Struggling Against The Odds: A One-Man Mission
Riazuddin Ahmed lost his parents and a sister in the
ghastly Nellie Massacre. But he has fought against all
odds to revive the spirit to live. He has set up
COMTI, a one man mission to compile biographies of
Indian Muslim personalities whose contributions need
to be remembered by the society.
By Nigar Ataulla
On the night of the18th of February, 1983, over 1800
people were hacked to death in the obscure village of
Nellie in Assam's Morigaon district. Their bodies were
left lying among the dry paddy fields. The victims of
the massacre were Bengali-speaking Muslims.
The notorious Nellie incident took place during the
anti-'foreigners' movement led by the AASU (All Assam
Students Union) and the AAGSP (All Assam Gana Sangram
Parishad) from 1979 to 1985. The massacre was directly
triggered off by the central government's decision to
hold the state legislative assembly elections, which
invited a boycott by the movement leaders. As a result
of confrontations between supporters and opponents of
the election, there were numerous violent incidents
among communities in the early part of 1983. The worst
incident was the Nellie massacre.
Relatives of victims of the Nellie massacre hold on to
the tragic memory of witnessing their near and dear
ones being hacked to death. It is just a few, or
rather one in a thousand, who have struggled to put
this past behind them and reconstruct their own lives
as well as gear up to work for the society and
community.
Riazuddin Ahmed is one such survivor from Nellie who
has battled against all odds in a heart-wrenching
struggle. Born in Nellie in 1980, Riazuddin's father
was a Bengali- speaking cultivator who owned a small
patch of land. His was a very happy family, he
recalls, with three brothers and two sisters and a
loving mother who doted on the kids.
"I was only three years old then. My family was not
Bangladeshi, we only spoke Bengali and that is why, we
too were targeted. I remember it was a Friday, and
suddenly a mob came and began burning all the houses.
My parents and my younger sister were killed in this
incident. Being only three years old then, I
remembered nothing, but I can still recall the smell
of the rotten bodies," says Riazuddin.
Riazuddin's eldest sister was married before the
massacre, while Riazuddin and his younger brother were
shifted to a nearby temporary relief camp. Two months
later, they were sent to the SOS Children's Village at
Hajoi, a town in Assam. SOS Children's Villages of
India is a non-profit, non-government, voluntary
organization, committed to the care of children in
need. The aim and objective of SOS-India is to provide
long term family based care to orphaned children and
to strengthen disadvantaged families as a preventive
measure against abandonment and social neglect of
children.
At the SOS Village, Riazuddin was taken care of,
along with 12 other children, by a Hindu widow, Makan
Saikia, who became his 'mother'. Altogether, there
were 20 houses in the Village. Most of the children in
these houses were Muslim orphans from Nellie, but
there were Hindu children as well, and they lived
together as a large single family.
"I lived in the SOS House in Hajoi for 25 years and
completed my pre-university in science in the Hajoi
College. All this was paid for by the SOS Children's
Village. In 2005, I completed the four-year B.
Pharma course from Al-Ameen College, Bangalore,
supported by SOS, and then worked for a year with a
press" says Riazuddin, who now works for the
well-known Dr. Reddy's Laboratories.
People often turn bitter towards life when the world
gives them a raw deal. Riazuddin has been through a
trauma of losing his parents and a younger sister, but
that has not made him lose heart. Today, Riazuddin not
only has turned a professional in his field, of but
also is the founder of COMTI (Contributions of Muslims
Towards India Research Foundation Trust).
What prompted him to set up COMTI?
"In 2002, I was in Al-Ameen College. I had heard about
the Aligarh Muslim University and was very eager to
know more about its founder. That is how I got
interested in collecting biographies of Muslim
personalities who had contributed to society. I
started by doing a chart on the Muslim freedom
fighters. I had a little spare money and printed a
chart with it describing some Muslim heroes, which I
distributed to my friends and others", Riazuddin
explains.
"I visited many book shops. I loved reading but could
not afford to buy the books", he goes on. "I
encouraged my classmates to read. I collected some
biographies of noted Indian Muslim personalities form
the Book Trust of India. I held an exhibition of these
and other similar books in Al-Ameen College, and my
friends. I wondered why Muslims, who have contributed
so much in many fields in India and the world, are
forgotten, and younger generation Muslims are not
aware of their works. That is what triggered in me the
spark to compile their biographies as a source of
inspiration for the younger generation", he says.
Riazuddin has so far complied and published five
books, including on the founder of the Al-Ameen
Movement, Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, on Sir Mirza Ismail,
Dewan of Mysore, on " Lalbagh" that narrates the
contribution of Hyder Ali, on Marmaduke Pickthall and
Yusuf Ali, noted translators of the Holy Quran and on
Yasser Arafat. "My next book will be on Tara Ali Baig,
the first president of SOS Children's Village
Society in India," he says.
Riazuddin's mission is a one man crusade. His future
plans include setting up a research centre where
photographs of past and present Muslim personalities
and biographies on them will be displayed.
Zooming around Bangalore on his bike, one could easily
miss Riazuddin's small and short frame. But with a
mind full of ideas and a heart filled with hope to dig
up stories of Muslim personalities, his zeal is
inspiring for others.
Losing parents and a sister in a ghastly attack is a
nightmare not easy to forget. But Riazuddin has fought
against all odds to revive the spirit to live and
contribute so much to the society and the community.
His backpack contains pharmaceutical supplies that
cure the sick…this is his bread and butter. But for
his soul, he wants to sacrifice his time, money and
intellect to script glorious biographies of Muslim men
and women who did their best for society.
" I know I have lost a lot, but I have gained so much
by doing my bit for the society and community," says
Riazuddin with a smile.
=========================================
(Riazuddin can be reached at riazuddinster@gmail.com,
comticrft@yahoo.com. Ph: 9886115647)
Sukhia Sab Sansar Khaye Aur Soye
Dukhia Das Kabir Jagey Aur Roye
The world is 'happy', eating and sleeping
The forlorn Kabir Das is awake and weeping
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