In 1998, the Urdu-knowing people were taken aback by an unconventional decision. The Centre had chosen Mohammad Shamim Jairajpuri, a Zoologist at Aligarh Muslim University, to be the first vice-chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad. Many an Urdu scholar fumed and fretted for being bypassed, while the coveted post went to a man whose literary credentials were nothing, beyond the fact that his grandfather was an Urdu poet. But then Jairajpuri was made VC of the world’s only university in the Urdu medium not because of his lineage, but because of his scientific temperament and vision.
Three years later, he has proved his detractors wrong. Since then the university has produced 11,000 students, skilled in various technical trades through Urdu medium. Also, through its distance education programme, it has opened 50 study centres across the country and reached out to those sections who were denied the light of education. Sitting under the imposing arch of Urdu Research Institute, Anjuman-I-Islam, where his biography Romance of Research was released on Thursday, the suave, soft-spoken senior scientist shared some thoughts on his biography, Urdu University and his outstanding research in Nematology (study of worms) and Taxonomy (classification of organisms).
So, what’s the connection between a vice-chancellor of an Urdu University and a biography in English? “In the last 40 years of my career, I have worked in English and have published my research papers and books in that language. I know Urdu, but I am more proficient in English. Also, my students and colleagues, who have contributed to Romance of Research, wanted it to be in a language which could reach a larger audience.” Edited by Jairajpuri’s two friends and a student, the book doesn’t fall in a conventional biographical genre a long autobiographical piece That’s My Life is also part of it.
But breaking conventions comes easy to Jairajpuri. Born in a middle-class family in Jairajpur village in Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh), he went to Shibli National College there, and later to Aligarh Muslim University. Not a brilliant student, he excelled in academics through sheer hard work. He reminisces: “Hard work was the only weapon I had in my armoury to achieve recognition. Naturally, I had no choice but to use it most extravagantly.” Jairajpuri’s life is a shining example of how a student of average intelligence can scale dizzying heights by dint of a dogged determination. “I would spend endless hours in the lab and my department’s library, often getting reprimanded by my wife at home. I always wanted to distinguish myself from the crowd. Merely teaching would not have brought international repute. I knew my destiny lay in research. So I put my heart into it,” he says.
As a result, Jairajpuri completed his doctorate at 22 and received his Doctor of Science degree at 28 to be the youngest student in the world to have been awarded a DSc. He is also among the rare research scholars who got an appointment letter for lecturership the day he submitted his thesis. Then on, he has served as lecturer, reader and professor at Aligarh and principal nematologist at the prestigious Commonwealth Bureau of Heminthology, UK (which later became International Institute of Parasitology). “I could have lived in the UK. The salary was ten times more than what I would have got here. I had offers even from Canada and the US. But I wanted to do something for my motherland. So I came back home,” he says with pride.
In fact, three ‘Ms’ maa (mother), madrewattan (motherland) and madredarsagah (alma mater) have been Jairajpuri’s weaknesses, for his mother once sold her jewellery to fund his education. “Having lost her early, I always felt a sort of hollowness within. I wish she would have been around to see my rise,” he says with a heavy heart. However, he compensated the loss he felt with sterling achievements in academics. Author of 350 research papers and 20 books, Jairajpuri has won many awards including the first Janaki Ammal National Award for Taxonomy.
In 1989, the then secretary to the Ministry of Environment and Forests T N Seshan (who later became charismatic Election Commissioner of India) interviewed a group of scientists for the post of Director of the Zoological Survey of India (Zoological Survey of India), Calcutta. Jairajpuri stood head above shoulders among them and became the youngest (then all of 46) Director in the 124-year history of ZSI. As director of a nodal scientific organisation in the country, he travelled extensively. From protozoa to mammalia, he studied various animals and their behaviour in different topographies. Reminiscing his days at ZSI, he writes: “From the enchanting marshes of Sunderbans... to the breath-taking beauty of the Himalayas... I was everywhere and on the move.”
Jairajpuri left ZSI in 1993 and went on to found the Institute of Agriculture at AMU. From studying worms to founding institutions, including the Urdu University, Jairajpuri has traversed circuitous paths. And yet there is no sign of fatigue in him. A dreamer never finds full-stops; he always opens new chapters.
In 2008, ZSI gave him LIFETIME ACHEIVEMENT AWARD.
Present Address-
Prof. M. S. Jairajpuri
Department of Zoology
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh-202002, U.P. (INDIA)
