‘I am convinced secularism can only survive if there is quality education among Muslims and Dalits’ A Messiah For Humanity Passes Into The Ages By JYOTI PUNWANI, January 31, 2022https://www.rediff.com/news/column/professor-j-s-bandukwala-a-messiah-for-humanity-passes-into-the-ages/20220131.htm
Professor Juzar Bandukwala’s death is a loss not only to the city of Vadodara, to its poor Muslims, to the cause of education, but to the country itself. Where does one find a man who shows no bitterness or animosity towards Hindus, even after a frenzied Hindu mob burnt his house down? … What followed was an eye-opener to the nuclear physicist who had earned his degree in the US. Professor Bandukwala was then president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties’s Gujarat unit. But this prominent citizen, a respected figure in the predominantly Hindu locality where he had built his house, now found himself isolated in a flat allotted to him by the university in a corner of the campus. He and his daughter never went back to live in their old house; their neighbours had been threatened for having sheltered them, and they sensed they weren’t wanted there anymore. … Apart from the attack on his home, what pained Professor Bandukwala the most were two factors: The involvement of Dalits and Adivasis in the violence against Muslims, and the lack of remorse from any influential Hindu for the violence. When Vadodara was hit by anti-reservation riots in 1982, Professor Bandukwala, as warden of the boys’ hostel, had seen the terror in the Dalit students’ eyes, and had gone on a three-day fast in solidarity in a nearby Dalit locality. The day he returned home, his house was attacked by anti-reservationists, forcing him to flee. After that, the Dalits of Vadodara called him for every function. So to see Dalits in the mob that set his house on fire was like a betrayal. Yet, out of all this turmoil, came a determination to educate his community. “Educate, educate, educate” became his panacea for the miserable condition of poor Muslims. … Apart from scholarships for higher education, Professor Bandukwala was over the last few years, involved in getting exceptional girls — both Hindu and Muslim — from municipal schools into good private schools, a project financed by Nobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan, whose parents had been Professor Bandukwala’s colleagues at M S university. What pained him was the reluctance of private schools, including those run by Muslims, to admit poor girls from slums.
