What if it were a cheerful occasion for a brother to write about some happy moments he spent with his brother! But it becomes a terrible emotional burden of grief for the brother when he embarks upon writing an account on the life and works, even though very briefly, of his brother whom he lost in the hands of destiny. The burden becomes still more terrible when the brother writing the account happens to be an elder brother. In fact, such a burden is no less massive than the burden of a son’s coffin on the shoulder of a father.
Yes, I am heavy in my heart and yet I am daring to write about my brother Syed Nizamul Haque who was 12 years younger than I am. His pet name was Jamal and he is still better known with that name in our native village, Kacharihat in the Golaghat district and also among the relatives living in Guwahati and other places. He was also Jamal to his friends. But as he was my first brother after my three younger sisters, Bilkis, Mafida and Rashida I used to lovingly call him Bhaiti, younger brother, and not by name. That love is still there in my heart and so I will refer to him as Bhaiti wherever necessary in this sketchy tribute of mine to him.
My parents, Syed Muhibbul Haque and Syeda Hamida Khatun, had eight children among whom Bhaiti was fifth as a sibling and second as a son. Bhaiti was not yet born when I left home after seven days of my schooling in Class VII in January 1957 to study at a far off place from home. Nobody of my family could foresee that my leaving home at that point of time, though for educational purpose, was to be my final exit from home. Consequently, I was deprived of the sweet moments of living together with my parents and the siblings and they from my company. We all felt the pang but none could help as it was destined. This was the reason that Bhaiti as well as the three other brothers after him, Jamil, Amil and Adil, were all born when I was far away from home.
I became an officer in the education department with my headquarters in Shillong in 1973. A year later I had to shift my office to Guwahati following the shifting of the capital of Assam from Shillong. In the same year Bhaiti passed the Matriculation examination from the famous Dergaon High School where our father was a successful and popular teacher. Father sent Bhaiti to me for higher education as Guwahati was a wider and better place for higher education. He was quite happy to be with me in Guwahati; more so for having opportunities to travel to places with me whenever I would be touring throughout the length and breadth of Assam on official duty. His coming to me also filled my heart with unexplainable joy because I was living alone in the government-provided residence with only an orthaly who used to cook for me, take care of the house and accompany me on my official tours.
I got Bhaiti admitted into the Cotton Collegiate School, Guwahati from where he passed the Higher Secondary examination in 1976. Then he got admitted into the B. Sc.first-yearr class in the Aryabidyapith College just to leave it a few months later due to irregular and inconvenient bus service. He was nevertheless a meritorious student and a good reader and therefore he did not lose heart after he was forced to leave the college. So he had tried to avail a chance to pursue the B.Sc. course as a private candidate anywhere. But he could not be accommodated in the science stream of the undergraduate course in any college because attending practical classes, as a regular student was compulsory. Consequently, Bhaiti had no engagement, which was not a healthy sign for youths of his age. So I became serious about getting him engaged in some purposeful activity.
Sometime in the early part of 197,5 I was to appoint about a dozen of employees to certain posts under the government. I intended to appoint Bhaiti in one of those posts and I knew he would come out inflying colorss in the selection process. I had had my father’s permission for it. But when I proposed it to Bhaiti he instantly but politely disagreed. He had some business in his mind. But that needed sufficient capital which neither our father nor I could provide. It was however easy for me to make him start the only white color business with ‘black impressions’ with a small capital; a printing press. I could think of this small project just becauseluck favoredd me with a suitable sum of money of which one part was from the Assam State Textbook Production and Publication Corporation Limited as one time royalty for all the six text books I wrote for the schools and Madrassas of Assam at the request of the Corporation and the other part was also the royalty for the two textbooks of Arabic Grammar in Bengali medium I wrote for the schools of West Bengal at the request of a publisher from Calcutta.
Sometime in the early part of 1976 I went to Calcutta and bought a small letterpress-printing machine with all its accessories. Now Bhaiti and I needed a house to start the press. My sister Bilkis and her husband Mosleh offered a piece of their land beside the Ganeshguri-Kahilipara Road near the DPI Bus Stop. As for building materials, I bought the Haryana Pavillion that was on auction after the 1976 Congress session was over in Jawahar Nagar in Guwahati. The pavilion gave me both building materials and the labor costs. We erected a two-storied Assam-type house. In the meantime, the trade license was obtained for the press and also got it registered with the Small Industries Department in Bhaiti’s name. The tiny press thus got started under the name and style of Oriental Impressions.
The initial response of the maiden business was very encouraging as work orders started pouring in satisfactorily. But we fell short of employees while we had no money to hire employees. My second younger sister, Mafida was then unemployed and was sitting at home at Kacharihat, a little over 300km from Guwahati. When she knew our plight she offered to join us in the venture. Now there were three people to work in and manage the press. This kind of business kept us connected to the world of education besides keeping us engaged in the maiden business. But such association, with the people of education and academics, was more essential for Bhaiti not only for the enhancement of his knowledge and wisdom but also for keeping him engaged in educational and literary activities.
It would be an injustice to our forefathers if I do not mention that ours was a family of letters and teaching since four generations above, if not further above. In earlier times our family produced notable Islamic scholars in every generation that however gradually started getting inclined towards general education. My great grandfather’s father, Khwaja Sayyid Shah Falis was said to be a scholar of Arabic while our great grandfather, Khwaja al-Hajj Sayyid Farhatullah and grandfather, Khwaja Sayyid ‘Abdul Haque were primary school teachers. Our father, Sayyid Muhibbul Haque who died in harness on January 4, 1978 was a High School teacher and was subsequently promoted to the Higher Secondary School teacher with the up-gradation of the high school to the Higher Secondary level in 1977. Bhaiti inherited all these traits of teaching and learning which he kept alive inside him and which he later proved through his works.
In 1980 I was transferred to Silchar. I left Bahiti with the family of our sister, Bilkis. About a year later Mufida got a job of a graduate teacher in Kacharihat High School. So she left the press. Bhaiti now became the sole boss of the press. Its income also became so good that Bhaiti could appoint some employees for the press. It needs be mentioned in this context that Bhaiti was the first printer in Assam who introduced printing in Arabic, Persian and Urdu and who printed in these languages besides Assamese, Bengali, and English for the Assam Textbook Production and Publication Corporation Limited and the State Madrassa Education Board of the Government of Assam. Amidst his busy schedule Bhaiti got himself admitted into the three-year BA course in the nearby Dimoria College and continued to study the course.
I was transferred to Diphu in Karbi Anglong a few months before the 1985 Assam Assembly Elections were declared. One fine morning Bhaiti reached us at Diphu and asked me for my Ambassador Car that he would use in the election campaign as he was contesting the elections from Dispur constituency. I was shocked firstly because it was not safe for him as Assam was going under political turmoil and terrifying insurgency during that period of time. Secondly, as a government officer it was not easy for me to lend him the vehicle for use in political purposes that was registered in my own name. But Bhaiti remained persistent offering various arguments so that I agree to lend him the vehicle. My wife also pleaded for him, however cautiously.
Although I knew that I would have to face some trouble if I lent him the car yet I gathered courage considering that I would be able to defend myself, if necessary, as it was my own car and I had purchased it with my own money of which I had the proof. Bhaiti breathed a sigh of relief and smiled; as if he had won a battle. His smile is still alive in my memory as if he is still sitting before me wearing that smile. Next day he returned to Guwahati with the car. He contested the election as an independent candidate and got defeated which was obvious. However, he tried his caliber politically also. Even though defeated in the election, yet it gave him the dividends he expected in the field of his business as he later told me.
Elections were over and what gains Bhaiti intended to attain were attained. It was now his time for appearing in his BA final examination, which he did. The year was perhaps 1986 and he passed the examination.
As time went on, the life of letterpress printing came to be numbered. Many press owners had already shifted to automatic flatbed printing. In the premise,s Bhaiti could not be an exception. He too bought an automatic flatbed-printing machine. But the machine, though big and fast, could not cope with the volume of works he used to get. He needed one or two more similar machines. While thinking about buying a new machine he found it expedient to try for manufacturing similar machines in Guwahati itself. I advised him to rent a shed in the Government Industrial Estate at Bamunimaidan or Kalapahar. Accordingly he applied and got a shed in Kahilipara Industrial Estate in Guwahati.
The State Bank of India came forward to finance his project. Bhaiti launched the project sometime in the year 1987 and by 1989 he manufactured and marketed the first piece of the automatic flatbed-printing machine ever manufactured indigenously in the entire North East India. It was such a successful project that State Bank of India found it advantageous to host TV coverage of his production. The machine continued to be manufactured for nearly a decade wherafter it was superseded by offset printers. We discussed about manufacturing this machine also. But capital required to initiate the new project was so big that no financier liked to lend hands. So, Bhaiti dropped the idea and also discontinued production of the automatic flatbed printing machines that had become a thing of the past.
Bhaiti also tried his hands in writing since about 1985. He succeeded in it as a serious writer in the course of time. His topics were current, serious and controversial and his writings were short but pinpointed and courageous. His two small works namely Parityakta Nari and Saddam Hussain Aaru Tritiya Bishwajuddhar Sanket are instances of his promptness in picking up current and complicated topics and to write on and publish them.
He wrote the Parityakta Nari and published it immediately after the Supreme Court judgment of April 23, 1985 was published on Shah Banu’s case. Saddam Hussain Aaru Tritiya Bishwajuddhar Sanket published almost immediately after the Western powers waged the war on Iraq at the diktats of the USA, the self-made policemen of the of world, in 1991 was a book in which he predicted the future of Saddam Hussein and Iraq vis-à-vis the Middle East and most of which predictions finally came true.
Since he descended from a family of teachers for generations, Bhaiti finally entered the joint domain of writing and publication besides running his press. His first regular publication was Biggaya followed by Dapoon and Dapoon Poripurika published serially in the year 1999 and continued to publish regularly in the service of the students until his sad demise on October 19, 2021. After his death the burden of continuation of publication of these magazines shifted onto the shoulders of his wife, Syeda Mohsina Begum, herself a well-qualified person, and which she proved to be satisfactorily capable of.
These magazines were intended for better preparation of High School students for High School and Higher Secondary School Leaving examinations as also as a flawless supplementary to many textbooks handed to the students that were full of misstatements and wrong data and information. Instances of his academic support to both weak and meritorious students through his writings and publications are replete in the written and published statements of the beneficiaries of his writings as well as his admirers some of which are reproduced in this publication that mostly contains some unforgettable pieces of Bhaiti’s writings.
Mention needs to be made that it was because of Bhaiti’s tireless efforts that the state-level association of printers came to be established in the name and style of Assam Press Owners’ Association and Bhaiti became its founder general secretary which office he shouldered for two consecutive terms. He is also credited to be the founder of the Assam School of Education and also a trustee of the Manav Kalyan Trust. He was conferred upon the prestigious Ambedkar Sevashree Prize in recognition of his services in the field of education, writing, and publication.
Bhaiti left behind him a legacy of writing and publication for our school students besides leaving behind his wife, Syeda Mohsina Begum, a daughter, Syeda Tanfia Nizam and a son, Syed Mehfooz Raiza and it would be our abounded duty to pray to the Almighty to shower his choicest blessings on the family so that it can bear the loss with patience and that his wife supported by her two children and the son-in-law, Syed Zavian Hasnain Huda is suitably capable to carry out the services Bhaiti left behind. I would also request everybody with my folded hands to pray for Bhaiti so that the Almighty is kind enough to rest his soul in eternal peace and to keep apart a space for him in Heaven. Amin!
About the Author
Former Secretary, State Madrassa Eduction Board,
Assam Former Deputy Director of Elementary Education
