Today, when one moves from ‘Connaught Place’ in the heart of India’s capital, New Delhi, towards Panchkoyan Road, a short distance from ‘RK Ashram Metro’, there is a dilapidated white door, outside of which there is always a lot of traffic.
You cross the gate and enter Basti Hasan Rasool. Many graves are seen here along with small houses. It is not clear whether this is a cemetery or a settlement. People are seen chatting happily around the graves. From time to time, the sound of drums and some people practicing music can also be heard from the houses.
In the same world, you ask an old man about Hakeem Ajmal Khan’s grave, then that gentleman named Ramzan shows you the way to go there.
Now you are standing next to the unassuming grave of this towering figure who was once the president of India’s major political parties, the Congress, the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha.
He was a great physician of Greek wisdom who treated hundreds of patients daily and has been called the ‘Messiah of India’ by some.
In front of Hakeem Ajmal Khan’s grave is sitting a middle-aged woman whose name is Fawzia. She says that she is among the caretakers of Hakeem Sahib’s grave. She says that ‘here we recite the Quran and read the Fatiha.’
A few dry rose leaves and flowers are scattered on the grave of Hakeem Sahib.
Fawzia says that ‘no famous person or any member of Hakeem Sahib’s family comes to the grave for Fatiha.’
However, this allegation has been rejected by Hakeem Sahib’s great-grandson and Supreme Court lawyer Muneeb Ahmed Khan.
He says: ‘I must visit Hakeem Sahib’s grave on his birthday (February 11) along with my brother and family members. This compound belonged to our family. Our elders are buried here but now it has been occupied.
His gesture was towards the woman who was claiming to protect Hakeem Sahib’s grave.
When Gandhiji met Hakim Sahib
Muneeb Ahmad Khan lives in the same mansion named Sharif Manzil in Delhi’s famous Lal Kawan, which used to be Hakeem Sahib’s house.
Gandhiji and Kasturba Gandhi visited Hakim Sahib on 13 April 1915 at his residence. Gandhiji first came to Delhi on 12 April 1915 and stayed at St. Stephen’s College at Kashmiri Gate.
On April 14, Hakeem Sahib took Gandhiji and Kasturba Gandhi to Delhi for a tour of the Red Fort and Qutub Minar. All of them must have gone to visit these historical places by riding a horse carriage. Hakeem Sahib arranged for Gandhiji to eat Vaishno (pure vegetarian food of the Hindu faith) here.
Delhi historian RV Smith has written that ‘Din Bandhu and CF Andrews made Gandhiji meet Hakeem Ajmal Khan in Delhi. Hakam Sahib was six years older than Gandhiji. At his request, Gandhiji stayed at St. Stephen’s College. CF Andrews taught at St. Stephen’s College and was associated with the Delhi Brotherhood Society.
‘They used to diagnose diseases by the face’
Hakeem Abdul Hameed established the famous ‘Hamdard Pharmacy’ of India and Pakistan and Jamia Hamdard University. He told Rakim Al-Haruf in his Kotlia Marg house in the year 1995 that Hakeem Ajmal Khan Sahib had unique medicines for women’s menstruation and epilepsy etc. He had claimed that the Begum of Nawab of Rampur rose from her death bed after consuming Hakeem Ajmal’s medicine, after which he remained Hakeem of Nawab of Rampur for nine years.
Hakeem also died in Rampur. Many old men of Delhi used to claim that they were queens and masters in the world of medicine and were so skilled in their profession that they could detect any ailment of a patient just by looking at his face.
On whose wish was the medical college opened?
After the first meeting, Gandhiji and Hakeem Ajmal Khan developed a close relationship. Gandhiji himself advised Hakim Ajmal Khan to establish a big hospital in Delhi to benefit the population here. Until then, Hakeem Sahib used to practice only from Lal Kanwan.
He never thought that he would leave Red Well and see the patients outside. He liked Gandhiji’s advice. Land was then looked at for a new hospital and college at Karol Bagh. When the land was acquired, Hakim Sahib invited Gandhiji to inaugurate the Medical College and Hospital on February 13, 1921.
How old is Sharif Manzil?
Hakeem Sahib’s ancestral mansion Sharif Manzil has completed its 300-year journey in the year 2020. It was built in 1720. Sharif Manzil can be considered as one of the oldest inhabited houses in Delhi. Now Hakeem Ajmal Khan’s great grandson Hakeem Masroor Ahmed Khan lives there with his family.
Hakeem Ajmal Khan supported Gandhi in India’s freedom struggle and non-cooperation movement. He was also elected President of the Indian National Congress and presided over the Congress session held in Ahmedabad in 1921. Hakeem Sahib was the fifth Muslim to become Congress president. Before that he was also the president of Muslim League in 1919. He also participated in the first conference of the Muslim League held in Dhaka in 1906.
He was the Chairman of the All India Khilafat Committee in 1920. It should be noted that the Khilafat Committee was established to restore the Khilafat in Turkey. He was also the president of the Hindu Mahasabha, according to the Delhi government’s website.
Who was the tenant of Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib?
Mirza Ghalib’s memorial is two minutes away from Haveli Sharif Manzil. Mirza Ghalib never had his own house. They lived in rented houses. But he spent the last six years of his life in the same house that Hakeem Ajmal Khan’s father, Hakeem Ghulam Mehmood Khan, had rented to him.
A nominal rent was charged from Ghalib. The place where Ghalib’s monument has been built, belonged to Hakeem Sahib’s father.
According to RV Smith, the Golden Masjid adjacent to Udayog Bhavan was reconstructed in 1920 on Hakim Sahib’s initiative.
It may be noted that recently the Golden Masjid was in the news because the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) wanted to remove it from here. It claims that it is located in a roundabout in the middle of the road. Once upon a time, this circle was called ‘Hakimji’s Garden’. The golden mosque was in this small garden.
Establishment of Jamia Millia Islamia
Hakeem Ajmal Khan was one of the founders of Jamia Millia Islamia, a renowned university in Delhi. He was elected its first Chancellor on 22 November 1920 and held the position until his death in 1927.
During this period he shifted the university from Aligarh to Delhi and supported it during economic and other crises by raising large-scale funds and often with his personal money.
Professor Asif Umar in the Hindi Department of Jamia Millia Islamia says that the Jamia was established with the blessings of Gandhiji.
Following Gandhiji’s call to boycott all educational institutions supported or run by the colonial government, a group of nationalist teachers and students left the Aligarh Muslim University in protest against British wishes.
The names of Hakeem Ajmal Khan, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari and Abdul Majeed Khawaja are prominent among the members of this movement.
Transferred from Jamia Aligarh to Karol Bagh and Premchand
Hakeem Ajmal Khan shifted the Jamia from Aligarh to Karol Bagh in Delhi in 1925. Now Jamia Millia has its own campus located near Okhla village in South Delhi and the entire area is now known as Jamia Nagar.
Munshi Premchand wrote his last story ‘Kafan’ just before his death in Karol Bagh campus.
Hakeem Ajmal Khan had borne most of the expenses of the Jamia from his own pocket in the early period.
Seeing the poor condition of Hakeem Ajmal Khan’s tomb, one would surely think that the people of Delhi have forgotten the man who established universities like Tabiya College and Jamia Millia in Delhi.