly Hindu locality where he had built his house, now found himself isolated in a flat allotted to him by the university in a corner of the campus.

He and his daughter never went back to live in their old house; their neighbours had been threatened for having sheltered them, and they sensed they weren't wanted there anymore.

Notably, this experience did not change either his or his daughter's plans to marry her Hindu fiance. The only thing that changed was their desire to live in India.

Umaima, who had had Hindu friends all her life, told me: "The RSS doesn't want Hindus and Muslims to live together. One of us will have to convert, and both of us want to keep our own identity. We want to have both kinds of marriages, and let our children imbibe the best of both religions. In India, religion is given a lot of importance. Living out of India, we will just be Indians."

Incidentally, the Marathi-speaking Hindu housemaid who had worked with Professor Bandukwala since his wife died, continued to run his house till he died.

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2002 changed Professor Bandukwala, but instead of making him an embittered man, it made him even more sensitive to the sufferings of others -- and not just his own community.

In August 2012, the verdict in the Naroda Patia case, wherein 97 Muslims had been killed in one locality of Ahmedabad, was delivered. 32 persons, including ex-minister Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, were sentenced to varying terms. This victory had come after a long and determined fight by many; the Supreme Court had transferred the case out of Gujarat.

Yet, Professor Bandukwala's first thought was for the children of those sentenced. In an interview, he said to me, "The Naroda Patia judgement is a big relief for Muslims, as it could prevent future communal madness. Yet I feel the pain of the Charra community, whose members took part in the killings. They were carried away by the inflammatory speeches and weapons and kerosene distribution by Bajrangi and Kodnani. These are denotified tribes and are poor. So are the Muslims of that place."

"Once their menfolk are in jail for a long period, these families are ruined. There is no support structure of well to do families or organisations. The children may be forced to give up studies. The condition of women will be worse."

The aftermath of the Gujarat pogrom has seen some rare moments, such as the meeting between Qutubuddin Ansari and Ashok Parmar in 2014. Both became the face of the riots: Ansari was the victim with folded hands; Parmar was the saffron-headband wearing, trishul-wielding aggressor.

Alongside such miraculous moments must stand the spontaneous expression of concern by Professor Bandukwala, himself a victim, for the children of those who raped and burnt his fellow Muslims.

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Apart from the attack on his home, what pained Professor Bandukwala the most were two factors: The involvement of Dalits and Adivasis in the violence against Muslims, and the lack of remorse from any influential Hindu for the violence.

When Vadodara was hit by anti-reservation riots in 1982, Professor Bandukwala, as warden of the boys' hostel, had seen the terror in the Dalit students' eyes, and had gone on a three-day fast in solidarity in a nearby Dalit locality. The day he returned home, his house was attacked by anti-reservationists, forcing him to flee. After that, the Dalits of Vadodara called him for every function.

So to see Dalits in the mob that set his house on fire was like a betrayal.

Yet, out of all this turmoil, came a determination to educate his community. "Educate, educate, educate" became his panacea for the miserable condition of poor Muslims.

Education among Muslims would change Hindutvawadis' perception of them, he felt, and would also equip Muslims to handle whatever discrimination and hostility they faced. Left to their lot in Modi's India, they would be reduced to a condition akin to slavery, he feared.

His efforts weren't looked at kindly by Muslims at first, but the man who had defied the Syedna and been cast out by his Dawoodi Bohra community wasn't going to let that deter him. By the time he passed away, Professor Bandukwala's charitable trust had ensured that almost 500 poor Muslim boys and girls had entered higher education.

It wasn't just education that the professor prized, it was science education. Professor Bandukwala was a devout believer; and yet as deeply committed to science. 'I am convinced secularism can only survive if there is quality education among Muslims and Dalits,' he once wrote in the online Progressives Forum in which he was an active participant.

'Our focus is exclusively on giving the best possible education to Muslims. We need doctors, scientists, and thinkers within the community. We need a large crop of youth who ask the old question, 'Why not?' We just cannot afford a yearly massive crop of semi educated maulvis. This may literally suffocate the Muslims of India.'

He often expressed the wish that the many Dar ul ulooms in Gujarat with their large tracts of land should turn into universities where modern secular education could be imparted. 'The combined wealth of these institutions, within about 150 kms of Baroda, may be over 2,000 crores,' he pointed out. 'The output is in terms of thousands of alims every year. They get absorbed mostly as imam sof small masjids at salaries of not more than 8,000 a month. What a sickening waste of human talent and community funds.'

More than 60% of the scholarships given by his trust were to students pursuing science streams. Three students he was particularly proud of were girls from Kalol whose fathers had been killed in 2002. Thanks to Professor Bandukwala's trust, they ended up working in a pharmaceutical company.

Apart from scholarships for higher education, Professor Bandukwala was over the last few years, involved in getting exceptional girls -- both Hindu and Muslim -- from municipal schools into good private schools, a project financed by Nobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan, whose parents had been Professor Bandukwala's colleagues at M S university. What pained him was the reluctance of private schools, including those run by Muslims, to admit poor girls from slums.

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Professor Bandukwala was a man of deep faith, though he rarely went to the masjid. He had clear ideas about what it meant to be a good Muslim. Not inconveniencing others was for him a basic requirement of a Muslim specially in a multicultural society.

This wasn't for him only a means of avoiding trouble; he was genuinely proud of India's diversity.

"I was just two years old when Partition occurred," he said. "Born into a Bohra family dealing in arms and ammunition at Mumbai's Abdul Rehman street, I was raised on Mohammadali Road. Across the road was Nagpada and Pakmodia street. That area became the nurturing ground of Dr Zakir Naik and Dawood Ibrahim. Bless my dear father that he insisted seventy years ago that I study in St Xavier's School, Dhobi Talao. By his wise decision, he set me on a secular path."

Equally proud of the freedom struggle, Professor Bandukwala equated Gandhi ranked to Jesus. What hurt him most was that first Gujarat, then India, had gone from being known as the land of Gandhi to the land of Modi.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com