In quest of the Maulana’s mausoleum
On my trips across various places in India and abroad, I have always been tempted to visit monuments and mausoleums. Last week on a visit to Delhi, I decided to pay my respects to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad by going to his final resting place knowing well that on February 22 falls his 60th death anniversary.
It was not an easy task to find his grave as even many knowledgeable persons were not sure where it is. Somebody guided me to the Maulana Azad Medical College but even there nobody had heard about the tomb of the man in whose name the institution exists. After enquiring from numerous persons and visiting roadside police pickets, a strange disappointment started descending on me. At this moment, my wife suggested that I should see the Google map. Our joy knew no bounds as we were able to locate it on our mobile and we were just 7 km away.
But my ordeal was not yet over. The traffic of Old Delhi is terrible and the driver expressed unwillingness to move further. After much persuasion, I was able to convince him to drive till the Red Fort from where I hired a rickshaw that was rickety and was driven by an equally emaciated man, Ballan Mian. My wife refused to accompany me and preferred to sit in the car as Ballan Mian took me through the labyrinth of narrow, bumpy and crowded streets of Shahjahanabad. I escaped a fall from the rickshaw several times.
As we approached the huge and imposing staircase of the Jama Masjid and the rickshaw journey ended, I saw a signboard showing the dargah of Sarmad. He was a Sufi saint of Persian origin and I had grown up listening stories woven around his teachings and philosophy that seemed to be nonconformist to the times he was living in. After the tragic war of succession when Aurangzeb emerged victorious, the first thing he ordered was the execution of Sarmad. I went inside the dargah and paid my respects.
By asking people about the grave of Maulana Azad, I made my way through the clamorous open stalls of Meena Bazaar just opposite the eastern gate of the masjid. Finally, the tomb for which I was looking for came into sight. Though the area is encircled by pavement vendors and its lawns used by amateur cricketers, the tomb of Mohiuddin Ahmed Abul Kalam Azad aka Maulana Azad appeared to be standing simple and tranquil. It is marked by a white marble canopy and has an Islamic architecture. There are pools on three sides of the garden tomb but they are dry.
As I sat there for a few minutes in a thoughtful mood, numerous phases of our history and Maulana’s life flashed into my mind. In 1940, he had delivered a memorable speech on secularism in which he emphasised the necessity of Muslims in the idea of India, saying “I am a part of the indivisible unity that is Indian nationality. I am indispensable to this noble edifice and without me this splendid structure is incomplete. I am an essential element, which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim.” It was on the stairs of this mosque I had passed by, Azad, after Partition had famously exhorted Muslims to “pledge that this country is ours and we belong to it”.
While coming out of the tomb area, I was captivated by the thoughts that here lies a man who was a brilliant scholar and an intense nationalist, a front ranking freedom fighter and truesatyagrahi and a devoted disciple of the Mahatma and his foot soldier. It is a reflection of the time we live in that his mausoleum stands forlorn and forgotten like the ideals for which the Maulana exhausted his life.
ON HIS 60TH DEATH ANNIVERSARY, IT’S A REFLECTION OF THE TIME WE LIVE IN THAT THE FREEDOM FIGHTER’S TOMB IN OLD DELHI STANDS FORLORN AND FORGOTTEN