legacy of dr asghar ali engineer

7/28/2019 Legacy of Dr Asghar Ali Engineer

1/4

Home

About Us

Governing Body

CSSS Team

Coming Events

Programs

Publications

Research

Photo Gallery

Our Donors

Contact Us

LEGACY OF DR. ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER

- BY ADV.IRFAN ENGINEER

SECULAR PERSPECTIVE, MAY-16-31, 2013

A storm has destroyed everything in my life. I am not even beginning to come to terms

with the loss in my life. Death, like storm, is in Gods hand and you are so helpless.

Never knew that death would snatch my very loving father Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer from

us. I was not prepared yet for this colossal loss! But let me remember what he has

bequeathed to me. My sister Seema rightly told a reporter that our father wanted us to

inherit his legacy equally legacy of his teachings. In the lull after the storm I am trying

to reflect on his legacy to gather some pieces of my inheritance.

What is the legacy that I have inherited from my father?

The discipline and the punishing schedule that he followed.1.

He never budged from his daily routine which included morning walks to maintain his

health; working from morning 8:00 am till 10 pm in the night with a small nap in the

afternoon until he was hospitalized on 13th February; divided his day into four segments

administrative work, responding to e-mails, reading and writing, and followed the timeschedule meticulously. Office staff was not allowed to violate. Visitors from outside city

would be entertained even in violation of the time distribution, but visitors from within

city were requested to seek appointment, but even then he would be considerate if they

came from far. Even on Sundays and holidays, the schedule would hold for him and even

NTER FOR STUDY OF SOCIETY AND SECULARISM http://www.csss-isla.com/arch-May-16-31-2013.htm

4 29-05-2013 19:12


2/4

if he had to sit in the office alone. Sunday evenings sometimes was a time for a little

stroll or a drive. Frequent travels deprived us, his family members, from his company.

However, he did not distinguish between the groups that invited him. His commitment

once given, he would honour it even if later some more important invitations arrived on

his table. Even his ill health would not force him to change his mind. He has conducted

his peace and conflict resolution workshops when sick. This discipline and long day

enabled him to contribute so much to the world but perhaps contributed to shorten his

life. How organized and disciplined can we be?

(2) Nothing except the values of justice, equality, love, dignity, and diversity were sacred

for him. No rituals and no traditions and no cultures. Cultures were only media through

which humans made a sense of the world. All cultures, all faiths were to be respected.

Except the values, everything else should be subjected rational scrutiny and reformed,

reinterpreted, re-understood and refashioned to serve the sacred values. His lifelong

search for truth knew no limitations and was checked by no sacred symbols, rituals,

traditions, language or culture. Truth could be achieved only through relentless and

fearless pursuit. No cost was high enough to attend truth. Truth required only an honest

inner search dictated by conscience. He paid a price for his search of truth - transferred

often and promotions delayed when in service of Bombay Municipal Corporation as a

civil engineer for his honesty and for leading Engineers Association, took voluntaryretirement to work full time for the cause, suffering great loss of income, socially

boycotted by Syednas establishment which meant being cut off from his mother, brother,

sister and other near and dear ones, his house and office was attacked and completely

destroyed by Syednas fanatical followers in February 2000, was physically attacked 6

times by Syednas fanatical followers with sharp weapons in order to kill him, often

abused and threatened, but nothing deterred him from his search for truth and no sacrifice

was too high a price to be paid for his principles. How honest and relentless can we be in

our search for truth?

(3) If one realized any dimension of truth, it should be shared with people and without

fear of consequences and in language that people understand. He often told me that the

difference between a prophet and philosopher was that prophet communicated his

message in language that people could easily understand whereas often philosophers

spoke in language comprehensible only to a privileged few. The latter make careers, the

former bring about social change and leave a lasting impact and legacy. As an activist

scholar, Engineer always talked in simple understandable language through his writings

and oratories. He consciously chose that! He had begun writing in academic language

initially, but soon checked himself, for he wanted to work for social change! How

passionate can we be in our quest for social change? Will we walk the talk?

(4) Dr. Engineer often said that search for freedom required enabling environment. It

required freedom and democracy and free dialogue. Three Ds, he would say

Democracy, Dialogue and Diversity. All were necessary for honest understanding andknowing each other and more facets of truth in all its complexity. One had to be a patient

listener and open minded before we strive for truth. The differences between two

individuals and two or more groups can be made a bridge to reach out each other and to

enrich everyones understanding through dialogue with those with whom one had

differences.

Diversity was important as different cultures represent different systems of meaning and

visions of good life. Since each realizes a limited range of human capacities and

emotions and grasps only a part of the totality of human existence, it needs other cultures

to help it understand itself better, expand its intellectual and moral horizon, stretch its

imagination, save it from narcissism to guard it against the obvious temptation toabsolutize itself, and so on. This does not mean that one cannot lead a good life within

ones own culture, but rather that, other things being equal, ones way of life is likely to

be richer if one also enjoys access to others, and that a culturally self-contained life is

virtually impossible for most human beings in the modern, mobile and interdependent


4 29-05-2013 19:12


3/4

world. No culture is wholly worthless, that it deserves at least some respect because of

what it means to its members and the creative energy it displays, that no culture is perfect

and has a right to impose itself on others, and that cultures are best changed from within.

(5) For a person who has realized truth, it was absolutely necessary to be humble. More

than anything, Dr. Engineer was a very very humble human being. While returning home

from office (when he could walk home), often he would be stopped on road by a stranger

and the insignificant stranger would discuss or ask his doubts and even argue with

Engineer on various issues. He would passionately argue with the stranger his opinionsfor, sometimes, hours. My leg would ache standing with him but until the stranger was

fully satisfied or decided to quit, Dr. Engineer would passionately keep discussing with

him. Later when I would inquire why he invested so much time, he would reply,

everyone was important. He was highly approachable and anybody could contact him

anytime of the day and night with their queries. He would reply to abusive e-mails, and

he could patiently reason with every opponent. His humility influenced even the most

indoctrinated cadre who passionately opposed his views. His patience in arguing with

them and making them see reason was remarkable. No case was beyond redemption for

him. Each human being could be made to see reason and convert her to be justice and

peace worker. Humility was very natural for him and was the other side of coin of truth,

but it was also his tool to win over worst opponent! He has conducted his peaceworkshops in challenging conditions that the organizers can afford. Sometimes in

conditions that would appall any decent person. People were important to him and not

luxuries and comfortable situations. He would easily trust people and particularly those

who were needy. Compassion for those needy, suffering and victims of injustice was an

important value for him which he followed lifelong.

(6) Peace with justice was another value to which Dr. Engineer was absolutely committed

to. There could be no peace without justice and justice meant not only restorative justice

where violators of ones rights were brought to justice and punished and the victims had

the right to reparations. Justice for him also meant distributive justice where class based

inequalities were not tolerated. In order to work for peace, he studied communal conflicts

in depth and understood the roots of the conflict were in economic, social and political

inequalities. He wrote extensively on major communal conflicts and explained that

though religion was used as a tool to promote conflicts, religion was not the root cause of

the conflicts. The real nature of conflict was competition between elite to control socio-

economic institutions, including the state and establish ones hegemony over the other.

Religion was used as a tool to mobilize large number of gullible people. Communal

conflicts would not be possible without wide spread prejudices against the minorities.

Prejudices against the minorities was the foundation on which the infrastructure of

communal conflicts were built. Dr. Engineer painfully gathered facts and data to counter

the prejudices against minorities convincingly. Many people have approached this author

to recall how the workshop and sound arguments and facts placed by Dr. Engineer

changed their attitudes towards minorities. One Haryana police officer by the name

Sharma met me while Dr. Engineer was in ICU to tell me how attending Dr. Engineers

workshop was life changing moment for him. He never hated minorities from that day

onwards and, more important, would never believe in stupid propaganda like Aurangzeb

would eat only after gathering 20 men of sacred threads of Brahmin.

(7) One truth that he arrived through his search was that liberating religion from the

clutches of the priestly establishments and restoring agency to a common follower would

rejuvenate the religion, but more importantly, reveal the hidden meanings that we had

failed to understand hitherto. Religion would become true moral power in the hands of

the oppressed to fight injustice and change the oppressive status-quo. To him religion was

not religion if it didnt inspire to question status-quo and established understanding andinterpretation and teach the followers to be rebels. He challenged the understanding of

the left ideologists for whom religion was opium of masses. He would quote Marx to also

point out that even to Marx religion was not frozen into single role of opium. Marx also

argued that religion was sigh of the oppressed.


4 29-05-2013 19:12


4/4

(8) Gender justice and equality in general and for Muslim women in particular was a

great passion for him. He pressed his entire knowledge of Islam and understanding of

Quran, Islamic history, study of Islamic jurisprudence to service for the cause of Muslim

women. Quran, according to him talked only of rights of women and not of men in Surah

An-Nisa and reference to men was always with respect to their duties and not rights. That

was to set the social imbalance right where women only had duties and no rights. He

argued that during medieval period, as Muslim rulers conquered territories and spread,

and became an empire, patriarchal culture snatched the rights given to women by Quran.Muslim Ulema seldom could counter his Quranic arguments and would respond with and

defence of patriarchal cultural values on the basis of morals. He instructed me to give his

daughter and my sister her share in his property after him. He of course struggled for

equality of all and was part of struggle for implementation of Mandal Commission

Report much before we all knew about it.

(9) Mission of Asghar Ali Engineer was to liberate religion from religious

establishments, make it a tool to question established interpretations of religious

scriptures and make it a inspiration to search for truth and change the oppressive social

reality; to embrace diversity and learn to co-exist through dialogue of cultures and

equality, particularly gender equality and rights of Muslim women and bringing scholarly

works to bear to achieve these objectives was the mission of Asghar Ali Engineer

expanded the horizon of knowledge and values and opened up many avenues for us to

achieve the goal of equality, justice, peace, dignity for all and diversity. Asghar Ali

Engineer was an institution in himself. Are we ready to carry forward his mission with

the discipline and dedication that he had? We will strive!! May his soul Rest in Peace.

***

-------------------------------------------

Centre for Study of Society and Secularism

Mumbai: - 400 055.

E-mail: [email protected]

View

Archive

Copyright CSSS. Address : 602 & 603, Silver Star, 6th Floor, Behind BEST Bus Depot, Santacruz(E),

Mumbai-400 055, India.


4 29 05 2013 19 12

legacy of dr asghar ali engineer

Documents