Khwaja Abdul Hamied

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Khwaja Abdul Hamied
Born(1898-10-31)31 October 1898
Pharmaceutical chemistry

Khwaja Abdul Hamied FCS, FRIC (31 October 1898 – 23 June 1972) was an Indian industrial and pharmaceutical chemist who founded Cipla, India's oldest pharmaceutical company in 1935.[1] His son, Yusuf Hamied headed the company after him for the next 52 years.[2]

Khwaja Abdul Hamied was active in the Indian independence movement and a champion of composite nationalism.[3]

Early life and background

Hamied was born in Aligarh, to Khwaja Abdul Ali, an advocate, and Masood Jahan Begum.[4] Through his father, he was descended from the Sufi saint Khwaja Ahrar of iran (Uzbekistan), while on his mother's side, he was descended from Shah Shuja, the last Durrani king of Afghanistan. His paternal great-uncle was the noted reformer Sayyid Ahmad Khan he was also the grandnephew of Khwaja Muhammad Yusuf and a nephew to Abdul Majeed Khwaja

Education

After matriculating from Islamia High School, Etawah, distinguishing himself in mathematics, Hamied completed his Intermediate in Science from

Allahabad, from which he completed his B.Sc. in chemistry in 1920.[1] While at the college, he became a favourite student of Nil Ratan Dhar, a distinguished inorganic chemist under whom he studied for a master's degree
.

He graduated from

Jamia Milia Islamia in Aligarh, now based in Delhi
.

Career

Hamied's family raised money to send him to study chemistry in

Lithuanian Jewish socialist, whom he married. They fled as the Nazis
rose to power in Germany.

Chemical, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Cipla was founded in 1935 with an initial capital of Rs. 2 lakhs. The company commenced production in 1937 making it the oldest pharmaceutical company in India.[2] His eldest son Yusuf Hamied, who did study chemistry in England, is now Chairman of Cipla. Yusuf still refers to his chemistry notebooks from Cambridge.[5][6]

Apart from conceiving the idea of establishing a National Chemical Laboratory and making it a reality, Dr Khwaja Hamied floated the idea and conceptualized the establishment of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as an umbrella organization to run a clutch of laboratories. He remained a Member of the Governing Body of the CSIR right from its inception till the very last[7]

During the last four decades of his life, he played an important role in raising the pharmaceutical and chemical industry standards in India to an extraordinarily high level through founding the firm Cipla.

Dr. Hamied was an honorary professor and a member of the executive council of the

Sheriff of Bombay
.

Dr Khwaja Abdul Hamied died in 1972 after a brief illness.[8]

Indian independence movement

Khwaja Abdul Hamied was influenced by his uncle Abdul Majeed Khwaja, who "was a close associate of C. R. Das, M. A. Ansari, Mahatma Gandhi, and T. A. K. Sherwani during the freedom struggle and had served in jail for fighting the British Colonial rule in India."[3]

Hamied followed

All India Muslim League (AIML).[9] In 1937, he ran in Legislative Council Elections against an AIML politician in the constituency of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who subsequently disparaged him, stating “Young man, why are you contesting the election? No one knows you in Bombay and who is going to vote for you. It is better that you withdraw.”[9] Backed by Zakir Husain, Khwaja Abdul Hamied was victorious in the election.[9] He stated: “As I had opposed the Muslim League candidate and won the election, everyone called me a great Nationalist Muslim. I said that I was an Indian and there was no question of being a Nationalist, an Indian was an Indian and belonged to the Nation….. Every Indian belongs to India and is, therefore, a Nationalist.”[3] Khwaja Abdul Hamied felt that Muhammad Ali Jinnah's views "represented a minority view among Indian Muslims".[3]

Khwaja Abdul Hamied was against the idea of separate electorates based on the religious faith of an individual, declaring that they were an evil manifestation of divisive communalism.

opponent of the partition of India.[9] In fact, when the partition of India was accepted by the British, he recommended "an armed struggle against the Muslim League to keep India united":[3]

If the Congress would have prepared their plan, which they never did, and submitted it to the British Cabinet irrespective of the fact whether Mr. Jinnah or the Muslim League agrees to it or not, we could have forced the issue on the British Cabinet to accept that plan leaving it to ourselves to see whether the Muslim League agrees to it or not. If they do not, then the only alternative is a civil war. We should not be afraid of such a situation. History proves that this kind of civil war, at the time when power is given to the people of a country, is inevitable.

In a meeting with

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Khwaja Abdul Hamied stated that the partition of India should not occur in the absence of a plebiscite, holding that "if people were told that those who vote for Pakistan had to go to that country then nobody would vote for the partition."[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Singh, Harkishan (2010). "Khwaja Abdul Hamied (1898–1972): Pioneer Scientist and Industrialist" (PDF). Indian Journal of History of Science. 45: 533–558.
  2. ^ a b "Grand old man of Cipla Yusuf K Hamied hangs his boots". The Economic Times. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Salim, Saquib (2022). "CIPLA founder Hamied wanted to take up arms to stop Partition". Awaz The Voice.
  4. ^ Hamied, Khwaja Abdul (1972). K. A. Hamied: An Autobiography; a Life to Remember. Lalvani Publishing House.
  5. ^ Selling Cheap 'Generic' Drugs, India's Copycats Irk Industry, By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr, Published: 1 December 2000
  6. ^ New List of Safe AIDS Drugs, Despite Industry Lobby By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr, 21 March 2002
  7. ^ "Khwaja Abdul Hamied". Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  8. ^ "The Hamieds of Cipla" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  9. ^ a b c d Salim, Saquib (2022). "Muslims against the Partition of India". Awaz The Voice. Retrieved 7 September 2023.

Khwaja Abdul Hamied : Father of indigenous modern pharmaceutical industry of India [1]

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