Sitting through a day long seminar on’the moral decadence in the Kashmir society’in the M. D.Taseer hall of the Amar Singh College. I was taken down the memory lane on two tracks. Speaker after speaker talking how deleting of subjects on the moral education had immensely contributed decay in social values reminded me of the morning assemblies at school and eloquence and scholarship of our teachers. The name of the halI evoked memories about a great teacher and scholar whom I had not seen but only heard ; about from some of our teachers.
The small black stone memorial embedded in the building reads, “in memory of Dr. Muhammad Din Taseer an outstanding scholar and litterateur; founder principal of college Sept 1942.
Taseer, born on June 1901, in a village in Amritsar and after the age of three he grew up in Lahore. He was one of the most gifted writers of early twentieth century. He was also ‘original and accomplished poets. ‘He belonged to group of writers in Lahore who were mainly responsible for the literary renaissance in Punjab during the twenties.’ Taseer after doing his Ph.D.returned to India in 1936.On his return he did not join the faculty at Islamia College. He was appointed Principal of M.A.O College. In 1941, he took over as Principal S.P. College,Srinagar. His appointment in S.P. College brought him in close touch with Kashmiris and provided him an insight into Kashmir situation. Nevertheless his connection to Kashmir dates back to his association With Allama lqbal from childhood. After entering college, he used to call on Allama aImost on daily basis and attended his sessions with his friends till late nights. Whenever Allama wanted any of his verses translated into English, Taseer used to do it.
For his closer association, with Iqbal he knew many Kashmiris visiting visit the poet. He not only remained updated about Kashmir situation but also became part of the Kashmir freedom struggle. He wrote the proceedings of the Kashmir Committee and was close witness to how Iqbal’s relations with head of ‘Qadiani party successively deteriorated’. For his association with Kashmir as an educationist and at the crucial juncture of 1947-1948 even during our childhood his name and role resounded along with larger Kashmir narrative. Commenting on stubbornness of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in taking a wrong decision at night moment in 1947 elders often lamented Sheikh Abdullah not heeding Taseer’s advice in 1947. In 1947, M.A.Jinnah as first Governor General of Pakistan had deputed a team of Muslim intelligentsia that incIuded Mian Iftikhar-u-Din, M. D Taseer, Sheikh Sadiq Hassan and couple of others to Srinagar with an invitation to Sheikh Abdullah to visit Karachi before taking any decision. Taseer had warned Abdullah against being duped by Nehru with his façade of secularism and socialism Abdullah in his autobiography has given a distorted account of his meeting with Taseer at his residence in Soura. Nonetheless, during our childhood there were stories about Taseer after meeting Sheikh Abdullah had visited S. P. College to meet his former colleague. In college staffroom, he told his colleagues that ‘the tall man has entered into a Faustian contract with the Indian National Congress leadership. He has turned nuts. He is going to ruin the Muslims of the State and bring destruction to the State.’ Many years later a friend Dr. Javid Iqbal, quoting his father Prof. Saif-u-Din repeated the same story, what we often heard from elders on the lawns of Jamia Masjid or from our teachers in school.
Our generation born after the closure of the Jhelum Valley Road did not benefit from as scholarly teachers as M D Taseer. But, we were fortunate to benefit from gaIaxy of great teachers, who had inherited scholarship and sharpness of great teachers. Many of them were embodiments of austerity and high moral values.
In the fifties and sixties our school was one of the biggest schools in the city having students from all over the city. The first class in disciplining student right at the morning School Assembly that then was popular was called as the “Morning Prayer”’- it had entered into Kashmiri lexicon as morning prail. On the first strike of the gong by a student or a peon, the students assembled in the vast school compound. The architecture of school building with its minarets added celestial ambiance to the compound. The boys formed class and section wise long queues in front of the main school building. Two to three boys facing assembIy boys stood up on the finely chiselled limestone stage in the central of school building. One of the three boys in mellifluous voice recited verse from the Holy Quran. The boys in obeisance sagged their heads Iike trees laden with ripe apples. The boys with velvet voices after recitation of the holy verses led the morning prays. The boys in the compound refrained every stanza in chorus. In Urdu the most popular prayer songs sung in chorus were of Allama Iqbal, Altaf Hussain Hali and Zafar Ali Khan. In Kashmiri, it were the poems of Ghulam Ahmed Mahjoor and Abdul Ahad Azad that resounded in chorus at the morning assemblies. In our school, every year a prayer book was published besides the popular Urdu and Kashmiri poets-prayer songs with good sing ability was also incorporated. The book also contained prayer songs of Pitamber Nath Dhar,a poet teacher in the school.
The prayer songs would be followed by lecture on human values, morality, righteousness and duties. Our school was fortunate to have teachers like Ghulam Ahmed Kamali and Molvi Noor-U-Din known for their eloquence and religious scholarship. Lacing their speeches with quotes from the Holy Quran, Hadith and other scriptures they often stated that humanity and mutual brotherhood was the very fundamental of all religious teachings. Homilies on cleanliness, social services and respect for elders enables children in early classes to discern between good and bad. Leadership qualities were also inculcated in students at the morning assembly. Class monitors aIong with form teachers checked tidiness of uniform from top to toe, nails, haircut and cleanliness. The student volunteers ensured aIl boys silently dispersed at the Morning Prayer and in queues rushed back to their classrooms. Those days’ theology and moral education used to be one of the focussed subjects. In my alma mater-the Islamia High School members of the governing board often carried out inspection of our school. In the classrooms, the board members often asked questions from students about theology and moral education.
These morning assemblies shaped personality of a ,whole generation of students.
Z.G.Muhammad is a noted writer and columnist
