Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari
Under this page we shall try enlisting all of the great personalities of Kamsar. This is an earnest attempt of KBF Team to create awareness about these great personalities who have contributed lot to the development of Kamsar and its people. This page is still under development. We would be adding more personalities, in sha allah !
Janab Deputy Mohammad Syed Khan
If someone to be remembered first for educational revolution in Modern Kamsar then it would be none other than Late Jb. Deputy Mohammad Syed Khan sb. He had always tried uplifting the educational standard of Kamsar-O-Bar throughout his life. He was born in year 1894 in historical village Usia. He was kind hearted, down to earth and soft spoken. After completing his B.A. (Hons.) from Presidency College with first division, he joined Patna College, Patna as a lecturer. Honorable Jaiprakash Narayan was his student. Later, he was appointed as a Deputy Collector in Hajaribad of Bihar.
It was his tireless efforts and sacrifices which proved to be the boon for society and spread the light of education in Kamsar. In 1938, he established Muslim Rajput High School at Dildar Nagar. In 1949, Rajput High school became Muslim Rajput Inter college. Rajput Inter College name got again changed in 1969 and renamed as Syed Kamsar-O-Bar Muslim Inter College, Dildar Nagar (S.K.B.M. Inter Collage, Dildar Nagar). He died in 1966 and got buried in Patna. May Allah grant him peace and highest place in Paradise.
There is very famous story about Dy. Syed Sb.:
When he was posted as Dy. Collector in Hajaribagh, Bihar, in the same period Mahatma Gandhi was arrested by British Govt. in Hajaribad and Gandhiji appeared before him for a bail. British senior officer advised him not to give the bail to Gandhiji but Dy. Syed was pure nationalist and honest officer, when he did not find any criminal record against Gandhiji then he granted bail to him. As a result British officer called a meeting and miss-behaved with Dy. Syed which he couldn’t tolerated and replied strongly to that officer in the same meeting. Therefore, that senior officer suspended him. He appealed against the decision of this senior officer to the Governor of Bihar. Coincidentally the same officer became Governor of Bihar later then he realized his mistake and called Dy. Syed sb. , apologized to him and restored his job. But in his decision he wrote a word that Dy. Syed shall never be given promotion in his career. It was his one of the great quality that in most of the cases he was used to make the settlement. On 15th August 1947 when India got independence then Politician Shri Jaiprakash Narayan who was the student of Dy. Syed Sb. tried promoting him but he refused saying that it’s not good and desirable that a teacher shall get the promotion from his student. Then Bihar Govt. brought this matter in legislative assembly (Bidhan Sabha) and passed the order stating that he should be given the post of a special Dy. Magistrate till he wanted to serve.
Dy. Syed sb. has devoted his entire life for the welfare and happiness of the people of Kamsar. He always thought above the caste and creed, low and high, poor and rich. He has always dream for the educational advancement of Kamsar. He was used to say that no community, society or region can progress until its educational standard is improved and quality education is made accessible and under the reach of every common people.
Janab Khan Bahadur Mansoor Ali Khan
Late Janab Khan Bahadur Mansoor Ali Khan was D.T.S. (Divisional Traffic Superintendent) in railway. He was the first in kamsar who got higher education, got good job and spent a happy life. He was a very famous personality of kamsar and notably known for leading a movement with the name of "Anjuman Islah Kamsar-o-Bar" in 1910 which was basically an anti dowry movement in Kamsar. May Allah SWT grant him highest place in paradise.
Late Jb. Khan Bahadur Mansoor Ali sb. was born in village Gorasara. Kamsar-O-Bar is a soil of brave people but people had hardly any relation with education in his period. The people from kamsar were either doing farming or doing a job in Bengal Police. Since majority of the Muslims were converted from Hindu, still they were following the Hindu rituals. Their function of celebration and sadness were similar to Hindus. They were used to spend so much unnecessarily in these functions which resulted them in making pauper. In walima it was a custom to feed more than 1000 people and provide more than 100 sets of cloths to the girl.
Then Jb. Khan Bahadur Mansoor Ali Khan was a great reformer who took initiative for a social reform of Muslim community in Kamsar. He traveled village to village, organized heads of villages, settled their disputes, faced lots of criticism within the community. When social structure seems to be cracking, old people started opposing him. Sometime he lost the patience due to this opposition but again he was used to stand firmly with Islah. At the end, by the grace of allah he succeeded. Because of Khan Bahadur Mansoor Ali Khan sb.'s sacrifices and dedication "Anjuman Islah Kamsar-O-Bar" came into existence in 1910. Mansoor Ali Khan sb. died in 1934.
Janab Haroon Rashid (Alig): The man who brought an 'Inquilab'
Janab Haroon Rashid belonged to the historical village of Usia, Ghazipur district, Uttar Pradesh and was born on 31st May 1942. He was easily one of the foremost educational reformer and Urdu journalist of his time. He passed away on 4th March 2000 in Bombay and he was the Editor of Urdu daily Inquilab at that time. It was during his reign as an Editor at Inquilab, that a so called cosmopolitan city like Bombay and a city that was experiencing a steady decline in Urdu readership, the circulation of Inquilab grew to nearly 40000 copies. On his demise, there were condolence messages right from Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then prime minister, to the not so well-known social workers in the interiors of Maharashtra. He also was the author of two books; Mera noor-e-basirat aam kar do & Humne bhi Iran dekha hain.
His mission: Education and the subsequent socio-economic upliftment of Muslims.
He was a man with a mission. A firm believer in Sir Syed Ahmed's policy of getting Muslims educated, he used to travel the length and breadth of Maharashtra exhorting the virtues of books and pens. He used to place special emphasis on the education of girls and delivered several lectures stressing its importance. He used to give prominent display to news items pertaining to educational achievements of Muslims. His columns and writings were very popular among the masses and he never used to miss a chance to laud the achievements of Indian Muslims in any field.
It is to the credit of Inquilab and Haroon Rashid that Muslims in Maharashtra got drawn to education in a big way. Students from Urdu-medium schools now regularly feature in the merit list and are going for higher education. He used to be in regular touch with school principals, activists and educationists and discuss ways and measures to get more Muslim children into schools.
His personality: Stylish, Smart & Sophisticated
Haroon Rashid had a towering personality and did not suffer fools gladly. Widely travelled and well read, he had a passion for collecting watches. He had hundreds or maybe thousands of books in his personal library. Sadly, he lost his collection when his house was burned down in the 1993 Mumbai riots.
Haroon Rashid also became immensely popular due to his oratory skills as much as his writings. He was stylish, smart, sophisticated and knew how to keep his reader and audience engaged. Whether you understood Urdu or not, if you listened to him, he would leave you spellbound. He was a much sought after speaker and would get the audiences enthralled by his fiery speeches.
He did his schooling from Anjuman Islam High School, Bombay and went to Aligarh Muslim University for further studies. He did his M.Sc. from AMU and was there from 1964 to 1974. When he came back to Bombay, he preferred to be called Haroon Rashid instead of Haroon Ismail Khan (Ismail Khan was his father’s name), his birth name. He was inspired by the famous Caliph and also thought Haroon Rashid was trendier. His major break was the weekly Urdu Blitz where he used to write on sports and later rose to become its editor. After Blitz, he joined Inquilab in the year 1995, where with his passion for journalism he took it to greater heights.
References:
1) Kamsarnaama by Master Suhail Khan
