Daily Times

The death of veteran scholar, indefatigable champion of reform, secularism and communal harmony, Dr Asghar Ali Engineer ((born March 10, 1939 — died May 14, 2013) in Mumbai would be mourned by his admirers and friends in the subcontinent and all over the world. Engineer’s Sahib’s departure marks the closure of a role model combining erudition with street activism and a will not to surrender to the forces of reaction and brute power. He believed that Hindus and Muslims could live together as brothers and sisters; all that was needed was for them to listen to their consciences.

I met him thrice: first time in 1995 or perhaps 1996 in London when scholars of political Islam had assembled to attend a conference called by the Ibn Khaldun society; the second was when I visited Mumbai in 2001 and paid a visit to his Institute of Islamic Studies, and later at his home; and the third was in Singapore in 2009 where I was already based since 2007 and he had come to attend a conference on Islam and secularism. I had been following his writings since a long time, and we kept in touch thanks to the Internet, exchanging our articles and our views on different subjects. We disagreed occasionally, not doing so would be unnatural.

During my recent visit to Mumbai, I was going to speak on the invitation of the Secular Society of India on India-Pakistan friendship. Engineer Sahib’s son Irfan was one of the initiative-takers along with my friend Sujeet Bhatt. Engineer Sahib himself was in Amritsar and was expected to join us in the evening but then the news came that he had suddenly fallen very ill and was rushed to Mumbai. He was in intensive care when I had to fly out to Bangalore. Alas I could not meet him. His soft smile and kindly eyes would always remind me of having met a man of great character and integrity.

Asghar Ali Engineer was actually an engineer who worked professionally for the Bombay Bus Authority, I presume, but his heart was in scholarship. He was born in a Bohra Shia family. He founded the Progressive Dawoodi Bohra movement and became known for his liberation theology of Islam. The idea of reform was initially directed against the totalitarian hold exercised over the Bohra community by its high priests, led by the Syedna. Engineer Sahib was in favour of greater freedom for women and was opposed to the theocratic control over the lives of their followers by the Dawood Bohra Establishment. Such reform hit at the very core of vested interest in his community. That resulted in him being ostracised and intimidated. On a number of occasions he was physically assaulted by roughnecks believed to have been despatched by the Bohra establishment. The worst was that when his wife died she was refused a burial according to Bohra rites.

I know the same happens in several other minor sects and groups when someone from inside dissents and challenges the leadership. We are only familiar with what goes on within the Sunni majority but the truth is that life within the minority sects can be extremely constrictive and oppressive as well. It is, however, a taboo subject and I better mind my own business.

In some of our conversations in the evenings after the conference sessions I was amazed to learn that he considered Hazrat Umar bin Khattab, the second pious caliph of Sunni Islam, as the founder of the reform movement in Islam. Hazrat Umar, according to Engineer Sahib, took the approach that Islam should keep pace with changing times and circumstances. Simultaneously, he subscribed to the orthodox Shia position, including that of the Bohras, that Hazrat Ali should have succeeded the Prophet (PBUH), as he was spiritually the most learned. I never pressed that point that seemed to me to be a contradiction, assuming that we all have our own ways of dealing intellectually with contradictions. His general stand was that politics should be kept separate from religious faith. I concurred in it without hesitation. He believed that Islam could be modernised and secularised like all other great religions. He wrote many books and scholarly articles. He also founded the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism. He won many awards of which the Right Livelihood Award of 2004 was the most notable.

Engineer Sahib was a lifelong trade unionist and some of his best friends were in the Progressive Writers Movement. I am not sure if he was a card-holding member of the Communist Party of India at any stage in his life but he remained committed to Marxian humanism and Gandhian non-violence. Lead actor Balraj Sahni and character actor AK Hangal, both communists, were his closest friends.

Engineer Sahib narrated to me how whenever there was a communal riot he would rush to Sahni and urge him to accompany him to the trouble spots to try to restore peace. Balrajji would abandon the sets, much to the annoyance of the directors and producers, and would spend weeks with him in those places trying to restore trust and amity among the estranged communities. Hangal was also always with them and he continued to accompany Engineer Sahib till he died some months earlier.

I talked to Engineer Sahib about Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. He believed that both had been a blessing for India because they established the secular state as the model for pluralism and progress. Their successors could not consolidate that model while their opponents could not subvert it. That I think was a fair assessment.

The writer is a PhD (Stockholm University); Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University; and Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications: Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Karachi: Oxford Unversity Press, 2013; The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012; New Delhi: Rupa Books, 2011). He can be reached at billumian@gmail.com