Memories of Hope: How I Fought a Canadian Election in 1974

Faiz Ahmed Faiz said,

Dil na umeed to nahin naakaam hee to hai
Lambi hai gham ki shaam magar shaam hee to hai
(Heart has not lost hope, though it hasn't achieved
Long is an evening of sorrow, but it's only evening).

Evening dark night, then dawn breaks. Zohran means bright, luminous, like the dawn. Today we have hope. But that hope was stirred many many years ago. Here is the story.

Since 1967, my husband and I lived in Canada. We got Canadian citizenship to make travel in South Asia easier. Seven years later, in 1974, I ran in the election for City Council from Edmonton, the capital of Alberta which was an ultra conservative province. The platform was an environmental group called URGE (Urban Reform Group Edmonton).

Fifty years ago, a coloured Muslim woman ran for an election in Canada. I did not win but got a decent score. Fifty years have passed. Suddenly, four years ago, I got a call from the YWCA Edmonton. They were commemorating 100 years of the first woman who ran for City Council. Her name was Izena Ross. ‘Did you run for election in 1974?’ I was asked. Memories of those days came flooding back as I was interviewed.

Ten years after the election, I returned to India, applied for and got my Indian citizenship. So I have two certificates; one of relinquishment (Canada) and one of acquiring (India). Back home, I threw myself into writing and activism. I served three years as Member, National Commission for Women and 10 years as Member, Planning Commission. I am a Muslim woman given the highest responsibilities by leaders of the Indian National Congress. At that time, in India and even globally, we rarely heard the word Islamophobia. Today it is targeted at us from many continents across. Zohran Mamdani's victory as Mayor of New York plus Aftab Purewal and Ghazala Hashmi winning from Ohio and Virginia opened a new hope for Muslims and millions who reject this diatribe of the western world.

Over many decades, several people from the darker corners of the world have won elections held in the developed nations. But this is the Big Apple, which is the cynosure of the world. Through Zohran, the words of Jawaharlal Nehru have once again resonated across the world. Despite efforts to erase him from annals of history, he rises. Zohran quoted his address to the nation on the eve of India’s independence, ‘A moment comes but rarely in history when we step out from the old to the new when an age ends and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance.’ It was a glimmer of light which darted across the world. We all watched and sensed that perhaps malevolence had come full circle.

In that context, two figures rise on the Indian landscape, one Hindu one Muslim. Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad. Close friends and fellow travellers from start to finish in India’s freedom struggle. Today, given the diatribe and cacophony of the present dispensation, there is a gleam of hope. So some of us decided to bring before the world a performance named 'Aandhi ke do Chiraagh: Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad: Ek Khwaab do Rahbar (One storm, two lamps: One dream, two leaders)'.

Many like me feel a sense of hope, the sense of a new beginning.

Syeda Hameed is a writer and the founder chair of the Muslim Women’s Forum.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.