By Usama Khalidi,MMN,
When a scholar dies among us Indian Muslims, it is customary to say that a scholar’s death puts to an end a whole world – of knowledge, compassion and fellow feeling for the community at local and national levels, after the family. Wherever Indian Muslims are, at home in India or in foreign cities ranging from Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, London, Los Angeles, Dallas and Washington, Omar Khalidi was welcomed at somebody’s house as an honored guest during most of the 57 years of his life.
Omar had earned much good will and love from his audiences with his passion for the Muslim cause, and for his advocacy and activism on behalf of the 175 million or so Indians. For many of them, as they say in American slang, he was a rock star, performing on the Indian political stage to a crescendo of applause from Muslims.
Omar was exclusively focused on the Indian Muslim situation. He was an outspoken critic of Indian policy, having created a platform of his own within his community and in the Indian media. He did something nobody from Aligarh or Jamia Millia or Deoband had ever achieved: He spoke truth to power in Delhi by drawing national attention on problems the Indian elites would rather ignore: The minimalist 3 percent representation of Muslims in the Indian military services, established using government data. The statistical fact provided evidence of prejudice against Muslim Indians, who were being denied their right to defend their country, or participate in the defense of their country. He said so in interviews and debates on national television programs in prime time.
An additional intellectual achievement of his was to develop his librarian job at MIT to acquire a widely acknowledged expertise on mosque architecture in America. That expertise was tapped by the U.S. State Department to send him to India twice, to Pakistan twice and Afghanistan once. Among the other countries he visited on behalf of the American government were Russia, Germany and the UAE. In India, he was bold enough to declare at talks in 30 cities that he was there to talk of mosques and the freedoms enjoyed by Muslims in America. If the mostly Muslim audiences had a grievance against the U.S. foreign policy, which he himself declared to be “despicable”, he advised them to talk to the US consul who was present on the stage with him. And all their questions were directed at the consul, predictably.
On a less serious note, I recall the opportunity he was given by the U.S. government, when it sent him to Pakistan, to meet with just anyone he wished. The embassy would arrange the meeting. His first choice: ghazal singer Tahira Sayyid. From my point of view, this was a dream chance to discuss Urdu ghazaliyat with this celebrity, and satisfy one’s love of Urdu poetry. Omar never wrote or told me anything of this meeting with the Urdu world’s premier singer. When she was visiting Boston in connection with her daughter’s education, Omar and his family picked them up from the airport and took them to their hotel. The singer was the Khalidis’ dinner guest later. He never missed a chance to attend mushairas wherever possible, and once told me, “Mushairas are our kind of opera, symphony concert and theater, all combined into one.”
Father, Abu Nasr M. Khalidi, was a professor of Muslim history at Hyderabad’s Osmania University and had a doctorate from Cairo University. In 1966, he was 60 years old, the age of mandatory retirement, but according to his official records, he was 9 years younger. So retirement didn’t happen until 1975.
Omar was eighth in a family of six brothers and four sisters. In his teen years, Omar kept his little corner of the house clean and well organized with his books, clothes and personal projects. In his social habits, he was very skillful, very well-mannered. The fact was that none of his siblings or even father were known for their popularity. Totally contrary. Omar was an exception. He also loved books and spent much time in the libraries.
When father was nearing retirement, I was attending the University of Missouri at Columbia, earning a degree in journalism. Omar had wangled a scholarship at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Within two years, I became an American citizen, found a reporter’s job and arranged for all five brothers to immigrate to the United States.
Omar pursued his undergraduate degree in Wichita, Kansas, while working part time and paying off his travel debt. After graduation, he pursued a master’s degree in library science at Topeka, Kansas. After a one-year stint at a university in Riyadh, Omar got married in Hyderabad in 1983 to Nigar Sultana, the daughter of a state government official. When he returned to the United States, he landed a library job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aliya, Omar and Nigar’s only daughter, was born in June 1985. She’s an assistant prosecutor in the Boston area and lives with her mother.
One of Omar’s most significant works as a scholar-activist was to organize in April 2010, with some MIT funding, a two-day India symposium for which he was free to invite dignitaries from India and Europe. All kinds of views were shared, but front and center was the challenge of maintaining India’s secular and democratic traditions, with equality of opportunity and equal justice, and upholding gender equity. The airing Omar gave to Muslim grievances with demands for reforms made him many enemies, possibly among the Hindutva fanatics: He received numerous threats of violence on the phone in the months remaining until his death, in an apparent train accident, on November 29, 2010.
In his drawing room, Omar had a framed Urdu couplet hanging from a wall. It was a favorite of Father, and he often told us: Baar-e dunya meiN raho gham-zada ya shaad raho, aisa kuchh kar ke chalo yaaN ke bahut yaad raho – Live your life in a world of sorrow, or happiness, but do something so people will remember you.
Omar certainly lit a few lamps during his life, dispelling the darkness in the corners of many people’s minds. May that light burn bright for a long time to come, and may the angels in heaven find him a spot at the foot of Syed Ahmed Khan, sitting beside Father.
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A comprehense website devoted to Omar Khalidi’s books, articles, interviews, and videos can be accessed at www.OmarKhalidi.wordpress.com