Syed Shah Mohammed Hussaini
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Syed Shah Mohammed Hussaini is an Indian educationalist and a social worker. He was born on 29 December 1922.
In 2004 was awarded the Padma Shri.
Born on 29 December 1922, Hussaini is the brain behind establishing and patronising more than a dozen educational institutions. Remarkably single-minded about his goal for imparting education, there was a method in his passion, a wisdom that made him go from the microcosm to the macrocosm, from the focussed particularity to the general. He targeted the weakest section of society, the girl-child and started the first institution of learning for girls in 1958. Concentrating upon the Muslims of Gulbarga, he undertook the project with absolute devotion. There was no gloss or fanfare, just the enormous task of persuading the downtrodden, the ignorant, to come out of their hibernation and study. And they did come.
Hussaini has built up a veritable educational empire since 1957. An empire consisting of 15 institutions – from primary schools to degree colleges and professional institutions like the Khwaja Bandanawaz Institute of Medical Sciences and College of Engineering. Thousands work and earn in the business of propagating education to hundreds of young people who come from all over India.
The last of the institutions that he set up in 2000 was the Medical College. But it turned out to be a bitter challenge that he battles to conquer today. Hussaini Sahab, the standard bearer of free education was made to stand in line with the sellers of glossy educational packages. In the past four years, he has been fleeced by those agencies of the government that hold the power of granting permission to professional colleges. Regressive officials flaunting Quixotic rules come for annual visits and play out a grim game. The permission is dangled like the proverbial carrot, then whisked away on the pretext of a flimsy excuse. Every year more and more money is lavished upon “conditions” that may change the next year on the whim of these officials.
Meanwhile, students line up every year seeking admission with heart-rending stories of deprivation which the founder of the education society listens to and gives them admission on a pittance. It must be the ultimate irony that the Government deems to acknowledge his exemplary contribution in the field of education by bestowing the Padma Shri upon him, while it undercuts the very existence of his Education Society by the hardline that it adopts towards the professional college that he struggles to maintain.
What does this honour mean to a man of this stature? Personal accolades matter little to him. The constant stream of visitors bringing garlands and bouquets irks him. Success for him translates into service for the people. He wants his institutions to flourish, to provide the best for those who enter their portals. He has invested everything in them. The key word that describes his outlook is “working for others”. Hussaini Sahab has gifted large tracts of land in Gulbarga to the government for constructing a guest house for travellers, donated land for building a Gandhi Bhavan, for educational institutions to various societies.
The continuing sense of insecurity for the medical students bothers him no end. He remains undaunted but deeply disappointed by the unfeeling attitude of the powers that be. Today Hussaini Sahab stands alone on the strength of his convictions and his passion for service. He requires more than mere lip-service from the Government and his fellow citizens. His selfless efforts have uplifted an entire region, something that the bureaucracy in the education secretariat cannot hope for despite all their sops and schemes. An award ought not to be a passing lamp-post for a traveller, to light up and then to plunge him into the darkness again. It should be the timely crown for achievements and services.
