A.J. Faridi

Dr. Abdul Jaleel Faridi was one of the founding fathers of the MMM (Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat), an effort to gather the various parties and individual personalities concerned with redressing the grievances of the Muslim community (for instance Dr Syed Mahmood, a Congressist from Bihar, Ali Mian from the Nadwa Seminary of Lucknow, a close friend of Dr. Faridi, etc). He was a medical practitioner from Lucknow where he was born into a well-known and respected family (his father was a judge). He studied at the Christian College and then at the Medical College of Lucknow. Early interested in politics, he combined a dedicated medical activity with a deep civic commitment, as a PSP (Praja Socialist Party) member of the Lucknow Corporation. More important, he was the first Muslim personality who, after Independence, dared to speak out about the issues which were close to the heart of his community: discrimination, socioeconomic problems, the minority character of AMU (Aligarh Muslim University), a right place for Urdu, etc. The MMM did not fully respond to his hopes and he organized a Muslim Majlis Party to fight the elections. In the opposition all along, he, nevertheless, negotiated electoral support for Mrs. Gandhi in 1971 in return for promises regarding the AMU’s future Minority Act. These promises were soon forgotten. Faridi was deeply disappointed and ready to come back to his earlier line when he died, prematurely, just before the 1974 assembly elections.

BRASS, Paul. 1974. Language, Religion and Politics in North India. New York and London: Cambridge University Press 

GRAFF, Violette. [1997] 2010. “A View from Lucknow: National, Communal and Caste Politics in Uttar Pradesh (1977–1991).” In Lucknow: Memories of a City, edited by Violette Graff, 227–72. Delhi: Oxford University Press.