 Islam arrived in India within a century of its inception. In quite a substantial sense, Muslims set their foot on Indian soil before Muhammad bin Qasim arrived with his army from Arabia in 725 AD. The latter era was marked by invasions by kings and generals casting a covetous eye on the riches and wealth of India but more significantly, saints and men of learning came to the country in search of peace and spiritual tranquility. A famous saying of Prophet Muhammad speaks of a fresh whiff blowing from India. Thus, India was already known as a haven of knowledge and serenity in West Asia, Africa and Arabian society at the dawn of the Islamic century. I think Muslims have been a part of India for centuries. In fact, I believe and I think there is a fact of history also that 99% Muslims of India are of Indian origin. In the course of time, they got converted into Islam and therefore, while you have got Hindus in India, you have got Parsis, you have got Sikhs, you have got other communities and so also Muslims and they formed today about 12% of the total population of India. In the long history of coexistence of Hindus, Muslims and other compatriots the Muslims of India faced their greatest trauma in the wake of the partition in 1947. It was their moment of truth when the countries stood divided on the basis of the two-nation theory propounded by the Muslim League under the leadership of Eme Jinnah. Both communities suffered physical and emotional hardships that took decades to heal. Hindus and Muslims who had co-existed in perfect monomy through centuries found themselves divided as separate nations. This was not all. The Muslims in India were left forlorn by their own co-religionists who went to Pakistan for greener pastures. Gandhiji and Nehru stood by them and Molana Zad kindled hope among them to stand up to the challenges facing them, however grave they were. There is nothing for Indian Muslims except challenges, one challenge after another. It's a plethora of challenges. Now what happened after the partition of the country, particularly from North India, Muslims who were educated and who were influential and who were to some extent affluent, most of them migrated to Pakistan with the result that what was left here, people who had no traditions of education or competition, now they have to overcome that and they are gradually, gradually overcoming it. Molana Zad's message of hope stands epitomized in his eloquent speech declaring, I am proud of being an Indian. I am part of the indivisible unity that is nationality. I am indispensable to this noble edifice and without me, this splendid structure of India is incomplete. I am an essential element which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim. Molana Abul Kalam Azad was definitely a true great Indian patriot. He gave his entire life in the service of the nation and he did say what he said was very right that he is an indivisible part of this country and I think every Indian Muslim also will be an indivisible part of this country. The Indian Muslim contribution for the last 1000 years has been immense. In every field, they have contributed, they have sacrificed, they have lived and died here and I don't see any reason why we should not continue to be indivisible part of this country. There is not in prior history and there will not enforceable history be another nation that has such a wonderful mix of religions and communities and languages and cultures. It would be like the height of falling and great sadness to hamper that or to damage that because it's like a one-off, it's never happened before, it will never happen again. Molana Azad's spirit of remaining with India, it only goes to show that whether he remained with India or had gone across the border what he really meant to say was this is one country, one huge colossal land of humanity of people with great tradition, heritage and background which should not be separated. Molana Azad's faith in Hindu-Muslim unity was unshakable and he announced in his famous words, even if an angel descends from heaven and tells me that India will be free but without the unity of Hindus and Muslims I will reject that freedom. He represented I think the grace and the dignity of our nation. People like him, people like Nehru and Gandhi. You know in a strange way they were people of, you know you can fault them for policies I can fault them for, we can't fault them for their integrity. However, even though left in a state of utter desolation by the leaders of the Muslim League who had promised El Dorado for all the Muslims the Indian leadership got itself busy in giving a secular direction to the post-freedom polity to weave the nation into a comprehensive whole where all citizens, irrespective of caste, creed and community would be guaranteed equal rights. This was the opportunity of Indian Muslims to play their positive role in nation building. The Muslims in India groped in the dark knowing how to face the challenges facing them in the emerging ambience. Yet happily for them, India stood steadfast by its secular and democratic commitment. I always take history as an example of inspiration to me in my life and in history, even as far back as 400 years Akbar, Emperor Akbar he strikes me as a very brilliant personality and character because he infused the Indian people into oneness and a national integration purpose came into existence even in those days and his great sense of social justice which he gave to his people till today people remember the great achievements of the great emperor. In fact, the Mughals were the catalyst who brought the warring factions of the Indian princes and Maharajas together and Akbar played a major part in this and the foundations of the communal harmony integration were virtually established in the time of the reign of Akbar. India became a secular state in sharp contrast to the theocratic, newly created state of Pakistan at the dawn of independence. Indian Muslims had the advantage of guidance of tall widths of India's national movement notable among them besides Maulana Zad, Rafi' Ahmad Khidwai and Dr Zakir Hussain the latter rose to be the president of India. The constitution of India is secular according to me. Once the constitution guarantees you a secular state then how can a film star or other guy or maybe ABCD or me also can influence that? I have not a single relative who stays in Pakistan why should my loyalty be with Pakistan or for that reason any other nation? It has to be with my own nation, if I talk and if that loyalty to my nation is taken away from me then what do I become? Where do I hang around? Am I hanging in an air? I must belong to a nation so if by some connivance on by some some some feelings by some people would like me to believe that I'm not a part of this nation then I'm going to fight that out within me psychologically because I want to be a part of a nation as every individual wants to be a part of a nation so I think that there has been this because of the division unfortunate division I would say that took place in the Indian subcontinent we should never have taken place according to me and I think this subcontinent would have been much more a beautiful place but that unfortunately has taken but the Indian Muslim per se I would say they are all Indian this is called India, I believe this is called India and I feel that as my request to our leaders and the heads of different communities and different religions that this is what is the rainbow and this rainbow should not be destroyed because of their own self-interests and everything let India be like this, let India grow together let Muslims and Hindus rub their shoulders with each other and bring a name for the country as the characters have done it as a great artist have done it my wife was the first to get the International Award for Mother India's performance in Kerala Bari and she was a Muslim lady but nobody called her a Muslim lady because they thought one Indian artist has won the award India has a very substantial population of Muslims more than Pakistan and Bangladesh and only next to Indonesia at the time of partition even as the elite and educated Muslims in large numbers migrated to Pakistan the bulk of those left behind in India were artisans or small land holders they faced the problem of lack of modern education while in services the representation dipped low due to migrations to Pakistan both Hindus and Muslims were uprooted from their homelands in the wake of the partition riots following mass exodus to and fro the large mass of Muslims left in the lurch in the wake of the partition deserves a word of tribute for their steadfastness and determination to brave the odds this speaks of their sense of patriotism and love for the motherland unorganized as they wear as artisans and many of them losing their land holdings after the zamindari abolition the labour hard to carve a niche for themselves as breadwinners of the family the innate atmosphere of liberalism and their general acceptability by their compatriots came as a boon to them hardships and prejudices notwithstanding they made their living through their skills in brassware industry, glassworks, wood carving and other trades the peasantry comprises the largest chunk of the Muslims spread over Indian villages even in remote hamlets there is little difference in their way of dressing and even eating habits there are sons of the soil deeply rooted in the Indian tradition this large mass was ironically bypassed from voting at the time of partition because adult franchise was still a far cry in the dispensation of the British Raj educational institutions were sparse during those days what the larger town would have was a middle school run by local authorities the education was otherwise confined to mother sars and maktabs for the Muslims as there were part shalas for the Hindus you see the basic thing any Muslim leader would demand for their flock is education education is such an essential commodity it is a commodity, it has value an illiterate man cannot see anything he is in a dark room a illiterate man can see everything because the light is on so the education factor must come in first I agree when you say that the Muslims or young Muslim guys would have the right education but I differ with you on the count that mother sars education is not good enough it provides them with sound moral edifice for life after that it's up to the student concern how they build on that because after all nowadays we have mother sars which are offering computer sciences which have science laboratories and so on mother sars have been and possibly even continue to be a poor man, a poor Muslim recourse for education because in my village for example a mother sars gives you the 3 hours when you go back into the history of Islam Islam, the European historians have gone and record to say that Islam brought renaissance in Europe and the so called mother sars in the early part of 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th century they were started as the universities and colleges, right from Baghdad to Cardo and even today when you see the academic gown in India today the Islamic clergy wear that gown when leading the prayer or something so that was the Islam gave the word academic gown Islam gave the word the sense of enquiry sense of research, science, technology The scenario changed radically after the coming of freedom there were already larger institutions started in the 19th century like the Aligarh Muslim University or the Jamia Milia Islamia started in the 1920s for higher education in Delhi for the benefit of the elite with freedom the canvas of education changed fast and high schools and intermediate education started spreading out into the districts Muslims started sending their sons and daughters for higher education and once knowing that the traditional education would provide no answer for their future well being the Muslims chained over to adapting to new demands the large mother sars like Darul Ulum Dioband and Nadvatul Ulema in Lucknow also started revising their curricula they took to modern education while retaining the classical methodology now computerization has come to these institutions in a big way there is always a case for modernizing any system of education whether it is a Patsala whether it is bias with Hindu education or Madarsap they need to be modernized they have to have input of modern education input of modern science in fact you may be aware that the present government interpretation of the Union government has given quite a few dozens of Urdu computers to these mother sars in UP and other parts of the country our concepts of modernity and what is considered modern and to see it through the eyes of Islam I think and that it becomes a crunch in a sense at a philosophical level there is a crunch factor involved because the perceptions of what we perceive as modernity and what is modernity I think modernity is a state of mind what is your worldview? is it narrow? is it restrictive? or can you come back to Iran and grace? and I think that is the Christ and you did have it all you got to see is the Moors in Spain all you got to see is the music in India the Sufi tradition and you got to see Omar Khayyaman Ibn Battuta and Abni Sena and botany and astronomy and mathematics and algebra and you link it all up wow it's all there and mathematics in the decimal system in the zero in the astronomy in navigation it was all there now you got to see it with its grace rather than this restrictive vision and to recognize the fact that times change there are people's aspirations to recognize that and to come to terms with it with grace but what has been more striking is the advancement in science and new technology we can take the example at present our president Abdul Kalam he gave a new site for the missile technology and in the same way Dr. Zahoor Qasim he went to Antarctica and he hosted the flag there and Dr. Owais Siddiqui he was the former president of Tartan Institute of Fundamental Research and he was honored with one of the most prestigious award that is national award for science academy by the US it is next to this Nobel Prize and moreover the Nobel laureate Abdul Kalam Abdul Salam who says himself as a Pakistani but he is basically trained in India so we can say also that if we get the opportunity if we get the opportunity we can prove ourselves as a good scientist as a good technologist in the civil services examination bright students have made their mark even of the number of those seeking administrative jobs among Muslims has not been according to the ratio of their population yet one comes across a Muslim topper in both civil services and technological examinations a big leap forward from the fall on days of the partition in the armed forces the Muslims have made their names at different rungs Brigadier M. Usman the hearer of Norshera who fell to enemy bullets in 1948 many young Muslim officers and men made the supreme sacrifice during the Kargil war this tradition of the armed forces is traceable to the days of Netaji Shubhastandrabosa's Indian National Army in which Shahnawaz Dhillon and Sagal made a famous trio in the field of industry Azim Premji of Wipro is India's richest man while Sipla of Vaikehameed is not only a farmer major but is engaged in fighting aides and is a partner of the Clinton Foundation in the brassware and other industries the Muslims have earned both prosperity and fame M.F. Hussein and S.H. Sayyed are legends in the world of painting it is no mean achievement that India has had three Muslim presidents high profile and popular central ministers as well as chief ministers and governors in several states the first Muslim president Dr. Zakir Hussein was an eminent educationist who was close to Gandhiji and Nehru the next was a grassroots congress leader Fakruddin Ali Ahmad the present president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has been India's missile man and a scientist of the highest caliber in Bollywood Yusuf Khan popularly known as the Leap Kumar blazed a new trail which made him tragedy king and is now a member of the Rajasabha later the great Khans made their debut Shahrukh Khan Amir Khan Salman Khan they were preceded by Feroz Khan director, actor and producer in his own right his brother Sanjay Khan made his name with the tele-serial the sword of Tipu Sultan and Jai Hanuman I think the Indian cinema is a symbol of secularism and it's a symbol why it became a symbol it's being seen by by the people of the country and that consists of so many people belonging to different faiths when they go and see the film they go and see the star and the actor performing over there they don't go in the theater that this fellow belongs to and we will see his film as you know that Mr. Leap Kumar who's a Muslim he's been considered by every Indian whether he's a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Sikh as a great actor he has contributed a lot to the Indian cinema he brought great prestige for India from abroad also and through his performances I think every Indian respects him all the tops are today they're Muslims in India and it's a pride for us if you look at the prominent people who have made a mark for themselves people who immediately come to my mind of people like Rafi Sahib you know in the singing there's Kyaasif, Mehboob Sahib then there's Dilip Sahib then there's Naushat Sahib in music I might be missing a few here and there but you know when you look at the current you see the likes of Salman Amir Shahrukh and then the younger ones like Saif Ali Khan who are making an impact and you have A.R. Rehman in your music you've got Anu Malik so you know these are the kind of people who probably immediately come to your mind who have made an impact in the film industry and they're very they're contributors you know practically in the writing field I suppose in the lyrics department they have made a lot of contribution we have enormously huge names in that like Sahib Ludhianmi Majrooswal Danpuri Kefi Alzmi who have made contributions to to this thing In the construction industry we're sitting in Bombay today Lokhandwala is the biggest name he's a Muslim Rijwi is the biggest name he's a Muslim so we get work but we keep on working Azim Prem Ji is an ideal example of the Muslim contribution and quest to come into the mainstream and belong like this for example there's another gentleman in South India in Vannambadi he quotes the leather price of the world each morning the Muslim Zardozi workers they export is worth about 40,000 crores so you can imagine how much contribution they are making to the Exchequer by way of foreign exchange earnings the partition came as a calamity for both Muslims and Hindus on either side of the border and Muslims in a sense had to start from the very scratch yet patience spade and thanks to Providence they are now equal partners in the national mainstream playing their roles in different walks of life