DOES history repeat itself? Historians will of course throw light on this point more candidly and authoritatively. But in our day to day life we do find that it does, though sometimes in a very strange and tragic way.
Prior to partition of the subcontinent, when the British Raj was still at its peak, H.E. Sir Hugh Dow, the Governor of Bihar, paid an inspection visit to a district headquarter Daltonganj in 1943 where Khan Bahadur Syed Mohammad Amir, the grandfather of Dr Syed Ibn-i-Hasan, who was recently gunned down at his clinic in Malir by some terrorists, was the Deputy Commissioner at that time.
In those days such inspection visits of governors and other dignitaries of the British Government used to be of great importance. The first work of H.E. used to be to hold a ceremonial darbar with all pomp to show the might of the British government. Besides this he would give interviews to the dignitaries of the district, decorating some of them with different kinds of awards and medals. In evenings, he would play tennis at the local British club, dining and dancing in the nights.
While relaxing somewhere after a hunting trip, Sir Hugh Dow mentioned that he would be pleased if he could have lunch with Khan Bahadur Amir at his residence, which of course was not scheduled. Having come to know of the H.E.’s desire, Khan Bahadur immediately invited the governor with all pleasure and fixed a day for the feast.
Since Daltonganj was a small place with no catering facility worth serving the governor and his party, some people were immediately sent to Calcutta and all arrangements were neatly and superbly finalized on the appointed day. H.E. relished the sumptuous lunch and was pleased that the Muslim hospitality was reminiscent of the Mughal days. This is one side of the story where a governor himself wished to lunch with Khan Bahadur Amin.
After the partition, K.B. Amir’s sons migrated to Karachi and one of them, a doctor, Syed Hassan Mehdi, chose Malir to start his clinic there. The locality then was a small place with Sindhis, Balochis, Pathans and others living together with harmony. The doctor served them with full medical ethics and won their hearts so much so that he decided to settle there permanently. He treated the poor patients free of cost. The patients were advised not to be reluctant to knock at his door and wake him up at anytime in the night if there was an emergency.
Doctor Mehdi was so popular that sometimes the patients’ relatives implored him to just place his palm on the place of ailment to heal it, and he used to accede to their request with positive effects.
In short the doctor and his sons started being revered as Messiahs by the local population.
With the passage of time, Malir became a town. Population increased manifold with new faces and varied political and religious ideas populating the area. But the doctor and his son, Dr Syed Ibne Hasan Mehdi, kept to their profession in the same old way. Unfortunately, a new wave of terrorism swept the whole country and doctors, engineers and top professionals were the main target of this killing spree.
Close relatives and friends advised Dr Ibne Hasan Mehdi to take care but he so much trust on the people of Malir that he always brushed aside such fears. On Aug 16, the doctor was shot dead by some terrorists as he was about to enter his clinic at 11am.
People of Malir arose in protest, blocked the main National Highway and the train tracks for eight hours. The bullets had not only pierced the doctor’s chest, they had done so with hundreds of people living in the locality for decades and their fathers and grandfathers were treated freely of cost by the slain doctor and his father.
The incident not only moved the people of the locality but government functionaries as well. Governor Ishratual Ibad visited the late doctor’s house, and condoled with the elderly mother of the doctor. Sixty years before this incident, in 1943, one British Governor too had visited on his own accord to take lunch with the grandfather of the slain doctor, and in 2003 another Governor visited his grandson’s home in altogether different situation.
