Maseel Khan fought his way to glory, inside and outside the ring
BEFORE the advent of modern technology that would turn sports into a money making machine and transform sportsmen and women into demi-gods, young men and women played sports for fun.
They competed with a sportsman’s spirit, sought nothing more than recognition and praise of the fans. Playing sports was a hobby, a passion, an individual’s quest to be the best that he or she can be. The rewards were simple, yet gratifying. Those were the days of innocence, when everything was simple yet regal; spectators did not have to be locked in iron cages to watch a game. The players were not escorted in and out of sporting arenas like VIPs. Sports were played and followed like it should be: in a sporting manner. Such is the story of a sportive athlete who belongs to literally the dying breed of sportsmen who sported the way it should be: a sport that is.
His name is Maseel Ahmed also known as Capt Maseel Ahmed, Doctor Maseel Ahmed and in the late forties, “Tiger of India”. Born in Jhang on January 13th, 1924, Maseel the youngest of three children, found himself hobnobbing with the Punjabi elite of the walled city of Lahore at a very tender age. Although born in Jhang, Maseel’s family, presumably migrated to Punjab from UP and thus brought with them a culture and language quite dissimilar to that of the hardcore Lahori culture of the walled city. He was not to be overwhelmed by the macho Lahori culture and was able to retain his own traditions and values at the same accepting what Bhatti Gate of the old Lahore had to offer. He never allowed his environs shape his life. Instead Maseel tried to change the surroundings to his liking, and in case he failed he moved on. That has been the story of his life till the time he reached a stage when he could no longer move on and decided to call it a day.
His father, like all good fathers of the time sent Maseel to Central Model School, one the premium learning centres of Lahore. Central Model High School have over the years nurtured many a young men who went on to define the shape of this nation, Maseel being one of them. Maseel matriculated from Central Model School at a tender age of 14 in 1938. From Central Model School he went on to Forman Christian College instead of Government College Lahore, the natural progression for Central Model students, owing to his less than satisfactory grades. Forman Christian College should feel proud to have a person of Maseel’s stature as one of his alumni despite the fact that Maseel did not graduate from the college. In 1940 he flunked the intermediate exams and was sent packing from F.C. College.
Islamia College Railway Road was to receive a rejected and dejected Maseel from F.C. College in 1940 the year that would transform 16-year-old Maseel from a reject to a hero. Following his termination from F.C. College, Maseel found respite in Islamia College Railway Road, Lahore. IC College Railway Road accepted Maseel and allowed him to be the best that he can be. Shortly after he joined the college, Zia, as Maseel recalled, college boxing team’s captain asked Maseel to appear for trials. Zia was from his neighbourhood, Bhatti Gate, and Captain of the Islamia College Boxing Team.
“He (Zia) invited me. I was only sixteen then”, remembers Maseel, “shorter than I am now and very skinny.” Nonetheless, Maseel went to the boxing arena. He was made to spar with a boy not of his weight and Maseel went home with a bloodied nose and a battered ego.
“I did not let that episode dampen my spirits” recalls eighty-year-old Maseel, “Instead I told myself that I am going to punish all those who had made me bleed”, confided Maseel as I spoke to him at his majestic yet simple abode inside Bhatti Gate.
“No one expected me to be at the ring, adjacent to the hostel, the following day. Yet I turned up the next day and days following that. I had no formal coach, and for that matter no formal coaching, yet between 1938 and 1945, I won every singular boxing tournament that was there to win. I was diminutive and lightweight, light fly in boxing terms, but I fought in the higher weight categories as and when required by my team. I fought in Fly, Feather and Bantamweight, despite the fact that I never weighed anything over 105 pounds. Zia would ask me to stand up for the team and I would, such was the spirit in those days,” Maseel stated with a smile.
Maseel won every boxing tournament between 1938 and 1945; the biggest break in his career came when he found himself pitched against the best of the best of the subcontinent during the Indian Boxing Championship held at Burt’s Institute, in Lahore.
For those of us who are unfamiliar with Lahore and its geography, Burt’s Institute was one of the premier sporting complexes prepared by the Raj. Lahore has been fortunate to inherit three of the prestigious sporting arenas of the subcontinent. Besides, Burt’s Institute, also known as Naach Ghar owing to the balls held there, there were Griffin Institute and the Carson’s Institute. Burt’s Institute due to its association with the Railways Headquarters was a premium sports centre as compared to Carson and Griffin’s institutes. It was at Burt’s Institute that Maseel was to write history in Pakistani boxing. He not only earned the title of the “Most Scientific Boxer”, but also was also nicknamed as “Tiger of India”, due to a combination of his majestic style, elegant movements and courage.
The year 1946 was the most important year in young Maseel’s life; he had just won the Indian Boxing Championship and was dubbed as “Indian Tiger”. Yet Maseel wanted more out of life. It was the same year, when Maseel applied and got selected for 23 RAF Pilots Training Course in Poona. He successfully completed the preliminaries and went on to join the officer candidates flying school at Sikandarabad in Hyderabad Deccan. RAF Pilots’ school had no inhibition in throwing Maseel out of the Academy once he wrecked a plane. Maseel was back in Bhatti Gate in mid-1946, the year that he would treasure the most.
Upon his return, Maseel Ahmad joined Muslim League Youth Movement and felt proud to be the part of a handful of young men who dedicated their lives in ensuring a safe passage for Hindus and Sikhs fleeing Lahore despite Gurdaspur tragedy. Between 1947 and 1951 Maseel remained committed to the cause of boxing despite all odds. Maseel was not the kind of individual who would give in to the obvious. In 1951, just before he was to join Pakistan Army, he won the prestigious Griffin Institute Boxing Championship.
As an officer of the Six Lancers, he remained a sore thumb for the powers to be. It did not take him long to realize that the regimented life was not his cup of tea. He extracted himself out of the army as a Captain and lived the life, as he has always wanted to live: one day at a time.
Following his release from the Army, he managed to get several jobs in the private sector, NFC, Wapda, you name it and he had it. But his restless nature never allowed him to stay at one place for too long. He felt comfortable around a boxing ring, and would find every excuse to be there. For a while he remained a permanent fixture at the Boxing Referees and Judges Association, officiating at various national and international events, however, this articulate, sophisticated, champion boxer always remained at the periphery of the boxing circuit in Pakistan. He was never allowed to become part of the oligarchy of self-serving, mediocre sycophants who have ruled this country for the last fifty years, sports being no exception.
An accomplished, outspoken, educated and well placed boxer, a rarity in boxing, Maseel was destined to never hold any position in the Pakistani Boxing Federation. The officialdom never recognized his services. With the exception of limited fanfare, a few well-wishers, and a handful of medals and certificates, Capt. Maseel has little to show for in terms of official recognition.
Today Capt. Maseel resides in an old haveli in the heart of Bhatti Gate, in serene and calm surroundings. His youngest son has converted the ground floor into a school and the upper floors serve as the residential quarter. Almost 80, Maseel is in fine health, and with the exception of occasional memory lapses; he does not look anything over sixty.
Years after reaching the age of super-annuation, Capt. Maseel practised as a homeopath doctor; an occupation he gave up only recently. He seems to be in peace with himself and could not have found a better place that Mohallah Sammian in Bhatti Gate to spend his golden years. Life is still simple, slow paced, and easy in Mohallah Sammian, and except for the whispers of the gossiping housewives in the balconies, there was hardly any noise in the neighbourhood. Even the children horsing around in the alleys kept their voices low. As I wrote these lines, I realized that these lines may not mean anything to a number of people, but I am sure that people who knew, Capt. Maseel, Lt. Col. Samad Mir, Richard Clement, and many others like them, it would mean a lot to them, just like it would have mean a lot for my father who loved the game of boxing and admired Capt. Maseel for his contributions.
Maseel Khan fought his way to glory, inside and outside the ring 
